Agenda item
Performance Monitoring Update - Housing
The Lead Member Housing and Development, Councillor Marc Francis, will attend to respond to concerns raised at the last meeting in relation to second quarter performance against strategic indicators.
(Time allocated – 15 minutes)
Minutes:
Councillor Marc Francis, Lead Member Housing and Development, gave a presentation, which responded to concerns expressed by the Committee at their previous meeting, 1st December 2009, in relation to under performance against indicators relating to housing at the end of quarter 2 (September 2009). The presentation focused on the following points:
· Acknowledging the legitimacy of concerns expressed by the Committee regarding performance reported to the end of September 2009, clarification given as to the Strategic Indicators and related performance for which the Lead Member was/ was not directly responsible.
· A summary of progress in performance against targets:
o Strategic 207 Net additional homes provided: the Lead Member considered the target, set by the current Mayor of London and Government Office for London, was not of direct local relevance but would be achieved through delivery of affordable homes. However 3000 new homes had been built in 2008/9; and significant progress was expected in 2009/10 Quarter 3 performance, with approximately 2000 homes additional to the 350 already built, primarily in the Isle of Dogs.
o Strategic 208 Number of affordable homes delivered: by the end of Quarter 2 476 units had been completed and a further 377 in Quarter 3, approx 850 in total, with 2/3 of these being social for rent. Schemes delivering a further 500 social for rent units were expected to complete in Quarter 3 with a further 400 being of intermediate nature. Therefore it was expected that year end performance would meet the target (1688).
o Strategic 223 Number of social rented housing completions for family housing: The 2009/10 target was 467 units and at the half year point 175 had been completed. Quarter 3 would see a further 140 more and 225 of these were family size units. With regard to year end target the Administration had not been satisfied with the level of ambition and had consequently invested an additional £20 million to accelerate delivery of such homes, with a focus on buying back home bought under the Right to Buy and 70 buy backs would be achieved by financial year end.
o Strategic 224 Percentage of residents satisfied with outcome to ASB: Priority 2 cases were dealt with by Tower Hamlets Homes (THH) and performance had improved, with satisfaction ratings currently 68%, and expected to improve further. Performance on Priority 1 cases dealt with by the Community Safety Team continued to lag but a satisfaction rating of 66% had now been achieved.
o Strategic 225 Average time to re-let property: Performance continued to be marginally below the target of 28 days primarily relating to voids resulting from regeneration schemes. However performance compared well with other ALMO’s and London authorities.
o Strategic 226 Total service charge debt outstanding at year end: performance had been slow at start of financial year but had improved with £6.28 million collected year to date. It remained expected that the year end target, of no more than £15 million outstanding, would be met. THH had a good record of pursuing historic debt and would achieve well in meeting the target relating to major works recharges.
o Strategic 227 Rent collected as percentage of rent due: the target of 101% clearly included rent arrears, and at the half year point performance was just short of target but was currently 99.99%. The target was exceptionally stretching but performance was expected to be close to 100% at year end.
Members of Overview and Scrutiny Committee then posed a series of detailed questions to which Councillor Francis responded, supported on points of detail by Mr Jamie Carswell, Director of Strategy and Peformance - Tower Hamlets Homes and Mr John Coker, Strategic Housing Manager – Development and Renewal Directorate. The question and answer session was centred on the following points:
· Clarification was sought and given regarding the projected overspend in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and repairs and maintenance (R&M) in particular. The projected HRA overspend reported at end of quarter 2 was now projected to be £2.6 million, and would be so reported to the January Cabinet; much of this was due to the impact of reduced interest rates. The figure relating to R&M was approx £1 million and although catching up with repairs was welcome, it was acknowledged that this must be contained within budget. The THH strategy for control of R&M expenditure and management of resident expectations was outlined by Mr Carswell.
· The understanding that many residents were dissatisfied with the quality of repairs carried out by THH contractors, consideration that the poor quality of initial repairs was contributing to overall numbers and cost of repairs and whether contractual arrangements could be improved to address this.
· The extent to which any Lead Member could influence performance against Strategic Indicator 223 “The number of social rented housing completions for family housing” and the current Lead Member’s satisfaction with performance to date. The Administration’s continued commitment to the 50% target for affordable housing was stated. Also initiatives to lever in social housing grant from the HCA to support developers, struggling in the market downturn to complete schemes intended to deliver social housing were outlined.
· Whether a performance indicator to measure progress in mitigating overcrowding (currently understood to be approx 16,000 households) and reducing the number of families on the housing waiting list (currently thought to total 23,000) was appropriate.
· Whether continuing high levels of overcrowding in Tower Hamlets could be sufficiently mitigated through the long running Right to Buy and Cash Incentive Schemes or (CIS) or more resources/ advertising/ other measures were needed. The merits of the CIS, additional resources identified for this, and current advertising strategy were outlined. Requested that the exact figures for homes freed up for use by the CIS, the amount available for each room given up and the maximum available for a tenancy to be provided to members of the Committee.