The Housing Management Advisory Board met on 17 September 2025, confirming the minutes from their previous meeting and discussing a range of housing management issues. The board commended the Tenancy Fraud Policy to the cabinet for approval, and requested quarterly updates on the Regulator of Social Housing's Competence and Conduct Standard.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

The board reviewed the 2024/25 Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) results, noting an improvement across all perception measures. The Director of Housing and Wellbeing, Peter Oliver, reported that the change in methodology for completing the tenant satisfaction survey to more closely match the approach taken by other landlords and to support benchmarking, likely accounted for 6% of the positive change in the overall level of satisfaction. The board welcomed the improved results and requested that quarterly results of tenant perception surveys be submitted to them throughout the year.

The report highlighted that all TSMs relating to safety inspections are at 100%. However, there was a small increase in non-decent homes¹. The board were informed that a stock condition survey had just been completed, and homes identified as not meeting the decent homes standard would be prioritised for improvement works. A separate report on the results of the survey and the methodology for calculating stock decency will be provided to the board at a later date.

Regulator of Social Housing's Competence and Conduct Standard

The Head of Landlord Services gave a presentation on the Regulator of Social Housing's Competence and Conduct Standard, explaining why the standard was being introduced, what it meant for the council, the actions planned to meet the standard, next steps, and what tenants could expect.

The new standard introduces a sector-wide, outcome-based framework for those working in social housing and requires senior professionals who deliver social housing services to gain or work towards a housing management qualification. This standard will come into force in October 2026.

The board welcomed the proposals, but Councillor Sarah Goode raised concerns that staff should not be micromanaged, and that qualification requirements might make recruitment more challenging. She also asked how many existing staff would need to obtain qualifications. Peter Oliver responded that the proposals were intended to complement employee management already practiced, and he hoped that staff would not feel micromanaged. He also hoped that roles would become more attractive as a result of the move towards being more professional. He clarified that a qualification was not a requirement from day one, but there would be an expectation of willingness to obtain one, and that the council would cover the cost.

The board resolved to receive quarterly updates on progress in respect of this matter.

Consumer Standards Action Plan

The board considered a report from the Head of Landlord Services on the Consumer Standards Action Plan. The plan includes 53 actions, with 21 actions complete, 9 actions not started, 23 actions in progress, and 2 actions overdue. The board welcomed the progress with the action plan and stressed the need to ensure that momentum was maintained. They also welcomed the improvement across all perception measures in the Tenant Satisfaction Measure results 2024/25.

Performance Information and Voids Performance

The board received a report on performance information for Quarter 1, including an update on voids performance. The Landlord Services Manager reported a positive direction of travel for end-to-end re-let times, and a decrease in void rent loss in Q1. However, the board noted that the age of void properties in standard repairs did not show a positive direction of travel in Q1.

In response to a request for further explanation, the broad position with void repairs was briefly outlined. It was noted that numbers had improved from 313 in 2023/24 to 510 in 2024/25, due to increasing capacity in both voids repairs team and contractor resource.

Work of the Tenancy Support Team

The board considered a report on the work of the Tenancy Support Team, whose purpose is to provide short-term, targeted, outcome-focused support to tenants where needed, with a key objective of tenancy sustainment. This includes helping tenants to access benefit entitlement and discretionary housing payments to prevent rent arrears. The board considered that the work of the team was very valuable and resolved that officers include information on the work of the Tenancy Support Team in a future edition of the tenants' newsletter.

Tenancy Fraud Policy

The board considered a report on the Tenancy Fraud Policy, which would be considered by the Charnwood Housing Residents Forum (CHRF) at its next meeting. Any material changes resulting from that consideration would be brought back to the board. The board was informed that a more rigorous and focused approach to tenancy fraud was expected once the policy was in place, but that staff resources would be limited and work would focus on tenancies more at risk of fraud. The board welcomed the policy and resolved to commend it to the Cabinet for approval.

St Michael's Court Bungalows

In response to a question from Mrs J. Wright, the Director of Housing and Wellbeing confirmed that works were currently progressing on time and on budget at the bungalows at St Michael's Court, Thurmaston, with quality being managed effectively. He expected that completion would be before the end of the financial year.

Work Programme

The board updated its work programme to include quarterly updates on the Regulator of Social Housing's Competence and Conduct Standard progress, quarterly Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) results, a report on assessing non-decency methodology, and the Stock Condition Survey Results.