Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2018 be confirmed.

Annual Report to Tenant and Leaseholders 2017/18

The Chair advised that following the last meeting of Housing Scrutiny Sub Committee amendments had been made to the Annual Report to Tenants and Leaseholders and it had been circulated to Members again.

Yvonne Fox, Assistant Director of Housing

a.    presented the Housing Scrutiny Sub Committee with an end of quarter report on performance for the second quarter of the year (July 2018 – September 2018)

b.    advised that of the 23 measures 15 were on or exceeding targets for the year and 8 had not met the targets set.

c.    referred to paragraph 4 of the report and highlighted areas of good performance:

·         Arrears as a percentage of rent debit

·         Percentage of ASB cases closed that were resolved

·         Percentage of all repairs carried out within time

d.    further highlighted areas that had not achieved their target and explained the reasons for this:

·         Average re-let period – General needs (excluding major works)

·         Average re-let period – All dwellings (including major works)

·         Percentage of offers accepted first time

·         Percentage of complaints replied to in 10 working days.

e.    invited committees questions and comments

Question -  Referred to the rent arrears which currently stood at £802,050 and asked if the figure included any carry over from the previous year.

Response – The total amount of rent arrears was a continuous amount, although the total amount of arrears had increased, the collection rate had improved.

Comment – It was encouraging to see that the number of ASB cases that had been closed had increased.

Response – The Council had achieved ASB Accreditation and were working closely with teams across the Authority to address anti-social behaviour.

Question – Why had more repairs been completed this year than last year?

Response – The repairs working group would be looking at this issue.

Comment– With the decent homes work that had been completed it was expected that the number of day to day repairs would reduce and requested that a report on this be added to the work programme.

RESOLVED that

1.    the report be noted.

2.    A report on repairs be added to the work programme.

Mick Barber, Vice-Chair of LTP, circulated a copy of the Lincoln Tenants’ Panel Green paper response to the committee for information. Yvonne Fox explained that there was currently a designated person for mediation before a tenant could go to the ombudsman. The government were asking if this should be removed to streamline the complaints procedure.

Mick Barber, Vice Chair of LTP circulated a leaflet that was available to all tenants regarding the new build properties on Ingleby Crescent and expressed concern over the cost of the rent.

Yvonne Fox, explained that all of the properties were let at an affordable rent which was below the average rent of private lettings. Housing benefit would cover the full rent or proportion of the rent to tenants who were entitled to claim it. Preference for the new properties was given to existing Council Tenants who wanted to transfer. All of the properties in that area had now been let.

The Chair

a.    presented the work programme for the Housing Scrutiny Sub Committee for 2018/19 as detailed at appendix A of the report.

b.    advised that this was an opportunity for the committee to suggest other items to be included within the work programme.

The Chair requested that the following reports be scheduled into the work programme:

·         Repairs

·         Allocations

RESOLVED that

1.    The work programme be noted

2.    The following reports be added to the work programme

·         Repairs

·         Allocations