Agenda item

Report of the Director of Housing

This report provides annual performance information for the four housing associations (HAs) with the majority of HA stock in the borough and a summary of HAs’ performance in the delivery of new homes.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Housing.

Glendine Shepherd, Director of Housing, and Rizwan Siddiqui, Policy and Performance Co-ordinator, and they along with Carol Carter, Chief Executive Origin, Sandra Fawcett, Director of Customer Operations, One Housing (Riverside Group), David Hunter, Housing Director (Clarion), and Gemma Harvey, Head of Housing Notting Hill Genesis (North region), gave the following key responses to questions;

·       All housing associations and other providers were having to work within very challenging economic conditions these included increasing financial costs due to higher inflation and interest rates, cost of living crisis for tenants (which has led to further resources needing to be put in place to deal with the outcomes of this), along with the new building and fire safety regulations and further changes to the regulatory environment (especially around the coming consumer standards). This had meant that resources had to be reprioritised into these areas, and this had a knock-on effect in relation to resourcing service provision and housing development.

·       All large housing associations had teams dealing with complaints, with councillor enquiries also going through these routes. New processes and practices were being put in place to improve the way that complaints were being handled to make it easier to report issues, along with ensuring the complaint was being properly handled, and when necessary learned from. The number of complaints should not be seen as an issue as it showed that tenants understood they could and had a right to raise issues of concern, rather the key issue was had that issue been properly responded to and the way the tenant had felt going through that journey. This had not always gone as well as it should and there was more work that needed to be done in this area.

·       When necessary, tenant engagement arrangements within the associations would be used to seek the views of tenants regarding policy and operational changes to complaints handling and other such practice changes. Such changes would be made known to tenants through existing communication routes operated by the housing associations.

·       The housing associations present had tenant representation on boards, and a tenants committee which were used to provide tenants views on policy and operational issues. These positions were filled through tenants applying for the role when a position was advertised. They then went through an appointment process, with an officer making the decision on the appointment. This process was used as tenants on such bodies had to meet the same due diligence process and standards as other board members. Recruitment to these positions was proving to be challenging.

·       All housing associations work with and respond to the regulator and Housing Ombudsman guidance and directions for service improvements.

·       The regulator was currently investigating matters which may impact on Origin Housing Limited’s compliance with the Governance and Financial Viability Standard the outcome of which was expected over the next few weeks. Origin were also considering merging with Places for People (who were a national housing association), as the current board felt that this would enable them to better meet the needs of its current and future tenants. The final decision on this would be made on this early next year. The merger, should it happen, would not lead to any initial changes to service provision but over time services would become integrated and consolidated under Places for People.

·       One Housing joined the Riverside Group in December 2021 as a subsidiary, but they continue to operate as One Housing at this point and they were based in Camden and committed to local services. They had recently published their self-assessment on the complaint handling code, confirming that they we're compliant. They would be looking to do some amendments to that code from April 2024, and they would be asking for responses from landlords, tenants, on this by the end of November.

·       Notting Hill Genesis, as of earlier this year, were undergoing an operations transformation, which was as a result of the recognition that it needed to change the way that its service were delivered at the very front level, as its customer satisfaction has been depleting for some time, and the current model had been in existence since 2010 so they felt it was time that this should be reviewed. They were merging services to ensure that they more effective in delivering good customer services. Following the input of the Regulator, the organisation had brought in a new team and a new approach to complaints handling. Also a number of tenant engagement sessions had been held which had sought to improve the communication flow between the service and tenants.

·       The housing associations present had in place processes and procedures to deal with issues like flooding through either planned maintenance of the estate, or through an emergency response process that would seek to bring together appropriate teams (e.g. repairs, decants and tenancy services) that would seek to tackle the incident and its impact on the tenant and their home. Following an emergency situation a tenant may need to be decanted usually in the form of a hotel in the first instance (which maybe out of borough), so that they were placed somewhere safe whilst an assessment of the level of repairs that were needed in the property was carried out. This would involve a surveyor going out to do an inspection of the property who would then let the service know what was needed to be done before the tenant could return. Also following and emergency incident, a lessons learned process would be undertaken, that would also provide the tenant with advice surrounding preventative actions they could undertake.

·       Some tenants did not have the content insurance which had caused them issues in the past when a flood or incident had happened, which had caused associations challenges on how to deal with them. The associations did advise tenants that they should obtain this type of cover but some tenants for financial reasons did not have the money to pay for insurance. 

·       The housing associations had in place mutual exchange arrangements that were open to its tenants (which for some could include the opportunity to move out of London if they wished), and they were advised of this arrangement through newsletters and the association’s website. Under occupancy was also an issue and if more such homes could be freed up then that would go some way to helping those people having to live in over occupied homes. The operation of these arrangements were challenging due to the lack of properties available especially in the area where a person currently lived. When appropriate resident days had been held that provided information regarding these arrangements, where officers were available to provide details on the offers and support available to a tenant if they were interested in taking up one of these schemes.

·       The housing associations had policies that outlined repair responsibilities for the association (these were the bulk of repairs that were undertaken), and the tenant and these were available to view on their websites.

·       Clarion Housing Association had suffered a cyber-attack last year that impacted on its data collection processes which was why some of its performance data was either unavailable, out of sync with other housing associations or did not reflect actual performance.

·       Investment in housing stock could go up and down each year, so spend figures on stock investment could look different at different times. There was though a commitment to continue investing in home improvements along with building new homes, but this would always be restricted due to the level of resources that were available.

·       Clarion Housing Association would reassess the information provided in relation to number of reported anti-social behaviour cases reported in Camden, and provide an update to members on the outcomes.

ACTION BY: Director of Housing  

·       Most tenancies were allocated through the nomination process from local authorities, with just a number of homes being retained for existing tenants to be able to access through internal transfer. Further information regarding how this was advertised within Camden, along with information on the resources allocated to improvements to existing stock would be made available in next year’s annual report. 

ACTION BY: Director of Housing

·       The new tenancy satisfaction measure outcomes that would be available next year would allow a proper assessment of an association’s performance, this would enable the local authority and tenants to compare this with other social housing provider’s performance. This would then provide baseline data that could be properly tracked going forward.

·       The types of internal finishing used for private tenant, market rent or intermediate rent homes maybe different from social housing homes but those social housing homes were still completed to a high standard with usually the housing associations specifications (which were given to the developer) being applied. This meant that the properties looked very similar, and when schemes had been developed where there are facilities like gyms there would be provision for the social housing tenants to access the facilities at a discounted rate. Where there may be a difference was the provision of a concierge service which normally, due to the cost, would not be offered to social housing tenants.

·       Housing Associations agreed to invite Councillors to attend viewings of new build provision within the borough, as several schemes were coming up in the next few months.

ACTION BY: Director of Housing

The Chair thanked the housing association representatives for attending and answering the scrutiny committee’s questions.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted