Agenda item

The Panel received a presentation which provided an update on the Housing Improvement Programme which included; the voluntary undertaking to the Regulator of Social Housing, safety and compliance, Decent Homes, and damp and mould. The presentation was introduced by Jahedur Rahman, Director of Housing as set out at pages 247-279 of the agenda pack. Christian Carlise, AD Asset Management and Scott Kay, AD Repairs and Compliance were also present for this item, along with Cllr Sarah Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning. The following arose in discussion of this item:

1. As part of the voluntary undertaking to the Regulator of Social Housing, the Council undertook a commitment to improve in ten key areas. The Director of Housing advised the Panel that the Council had met those ten commitments and the next step was for this to be validated by external auditors. 
2. The Panel sought clarification about the extent to which the service was affected by delays within the courts, in relation to getting a Court Order to access a property. In response, officers advised that it varied from month to month. There was no permanent backlog, but some months there were more cases that the service would like to put through than the courts were willing to accept.
3. In response to a question about whether going through the courts was expensive, officers advised that it depended on the type of order that was being sought. This varied from a few hundred pounds for an EPA warrant to very expensive for an injunction. Officers also commented that for gas safety certificates and electrical safety certificates, they undertook warrant applications were possible as this was quicker and more cost effective. A trial of electrical warrants had resulted in 40 warrants, which resulted in 19 being enforced to date.
4. The Panel queried the table of FRA Overdue Actions and questioned what the Pennington’s figure related to. In response, officers advised that Pennington’s were an external company that the Council brought in to conduct a review of it’s housing stock, following the ALMO being brought back in-house. Following that review, the Council self-referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing in January 2023. The table showed the number of fire safety actions that were outstanding at the point of Pennington’s completing an internal review, the point that the Council referred itself to the Regulator and the current position as of 2^nd September.
5. The Panel was advised that the achievement of 100% homes being brought up to the Decent Homes Standard was part of a five-year plan and the profile of the number of homes being brought up to decency each year was agreed with the regulator. In year one, the target was for 1000 homes to be made decent and the Council achieved 1600. In year two, 719 homes were made decent against a target of 700. The current position was that 80.65% of council homes were at the decency standard. Since the ALMO came in-house the non-decency position had gone from 31.83% to 19.35%. The Council was working toward 100% decency by the end of 2027/28.
6. The Chair queried the fact that the profile of the delivery of 100% Decent Homes was backloaded over the period and sought assurances that the Council would be able to meet the ramping up of decency works that was required. In response, officers acknowledged that the profiling of work was backloaded and that this was based on a recognition that the Council did not have an adequate long-term supply chain in place to deliver the works. Officers provided assurances that they expected that the target of 100% would be met by the end of 2027/28. Officers advised that a lot of the focus over the next three years would be around external works and that the Council was well on the way with internal Decent Homes work.
7. In response to a follow up, officers advised that as part of the Asset Management Strategy agreed by Cabinet in December 2023, the Council set out its investment priorities within the HRA within three key areas; building safety; fire safety and decency. Officers gave assurances that the Council would ensure that the HRA had enough funding to fund these three areas, and that they would be prioritised above other areas of investment.
8. The Panel queried whether the service understood the profile of the Decent Homes work that was left to do in terms of geographic location and clustering. In response, officers advised that they had a profile of the works which derived from the stock condition surveys that provided information on the condition each property and the works would be formulated on that basis. In order to achieve VfM, the service would also look at what other works could be done whilst the scaffolding was up on a particular block.
9. The Chair queried the extent to which it was possible to be certain that all decency works could be carried out on time, given damp and mould and the fact that to some extent the extent of damp and mould was unknown. In response, officers advised that they had achieved 75% access to internal properties and 90% access to communal areas as part of the first programme and so they knew the condition of the vast majority of properties. In terms of the 25% that they were unable to access, these would be prioritised again this year as part of the rolling inspection of 20% of properties every year.
10. In response to a query, officers commented that they had a stronger delivery partner in place through the presence of the partnering contractors. The Council would be working with four Tier one contractors across the borough to deliver the planned investment works. It was commented that it took nearly two years to get the contract in place and that once it was in place, the capacity existed to ramp up decency works in the later part of the five-year timescale.
11. The Panel queried whether the contractors were in place. In response, officers advised that the Council was in the process of awarding contracts and mobilising works. It was expected that the works would begin in February/March 2026. The Council had two contracts in place on an interim basis to carry out works whilst the new contracts were mobilised. The Chair noted that monitoring the performance of these contracts may be something that the Panel wanted to look into as part of the 2026/27 work programme.
12. The Chair sought further information about the dedicated team in place for damp and mould cases and the extent to which an increase in demand had been modelled following the introduction of Awaab’s Law as part of the Social Housing (regulation) Act 2023. In response, officers advised that the team had dedicated damp and mould surveyors in place who were able to respond within the required timescales. There were also dedicated contractors in place who had the capacity to take on additional work if needed. The service could also draw on other areas of the business to meet additional demand. Officers acknowledged that demand could increase as Awaab’s Law became more well known. Assurances were provided to the Panel that there was sufficient capacity within the current team at present to meet expected demand.
13. The Panel sought clarification on anecdotal accounts that the Regulator of Social Housing based their judgement on statistical evidence rather talking to residents. In response, officers advised that it would likely vary according to the inspection team. Officers advised that they would interview a number of senior figures within the organisation, attend meetings of the HIP Board, likely attend scrutiny panel meetings, attend resident engagement meetings and possibly do estate walkabouts. The Director of Housing advised that the service carried out a mock inspection last year to look at how the organisation would meet the new regulatory standards. Following that mock inspection, 48 actions were put forward, and the Council had been working on implementing these actions over the last 7 months.
14. The Panel noted that the timelines for delivery were set out in the report as five days to start relevant safety work following an initial investigation and that works had to start within 12 weeks.  Officers commented that there were prioritising working through a backlog of 300 existing cases before Awaab’s law came into effect in mid-October. It was hoped that being able to reduce this backlog would allow the service to meet demand and the above timeframes. The Director of Housing commented that ultimately the service would have to see what the demand was like at the time of implementation.
15. The Chair cautioned that, similar to a spike in legal disrepair cases, the service would likely see another spike following implementation of Awaab’s Law.
16. The Panel sought assurances about what the impact might be on other service areas from prioritising damp and mould and whether the Council might need to de-prioritise fire safety assessments for example. In response, officers advised that there would be no de-prioritisation of other areas of repair and that damp and mould was being prioritised on top of maintaining all of the other business areas.
17. The Chair commented that in capturing the risks of non-compliance with Awaab’s Law, it was also important to recognise that the biggest risk was to the health of Council residents.
18. The Chair queried what the damp and mould vulnerability data was. In response, officers advised that the Housing service was working with Children’s social care and Adults social care so that when colleagues in those services visited vulnerable people in their homes, they could make referrals to housing around damp and mould. There was a concern that some people with vulnerabilities might not be reporting it themselves. The Director of Housing also advised that the service was triaging the information from Adults and Children’s with its own housing data, to get a more holistic data set. It was also noted that there were a series of questions asked by staff when someone called to report damp and mould and the answers to these questions were used for internal analysis of the risks to those living there and the severity of the case.
19. The Panel enquired about the extent which external contractors were used for damp and mould works and what was being done to build up the in-house capacity through the DLO. In response, officers advised that the internal Director Labour Organisation was made up of 120 trades operatives and that they carried about 70% of repairs, whilst the other 30% was contracted out. Officers set out that the intention was to continue to grow the DLO and to bring in new apprentices each year. A new Training Manager had just been recruited who would be responsible for bringing through the operatives through their apprenticeships.
20. In response to a question, officers confirmed that other contractors across the Council had the ability to report damp and mould cases and that they were encouraged to do so.

RESOLVED

Noted.