The Housing Management Cabinet Sub-Committee convened to discuss key performance indicators, landlord compliance, tenant engagement, and strategic risks. The committee approved proposed risk management methodology and targets for the Housing Management Service, while also addressing concerns regarding repairs, complaints, void property turnaround times, and policy frameworks. The importance of resident involvement and satisfaction was a recurring theme throughout the meeting.

Housing Management Performance and Compliance

The Housing Management Performance and Compliance Report was presented, highlighting that while 11 out of 16 performance metrics are trending positively, only three are currently on target. The report outlined a recovery plan to address areas of underperformance, especially in the repair service and landlord compliance.

Repairs Service

The Mayor Lutfur Rahman expressed concern about the repair service, describing it as terrible . He requested a detailed paper on the repair service, including information on contractors, subcontractors, statistics, challenges, and timelines.

Specific issues raised included:

• Repeated visits: Councillor Kabir Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Inclusive Development and Housebuilding, asked about the issue of repeated visits by repair people before work is completed.
• Call handling: Councillor Ahmed also asked about improvements to call centre performance in answering and logging calls.
• Right First Time Performance: Indicated to be hovering around 72%.

Gulam Hussain, Acting Director of Neighbourhoods and Customer Services, noted that improvements were being made, including permanent recruitment to stabilise the workforce in the call centre, requiring staff to work in the office three days a week, and cross-training staff.

David Joyce, Corporate Director, Housing & Regeneration, added that Stephen Platt, the new director, would focus on improving the repair service.

Complaints

The report indicated that complaints performance had improved since February, with over 70% of stage one complaints being determined within the 10-day target, but the aim is to reach 100%. Stage two complaints are being determined 100% of the time.

Councillor Ahmed and Councillor Maium Talukdar, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Education, Youth and Lifelong Learning, raised concerns about the high numbers of complaints and the upward trend in the figures.

It was noted that IT security changes in December 2024 had locked out third-party contractors from the systems, impacting their ability to access the complaints portal.

Landlord Compliance

The report highlighted an improved headline position for landlord compliance as of the end of February. While gas safety performance remained stable at 99.70%, concerns were raised about passenger lift inspections being at 74.12%. A recovery plan was agreed with the contractor, Zurich, to improve the position by the end of March.

Darren Reynolds, Interim Head of Regulatory Assurance, noted that fire risk assessment actions and remedials were progressing, but challenges remained around major works and working with MIAs and their specialist subcontractors on fire stopping.

Void Properties

Councillor Ahmed expressed significant concern about the turnaround time for void properties, particularly given the pressure on temporary accommodation and the housing waiting list. He found the explanations provided unacceptable and requested to understand what was being done to bring the void period down.

Gulam Hussain explained that there were performance challenges with contractors and issues around the quality of works. He stated that weekly void panels had been set up, and that he had asked both the Head of Repairs and the Head of Neighbourhoods to attend and assert the council's requirements with the contractor.

He estimated that a normal turnaround time would be around 30 to 35 days, but that the council was experiencing more and more complexity. He also noted that properties were often being left in a poorer state than in the past.

Councillor Ahmed requested a report to understand the turnaround time for less complex, medium-range, and more complex voids.

Karen Swift, Director of Housing Strategy, Policy and Regulatory Assurance, noted that the buyback programme was putting pressure on Mears to turn around voids for use as temporary accommodation.

Rent Collection

The report noted that rent collection had exceeded its target, but that arrears were at £4.14 million.

Councillor Ahmed requested a paper to understand the periods over which the £4 million had accrued, the collection methodology, the enforcement methodology, and how much bad debt had been written off over the last three years. He also asked whether there was anything the council could do to learn from colleagues in council tax or business rate collection, or from other local authorities, to reduce arrears and improve cash flow.

David Joyce said that a scrutiny session on this had taken place about six months ago, and that he would be happy to bring a paper back with more information. He also mentioned that the council was rolling out Rent Sense, which uses AI¹ to predict where residents might start to go into arrears.

Tenant Voice Update

The Tenant Voice Report was presented as a noting item. Councillor Ahmed expressed concern that the language used in the summary suggested that the panel had not done much scrutinising work.

Darren Reynolds clarified that the panel had scrutinised some policies, provided feedback on communications, participated in inspections, and looked at performance data. He acknowledged that more needed to be done outside of meetings and that the agenda was very heavy.

He also noted that TPAS² would be providing a two-day training course for the panel around scrutinising performance, sharing meetings, and understanding performance information.

Your Voice, Our Action: Safe Homes, Great Services Programme

The Your Voice, Our Action: Safe Homes, Great Services Programme Highlight Report provided an update on the improvement plan agreed with the housing regulator. The report highlighted that 20 out of 100 key deliverables had been completed, 49 were on track, three were at risk, two were overdue, and 12 had not started.

David Joyce noted that the key bit of the report was the table at 3.3, which showed the progress against the action plan.

Darren Reynolds updated that one of the overdue actions was being completed, and that another would be picked up by the new director, Stephen Platt.

Housing Management Policies Plan & Approvals

The report provided an update on the policy framework for housing management. It was noted that there were 21 policies being reviewed, and that the regulator was happy with the prioritisation.

Councillor Ahmed expressed concern about the timeline for consultation and implementation, which was expected to be completed by January 2026. He asked for a more expedited timeline. He also raised the knock-through policy as a priority, stating that it was about alleviating overcrowding. He requested to see the policy and understand what was being advised on that.

He stated:

I don't care where it sits a lot of respect but to me knock through is not through it's about alleviating overcrowding we don't get hundreds of knock throughs a year now since I've been here I've about last few years about four or five requests were knocked through and even then that is dragging its feet dragging itself as far as I'm concerned

He requested that the knock-through policy be brought forward as a priority.

David Joyce agreed to look at the timeline and bring it forward. He also noted that Goulam Hussain and he had visited a property with a family of nine living in a two-bed flat, and that he understood why it was a priority.

Housing Management Strategic Risks

The report provided an overview of the strategic risk register for the council's housing management service. Eight strategic risks had been identified, including governance, asset management, health and safety, service quality, data integrity, major incident management, financial risk, and geopolitical risks.

Karen Swift explained that she had led a review of the risks with the wider management team.

Councillor Shafi Ahmed asked for more information about how Grenfell³ had been scored.

Karen Swift explained that the pace of remediation was a risk, and that the council was working with the fire brigade on regular inspections. She also noted that the council was the only local authority that had been invited to the ministerial, and that there was a general agreement that there needed to be a prioritisation exercise in risk.

David Joyce added that the council had acted quickly to remove ACM cladding from Randall House, and that the building safety regulator was also pertinent.

It was also noted that the council no longer had waking watches in any of its buildings.

Third Party & Contract Management and Third Party & Contractor Performance Monitoring

The report discussed the improvements in contract management initiatives within the repair service, emphasising the need for enhanced monitoring of third-party contractors and performance management.

David Joyce noted that this was something that was looked at as part of the internal officer governance, and that it was one of the tools used to identify any underperforming contracts. He gave the example of Mears, where the council had insisted that they added resource in to deal with some of the problems that they had.

He also noted that in the most extreme circumstances, the council needed to consider whether to change the contract if it was not working.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

The report provided a summary of the council's position against the 12 Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) as at the end of March 2025. It was noted that satisfaction levels across most metrics, including overall satisfaction, had reduced when compared to 2023-24. However, there was an underlying positive trend in terms of satisfaction, with all 12 measures improving in Q4.

David Joyce noted that the council had taken the action of phoning every single person up who expressed dissatisfaction, understanding their issues, and seeing if there was any follow-up that could be done.

Councillor Shafi Ahmed asked what drove the perception that a quarter of tenants did not feel safe in their own home.

Karen Swift explained that this may be due to wider community safety concerns, as well as concerns about compliance with fire risk assessments and actions.

She also noted that the housing management service was actively going to residents asking what the issues were, and that the top two issues within that particular estate were windows and ASB. She said that the estates with the lowest satisfaction were being prioritised for those visits.