Agenda item

The Sub-Committee is presented with a report and an accompanying presentation for its consideration updating on the progress made in delivering the work streams set out in the Housing Transformation Programme.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 5 to 38 of the agenda, which provided an update on the delivery of the Housing Transformation Programme. The report had been included on the agenda to enable the Sub-Committee to review the progress made in the delivery of the programme and to flag any areas of concern.

The Cabinet Member for Homes, Councillor Lynne Hale, Corporate Director for Housing, Susmita Sen, Director of Housing – Estates & Improvement, Stephen Tate, Finance Manager, Orlagh Guarnori, Head of Temporary Accomodation, Beatrice Cingtho-Taylor and Head of Homelessness & Assessments, Hamid Khan, Homeless Strategy Lead Officer, Janice Nuth and Senior Strategy Officer, Velvet Dibley all attended the meeting for this item.

The first question on this item questioned how the Prevention funding made available by the Government would be used and whether it could be used to address the shortage of housing in the borough. It was advised that one of the key strands of the Homelessness Strategy would be aimed at ensuring the best use of the Council’s housing stock and reprovisioning it if needed. Another strand of the strategy would be aimed at understanding the reasons why people were presenting as homeless and providing early intervention. As part of the transformation work, the emphasis of the Housing Needs service needed to move from being reactive to more proactive. 

In response to a question about the evolution of the Housing Transformation Programme from the original Improvement Plan, it was advised that following further review, it became apparent that the plan did not go far enough in addressing the deep rooted issues within the service. It was transitioned into a wider reaching transformation programme which encompassed the findings from the ARK report, failings highlighted by housing legislators and the expected level of professional standards. The Housing Transformation Programme would also feed into the Council’s wider transformation programme currently being developed.

It was confirmed that improving the relationship with local housing associations was included in the transformation programme. There was also a need to have an open dialogue with housing providers on the standard of accomodation available, particularly for temporary accomodation, as the current standard was not good enough.

Regarding the possibility of the Council introducing a Landlord Licensing scheme, it was advised that the forthcoming Housing Strategy was needed before any such scheme could be progressed, although officers had been asked to investigate potential options for a pilot scheme, from which a more expansive scheme could be built. It was possible that the eventual scheme could be a selective licensing scheme focusing on the parts of the borough where there were identifiable issues.

It was confirmed that improving the data held on council owned housing was a priority, as this data would be a key driver of the asset improvement strategy. The Transformation Programme had been focussed towards the areas that would make the biggest difference for residents. For the Housing Needs service, the initial emphasis would be to review the structure to ensure that the right people were in the right place to deliver the service. There was also a need to address the current level of performance in turning around void properties, to reduce the number of people waiting in temporary accomodation for housing to become available.

It was highlighted that there were approximately 100,000 families in temporary accomodation across London. In Croydon, a lot of the temporary accomodation was outdated, did not provide good value for money and was of a generally poor standard. There was a need to review all the leasing agreements with a view to renegotiating them with landlords. A new dynamic purchasing system was being rolled out which would help to improve the management of temporary accomodation in the borough.

There was concern raised about whether there was sufficient capacity within the Housing service to drive forward the transformation programme and support staff delivering business as usual services. It was confirmed that there was allocated support in place for the transformation programme, but there was a need to look at the resourcing in place at a senior level within the service. It was not adequately resourced at present and to successfully improve the service there was a need to ensure the right skills were in place in the organisation.

Since the ARK report had been published following the discovery of the poor housing conditions in properties on Regina Road, customer service training had been provided for staff, to start to address the concerns raised about the culture of staff toward residents. A programme aimed at providing front line staff with training on identifying damp and mould issues was also being rolled out. The impact of the training would be monitored using a mystery shopper approach and through reviewing complaints received. It was important that a high standard of interaction with residents was set across every area of the service, and work was needed to ensure residents were aware of the standard of service they should be expecting, so they could raise any concerns if these standards were not being met.

In response to a concern about property managers being required to look after too many properties, it was confirmed that this was being reviewed as part of the work on the structure of the service.

It was confirmed that once the new system to manage the housing register was in place, everybody on the list would be re-registered to ensure it was still accurate and to improve the bidding process. Reassurance was given that this process would still protect the length of time people had been on the register. As well as improved digitisation within the service, there was also a need to communication with residents to understand where they felt let down.

Regarding the recent report on the stigma around social housing, it was advised that there was a need to roll out equality and diversity training for all staff. There was also the stop social housing stigma campaign that would be rolled out as part of the customer excellence work stream.

At the conclusions of the item, the Chair thanked the officers for their attendance at the meeting.

Conclusions

1. The Sub-Committee extended its thanks to the officers involved in developing the Housing Transformation Programme, which was agreed to be well balanced, noting that a significant amount of work had been invested in its development.
2. There was concern about whether there was sufficient resource available within the Housing service to deliver the programme or whether there was sufficient investment available to increase the level of resource if needed. It was important that these factors were kept under review going forward.
3. It was important that a system was put in place to ensure that any learning arising out of the programme was recorded and implemented, as an ongoing mechanism for driving continuous improvement.