Shalim Uddin, Affordable Housing Coordinator, introduced the report which provided cumulative performance data for 14 registered providers (RPs) within the borough for quarters 1-4. Shalim provided a summary of the key achievements and challenges reflected in the report and, further to questions from the sub committee, explained some of the performance trends. 

At the invitation of the chair, A number of residents addressed the sub committee to highlight concerns they had with their housing provider, Spitalfields Housing Association (SHA). One of the residents addressed the meeting in Bengali with assistance from another resident to translate into English. The concerns reported included:

·         Absence of fire access in some buildings. Fire exits being locked.

·         No response from SHA to complaints regarding fire safety; leaks and repairs; and broken locks. SHA do not follow their own complaints procedure.

·         No non-email option to submit issues in writing

·         Lack of engagement with residents and no local presence of SHA; very difficult to speak to a representative face-to-face; the former local office has closed with no explanation and moved to Canada Square, but residents cannot access it.

·         Refusal of SHA to engage with ASB reports and complaints, despite police telling residents it is a landlord issue;

·         Ineffective cleaning

·         No maintenance and repair service.

·         Residents being refused opportunity to participate in governance arrangements: AGM, shareholder and tenant meetings. SHA closed the TRA.

·         Refuse not being collected.

Further to the comments of residents, The sub committee

·         expressed concern and alarm at the seriousness, range and volume of issues raised and the apparent failure of the provider to respond adequately to them.

·         expressed concern that the performance data included in the report may not be giving a reliable picture of performance across the sector. They noted that the performance report indicated a high level of performance of SHA in several areas, but the experience of residents as reported at this meeting (and outside the meeting directly to councillors) suggested a very different picture. Members similarly expressed concern at the comment from SHA in Appendix 2 to the report, that they had no maintenance team in place currently.

·         asked that the council take direct action to intervene to address SHA’s underperformance. They referred to a legal agreement ensuring former Council tenants and leaseholders that were transferred are entitled to a certain level of service. The Council should explore how it can use this legal agreement to leverage improvements in the service provided by SHA to its residents.

Further to the social landlords performance report, the sub committee:

·         Indicated that reports from residents heard at the meeting supported the view of widespread underperformance by social landlords across the sector, which they believed was a result of the loosening of the regulatory framework within which RSLs work in the past 10 years. The Council should welcome improvement in performance where evidenced, but should also challenge and address decline in performance. 

·         Expressed and reiterated its dissatisfaction with the KPIs and data sets in the report, which they felt did not allow the council to conduct meaningful analysis of performance. For example, the data reports performance against targets, but not the actual target used by the different providers. The sub committee noted the proposed new suite of KPIs as set out in the report proposed to record the number, but not percentage of appointments kept against appointments made and indicated this was not useful or acceptable.

·         Asked that Southern Housing Group be considered to be invited to a future meeting to give an account of its performance.

RESOLVED that the sub committee

1.    Noted progress in the performance outturns achieved by individual Social Landlords and the overall performance trend.

2.    Formally requested that the executive set out in writing, in advance of the 19 October Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee meeting, what it is doing to resolve the issue of SHA’s underperformance and to confirm if it is willing to consider making a referral to the social housing regulator.