Decision Maker: Cabinet

Outcome: Deleted

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: No

Date of Decision: July 21, 2025

Purpose:

Content: RESOLVED:   That Cabinet:   1.  Approve the Housing Improvement Plan within the wider Housing Improvement Programme. 2.  Approve the Housing Ombudsman response.   REASONS FOR DECISION:   Approving the Housing Improvement Plan will bolster and update certain projects within the Housing Improvement Programme, refocusing them based on learnings from work to date and our engagement with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) and Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP). The higher profile of the workstreams within this plan will help to strengthen governance around them, ensuring successful delivery.   Approving the HOS Response will enable us to demonstrate our commitment to learning from complaints, and willingness to expose our complaints handling culture and practices to greater scrutiny.   Projects within the Housing Improvement Plan will cover: ·  Health and Safety Compliance ·  Repairs ·  including damp and mould, leaks and emergency repairs ·  Learning from Complaints ·  Knowledge and Information Management ·  including IT system replacement ·  Oversight and Workforce ·  including establishment of the Housing Advisory Panel and development of our staff behaviours framework ·  Policy and Procedure   These workstreams will generate the evidence required to demonstrate implementation of the HOS recommendations, as set out in the HOS Response.   In addition to these workstreams, other work to improve Tenancy Services, including our approach to working with residents with additional needs and domestic violence and abuse cases, Home Ownership and refreshing our approach to resident engagement and locality working will continue within the wider Housing Improvement Programme.   It is critically important to the success of both plans that the Council moves beyond existing “siloed” working practices. Within Housing services this will mean more cross-team working between Property Services and Tenancy and Home Ownership. Across the Council this will require effective collaboration between Housing, ICT, Legal Services and Governance, Finance and others to ensure the Improvement Plan is appropriately resourced and supported. Progress of these plans, and the wider Housing Improvement Programme, will be monitored within Housing services, by the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) and independently by the Housing Advisory Panel and RSH. Additionally, implementation of the HOS recommendations will be monitored by the HOS through to the end of 2025.   As outlined in Cabinet Report CHE S493 - Creation of a Housing Advisory Panel, which was approved in June 2025, a quarterly advisory report will be prepared by the panel chair, setting out how the service is delivering against key performance measures (including compliance with the RSH Consumer Standards) and delivery against improvement actions set out in both the Housing Improvement Plan and HOS Response. The report will be submitted to Cabinet on a quarterly basis and Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission twice a year.    OPTIONS APPRAISAL:   Do nothing - doing nothing is not an option as this would leave the Housing service operating in a non-compliant state.   Establish separate plans responding to the Regulatory Judgement and Ombudsman Investigation: the RSH and HOS have expressed a desire to avoid “double regulation” and this is a key principle of the memorandum of understanding that has been signed by the two organisations. Consequently, this option is not deemed to be practical due to the overlapping nature of the RSH’s and HOS’s findings. The bulk of the actions required to evidence implementation of the HOS recommendations are captured within the Housing Improvement Plan, with the remainder comprising information requests.   Agree a Voluntary Undertaking with the Regulator: this option was initially raised as an option by the RSH during the Council’s engagement with them, but not deemed necessary as the Housing Improvement Plan developed.   Develop the Housing Improvement Plan: during the early parts of the Council’s engagement with the RSH, the Council set out the existing plans to return to compliance. These developed further in conversation with the RSH and a subset of the most relevant activities within the Housing Improvement Programme identified. It was agreed with the RSH that it would be helpful for these activities to be brought together into an Improvement Plan to aid their understanding of the work, give confidence to its rationale, scope and objectives, and enable scrutiny of progress.   This is therefore the preferred option.