Agenda item

Report of the Director of Placemaking and Housing.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning.

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning introduced the report which set out the Council’s plans to deliver a high quality and resident focussed landlord service for tenants and leaseholders.  The Council brought its housing management services back in-house in June 2022.  In June 2022, the Council commissioned an external consultant to produce an internal report on the status of the landlord function at the point of insourcing, which provided a high level analysis of the state of the Landlord service, and recommended an improvement plan to address service specific issues.  In December 2022, the Council commissioned a Property Compliance Health Check to assess the approach to managing six compliance areas.  As a result of this health check, the Council self-referred to the Regulator for Social Housing.  In response to these reviews, the Council has developed an Improvement Plan to address the issues raised.  This plan was a live document which would be reviewed regularly to ensure that priority areas were being addressed, and the Housing Improvement Board would be monitoring specific areas.

In response to questions from Councillor Barnes, the following was noted:

-       One of the main reasons to bring the services back into the Council was to improve services.  The decision to carry out the independent report was to ensure all services were looked at and the extent of any problems identified.

-       Residents would be contacted during all improvement works to ascertain satisfaction levels and room for improvement.  It was hoped that the improvement plan would help to improve resident satisfaction levels with the service.

RESOLVED

1.            To approve the attached Improvement Plan as set out in Appendix 1;

2.            As this is a live document, delegate any subsequent changes required to the Director of Placemaking & Housing in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning, and the Director of Finance

3.            To approve the virement of up to £2m additional funding for the improvement programme, to be vired from the HRA Reserve, and to delegate the finalisation of that amount to the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment

4.            To note proposals for tenant and leaseholder engagement and involvement in the housing improvement process – as part of our wider commitments to work in partnership with our residents under the Haringey Deal. 

5.            To note the Council’s performance in relation to the six areas of property compliance; and subsequent self-referral to the Regulator for Social housing (RSH) where we identified a potential failure to meet statutory health and safety requirements

6.            To approve the Compliance Assurance Statement in section 8 and note that subsequent assurance statement updates will be provided to Cabinet on an annual basis.

Reasons for decision

It is essential that as a landlord the Council provides a good service to tenants and leaseholders, and as a minimum complies with all regulatory and statutory duties. Residents need to be assured that the Council is committed to improving its services, that it has a clear plan to do so, and is holding itself accountable.

Alternative options considered

Alternative options include not implementing an improvement plan. However, since the Council is aware of a number of areas where substantial improvement is essential to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our residents, a clear plan to ensure and monitor continuous improvement and compliance with statutory responsibilities is essential.