Agenda item

The remit of the Housing O&S Committee is to provide effective scrutiny of the Council’s housing function, including:

·         HRA Business Plan

·         Housing Development

·         Provision of Housing Services

·         HRA Asset Management

·         Homelessness Prevention

·         Housing Allocation

·         Sheltered Housing

·         Tenancy & Estates services

The Head of Strategic Housing & Delivery, and the Head of Housing Operations will give an introductory presentation to provide an overview of the services provided and key issues affecting Waverley’s Housing Service.

The Chairman invited Damian Roberts, Strategic Director of Frontline Services, Hugh Wagstaff, Head of Housing Operations, and Andrew Smith, Head of Strategic Housing  and Delivery, to give an introduction to the Housing Service and the wider context and issues that impact on what Waverley is able, or has, to do as a local authority housing provider.

Hugh Wagstaff began by reflecting on the Grenfell Tower fire, which would impact on how social housing was managed and relationships with tenants for many years. Nationally, there had been six different housing ministers since 2010. The reputation of social housing landlords was now very low; and the response by Kensington & Chelsea LBC had highlighted their tenants’ experience of their voices not being listened to for many years.

Hugh was pleased to say that this did not reflect the experience at Waverley. Tenant involvement, and independent tenant scrutiny, was a central principle of the co-regulation standards, and one that Waverley had signed up to fully. The government had given choice to tenants on their landlord, but local authority landlords were subject to a higher level of oversight and scrutiny through the democratic process, and members had an important role in listening to tenants and championing social housing.

Damian Roberts reminded the Committee that all district authorities had statutory strategic housing responsibilities, but Waverley was one of only a handful of Surrey districts that had retained its housing stock and landlord function. This meant that Waverley had a huge impact on the lives and life choices of council tenants. Working in partnership with tenants was important, but so were the relationships with contractors and councillors, and ensuring that there was a common goal of improving standards for tenants.

Continuing the presentation, Andrew Smith outlined the roles of the Strategic Housing & Delivery Service and drew attention to the new Housing Strategy that would come forward later this year, and the new Homelessness Reduction Act. The new homelessness legislation would put significant new burdens on local authorities to respond to homelessness applications, which would impact on Waverley’s outstanding track record of preventing homelessness and avoiding the need for households to go into temporary accommodation other than as an absolute last resort.

The Council also had statutory responsibilities in relation to the private rented sector, in responding to complaints by tenants; and also in licensing Housing in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). New regulations in relation to HMOs were expected later in the year which, again, were likely to put additional burdens on the Council.

In addition to Waverley’s own housing development activities, the team also worked with colleagues in Planning, property developers and Housing Associations to deliver as many affordable homes as possible. However, there was a fundamental issue around the lack of housing supply – both market and affordable – which was heavily influenced by local and national planning constraints.

Hugh Wagstaff gave a brief introduction to Waverley’s Landlord Service, whose role was to manage and maintain the Council’s housing stock, including rent collection and supporting tenancies, working with contractors to deliver responsive repairs and planned works, managing sheltered housing, and delivering the Family Support service. The Government’s rent reduction policy had impacted hugely on the amount of funds in the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan, and some difficult decisions had been made in order to adjust the stock maintenance programme to the budget available.

The Housing Improvement O&S Sub-Committee had been closely involved in shaping the procurement of the new housing maintenance contracts, and this process was on track. The Sub-Committee had been very influential in helping drive improvement in contractor performance on repairs and also the customer experience of the repairs service, and this was now one of the best performing services in benchmarking within our peer-group.

Referring again to the Grenfell Tower fire, Hugh informed the Committee that Waverley had no high-rise flatted schemes, and only 3 blocks of 4-storeys. The majority of flats were in small 2-storey blocks, and generally these had no common areas. All Fire Risk Assessments were current, and actions identified in them had been completed. A programme of inspections of communal areas in blocks of flats had been established to identify where tenants were using these for storage of items such as bikes or push-chairs. Alternative storage arrangements would be provided where this was possible, but tenants would be reminded that they could not block fire exits or compromise evacuation routes, and this would be enforced.

Cllr Frost was very pleased that the Housing Improvement Sub-Committee had had such an important role in supporting the work of the Housing Service, and it was noted that the procurement of the housing maintenance contracts was on track and the tender documents would be issued shortly. The Sub-Committee’s concerns that as much time as possible be allowed for mobilisation had been recognised, and the timetable had been brought forward to enable this. An update on the procurement would be provided later in the year.

The Chairman asked about the scope of the new requirements in relation to Homelessness Prevention, and Andrew Smith advised that the new duty was to prevent homelessness for all eligible applicants threatened with homelessness, regardless of priority need; and also without necessarily having a ‘local connection’. Councils would now have to accept homelessness applications or presentations from any person in the country, and an applicant could make multiple applications at different councils.  There would be some transitional funding available in 2017/18 and 2018/19 to help meet the costs of the legislation, and consideration was being given to the best way to use funding and to configure the team to respond to the new duties.

The Chairman thanked Officers for their very informative presentation, which for Members less familiar with the details of the Housing Service highlighted the huge range of functions that fell within the remit of the Committee.