Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Executive presented the Housing / HRA Overview and Recovery Plan.  Whilst presenting the report she highlighted the following matters for Members’ consideration:

·                As a result of audits carried out in 20161/7, which had identified issues with non-compliance with contractual matters, a Contracts Manager had been appointed by the Council. 

·                A number of problems with compliance had subsequently been identified within Housing Capital and eight members of staff had been suspended and had then left the organisation.

·                The Council had undertaken a wholesale review of the Housing Department and during this time all work had been suspended except in relation to essential health and safety matters.

·                The Chief Executive had delegated the task of reviewing and managing Housing Services to the Deputy Chief Executive, Head of Environmental Services and Head of Community Services.

·                All contractual issues and how these had been addressed would be the subject of a report to the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee in October 2018.

·                Nationally there were challenges in relation to housing and the proposals in the report also aimed to address these.  The government had described the national housing market as being broken.

·                Key issues nationally with housing included a lack of available social housing, limited affordable housing and the need for the right advice to be provided.

·                The requirements within the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 also created challenges for all Councils.

·                There continued to be pressures on the HRA.  This was largely due to the reduction in rents for Council housing of one per cent per annum that had been imposed by the government over a four year period since 2016/17.  This had led to a loss of £130 million from the HRA compared to the income that had been envisaged.

·                There had also been an issue with delays in turning around voids which had had a negative impact on the Council's finances as well as causing delays in terms of housing people in need.

·                The Council had published a business plan in 2012 which had been based on previous assumptions regarding the HRA.

·                In February 2018 the Council had agreed a one year budget for the HRA and funding had had to be drawn down from balances to achieve a balanced budget for 2018/19.

·                Officers had started a five year review of the budget for Housing Services and there were various options available to the Council moving forward.

·                There were cultural issues within Housing Services that needed to be addressed.  This had been one of the most controversial issues that had been raised but it was felt that honesty in relation to this matter was needed.

·                Problems had been identified in relation to the performance management of staff which needed to be addressed.

·                Senior officers recognised the need to take staff with them in changing the service’s culture and working practices.  There was also a need to enable staff to feel confident and comfortable enough to report any concerns about services to senior officers.

·                To date there had been issues with staff taking a lack of ownership of the issues.

·                Some staff had a lack of understanding of the legal issues relevant to Housing.

·                Health, safety and welfare issues needed to be given greater priority than had been the case in the past.

·                Tenants needed to be placed at the centre of service delivery.

·                Housing management needed to be refocused.

·                Locality working was important but services needed to be delivered to all tenants, not to a small number.

·                The Housing department was using the oldest IT system in the country which was not fit for purpose and this needed to be replaced.

·                The problems that had been identified in the Housing department had built up over many years and would take time to change.

·                Over the next two years there were a number of policies that would need to be reviewed including the Housing Allocations Policy and the Tenancy Engagement Strategy and then staff needed to act on those policies.

·                A data suite needed to be developed for Housing Services and better governance needed to be introduced to provide Members and tenants with assurance.

During consideration of this matter Members were advised that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had pre-scrutinised this matter at a meeting on 6^th September 2018.  The Committee had debated the matter in detail and had concluded by supporting the recommendations detailed in the report.

Following the presentation of the report Members discuss a number of issues in detail:

·                The need to be positive and to look forward by making constructive changes to Housing Services.

·                The safety of residents was paramount and this needed to be recognised in service delivery.

·                The complex legal issues that had had to be addressed during the investigation in relation to the compliance issues within housing and the hard work of the Investigating Committee and Employment Appeals Committee.

·                The need to learn lessons from the issues that had been identified to ensure that services met the needs of residents.

·                The potential to use the situation as an opportunity to review the strategic purposes that applied to Housing Services.  This would involve staff reframing what they did.

·                The progress that had been made recently in terms of managing voids and the current number of void properties.  Officers advised that there were 130 void properties at the time of the suspensions and now that number had fallen to approximately 70.

·                The need to bring the whole of the Housing Service together so that staff and services operated in a holistic manner. 

·                The need to review why many void properties were returned to the Council in a poor condition.

·                The potential to increase the speed of bringing void properties back into a habitable state so that they could be leased to tenants.

·                The impact of the backlog in the turnaround of voids on the Council’s finances; over the past five years.  Members were informed that this had cost the Council £300,000.

·                The need for practical measures in the action plan.

RESOLVED that

1)        the strategic action plan detailed at Appendix A be endorse;

2)        the Executive Committee support the financial actions undertaken in respect of the Housing Revenue Account and note the proposed actions subject to formal budget and rent setting processes as detailed in the strategic improvement/action plan.

3)        the Executive Committee support the Director / Heads of Service service remits and authorise the Chief Executive/Corporate Management Team Officers to proceed to recruit to the proposed senior managers for the service (subject to service review) with support for phased service reviews for the whole of the services detailed, over the following 12 – 18 months;

4)        the Executive Committee endorse that the governance and reporting of progress on the strategic action plan be through Executive Committee.

RECOMMENDED that

5)            a sum of £350,000 (capital staffing costs) be built into the capital budget (HRA) for 2018/19 to resource the immediate review of Housing Capital/Property and Compliance team(s).

[During consideration of this item Members agreed an exempt recommendation which could not be revealed on the grounds that information would be revealed which relates to the financial and business affairs of the local authority].