Agenda item

Report of the Borough Solicitor

The Housing Ombudsman requires all Landlords to produce a report annually. The report must contain the following key elements:

·       Annual self-assessment

·       Analysis of Housing complaints performance

·       Any findings of non-compliance

·       Service Improvements made

·       Housing Ombudsman Annual Report on the Landlord

·       Any other relevant reports.

It is a requirement to present this report to the relevant governing bodies and to publish the governing bodies’ response alongside the report and self-assessment.

In Camden the governing bodies have been agreed as the RCP Scrutiny Committee and Housing Scrutiny Committee. This is the first report following the new requirements and has been developed in an accessible and easy to understand format. Members are an important source of insight and intelligence on concerns raised by residents and communities

Consideration was given to the report of the Borough Solicitor.

Jim Read, Service Manager, along with Kathryn Byrne, Head of Business Support, took the meeting through the report and they along with Scot Reid, Head of Property Customer Services & Engagement, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council had seen a sizeable increase in the number of complaints over the last two years with the majority of these being in housing repairs. This has led to an increase in the escalation of stage 1 complaints to stage 2 and from there to the Housing Ombudsman, which was not unique to Camden, with other social housing providers also seeing such increases. This was partly due to an increase in the awareness of the complaints process through the increased profile of the Housing Ombudsman. Also, the increase was due to greater investment being required in the Council’s homes. Due to these reasons, it was expected that in future all stages of the complaints process were likely to see increases. Additional resources were being put in place to seek to improve the response process which it was hoped over time would reduce the number of the later stage complaints.

·       The Council was putting in place processes and procedures to learn from the information coming out from the complaints it received. This information would be used to make service delivery improvements.

·       The level of activity in the Repairs Service had greatly increased over the last few years due to the Council’s proactive approach with work related to fire safety and damp and mould. This service was currently undertaking approximately over a hundred and fifty thousand interactions with tenants every year.

·       Repairs matters were the second highest complaints issue that tenants were raising. This was partly due to the Council having to reaffirm what was a tenant’s responsibility to deal with and what the Council would put right.

·       The level of positive customer satisfaction with completed repairs was running at approximately 86% (this had been independently assessed) and this had remained stable over the last few years.

·       Improving communications with tenants was an on-going theme arising out of the complaints that were being made, and this was something the Council was being proactive about in seeking to improve.

·       The Council had put in place a resident led oversight panel that was looking at the themes that were arising from complaints raised, holding officers to account, along with seeking appropriate service improvements so the issues were not repeated.

·       A number of service changes had been made to improve internal processes and procedures and it was hoped that these would make a real difference in the way complaints were dealt with, which would then lead to greater customer satisfaction at an earlier stage of the complaints process. It was hoped that this work could reduce the number of compensation settlements.

·       Complaints generally increased over the winter months due to issues related to heating systems.  

The scrutiny committee noted the difficult context housing services were having to work in due to the state of the Council’s housing stock and the level of resources it had to deliver services, but felt that the high number of complaints at each stage of the process were a concern and wanted to see improvements to these statistics, especially around complaints handling going forward.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted