Issue - meetings

To consider how the Housing Landlord Service is performing on responsive repairs and planned maintenance (report of the Assistant Director – Housing enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Housing which asked members to consider how the Housing Landlord Service was performing on responsive repairs and planned maintenance.

The Housing Property and Repairs Manager, the Assistant Director – Housing and the Portfolio Holder for Strategic and Operational Housing were in attendance for this item.

In addition, two representatives from the Regulator of Social Housing, Rachael Walsh and James Brookfield, observed the item via Teams.

The report was introduced by the Housing Property and Repairs Manager, and included the following main areas:

• Background and approach to covering the repairs service;
• Responsive repairs: including the number of repairs completed to end of January 2025 by the in-house team and external contractors, and performance against target timeframes;
• Voids: including performance against the targets for void days;
• Planned repairs and maintenance: performance of the capital program had been identified as an area of priority;
• Benchmarking performance;
• Tenant satisfaction;
• Continuous improvement and learning;
• Tenant oversight;
• The link between the stock condition survey and the compliance information and how these informed service improvement and business planning.

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members were encouraged by that 100 % of emergency repairs had been attended within target times but queried the target differential of 8 hours if reported within a working day to 4 hours if reported outside of office hours.
  • The Housing Property and Repairs Manager responded that the targets were a legacy issue from existing/previous policies however, alongside other targets, these would be reviewed as part of the transformational work.

• Members welcomed the improved voids performance and the results of the associated benchmarking exercise.

• Members queried when a void period commenced. Was this when the property was vacated or when the council was made aware that the property was to be vacated.
  • The Housing Property and Repairs Manager responded that the property became void when the keys were handed back however preparatory work commenced during the ‘notice to quit’ stage.

• Members referred to the table at point 2.7 and queried the lower performance of external contractors.
  • The Housing Property and Repairs Manager responded that external contractors dealt with the more major repairs, such as roofing repairs. As such, these repairs often involved complex processes, such as the installation of scaffold, completion of which was beyond the control of the contractor. Nonetheless, the performance monitoring processes of external contractors was to be reviewed.

• Members referred to the improvements planned for 2025/26, outlined at point 7.6 of the report, and queried the human resource cost implications that would be required to undertake the work. A number of vacancies existed in key areas.
  • The Assistant Director – Housing responded that:
    • Three additional posts (a Tenant Engagement and Influence Lead, an Anti-social Behaviour Lead and a Data and Insight Lead) had been accounted for and were due to commence at the start of the 2025/26 financial year:;
    • The extension of the Housing Transformation Programme had been supported which included dedicated posts (a Housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71

To provide assurance to Cabinet on the performance of the responsive repairs and planned maintenance (report of the Assistant Director – Housing enclosed).

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Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Housing which provided assurance to Cabinet on the performance of the responsive repairs and planned maintenance.

The Portfolio Holder – Strategic and Operational Housing presented the report.

The report provided an overview of the performance of responsive repairs, void repairs, and planned maintenance.

As of 31 January 2025, 9,553 repairs have been undertaken, with 100% of emergency repairs and 91% of routine repairs completed within target times. Voids had also consistently been delivered within their target of 28 days. The report also detailed the programmed works completed during 2024/25, including kitchen and bathroom upgrades, heating system improvements, and roof replacements. Additional information would be provided to Performance Monitoring Panel about the Capital Programme to allow for further scrutiny.

69.9% of tenants surveyed said they were satisfied with the overall repairs service, and 85.7% feeling their homes were safe. Benchmarking against other council landlords with less than 10,000 units, had been undertaken. The maintenance cost per unit was reported at £1,137 compared to a peer median of £1,153.

Over the last 12 months, several improvements had been made, including a programme of contract management training and changes to the contract awarding process. The responsibility for overseeing damp and mould reports was transferred to the Housing Repairs Team, and a new voids standard for sheltered housing was set. As part of the Housing Transformation Programme, further improvements were planned for 2025/26, including the rollout of an online repairs reporting system, along with reviews of the disabled aids and adaptations offer and the responsive repairs service and capital programme delivery.

Consideration was given to the report and the following issues were raised:

• How many repairs were still outstanding and how many of these had gone beyond their expected completion date?
  • The Portfolio Holder responded that as part of the compliance clinic, this was a metric that was now measured. At the last compliance clinic, there were around 630 outstanding repairs outstanding. To put this into context, approximately 750 repairs were undertaken each month. The Portfolio Holder could not advise of the number outstanding and referred to the Housing Repairs and Property Services Manager.
  • The Housing Repairs and Property Services Manager did not have the information available but advised that this would be included within the information coming to the Performance Monitoring Panel.

• If there was a schedule of maintenance for heating systems, boilers etc, was there a reason why repairs rose in the winter months if maintenance had already been undertaken?
  • The Housing Repairs and Property Services Manager advised that servicing of systems did take place however in the autumn, tenants would start to put their heating systems on which often led to an increase in heating related repairs. Communications were published on social media asking residents to check and test their boilers as early as possible however a spike did naturally occur and was fairly consistent throughout the winter.
  • The Portfolio Holder added that the spike in work always occurred, whatever  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78