Agenda item

The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services presented the Housing Consumer Standards Report for Q2 2025/26 The report detailed the Council’s performance in relation to 10 of the Regulator of Social Housing tenant satisfaction measures.

In respect of the Homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standards measure, it was reported that, following a review of the asset management database the Council had identified an issue with software that had resulted in previous reporting being inaccurate. This had led to a revised figure for Q2 2025/26 which was a sharp increase in the number of properties that did not meet the Decent Homes Standards for this period. The percentage figure increased from 4.15 per cent up to 11.90 per cent. The Housing Regulator had been alerted to this error in previous reporting and Officers were working to identify properties affected and works that needed to be carried out in those properties. During Q2 2025/26 the Council had been working with the software provider to get the assurance that future reporting would be accurate.

For stock condition surveys, it was reported that these commenced in August 2025 with a target to complete 1,340 surveys in 2025/26. In Quarter 2, 121 surveys had been completed with additional resources allocated to target 100 surveys per week over the remainder of the fiscal year.

The Council’s performance in non-emergency and emergency repairs completed within the landlord’s target timescale showed improvement over the previous quarter whilst for building safety measures it was reported that fire safety checks were rated red due to consultant capacity issues with a shortage of fire risk assessors. This capacity issue had now been addressed.

In terms of work carried out to reduce fire risk within apartment blocks, it was highlighted that the caretaking team now operated a full service in communal areas of regular cleaning that included full checks for fire risks.

Another red rated measure was in respect of lift safety checks. It was explained that there was a drop in performance as the Council’s insurer experienced difficulties accessing one of the lifts for inspection. This had now been remedied across the blocks as key safes were in place for inspectors to access lift shafts.

It was highlighted in relation to direct tenant data that in Q2 2025/26, the Service experienced a drop in performance in relation to complaints handling, but that Senior Complaints Officer had now been recruited which would improve capacity within the complaints’ team. It was reported that 113 compliments were received by the Service during Q2.

With respect to repairs it was stated that the Service undertook around 10,000 repairs annually and there were now monthly reports submitted from complaints officer to classify each complaint and implement appropriate remedial action(s).

The Assistant Director of Environmental and Housing Property Services stated that the Council’s Housing Service had more sufficient mitigations in place now to address the issues with performance highlighted in the report. External consultant had been employed to check whether the measures undertaken to date were enough to address outstanding issues.

The annual tenant satisfaction survey would be released in mid-January 2026 and Members were asked to help engage with residents and tenants to maximise the response rate to the survey.

RESOLVED that

the Council’s Quarter 2 Housing Performance for 2025/26 in respect of the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (Landlord) be noted.