Agenda item

The Waverley Scrutiny Group has been invited to present their report (Annexe 1) to the Committee.

To advise the Committee how the Housing Service team will address the recommendations raised in the Waverley Scrutiny Group Void Report.  

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Committee:

1. thanks the Waverley Scrutiny Group for their report;

2. makes any comments or suggestions on the scrutiny recommendations and Council responses;

3. supports the implementation of scrutiny recommendations; and

4. continues to monitor void performance.

The Chairman welcomed members of the Tenant Scrutiny Group – Pat Wright, James Remnant, and Phil Deans – to present the findings of their work to scrutinise the voids process.

Pat Wright began by thanking Waverley officers and Mears staff for their co-operation with the Scrutiny Group in carrying out the review. James Remnant then outlined the scope of the review, which had been quite wide-ranging, the findings and the recommendations that the Scrutiny Group had made.

They had been asked to undertake the review by the Head of Housing Operations, and to focus on the re-let standard, reducing the cost of a void, and improving value for money in the voids process. Ten recommendations had been made, aimed at: improving budgetary control of the voids process, including implementing recharges for certain elements of work; reviewing the re-let standard with tenants and promptly surveying satisfaction of new tenants; and reducing the time taken for each stage of the void process, including more accurate record-keeping.

The Scrutiny Group was pleased that the recommendations had largely been accepted by Waverley Housing Officers, and actions identified to address the issues identified.

The Committee thanked the Scrutiny Group for their very thorough report and the practical recommendations. The Committee felt that there were some issues identified that had not been carried forward into the recommendations: the lack of a marker on Orchard to indicate the end of the warranty period; differences in key dates between Waverley’s records and Mears’; and, the lack of version control on the re-let standard. The Committee was concerned that the report may have been influenced by officers. James reassured the Committee that there had been no pressure from officers to drop recommendations, and the Scrutiny Group had been guided by advise from the Housing Quality Network to keep recommendations focussed. The Scrutiny Group did have some concerns about whether there were gaps in the computer interface between Waverley’s and Mears’ systems that might lead to discrepancies and lost time in the voids process.

Cllr Seaborne raised the issue of budgetary control, and the model used for setting the budget for voids. He asked if there was a better model that might be used that reflected the typical range of properties that became void over the course of a year, rather than a simple average.

In responding to questions, Hugh Wagstaff advised that great improvements in the voids process had been made over the previous 2 years, but the 20 day target continued to be a challenge and there was clearly scope for further improvement. The work of the Waverley Scrutiny Group had provided a fresh impetus to drive improvements forward and bring the re-let target to 15 days.

Budget-setting was based on historic data about the average number of properties that became vacant in a year, and the average cost of bringing them back to re-let standard. Whilst it was a very simple model, it was difficult to develop a model that would take account of the different age and type of properties, and the possible state in which tenants might leave a property. It was helpful that the Scrutiny Group and the Tenants’ Panel were so supportive of Waverley implementing recharges to tenants who left their property in a poor condition in breach of their tenancy agreement. Budget had been allocated to enable the appointment of a Recovery and Recharges Officer, and recruitment was underway to fill this post.

The intention of the new post was not to penalise those tenants who took pride in their home, but to ensure that the tenant responsibilities under the Tenancy Agreement were met. Through the ongoing work of the Tenancy & Estates Officers, as well as property inspections when notice to vacate a property was given, tenants would be advised if there was remedial work they needed to carry out either in their home or to clear their garden. Only if they failed to take action themselves would charges be imposed.

In concluding the discussion, the Chairman thanked the Waverley Scrutiny Group for their hard work, and the contribution they had made to driving improvement in the Council’s services. The recommendations would be monitored by the Committee to ensure that they were completed on time, and the Committee would continue to monitor the performance on void re-lets each quarter. The Chairman suggested that in addition, Officers report back to the Committee on the issue of IT systems in Housing and how they interfaced with the systems of our contractors.