Agenda item

Michelle Hoyles, Housing Strategy Manager:

a)    presented the Directorate of Housing and Investment’s draft Asset Management Strategy, and requested the Sub-Committee’s feedback on the draft strategy in preparation for its progression to Executive for formal adoption

b)    highlighted that Outcome 2 within Section 5 of the Strategy document would be slightly updated

c)    reported that Lincoln Tenant’s Panel (LTP) had provided feedback on the report stating they supported the content of the strategy and what the service was proposing to deliver, welcoming the strategy’s format, finding it clear, easy and engaging to read, and suitable for tenants as its main audience

d)    added that LTP suggestions on the strategy’s content, had been incorporated into the final draft presented to Housing Scrutiny Sub-Committee as appended to this report

e)    advised that In November 2023 the Council adopted its 30-Year HRA Business Plan, which sets out a series of core objectives, including:

·       Developing and improving core landlord services

·       Providing additional affordable housing

·       Regenerating our estates and neighbourhoods

·       Reducing our carbon emissions

f)      reported that alongside development of the Business Plan, the Housing Assets directorate had also developed a series of policies to support effective delivery of its services and there remained a gap in the directorate’s governance ‘golden thread’; an Asset Management Strategy had been identified as a means of bridging this gap, and would help ensure the Council met the requirements of the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards that were introduced in April 2024

g)    highlighted that:

·       The Strategy had been developed with tenants as its primary audience, with a more visual format and simplified content.

·       It addressed all relevant parts of the Regulator’s Consumer Standards, and each of the four outcomes was accompanied by an action plan that set out key activities the directorate would undertake to further enhance and improve the quality of the Council’s homes and how it engaged with tenants throughout.

·       The action plan also identified key activities the Council needed to undertake to ensure it continued to meet the requirements of the Building Safety Regulator.

h)    confirmed that the lifespan of the Strategy was five years, both to coincide with Vision 2030 and in anticipation of the energy efficiency standards all landlords were required to meet by 2030, when all rented homes would be mandated to have a minimum EPC ‘C’ rating

i)      requested members’ feedback on the content of the report.

Members discussed the content of the report in further detail, commented/raised questions and received relevant responses from officers  as follows:

Question: An achievement of EPC rating of C or above for Council homes was very ambitious. Did this relate to all properties?

Response: There were 290 properties which required compliance to be achieved by the year 2030.

Question: Was it better to sell unviable properties and to build better?

Response: The Disposals Policy would be looked at later in the year. Officers would share further background information on the development of the Asset Disposals Policy with the member in question.

Officers were congratulated on the work in this field to date.

RESOLVED that the draft Asset Management Strategy attached as ‘Appendix A’ to the report be noted, prior to its progression to Executive for formal adoption.