TENANTS, LEASEHOLDERS, AND SHELTERED TENANTS JOINT ...

If you require further information about this agenda please contact: Kay Duffy Tel: 020 8583 2076 Email: kay.duffy @hounslow.gov.uk. TENANTS, LEASEHOLDERS, AND SHELTERED TENANTS JOINT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE A meeting of the Tenants, Leaseholders, and Sheltered Tenants Joint Consultative Committee will be held in the Committee Room 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow on Wednesday, 1 February 2017 at 7:00pm MEMBERSHIP Councillor Katherine Dunne - Chair

Tenants’ Representatives: Abdul Alayoby, Carolyn Courage, Trish McDonnell, Ahmed Mohammed, Saskia Szokolovics Leaseholders’ Representatives: Moses Kasibante, Jenny Samuel Sheltered Tenants’ Representatives: Keith Head, Sylvia Panton-Chapman

AGENDA

1 Apologies for absence, declarations of interest or any other

communications from Members

2 Minutes of the meeting held on 2 November 2016 and Matters arising (Pages 1 - 2) 3 Performance Report - Ben Tomlinson (Pages 3 - 5) 4 Tell Us Survey update and way forward - Ben Tomlinson (Pages 6 - 14) 5 Hounslow Housing update - Lourdes deBarry 6 Feedback from Forum Chairs 7 Role of Forums - Lourdes deBarry 8 Resident Services Update - Chris Shoubridge (Pages 15 - 17) 9 Managing Anti-Social Behaviour - presentation by Chris Shoubridge 10 Urgent Business Any business which the Chair agrees to accept on grounds of urgency. 11 Date of next meeting - Monday 8 May 2017 from 7pm DECLARING INTERESTS

Committee members are reminded that if they have a pecuniary interest in any matter being discussed at the meeting they must declare the interest and not take part in any discussion or vote on the matter. Mary Harpley, Chief Executive London Borough of Hounslow, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow TW3 4DN Published on 24 January 2017

At a meeting of the Tenants, Leaseholders, and Sheltered Tenants Joint Consultative Committee held on Wednesday, 2 November 2016 at 7:00 pm in Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow.

Present:

Councillor Katherine Dunne – Chair

Tenants’ Representatives: Abdul Alayoby, Carolyn Courage, Trish McDonnell, Saskia Szokolovics Leaseholders’ Representative: Moses Kasibante, Jenny Samuel Sheltered Tenants’ Representative: Keith Head, David Penman

Officers in Attendance: Doug Goldring (Divisional Head of Housing Residential Services), Kim Mitchell (Head of Specialist Housing), Ben Tomlinson (Performance & Data Manager, Housing)

83. Apologies for absence, declarations of interest or any other communications from Members

Apologies had been received from Peter Matthew (Director, Housing). There were no declarations of interest. The Chair welcomed David Penman to his first meeting as a representative for Sheltered Tenants, and everyone introduced themselves.

84. Minutes of the meeting held on 7 September 2016 and Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 September 2016 were agreed as a true and accurate record and signed by the Chair.

Matters Arising: Item 77 – Future forum updates and questions Members were advised that Doug Goldring had voiced their concerns about prostitution around Convent Way with the Police, and continued to work with them to endeavour to improve the situation. When the proposed door entry system upgrade was rolled out, Convent Way would be the first estate to benefit. Item 78 – Resident Services Update Doug Goldring had not received an invite to a Leaseholder Forum meeting; he was advised that the AGM would take place on 5 December 2016, and confirmed that he would attend. [Moses Kasibante arrived at 7.10pm]

85. Hounslow Housing - Update - Ben Tomlinson

Ben Tomlinson led members through his report (attached at item 3 of the Agenda pack), and answered questions raised by members. The Chair advised that measures were being taken to stop some conversions of houses to Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO), and confirmed that HMOs had to be licenced. Ben Tomlinson advised members that the initial results from the “Tell Us What You Think” survey had been analysed. An Action Plan would be drawn up and circulated to members, together with the survey results, for discussion at a future meeting, either in February 2017 or May 2017. [Ben Tomlinson left the meeting at 7.35pm]

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Agenda Item 2

86. Forum Updates and Questions - Doug Goldring

Doug Goldring gave brief feedback on questions from the Tenants’ Forum (attached to item 4 of the Agenda pack), and agreed to send a more comprehensive written response in the near future.

Members were reminded that the Police and Council were always free to share information with each other in order to prevent a crime.

All void properties and their gardens should be cleared between tenancies.

There were some reports of fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles, that Doug Goldring agree to pursue.

It was acknowledged that the current phone system was inadequate, and members were assured that there were plans in hand to replace the system.

Members were reminded that any questions raised by the Forums should be submitted at least two weeks before any meeting, in order that a full response can be given. A number of questions had been submitted by the Tenants’ Forum immediately prior to the meeting. Doug Goldring confirmed that he would send a response to the Forum by the end of November 2016.

87. Resident Services - Update - Kim Mitchell

Kim Mitchell let members through her report (attached to item 5 of the Agenda pack). Doug Goldring agreed to consider the parking problems around Owen House, which had been exacerbated by the building works associated with the Blenheim Park scheme, and endeavour to find an appropriate solution. Doug Goldring noted that there were significant issues with the use of garages owned by the Council, and agreed that this area of review might need to be brought forward into this financial year. Doug Goldring agreed to forward the list of estates being considered for consultation on CPZs to the Chair. It was also agreed to endeavour to publish the latest version of the 5 year cyclical work plan as soon as possible.

88. Urgent Business

a) Non-delivery of Hounslow Matters Members were asked to pass on details of addresses where delivery was still not happening to Doug Goldring and Sorriya Ali (Communications Team), as Communications managed the contract for delivery to homes.

b) Contractors/carers, etc, not wearing identification badges Keith Head had met with Kim Mitchell to discuss this problem, and a proposal had been made that appeared to address this. Members were asked to report any non-compliance to Kim Mitchell.

89. Date of next meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 1 February 2017, in Committee Room 2, Civic Centre.

The meeting finished at 9:05 pm. The minute taker at this meeting was Irene Bowles

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TLSTJCC 1 February 2017 – Briefing

Subject: Hounslow Housing performance summary, November 2016

Date: 23 January 2017

Briefing by: Ben Tomlinson

Purpose: Update the TLSTJCC on the most recent Housing department KPI performance, which dates from November 2016.

Background: Every month Hounslow Housing directors are presented with summary performance of business critical KPIs, for the previous month in arrears. They cover service outcomes, statutory compliance and the department’s completion of internal audit recommendations.

Current Status: The number of homeless acceptances; void times; rent collection and the time taken to complete a responsive repair are all within target. Underperforming indicators mainly relate to acquisition of temporary accommodation for homeless families – which is a reflection of the difficult market for renting affordable housing.

Of the indicators underperforming, the issues in relation to estates management (communal repairs) and the slightly low proportion of urgent and emergency repairs completed on time should be of concern to TLSTJCC members, but these are relatively minor.

Several compliance items are rated RED and these should continue to be monitored closely by members, as they are by the housing director.

Most of the audit recommendations are broadly on track, although some may now have expired past their deadlines – this will be picked up in subsequent reports as the deadlines expire.

Key Considerations: see attached performance dashboard.

Options for TLSTJCC input: Many of the compliance items have been RAG rated red consistently over the past 12 months. This is because under rolling programmes to address outstanding FRA recommendations and asbestos surveys, for example, there will necessarily be a high number of properties or blocks that require work to be done. This does not automatically correspond to items that have exceeded their completion deadline.

TLSTJCC could provide feedback as to whether this is an effective RAG rating for compliance, or whether a more understanding approach could be adopted (e.g. RAG rate as amber the risk if there are works outstanding, but they are expected to be completed in time, and rating red only if works have been delayed past their deadlines.)

Recommendation: TLSTJCC to consider updated performance information at the next meeting.

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Agenda Item 3

Ref

numberPerformance Indicator Benchmarking 2015/16 Outturn Target 2016/17 November Target

November

OutcomeNovember YTD Commentary

A1 Number of Homeless Acceptances

296 (LBH pop, O

Ldn best

quartile)

486 400 266 179Homeless acceptances are currently on track and positively below the

annual target of 400 by 54%.

A2No of units acquired for discharge of duty to homeless

TA households (YTD)N/A 105 (PLA/PSL) 500 333 197

Units acquired for discharge of households from TA are at 60% of the annual

target. Although the period ahead is anticipated to be quiet, the number of

units acquired is expected to increase in Feb, Mar 17. Note, this outcome

continues to act negatively by the decrease in the competitiveness of our

incentive offer in comparison to other neighbouring local authorities..

A3Minor void turnaround time - end to end excluding

sheltered36.9 28.0 20 25 22 Days

Void times are above target based on 11 General Needs relets in

November. Note, turnaround times have continued a steady decline since

Aug 16

A4 Families in B&B for greater than 6 weeks 0 0 0 0 2There are two households who have been in B&B longer than 6 weeks - one

that is awaiting a decision by HCS and another that has refused the offer of

a DL.

A5 Total number of households in TA (includes B&B)

557 (LBH pop O

Ldn best quartile

rate)

1034 752 869 944Numbers of TA households have reduced but the reductions will need to

increase in order to achieve the annual target for the total numbers in TA

and B&B.

A6 Total number of households in B&B

198 (LBH pop O

Ldn best quartile

rate)

93 20 51 55The reduction of households in B&B continues however it is acknowledged

an increased focus is required to match the annual target.

A7No of affordable homes delivered in line with Council

Pledge

393 (2010-2015

GLA average)

281

(68 HRA)650 57 150

Cumulative Total. Q2 Figure: 93 new homes completed. Quarterly figure. For

Q3, situation positive with additional 260 properties secured up until the

November committee

A8 Urgent and Emergency repairs completed on target 98.3% 89.6% 100% 100% 95.0%218 of 218 Emergency Jobs were completed on target; 607 of 650 urgent

jobs complete on time. There has been a slight decrease from Octobers

performance of 95.6%

A9 Proportion of rent collected (excluding arrears) 100.21% 100.03% 99% 99% 99.5%YTD: £51,873,639 of £52,150,218 owed was collected. This figure has been

adjusted for pre-payments.

A10

The percentage of estates inspected during the period

that were rated good or better overall - Estates

Management

None 100% 85% 100% 87.8%29 of 33 inspections in November were rated as good or better, however

only 68.4% were rated good or better for upkeep of communal areas.

A11.1Percentage of open complaints being handled within

prescribed timescale (10 working days)

93% via

Housemark 2016

report

39% 90% 90% 87.0% Of the 131 complaints closed FYTD, 89% were resolved within timescale.

A11.2Percentage of open member & MP cases being handled

within prescribed timescale (7 working days) None NA 100% 100% 76.8%

New - of the 240 cases closed on LAGAN FYTD, 79 (23%) were closed out

of target for the housing and repair teams. Next month will incorporate

Salesforce data for other departmental areas, thereby providing a totalised

count for all closed cases.

A12Average number of days taken to complete a

responsive repair. 6.45 days 16 10 days 10 days 7

Based on 810 responsive and communal routine repairs completed in

November with 807 completed within target. The YTD figure to end of

November was 10.6 days.

Housing Services Performance Priorities 2016/2017 - November 2016

A: Service Performance Priorities

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Ref

numberCompliance Indicator Target Commentary

B1HRA Domestic properties with gas appliances - gas

safety check within the past 12 months100%

13 Appliances and 4 carcasses currently have outstanding CP12 certificates,

out of 10,641 total. These are being followed up. All 4 Gas carcasses are

over 3 months overdue for a check.

B2TA Domestic properties with gas appliances - gas

safety check within the past 12 months100%

150 of 422 (36%) properties are currently non-compliant of which: 74 are out

of date and 76 are in date but have been unable to be validated. However,

the aim is to have 100% of properties compliant by end of FY.

B3 Legionella Risk Assessments 100% Compliance is at 100% with no works outstanding.

B4 Fire Risk Assessments (FRA) 100%

The previous FRA cycle has reached 88% compliance but this has now

been reset under a new regime that is still ongoing. Currently 122 P3, 122

P6 and 819 P12 actions that have been identified are outstanding. None of

the outstanding actions are out of target.

B5 Lifts 100%

All lifts are regularly serviced to ensure that they are in a safe operating

condition. The insurance issue affecting 27 sites should be corrected as new

supplier Zurich are scheduling future certification of lifts to ensure

compliance. Non compliance figures should reduce once Zurich report is

complete in December.

B6 Asbestos 100%

545 of 791 estate sites have been identified for re-inspection. All of these are

low risk and there are no high or medium risk inspections outstanding. Of the

545 sites, 368 have been re-inspected and are now compliant. For the

remaining 177 outstanding, these will be completed by end of FY thereby

ensuring 100% compliancy to target.

B7 Play Sites 100%

Monthly inspections are carried out on all sites. 32 of 63 playsites have P1

and P2 remedial actions outstanding; 31 sites have no actions outstanding.

A contractor has been appointed to oversee these urgent improvements and

the backlog is being cleared. Note with the additional 60K investment agreed

for between Nov 16 and Jan 17, it is anticipated there will be 100%

compliancy by early new year.

Fully compliant [100%]

Within 15% of fully compliant [>85%]

Compliance Risk [<85% compliance]

Ref Audit and recommendation Audit Date Audit DeadlineExpected

completionDirection of travel Status Commentary

C1 Housing Repairs - Out of Hours March 2016 March 2017 March 2017 ↑

14 recommendations have been assigned for delivery between Oct 16 and

March 17. Internal audit expressed satisfaction with progress to date and

confirmed all recommendations are under tracking with a +30 day overdue

tolerance level applied.

C2 Housing Repairs March 2016 March 2017 March 2017 ↑Internal audit confirm satisfactory progression with the 21 recommendations

assigned for delivery between Oct 16 and March 17. A +30 day overdue

tolerance is also applied.

C: Audit and Improvement Priorities

65.05 75.00%

Key

Risk: the chance of danger, loss, injury or other adverse consequence based on a

weighted risk score - assessing current management/resource/budgetary controls as well

as their inherent and current impact/probability.

Low Risk [1-30 / 100] Compliance: the act of being in accordance with established standards,

guidelines or legislation.Medium Risk [31-58 / 100]

High Risk [59-82 /100]

Extreme Risk [83-100 / 100]

62.35 24.72%

50.88 76.11%

78.73 77.43%

29.88 99.84%

64.25 61.04%

29.38 100%

B: Property Summary Compliance Priorities

Risk Assessment Compliance Percentage

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TLSTJCC 1 February 2017 – Briefing

Subject: Tell Us Survey results and Improvement Plan

Date: 23 January 2017

Briefing by: Ben Tomlinson

Purpose: Update TLSTJCC on the results of the Tell Us Survey, and action plan to address highlighted issues with services.

Background: In October 2016 Hounslow Housing sent a brief paper survey to all of its tenants and leaseholders, asking them to RAG rate (Red, Amber or Green.) their experience with the full range of housing and related services.

Current Status: The Tell Us survey highlighted four main areas of concern:

1. Poor awareness and responsiveness of repairs to estate issues 2. Residents feel unsupported dealing with security and community engagement on

their estates 3. Residents who need help and support may be unaware of how to access this. 4. There was poor satisfaction with customer service provided by the Council.

Council officers have prepared a draft improvement plan to address the issues raised.

It is important to note that the 600+ responses to the survey were self-selected and therefore the survey should not be seen as representative of resident opinion overall, but a representative picture of resident dissatisfaction and the common issues that are negatively affecting residents.

Key Considerations: see attached DRAFT action plan.

Options for TLSTJCC input: The attached action plan details the tell us survey results that highlighted areas of concern, alongside a draft of suggested measures to address these issues. Members are invited to give their feedback on the proposals, to identify any omissions or reflect on any specific measures that they would like to see implemented as a priority, whether across the borough or on an individual estate.

Recommendation: TLSTJCC to receive an update on the progress against the final action plan, alongside the results of the residents satisfaction survey that will take place in February and March 2017

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Agenda Item 4

Tell us what you think – Survey DRAFT Service Improvement Plan 17/11/16

Objective

To explore recommendations on how to increase future survey satisfaction results for the identified areas linked to survey themes scoring

above the 50% dissatisfaction level.

It should be noted, although the Customer Service theme scored below this level, it has been included within this report as only 25% of

residents were fully satisfied with the service provided.

Six areas have been identified for service improvement and these have been highlighted below:

1) Promoting the awareness of estate activities and the officers who are involved

2) Increasing resident involvement in estate decisions

3) Promoting awareness of safety activities and the officers who are involved

4) Promote more active participation in community and support events

5) Promoting awareness of the Advice and Support options available to tenants

6) Improving the Customer Service experience for residents who contact us

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Theme area – Estate Responsibilities and Activities (Part 1)

1) Promoting awareness of estate activities and the officers who are involved

Result

Supporting results:

QUESTION - Know when your estate inspection is due or has been completed?

14% 16% 70%

QUESTION - Do you know the name of your local housing officer?

31% 12% 57%

Recommendation Housing - action Corporate lead : Action by :

Provide the communications team with the borough’s timetabled estate inspections programme with the responsible housing officer’s names and plan for a promotion of activities using selected channels (Contact Channels - Hounslow Matters magazine, Social Media, Website, Large posters within the blocks, Leaflets).

Plan and deliver comms. programme

Chris Shoubridge Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Develop a new block poster with names to faces for all staff who are responsible for estate activities within each local area.

Design and distribute posters


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Theme area – Estate Responsibilities and Activities (Part 2)

2) Increasing resident involvement in estate decisions

Result

Supporting results:

QUESTION - Have a real say in what we do and how we do it? ( also connects to Customer Service theme )

15% 31% 54%

QUESTION - Have the opportunity to have a say in how your estate is managed?

17% 30% 52%


Actively promote and encourage the residents to attend the planned inspections (all contact channels).

Plan and deliver comms. programme


During inspections, empower residents to have a more active role in the decision making for the “overall standards” scoring section on the form.

Implement revised procedures


Schedule a resident forum meeting shortly after each inspection with a focus on presenting the inspection results to a wider audience – inclusive of Estate Manager, Repairs Inspector, Local Councillor, Caretaker, Residents Association Representatives. Minutes should be taken with nominated staff members taking responsibility for producing deliverables within specific timeframes.

Follow up and provide support

Uttam Gujral Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Promote post inspection monitoring form results in communal block areas with a list of those who attended.



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Theme area – The Local Community and safety (Part 1)

3) Promoting awareness of safety activities and the officers who are involved

Result

Supporting results:

QUESTION - Have told you about our Enforcement Team

10% 10% 80%

QUESTION - Know who your estate police officer is and what they do?

15% 18% 67%

QUESTION - Help to tackle and reduce ASB through neighbourhood warden services?

17% 34% 49%


Use the communications team to promote the Estate Enforcement Officer role, note this was rebranded from the old warden role (all contact channels).


Gerry McCarthy Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Promote via block posters future Enforcement Officer inspection dates, officer names and contact details.


Gerry McCarthy Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Invite Estate Enforcement and Estate Police Officers to selectively attend 1) Planned estate inspections and 2) The follow up forum meetings, to increase officer visibility and to be present for the agreed deliverables.



Modify the inspection monitoring form to also include the Enforcement and Police teams for sign off during the planned inspections.



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Theme area – The Local Community and Safety (Part 2)

4) Promote more active participation in community and support events

Result

Supporting results:

QUESTION - Know the names of the representatives at council meetings?

12% 19% 70%

QUESTION - Get support for community or social activities within your community?

12% 30% 59%


Run a spot check in blocks for current displays of councillor posters and re-issue where required.



Increase the current profile of community support activities by inserting a dedicated page within the “Hounslow Matters “magazine for expanding on new events and tenant participation activities.



Set up a new mailing list for residents on upcoming events and focus groups and promote via all contact channels.



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Theme area – Advice and Support from us

5) Promoting awareness of the Advice and Support options available to tenants

Result

Supporting results:

QUESTION - Money advice when you need it most? 15% 34% 51%

QUESTION - Access to grants to help manage your money better?

13% 30% 57%

QUESTION - Help from us to find jobs, apprenticeships and training?

16% 29% 54%

QUESTION - Information about sheltered or downsizing to smaller suitable accommodation?

15% 31% 54%

QUESTION - Information on options about owning your own home?

16% 30% 54%


Develop one central point of contact for specialist support on monetary advice, grant access, information on jobs, apprenticeships and promote via all contact channels.



New housing officers to pro-actively promote sheltered and downsizing options during tenancy visits.



Promote sheltered and downsizing options via all contact channels (note voids team to increase awareness of how to downsize by developing a new leaflet on the subject).


Aderemi Osadiya Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Review all Social Services tenant status reports to increase awareness of possible sheltered or downsizing options.


Aderemi Osadiya Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Review the promotion of Right to Buy (RTB) via contact channels previously mentioned – note central government already promotes RTB through its Home Ownership website and national press advertising.


Sonia Singh Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

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Theme area – Customer Services

6) Improving the customer experience for residents who contact us

Result

Supporting results:

Find us easy to contact? 29% 30% 41%

Find us friendly and helpful? 38% 40% 22%

Have a real say in what we do and how we do it? 15% 31% 54%

Rate our customer services overall? 21% 46% 33%

Get a service that is value for money? 20% 41% 39%

Recommendation – Business critical Housing - action Corporate lead : Action by :

Quantitative - reinstate the two original KPI targets for call answering to effectively performance manage speed of answer and calls lost – (80% of all calls to be answered within 20 seconds with a 5% abandonment limit).

Incorporate into dashboard/ framework

Susan Austin Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

Promote benchmarking with HouseMark and aim to match or exceed the average speed of call answering with other social landlords (HM – 2013 to 2016 average = 0.30 seconds, HH Repairs = 4:16 Mins) and with HH Rents & Tenancy for this FYTD = 6:24 Mins.



Qualitative - introduce a monthly KPI survey evaluating the quality of service delivery offered by the telephony based Customer Service team.



Technical - remove the call restrictors placed on the call queuing line as this limits the number of tenants who can access the queue and distorts true incoming demand.



Technical - Investigate with CISCO the options and pricing structures for SLA call forecasting modules.



Establish a monthly customer service forum for residents to feedback on how to improve the totalised customer experience, increase value for money and review the Customer Service KPI performance metrics (common practice with many social landlords).

Implement new procedures

Chris Shoubridge / Susan Austin

Within 3 months – Mar 17 - TBC

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Conclusions

Two primary improvement drivers have been identified throughout these results and are expected to increase satisfaction levels:

1) Increase promotional campaigns for departmental activities and raise the profile of specific staff who are involved

2) Increase staff visibility through tenant forums and ensure broad ranging council representation at these meetings

Final Recommendation

Performance to track and monitor progression of all agreed deliverables through to conclusion.

Prepared by A Hill, Performance 14

Resident Services Update

Service / Directorate Housing Resident Services

Main Service Contact Doug Goldring, Divisional Head of Resident Services

Meeting TLSTJCC 1st February 2017

1. Summary

This paper provides an update on progress in delivering key aspects of the services we provide to our residents.

2. Background

Following on from the report of the 2nd November 2016, this report highlights areas we have developed over the last 8 weeks (since the last meeting). As stated in previous reports, although the new structure is live, we are developing processes and tweaking aspects of our delivery to ensure services move forward.

3. Area Housing Office Update 3.1 We have developed a new process for Housing Officers to ensure communal repairs are

reported effectively and there is now a named liaison point between the area office and the responsive repairs delivery team.

3.2 As per the previous report, issues on welfare reform continue to dominate the issues within

the local Area Housing office. To recap, the Council is the first borough to go live on the electronic Universal Credit service- known by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) as the Full service. This started on the 27th January 2016. Currently, we have over 1400 tenants that have moved away from having their rent paid direct to the new system where money is received 5 weeks after the initial claim date. This accounts for 10% of our general needs tenants and over 25% of those in temporary accommodation. Unfortunately there are a proportion of tenants who are not paying their rent as they should and this had led to an increase in legal action being taken. There is an internal officer group which covers all the relevant Council services which works at minimising the number of evictions by working with tenants on the impacts of non-payment, employment support and benefit maximisation. We have a policy of repossessing property from those who don’t pay.

Further to this the reduced benefit cap limits which is the amount of benefit payable in total per annum of £23,000 for a family( down from £26k) and £15,410 for a single person (down from £18k) has come into force in Hounslow. There are approximately 800 residents in the borough affected by this although the proportion of those that are Council tenants is about a hundred. We have put in place, support in conjunction with the Department of Works and Pensions to help those affected, gain employment.

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Agenda Item 8

At the time of the last meeting we were preparing for the High Income Council Tenants levy known as Pay to Stay however at the end of November the government announced that it would no longer be mandatory for Council’s to implement, leaving it up each local authority to exercise its own discretion as to whether to bring this in or not. Hounslow has decided not to implement Pay to Stay.

3.3 We have now set out the agreed standards to which the Estate enforcement team will work to in conjunction with Housing management. This sets out how the enforcement team will operate and provide Housing officers with evidence to take action as appropriate. It also sets out how we task patrols to deal with anti-social behaviour hot spots .This team is now issuing fixed penalty notices as appropriate on our estates. The emphasis is on issuing notices for littering and dog fouling.

3.4 We have a new Housing investigations manager who has started. Their role is to develop

a small team to manage tenancy fraud within our stock. As part of this we have developed a home visit form which Housing officers will be using over the coming months when meeting tenants. There are new processes in place for referring cases and we will in the coming months, launch an awareness campaign as it is a criminal offence for a tenant to sublet their property.

3.5. We have updated and simplified the information concerning access to our services for the

Council’s new website. Feedback on any concerns would be appreciated. 4. Specialist Housing team 4.1 We have been working with colleagues in finance to ensure that the billing process for

leaseholders is as accurate as it can be. We are reviewing the estimated charges we raise for major works as in previous years we have raised estimated bills and the work has, on occasion, been delayed. Whilst we can raise such charges under the lease we will only do so when there is certainty the work will be completed that financial year.

4.2 We needed to improve communication between the sheltered scheme managers and the

operatives carrying out repairs. We have been working with the sheltered scheme managers and how they connect with the responsive repairs teams so we have named contacts and a process which ensures the needs of tenants are dealt with.

4.3 Telecare Service - It has been agreed to call this Link line Plus. The pilot scheme for new

equipment has moved forward with over 120 new installations. This has reduced installation times and is delivering equipment tailored to the needs of the individual. We will be launching a publicity campaign to raise awareness over the next couple of months.

4.4 For welfare adaptations we have taken on additional contractors to speed up the overall

timescales for delivering additional adaptations into our properties. This compliments the new structure where we have our own occupational therapist and surveyors in the same team.

5. Repairs & Estate Services 5.1 The responsive repairs service has continued to maintain a lower than anticipated level of

complaints. We recognise that on occasions, there is a need to rescheduled work when a job in one place over-runs so we need to delay the next job. But it is how we deal with these operational issues which the team has been concentrating on, to ensure disruption is minimised. At the time of writing there were no complaints received about the

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responsive repairs service since November 2016. The emphasis for staff is to put tenants at the heart of the matter and solve the problems quickly when things are unavoidably delayed or jobs are more complex than first anticipated.

5.2 We realise that the call centre answering has been a source of frustration for our tenants.

Along with the corporate team who deliver this on our behalf, we have developed a service level agreement which sets out standards. The aim is to ensure that we minimise delays and maximise the correct diagnosis at the front end. We hope to carry out further training of their staff over the coming months to improve this further.

5.3 We have implemented some improvements within the caretaking and cleaning service

which has resulted in new mechanical equipment and changes in cleaning products. We are keen to receive feedback from residents on the standard of cleaning and whether there are areas where they would like to see changes in our approach.

5.4 We are continuing to negotiate and work with Hounslow Highways in preparation for a

transfer of management of the open estate area to the council’s highways contractor this year. This has been slightly delayed and the earliest this will happen will be July 2017. We are in a period where we are undertaking “due diligence” in conjunction with Hounslow Highways. As this is a major change in service it is important to ensure we get the right service moving forward.

5.6 We have just gone live on a change to our out of hour’s emergency repairs delivery. We

are hopeful this will improve efficiency after 6pm and ensure we are dealing with genuine emergencies. We will review this in three months’ time.

5.7 We are due to implement controlled parking controls on Haverfield/ Brentford Towers and

Highfields estates in the next couple of months. The consultation on estates is on-going and planned to be done throughout 2017. There are some double yellow line schemes going ahead in Chiswick. There have been estates that following consultation they have decided not to move forward with controls.

6. Conclusion This is now the third time we have brought this brief and whilst feedback has been broadly supportive. On additional items or areas of concern it would be good to receive feedback.

Doug Goldring, Divisional Head of Resident Services [email protected]

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