Agenda item

The report will follow in a supplementary pack for this meeting after it has been published for the meeting of Executive Committee (due for publication on Monday 2 June).

The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services presented a report on the subject of the Housing Regulator Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

The Committee was informed that the Housing Regulator had introduced 22 tenant satisfaction measures in 2023. These measures were designed to help regulate the performance of housing providers, including Redditch Borough Council. The Council had monitored the authority’s performance in accordance with these measures in 2023/24 and 2024/25 and the data for both years had been included in the report. It was noted that when compared to the results from 2023/24 there had generally been an increase in tenant satisfaction levels although the Council still performed below the median level across other Social Housing Providers.

In considering the Tenant Perception Survey results for the two years, it was noted that there were year on year improvements in most areas but in some areas satisfaction remained at a low and stagnating level, for example in relation to satisfaction with the Council’s complaint handling. It was noted that major improvements could be seen in repairs and maintenance which might be attributed to the Repairs and Maintenance team having recruited a number of new team members and having invested in modernising technical equipment during this period.

For non-emergency and emergency repairs, the Council’s latest performance data for the current year, as reported at the meeting, was 80 to 85 per cent of repairs completed within the landlord’s (social housing provider) timescales. This was an improvement over the Council’s performance for 2024/25 year where the figures were 65.7 and 77.9 per cent respectively for non-emergency and emergency repairs.

Officers were in the process of developing an improvement plan and this was at an interim stage by the date of the meeting. A response from the Housing Regulator to the latest inspection of the Council was due to be announced publicly in July 2025 and a report would subsequently be produced on the outcomes of this process to be available in September 2025.

Members subsequently discussed the report in detail and in doing so commented on the following areas:

·       Tenant characteristics data – Officers stated that the Housing Service did not hold a full set of tenant profile information. The Council’s Housing Service currently had profile information on 20-25 per cent of the customer base. Work was ongoing within the Service to capture this information within the housing management system utilising a ‘make every contact count’ philosophy covering telephone calls to services across housing as well as through tenancy sign-ups and the tenancy audits being undertaken.

·       Complaints response process – It was clarified that as per the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Code of Practice, the Council was required to record and acknowledge receipt of every complaint within five days of receiving a complaint. Following the receipt of a complaint, the Senior Complaints Officer at the Council would contact the complainant to fully understand the nature of the complaint and following this the Council would write to the complainant acknowledging the complaint, setting out the Council’s understanding of what the complaint is and confirming that a response would be provided within the target response date (10 days). It was highlighted in relation to complaints handling process that significant work continued to learn from peers, the Council recently having had a meeting with Berneslai Homes, a social housing provider that received C1 grading from the Social Housing Regulator, the highest consumer grade level.

·       Damp and mould performance data – It was noted that recently the Council had created a dedicated damp and mould team which was currently being recruited to. Going forward, there would also be quarterly monitoring reports concerning damp and mould performance. Officers reported that improvements had been made in this area and undertook to provide Members with detailed data on damp and mould performance.

·       Fire remedial actions (FRAs) – A question was raised about addressing the overdue remedial actions with regard to fire safety as reported at table 3, paragraph 3.35. It was stated that the focus was on addressing the serious remedial actions required in the first instance. Officers highlighted that initially the list of remedial actions totalled 6,189 this had now been halved, although it was acknowledged that much work remained. Works were in progress across a range of issues to address especially the serious items and a programme was in place from 2025/26 projected forward until 2029/30 to ensure all fire doors are replaced/upgraded and associated fire stopping is completed. In the interim Housing Property Services was developing a programme of fire door inspections which was anticipated to be in place in July 2025.

·       Meeting the Decent Homes Standard – Officers clarified that the 4.19 per cent of homes that did not meet the Decent Homes Standard referred to Council stock only. It was further noted that a home might be classed as not meeting the standard because of issues such as lack of modern insulation, old boilers, or lack of modern facilities (e.g. kitchen or bathroom). For each of these areas, the Council had a programme in place, as part of its Capital Investment Programme, to address these issued. Examples of programmes to address specific issues included the Warm Homes Fund and General Boiler Replacement Programme.

The recommendations contained in the report were endorsed by the Committee.

RECOMMENDED that

1)    The Council’s 2024/25 Tenant Satisfaction Measures and the Housing Interim Improvement Plan be approved; and

2)    A quarterly update on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (Landlord) and progress against the Housing Improvement Plan be reported in future to the Executive Committee.