Agenda item

Councillor Andrew Smith (Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services) to update the Committee on current and forthcoming issues in his portfolio.

Report to follow.

5.1       Councillor Andrew Smith (Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services) presented the report and confirmed that the CityWest Homes (CWH) Board had agreed the termination of the Management Agreement with the Council for 31 March 2019, following the Council’s decision to bring the housing management function back in-house. Agilysis had taken over responsibility for all new repairs requests from 1 November until March 2019, and overall the repairs performance had improved. Councillor Smith advised that developing the Local Officer, CWH’s commitment to work with residents to identify and resolve local priorities, continued and efforts were being made to ensure that staff were visible on estates. Members heard that the implementation of Traffic Management Orders (TMOs) on Housing Revenue Account (HRA land was ongoing.

5.2       Turning to resident engagement, Councillor Smith advised that five resident engagement events were due to take place over the period from November 2018 to February 2019 and additional events were also planned. In respect of the Government’s announcement that the use of combustible materials, including cladding, would be banned on any residential building over 18 metres high, the Council is not considering alternative insulation solutions and a final decision was due in December 2018. Councillor Smith advised that a meeting was due to take place on 3 December in respect of ‘Survivors UK’, a Council initiative that was the first local authority to commission a specialist service to support rough sleepers who are survivors of sexual abuse. Trailblazer, a scheme involving prevention activities on homelessness, had undertaken action with 145 households between the period March to October 2018, whilst the Housing Options Service continued to transform delivery of its service. Efforts were also being made to improving dialogue with landlords in order to address homelessness.

5.3       Turning to the digital transformation, Councillor Smith advised that there had been improvements to the ‘Report It’ function and there were also a number of initiatives underway for children’s IT programmes, such as Familystory. A major programme to upgrade over 3,000 officer laptops and desktops to Windows 10 was underway, including replacing existing hardware. Councillor Smith informed the Committee that a review of the Council’s website continued to be in progress, with an external agency, Rainmaker, commissioned to undertake this.

5.4       During discussions, the Chairman noted the comparatively poor performance for the Contact Centre in September regarding percentage of calls answered within 30 seconds and asked if there was any more recent data. In respect of the CWH task group’s recommendations, he asked whether these were on track for implementation in January 2019. Another Member commented that he hoped the Contact Centre’s performance for December was around the levels achieved during July. He expressed some disappointment that the timescales for implementing the TMOs had slipped and asked when it was anticipated that these would be completed. In respect of the lack of enforcement, he asked if there would be any compensation in view of the fact that residents were charged for parking permits. Another Member enquired why Agilysis were not included as part of the tender to operate the Contact Centre. In respect of the improvements to the ‘Report It’ function, a Member asked what steps were being taken to promote this service and would social media be used to undertake this. He welcomed the initiatives to tackle homelessness and asked to what extent they were preventing it. Another Member commented that local authorities could not tackle homelessness alone and he asked what dialogue was taking place with Central Government on this matter. It was remarked that the Family Centre in Bruckner Street was quite difficult to locate and could benefit from better signage. Comments were sought as to whether a satisfaction rate of 53% for dealing with housing complaints was normal and what steps were being to address the length of time to address these. Clarification was also sought as to whether the Government had scrapped plans to phase out local authority housing tenancies for life.

5.5       In reply to the issues raised, Tom McGregor (Director of Housing and Regeneration) advised that calls answered by the Contact Centre within 30 second had improved to 50% and calls abandoned down to 10% for November. Joint action was being taken by CWH and the Council to implement all recommendations of the CWH’s task group and an update would be provided at the January 2019 meeting. Tom McGregor acknowledged there had been some slippage in respect of implementation of TMOs and an update on timescales would be provided to Members in December.

5.6       Councillor Smith acknowledged the concerns raised by Members in respect of slippage of implementing the TMOs but added that they were complex and required the appropriate consultation with residents. He informed the Committee that he was working closely with Councillor Tim Mitchell (Cabinet Member for Environment and City Management) on this matter and efforts were being made to ensure that the Traffic Management Team had the appropriate support, although certain matters were beyond the Council’s control. In respect of Agilysis, Councillor Smith advised that they were not included as part of the tender to operate the CHW Contact Centre as it was to be brought in to come under the Council’s Contact Centre.

5.7       Councillor Smith stated that action would be taken to ensure that there was clear information regarding the Family Centre in Bruckner Street and most people visiting would have booked an appointment. He acknowledged that the time taken to resolve housing complaints was too long and this issue was being addressed. Councillor Smith informed Members that there was positive engagement with both the central Government and the Greater London Authority to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping and there was also a focus on looking at healthcare for rough sleepers, especially in light of the rise in use of the drug ‘spice’ and the Council was lobbying the NHS to ensure easy access to healthcare support for rough sleepers. Councillor Smith advised that Government policy had changed in respect of housing tenancies and he emphasised the importance of ensuring that residents had homes appropriate for their needs.

5.8       The Chairman requested that the health of rough sleepers be added to the Work Programme.

5.9       ACTION:

The health of rough sleepers to be added to the Work Programme. (Action for: Aaron Hardy, Policy and Scrutiny Manager.)