Agenda item

To provide members with the latest performance for housing services covering Q2 of 2024/25

The Group Head Housing, Wellbeing and Communities was invited by the Chair to introduce the Quarter 2 housing performance report.  He outlined the report advising that seven targets had improved and eight declined with four of these targets remaining in range and performing.

He provided details of the reason that the average re-let times had been impacted during Quarter 2 due to the letting of several units at New Road that had remained empty for a long period of time.  A monthly Debt Management Group had been implemented to improve rent collection. The Housing Service was implementing improvements in its own processes in relation to income recovery.  Compliance performance remained high with a continued focus on the safety of residents and the requirements of the regulator.  Referring to the housing registration numbers, the number of applicants on the new register since had halved since the previous one had closed.  However, the number of applications received each week was increasing and was expected to continue over the next few months.  He also reported that five properties had been recovered due to fraud.

The Chair invited members to make comments or ask any questions.

·       Responding to questions concerning the increase in debt and persistent arrears and the reasons for this, the Group Head Housing, Wellbeing and Communities explained that over the next two weeks the Debt Management Group was undertaking a deep dive into arrears of £500 or more and those tenants in arrears, who have an introductory tenancy and officers were looking into how they could be supported through more frequent contact.  A further deep dive would be undertaken of tenants with more significant arrears to see if the Council was able to recover the arrears through direct payments for the housing element of Universal Credit.  An issue was that the Service did not have a dedicated income recovery function and advised that the situation was being looked into.  Officers would undertake interventions and take action based on the outcome of the investigations to improve the situation once the work had taken place to understand the reasons for the arrears occurring. With regards to persistent arrears, the Service would always look to recover arrears from current tenants rather than write off the arrears after a period of time.  There were a range of actions the Council would take including expressing the need for tenants to pay their housing costs as a priority debt.  If arrears persisted the Council could take legal action, often resulting in the arrears being paid back over longer period of time.  Once the arrears increased to over £500 it took a long time to return to a positive balance.

·       In response to a question concerning the increase in void homes during Quarter 2, the figures had been impacted by bringing units back into use that had been empty for a significant length of time. Once a long-term empty unit was brought back into use it would impact the performance figures.  The increase in re-let times was due to the reletting of seven units that had been void for a long time. 

·       Responding to a question asking if officers had an idea of the expected number applicants on the housing register once everyone had re-registered, he it was advised that at this stage it was not possible to make an estimate.  However he expected the overall number to be lower than before, as the re-registration process had removed applicants who no longer required housing but had not informed the Council. He advised he would ask the Housing Option Manager to undertake further analysis of the numbers.

·       It was asked if officers had an idea of the amount of fraud taking place and what the potential was for getting these properties back?The Fraud Investigation and Enforcement Officer currently had 17 open cases and was assisted by other staff who provided details of instances they became aware of.  Officers were congratulated on this essential work and success in bringing the properties back into the housing stock. 

·       A comment was made that the improvements in emergency and non-emergency repairs performance since the service had been provided in-house and showed this was a good way forward.             

The Committee noted the contents of the report.