Agenda item

Presented by Sue Hanlon, Director of Assets and Kevin Hartshorn, Interim Head of Asset Planning & Capital Delivery.

Councillor Hale entered the Council chamber at 6.40pm.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Director of Assets and the Interim Head of Asset Planning & Capital Delivery to address the Panel.

The Director of Assets and the Interim Head of Asset Planning & Capital Delivery conducted a presentation to the Panel, which can be found via the following link: https://civico.net/croydon/meetings

In response to questions from Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:

• Residents were not expected to bleed radiators themselves.
• Officers were aware that some residents may not have had access to the website.
• Officers were trying to share more information with residents and when operatives went out to resident’s properties, they could show residents how to bleed their radiators and leave a key with the residents who were happy to bleed their radiators themselves.
• There was a government consultation which began in January 2024 and closed on the 5^th March. Officers had met with the Local Government Association (LGA) to discuss what timescales the government had proposed for the completion of the repairs.
• There was a deadline for 24 hours to complete emergency repairs, 14 days to complete an assessment with a further 7 days to complete repairs.
• The Council would be going back to the government with feedback and to clarify how these new laws would dovetail with existing laws.
• The asset management strategy considered damp and mould as part of the strategy; however, it was an overarching strategy which considered a multitude of areas including disrepair.
• The asset management strategy was an agile document which would continually be reviewed and refreshed.
• The repairs service had improved since the meeting in January, and officers were working with the contractors to improve and stabilise the services.
• Officers were still mobilising the services and some of the information received from the outgoing contractor was not available.
• The contact centre was established in August 2023 and the staff numbers were based on what officers believed to be an average number of call handlers that you would have for a similar number of properties.
• After two months it became clear that the volume of repairs was much higher than what had previously been reported to the Council by the outgoing contractor. The Council then took on additional resource in the contact centre, all of which were temporary.
• If the volume of repairs remained at the same level over the next three or four months, then officers would need to investigate why the number of repairs required had not fallen.
• There was the possibility for team leaders in the contact centre to listen into calls, and officers were looking into whether there was other software which would help them to assess the quality of the calls.
• Officers had not been into homes for several years; they had gathered a lot more information about their housing stock recently and this was the cause of the fluctuation in numbers reported.
• Hazards needed to be addressed within a certain timescale, officers needed to address these hazards quickly to reduce the danger presented by the hazard before dealing with the problem on the back of it.
• The hazards from damp and mould, disrepair or fire hazards had been prioritised.
• Officers were still working on a reporting methodology for hazards and component failures.
• 36% of the Councils housing stock had been surveyed, 40% would have been surveyed by the end of March 2024, another 20% would have been surveyed by September and then 20% annually.
• There was an issue with the forms at the previous meeting, some were collected but others did not make it to the relevant officers.
• The contact centre had targets as set out in the mobilisation plan, these targets would be step targets, and these would be sought to be achieved by September 2024. The contracts stated that calls would be answered withing 20 seconds. This was not being met, but the expectation was to achieve this target by September.
• The voids, damp and mould disrepair teams had been visiting properties conducting short snappy stock surveys to produce data quickly.
• The contact centre had targets which had been drawn up as part of the mobilisation plan. These targets would be stepped targets and officers expected to see a stepped improvement between February and September.
• The asset management strategy would be based on around 40 actions which would be developed over the next 5 years, this would change as officers began to understand more about the Councils housing stock.  the data being collected by the stock surveys would help to formulate the strategy.
• The outside of the blocks was assessed as part of the survey, officers would investigate their cyclical decoration and if this was executed right then it would go a long way to easing some of the pressure on the reactive repairs.
• The housing health and safety rating system included 29 different hazards.
• Officers would circulate a list of the hazards to the Members.
• It was important that residents reported any issues that they experienced.

It was agreed that the summary document would be circulated to the Panel.