Agenda item

Housing Directorate Report to Housing Strategic Board

 

The Director of Housing and Communities updated the group on Unitary Authority Stronger Somerset Business Case which proposed two new unitary Councils and a combined authority. The plan would streamline our localgovernment structure with two new Unitaries for East and West, while creating a Combined Authority so more decisions can be made locally, not in Westminster.

 

During the coronavirus pandemic, Somerset County Council pushed ahead with their bid for a single Unitary for Somerset, while the District Councils were focused on supporting communities and businesses.

 

A white paper from Government which is called the Devolution White Paper would be the trigger for a consultation exercise and decision making paper that deals with changes to Local Democracy and how areas were represented. This would be taken as our bid being formally submitted and ratified and a consultation exercise undertaken by government of either bid.

 

The times scales for this were quite tight with the consultation process launched in the New Year, and a shadows authority would be set up in April 2021, this would run for 12 months with the new Council starting in April/May 2022. We need to bear in mind that these time scales could be subject to change.

 

 

Housing and Communities Teams update

 

The Assistant Director of Housing and Community Development updated the group that during the pandemic good feedback had been received from tenants regarding welfare checks and support by phone from staff members.

 

At the beginning of lockdown the letting of properties were suspended whilst the voids team concentrated on emergency accommodation for the homeless applicants due to the closure of commercial Bed and Breakfasts. The 17 properties in Pyrland Fields have now been successfully let.

 

Now that restriction rules had been relaxed, it is under consideration to open meeting halls from October by appointment only, more information on this will follow shortly.

 

Reported that we have been successful in securing Hinkley C funding to create the role of a Home Moves Plus Officer Full time for 2 years. This post will work within the Lettings team to work with tenants to encourage and facilitate moves for those currently under-occupying properties and allowing SWT to make best use of its stock for the benefit of all those on the Housing Register.

 

Somerset Independence Plus (SIP) has successfully recruited a Hospital Resettlement Coordinator. Working out of Musgrove Park Hospital and surrounding NHS Community Hospitals, the post will be responsible for assisting patients with a smooth discharge from hospital into their home setting. The post will be jointly managed by Health and Somerset Independence Plus. It is an 18 month post, funding will be from the Better Care Fund. SIP have also just launched a new service to tackle hoarding. Designed to assist clients who have extensive problems with clutter in their home. The Independent Living Officers’ will centre their level of intervention based upon the clutter scale. Besides working with the client to clear the property, they will also put in place an agreed plan with the client to prevent hoarding in the future.

 

The Rent Recovery team continues to work to support our tenants through the effects of having a reduced income or in some cases redundancy due to COVID-19. They continue to embrace the “LEAN” approach to rent recovery and the rent arrears are showing the benefit of this approach. Face to Face appointments were now being taken in the DH.

 

In the last quarter we have been reviewing the existing ASB policy, with the team now working on processes to work alongside this.   Although we had an increase in serious ASB cases during Covid this is now starting to slow down a little and the team have seen the number of new cases declining.

 

 

Comments made by group members included;

 

·       Will the funding from Hinckley C just cover Somerset West and Taunton area or is it Council wide? We also work closely with Magna in the West Somerset area, so this is about enabling moves between properties in the County and possibly wider afield. We are also looking at Home Swap which is a national scheme to see whether this is a better model for us moving forward. 

 

 

Development and Regeneration

 

The Assistant director- Development and Regeneration updated the group on housing strategy.  Work was now progressing across partners across the County to adopt a health, care and housing memorandum of understanding as are discussions regarding the establishment of a Homelessness Reduction Board. Eco Flex scheme was now being adopted in SWT which provided access to fuel poor private households for energy saving measures such as insulation, fuel switch, etc.

 

A programme aimed at increasing affordable homes in the most difficult parts of the district through a community led approach is commencing with the recruitment of a part time specialist officer to work primarily in the Exmoor National Park with communities including Parish Councils.  The Programme

aimed to unlock rare development opportunities through community awareness and activity. Work was taking place with planning to understand the implications of the planning white paper on affordable housing supply in Somerset.

 

There are 309 HRA homes at various stages of delivery. Laxton Road (8 units) will be ready to let around Christmas followed by NTWP phase A homes (47) and zero carbon homes with five sites prioritised for early delivery (43 units). Plans are progressing well for other schemes at Seaward Way (53 units in the west of Somerset) and Oxford Inn (11 units in Taunton). Seaward Way has the benefit of an allocation of funds from the Hinckley Point C Housing Strategy. The Council is working with our contractor Engie to improve the low carbon qualities of the NTWP new homes and the refurbished homes.  SWT is looking to improve the fabric of the homes over the tendered requirements and current building regulation requirements.

 

Comments made by group members included;

 

·       What monitoring will be done on these new energy efficient houses to make sure that they are energy efficient without evidence? I agree, you cannot prove this without evidence, but we are going through quite an extensive procurement process to determine that what we are told is true in reality. We also have a programme of data collection which will take place to ensure that what they state will be delivered has been delivered. At the procurement process we will be asking some very direct questions around the materials they use and their construction techniques. We also have expert energy advisors to help us probe the claims that are made by the company contractors. We then need to measure and monitor to prove what they say is correct. We will not appoint the company until we are confident that they can deliver what we need. Will all the new tenants have all their energy recorded and monitored? We will be using smart technology where we can, we also need to have discussions with the tenants on how they use the property as some low carbon homes it uses it differently to make significant energy savings. Part of our plan complies of data collection and analysis. We will be using a pilot scheme called the LETI model to collect this date, it is a London Energy Transformation Initiative Model which is a very comprehensive model to bench mark proposals so it not only measures the occupational use and the suggested occupational use of power, it also measures the embodied carbon for materials which are used to transport to site and it also tries to measure the life needs of the material.

·       We are looking at 373 units as outline, what are the time scales for getting these units on the ground? Those units will be delivered over 7 years although they are front loaded. Laxton Road will be delivered this year, Seaward Way (if we get planning permission) will be delivered in 3 years with the low carbon being on site early next year. As they are modular constructions we hope to have the first ones available at the end of the summer next year and the others within the next 14 months of that date. North Taunton will be delivered in 4 phases of build which will be spread out over a number of years. The Oxford Inn will comprise of 11 units which will follow on from the zero carbon pilots. This project is well ahead of the 30 year programme announced by the Council. 

 

 

The Assistant Director-Housing Property updated the group on the briefing paper that was sent to the group.

 

Key points updated to the group;

 

·       The Housing maintenance team;

·       Void repairs;

·       Property Safety Compliance;

·       Additional resources with two new posts, Compliance Manager and a Landlord and Compliance Specialist;

·       New Asbestos Management and Fire Safety policies and procedures;

·       Fire Risk Assessments;

·       Continuing with Gas Safety check;

·       Undertaking a programme of Water Risk Assessments;

·       Carrying out electrical checks to communal areas;

 

Comments made by group members included;

 

·       How will the work be completed by Contractors before the next financial year? Everyone is in the same boat, so everyone is pushing for a limited contractor resource, which is what puts the pressure on. The time frame is tight in this financial year as everyone wants to complete works which will have to roll on if not completed.

 

Update from the Housing Performance Manager – Shari Hallett

 

Reported that a new small team had been set up as part of the housing restructure to help in a number of areas. The team consisted of Shari Hallett, Sharon Yarde and Amy Maggs, two new team members will be recruited next month.  The role of the team was to enhancing the experience of our customers and to manage some of the other activities that we need to do as a business, preparing the score card, managing the risk register and managing policies and procedures that have been approved and gone through the relevant channels and have being signed off.

 

Work will be undertaken to engage with our customers to improve our housing service which has started with the News Letter which has gone out to residents this week.

 

Comments made by group members included;

 

·       Concerns that although the hub was open there were no face to face appointments available? Visits to the hub are for business that cannot be done through other channels, this is done through the prioritisation of appointments;

·       Will arrears and maintenance figures still be worked on and given to the board? Yes if you are looking on updates on arrears etc we will be bringing these to future meetings. There is no forward plan of business at present but I am happy for this to be driven by group members too as this is part of the two way process;

·       Concerns that calls to general enquiries were not being answered; call times to Customer Services are very good so I am perplexed by this as there are plenty of resources there. If you can give us any indication of the date and time of the calls we will look into this and report back;

·       The proposed unitary arrangement, can you confirm that you are already formally working with Sedgemoor District Council? We already have informal working partnerships in place with Sedgemoor District Council such as Building Control and the private sector housing partnership;

 

Resolved that – the group recommended the report