The Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission is scheduled to meet on 8 December 2025, to discuss the Housing Improvement Plan, the Housing Revenue Account budget, and the commission's work programme. The meeting will also cover recent scrutiny reports and the action tracker.

Housing Improvement Plan

The Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission is scheduled to receive an update on the progress of Hackney Council's Housing Improvement Plan. The plan was refreshed in July 2025, incorporating lessons from the past year and findings from the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH), Housing Ombudsman, and Resident Scrutiny Panel. As part of the scrutiny process, the commission is planning site visits to observe service delivery, gather staff perspectives, and witness ongoing work.

The report pack includes a presentation from Housing Services and a Housing Performance Dashboard.

The presentation from Housing Services covers:

• Health and Safety
• Repairs
• Learning from Complaints
• Knowledge and Information Management
• Oversight and Workforce
• Policy and Procedure

The presentation notes that Hackney Council is one of the largest local authority landlords in the country, with properties occupied by 21,552 tenants, 8,184 leaseholders and 1,534 freeholders. The repairs service undertakes over 80,000 repairs each year, and there are capital works planned worth £550m over the next 10 years to improve estates.

Health and Safety

The report pack states that Hackney Council self-referred to the RSH in June 2024, after engagement with Pennington Choices, the council's health and safety consultants, identified that there was no assurance as to statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to building safety compliance, asset and data management, or the associated assurance framework.

The report pack claims that since self-referral, the council has achieved 100% compliance across fire, water and asbestos safety, and >99.8% in gas safety.

The report pack states that the strategic aim is:

Ensure the safety of our residents by having in-date FLAGEL certificates across all of our properties and completing relevant remedial works. Put in place new working practices and governance arrangements to ensure this position is maintained.

The report pack notes that unplanned absences in the Procurement team have delayed the tender for an electrical safety contractor, who is unlikely to be in place until April, hindering progress on electrical safety compliance.

The report pack also notes that national factors impact on remediation progress, as building works must now be approved by the Building Safety Regulator, and following the abolition of competent person designation all fire doors must be signed off by Building Control.

Repairs

The report pack states that following the referral regarding repairs and maintenance services, data and stock quality, and subsequent engagement with RSH, new measures to improve repairs have been introduced.

The report pack states that the strategic aim is:

Improve the speed and quality of our repairs service, driving down the repairs backlog and meeting our responsibilities under Awaab's Law. Better understand which repairs are emergencies and improve communication with residents and contractors.

The report pack notes that non-emergency repairs completed on time is 86.7% for the year to date, and that Hackney Council is now consistently attending over 90% of plumbing leaks by the end of the next working day.

The report pack also notes that a significant contribution to performance has been expanded contractor support, with all new contractors operating at full capacity a quarter ahead of schedule.

The report pack states that Hackney Council has been experiencing difficulties implementing the repairs diagnostic tool due to limitations in existing systems that force call centre agents to follow a specific workflow.

Learning from Complaints

The report pack refers to a draft of the special report on Hackney Council issued in February 2025 following a HOS paragraph 49 investigation¹, prompted by concerns about the council's overall maladministration rates.

The report pack states that the strategic aim is:

Creating an effective feedback loop that ensures complaints drive service improvements.

The report pack notes that all recommendations made in the Housing Ombudsman's report have been implemented with the exception of the lessons learned / changes made monitoring.

The report pack also notes that the new organisational structure introduces five new higher graded complaints posts to better manage more complex complaints.

Knowledge and Information Management

The report pack states that the Ombudsman describes knowledge and information management (KIM) as the closest thing the sector has to a magic bullet, and that Hackney Council recognises the impact poor KIM has on the lives of residents through the services they receive.

The report pack states that the strategic aim is:

Implementing new systems and improving the data literacy of our staff. Improving quality of data held on our stock condition, residents and their additional needs.

The report pack notes that the Resident Data app has been well received by Housing Officers, and that Hackney Council is combining the information collected using it with data from social care systems to build a better picture of tenants.

The report pack also notes that the document management system is now live with Housing Officers and colleagues in Benefits and Homelessness Prevention and the Contact Centre.

Oversight and Workforce

The report pack states that the HOS report identified issues with the way scrutiny and oversight was supported to address issues, and that work completed by Hackney Council following self-referral identified culture and a lack of investment in staff and managers as a root cause of some issues.

The report pack states that the strategic aim is:

Establish the Housing Advisory Panel, and improve the quality of management information provided to it and other bodies. Invest in our workforce to ensure they are equipped to deliver services to the level expected by our residents. Deliver the service review, including the creation of a Quality and Assurance function and framework within the Housing service.

The report pack notes that the Housing Advisory Panel has been established with two meetings held to date, and is chaired by Pamela Leonce, who previously served as the MHCLG Housing Commissioner at LB Croydon and sits on LB Newham's improvement board.

The report pack also notes that the new structure of the Housing Service has been agreed with recruitment ongoing, and that procurement of a partner to develop the Behaviours Framework and associated training plan has been delayed due to unplanned medical absences of the SRO and project staff.

Policy and Procedure

The report pack states that engagement with health and safety consultants, subsequent root cause analysis, the paragraph 49 inspection report and previous Ombudsman orders highlighted the need to review or introduce various policies and procedures.

The report pack states that the strategic aim is:

Ensure effective policies and procedures are in place and adhered to, supporting fair, intuitive and transparent service delivery.

The report pack lists the following workstreams:

• Voids / Lettable Standard Policy
• Leaks and Gaining Entry Policy and Procedures
• Damp and Mould Policy and Procedure
• Decants and Temporary Rehousing Policy and Procedure
• Asset Management & Decent Homes Standard Policy
• Health and Safety FLAGEL policy suite documents

Housing Performance Dashboard

The Housing Performance Corporate Dashboard profiles critical performance drivers for the council, in terms of their impact and monitoring financial stability.

The dashboard includes information about:

• Health & Safety
• Repairs & Asset Management
• Complaints
• Tenancy
• Finance

HRA Budget Monitoring 2025/26

The Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission is scheduled to receive an annual overview of the financial performance of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). This includes reviewing in-year budgets and management actions to address any overspends or underspends and progress against the delivery of in-year savings, with a focus on data-analysis, variance reporting and corrective actions.

The report pack includes a report from Finance & Housing Services.

The report states that the HRA is required to identify significant mitigations in order to breakeven for 2025/26, and is forecasting to overspend on Operations expenditure by £6.886m.

The report pack notes that the key risk to the HRA in 2025/26 continues to be repairs and maintenance expenditure which has continued to be forecast above budget.

The report pack also notes that the current financial position and depletion of earmarked reserves places the HRA budgets under significant financial pressure and the current level of spend is not sustainable within the HRA MTFS and 30 Year Business Plan. The newly created HRA Finance Improvement Board will continue to oversee and monitor the financial sustainability of the HRA and recommend appropriate action.

The report pack states that on 12th May 2025 a management instruction was issued with immediate effect, reiterating previous instructions given at the beginning of 2024/25 that all work should be ordered on repairs hub with a clear commitment to aid budget monitoring / management as well as the instruction given in January 2025 clearly setting out the need to limit spend and only order the 'musts' i.e.the legal requirements.

The report pack also provides a breakdown of the HRA Revenue P6 Forecast Variances to Budget.

Scrutiny Reports, Letters and Responses

The Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission is scheduled to review recent reports and letters made by the commission, outlining recent findings and any recommendations made after in-depth reviews or suggestions for improvement made following one-off discussions on specific issues or policy areas. The meeting will also cover any responses received by the Executive or external partners to the Commission's recommendations and/or suggestions for improvement.

Scrutiny Action Tracker

The Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission will review the actions tracker, which brings together the agreed actions and previous meetings of the Living in Hackney Scrutiny, subsequent action, outcome and result.

The action tracker includes actions relating to:

• Eliminating Violence Against Women & Girls Strategy 2022-25
• Housing Complaints Annual Report 2024/25

Living in Hackney Work Programme 2025/26

The Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission is scheduled to discuss the work programme for the Living in Hackney Scrutiny for the 2025/26 municipal year.