Agenda and minutes

The minutes of paragraph 6 are restricted from press and public.

1.1      This item was discussed as the final item on the agenda.

1.2      That the Minutes part 1 be agreed subject to the addition under item 9 Select Committee work programme of an information item on Houses in Multiple Occupation and the use of article 4 directions on the Committee’s work programme for March.

2.1 No interests were declared.

3.1     Tracy Jones (Operations Manager, RB3) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·      The figures in paragraph 8.1 of the report contained some errors, so a new paper was distributed during the meeting.

·      The PFI project monitors 26 key performance indicators. For 19 of these, data is gathered monthly and for the remaining 7, data is gathered annually.

·      There have been 20 complaints made between September 2015 and February 2016. In the same period last year, the number of complaints was 24, which means there was a 25% reduction in complaints.

·      RB3 hosts a debt advice surgery run by Project 170 in its offices. Residents affected by welfare reform are sign posted to these surgeries as well as other support.

·      The target for void management is 28 days and during the first 6 months of this year the voids averaged 20.3 days.

3.2     Tracy Jones, Maxeene MacFarlane (Contract Manager, Pinnacle PSG), Sandra Simpson (Leasehold manager, Pinnacle PSG) and Genevieve Macklin (Head of Strategic Housing, Lewisham Council) answered a number of questions. The following key points were noted:

·      In the last year, 14 to 15 cases of suspected fraud had been identified.

·      As part of the Brockley PFI’s lifecycle project, a survey is being carried out of the buildings to identify those were replacements are needed because elements of the buildings have come to the end of their natural life. Some of these proposed replacements would take place in a conservation area.

·      All employees of the PFI project receive training on the safeguarding of vulnerable residents including those with mental health problems. The organisation has links to the Council’s adult social care so people can be referred there. The PFI project is also arranging a meeting with employees from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Council’s mental health team. Residents are also sign posted to community organisations for support where appropriate. 

·      There are some cases where leaseholders have difficulties paying their leaseholder charges. There can sometimes be disagreements with the costs of certain items of repair or maintenance. After 2 years of working through disagreements about the charges levied, the PFI project is now taking more drastic action where some residents are being taken to court. Some leaseholders have completely refused to engage with the leaseholder management team about the payment of charges.  Two cases have been brought before the Leaseholder Valuation Tribunal and in both cased the ruling was that the leaseholders should pay the charge.

·      Of the total of 505 leaseholders, there have been disputes listed with 175 of the leaseholders. Sometimes listing non-payment as an official dispute is the only avenue available to leaseholders if they feel they’ve been overcharged. No cases against leaseholders about the charges levied has been won by a leaseholder yet.

·      When a resident choses to exercise their Right to Buy, the Council is responsible and does provide any documentation about planned major works to the solicitor of the resident. It is the duty of the solicitor to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Report to follow

4.1     This item was discussed after item 8 (Select Committee work programme).

4.2     Jeff Endean (Programme Manager Housing Matters) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·      The management agreement was established in 2007 and was due to expire in 2017.

·      Lewisham Homes has successfully increased the range and scope of services it provides on behalf of the Council in the recent years. Ground maintenance is an example of such a service.

·      Lewisham Homes is planning on forming a new developments sub-committee to manage their new build programme. This would increase capacity to manage their building programme.

·      A plan for Lewisham Homes to form a charitable subsidiary is being developed. This plan would outline the risks and benefits to changing the structure of Lewisham Homes. The Committee would be provided with more detail at their next Committee meeting.

4.3     Jeff Endean, Andrew Potter (Chief Executive Lewisham Homes) and Adam Barrett (Director of Resources Lewisham Homes) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·      The 10 year length of the contract allows Lewisham Homes to offer more stability when recruiting new staff. The contract would contain a no fault termination clause that would allow the Council to withdraw from the contract before the 10 years of the contract had passed.

·      The management agreement would allow the Council and Lewisham Homes to retain some financial flexibility as the budget for Lewisham Homes is set annually so open to regular review and possible changes. Lewisham Homes performs an annual review of their performance including their budget.

·      The Lewisham Homes business plan is reviewed annually. This includes a review of the key performance indicators which involves measuring customer satisfaction.

4.4    RESOLVED: that the Committee noted the report, and that the Lewisham Homes Management Agreement report would return to the 9 March Committee meeting with more details on a plan to establish a charitable subsidiary.

5.1     This item was moved forward on the agenda to be discussed directly after agenda item 3 (Brockley PFI – mid-year review).

5.2     Genevieve Macklin introduced the report to the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      The allocations policy was last reviewed in 2012. Since 2012 the waiting list for social housing has increased by 23%. Issues around the availability of housing have intensified. There has been a reduction in the annual number of available lets. There are also issues around the funding of new housing supply.

·      The Council is committed to using all available tools to alleviate problems with the lack of available housing, and the allocations policy is one of the tools the Council can use.

·      One of the proposed changes is that the requirement for a local connection is increased from 2 years to 5 years. Exemptions for those who served in the armed forces will remain. This change would not apply retrospectively.

·      The criteria for when the Council would need to consider a young person living with their family as requiring their own bedroom would change from 18 years to 21 years.

·      People on the waiting list would no longer be offered a property at the point where they would be in 4 weeks of rent arrears. People would still be allowed to bid for properties but would only be allowed to move after the arrears had been cleared. This is a simplification of the current policy.

·      All residents who are currently on the housing register would be consulted before any changes to the allocations policy could be implemented. Implementation of the changes would not occur until the autumn.

5.3     A member of the public made a representation to the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      Greenwich Council had changed the criteria for its local connection in its allocations policy and had been challenged in the courts.

·      Local Authorities should not be able to use their local discretion to exclude people from the housing waiting list who have been determined to fulfil the priority criteria.

·      Greater detail should be provided in the report to clarify which rules would apply to which cases, as different rules apply to homeless people and other people on the housing register which makes the allocations policy a complicated matter.

·      An equality impact assessment should be provided to enable full consideration of the issues before a decision is made.

5.4     Nina Morris (Lettings and Support Services Manager) commented. The following key points were noted:

·      The local connection requirement of having lived or worked in the borough for 5 instead of 2 years applies to people on the housing register under section 6 of the Housing Act. However, different rules apply to people who have applied for housing under 7 of the Housing Act which the Council has a duty to house because they are or are at immediate risk of becoming homeless. For homeless applicants, the requirements for a local connection are that they have lived in the borough for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1     Jeff Endean introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·      Housing benefit will be capped at the rate of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for new tenants. Social rent is usually below LHA; however some affordable rents could be above the LHA level.

·      The Housing and Planning Bill contains a proposal to make it compulsory for social landlords to charge social housing tenants whose household income is over £40,000 per annum (£30,000 out of London) 80% of market rents, and those whose household income is over £50,000 (£40,000 out of London) up to market rents. This is known as the ‘pay to stay’ scheme.  £40,000 is not a significant income to be able pay market rate rents in London.

·      The Council has set out its yearly voids to central government. This will likely be used to determine the amount to Council should pay for its high value voids, as opposed to a system where high value property would have become void before payment is due. The bill to Council would be based on the number of voids DCLG thinks you ought to have in a year as opposed to the number of voids the Council actually has.

·      The Council has received extra funding for its rogue landlord taskforce. In addition, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has awarded the Council £200,000 of funding for the provision of temporary accommodation.

6.2     Jeff Endean and Genevieve Macklin answered a number of questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      The Council tends to use the voids created in its regeneration schemes to offer temporary accommodation to homeless households.

·      It is not yet clear whether the ‘pay to stay’ scheme would be tapered or whether there would be a cliff edge between people earning £39,999 and people earning £40,000 a year.

6.3     The Committee made the following comment:

·      The Committee and all Councillors should receive an update on the progression of the Council’s New Homes Programme a couple of times a year. The main purpose would be to enable Councillors to answer questions from their residents about in which locations the new Council housing was being built and how many units. A map would be useful.

6.4    RESOLVED: that the Committee noted the report.

7.1     This item was moved forward on the agenda to be discussed directly after agenda item 8 (Select Committee work programme) and agenda item 4 (Lewisham Homes Management Agreement Update).

7.2     Adam Barrett introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·      The report outlines the progress Lewisham Homes has made against their business plan.

·      Targets for customer satisfaction are set out in business plan and are being monitored under the key performance indicators. The longer term target for customer satisfaction is 85%, which is outlined in the business plan. All staff of Lewisham Homes are asked to sign up to a commitment to deliver excellent services. Lewisham Homes has run ‘a big conversation programme’, where every manager in the organisation has spent a day calling residents to carry out a satisfaction survey. 

7.3     Adam Barrett, Andrew Potter and Genevieve Macklin answered questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      Lewisham Homes has links with staff with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Staff receive considerable mandatory training on dealing with vulnerable residents and on safe guarding residents. Residents with suspected mental health conditions are sign posted to other organisation that can provide support. Lewisham Homes is also aware that people with mental health problems are more likely to fall into rent arrears, so has worked with the Council’s welfare team when tenants are at risk of falling into arrears.

·      The Decent Homes programme consisted of central government funding to upgrade homes to a decent homes standard. The programme had to be implemented quickly as the grant could otherwise have been removed.

·      Some leaseholders have been concerned about the charges levied, and some tenants overall experienced some problems with the contractors. Lewisham Homes provides a leaseholders forum, but there are also mechanism to engage with the organisation via its website. Lewisham Homes has about 5,000 leaseholders.

·      Disagreements with leaseholders about charges for maintenance or major works tend to revolve around the question: ‘who gets to decide that maintenance or major work is needed and by what date?’. Lewisham Homes hires surveyors to identify what is needed in terms of maintenance and what is needed immediately. Some maintenance is obviously needed, such as replacing windows that are broken. Environmental improvements and hard landscaping tend to be more difficult to definitively establish.

·      Big buildings works such as the Building Homes for the Future Programme are done by contractors, and the Decent Homes Programme has now been completed. However, there will still be situations where individual homes need their kitchens or bathrooms replaced. For those circumstances Lewisham is developing an in-house service. It is hoped this would lead to better customer satisfaction.

·      There are always some residents that somehow fall through the gaps in terms of paying their rent. Some even deliberately not pay. Lewisham Homes provides support to people with difficulty paying their rents to reduce the number of potential evictions.

·      Voids between April and November have moved from an average of 71 days in 2013-14 to 45  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1     Simone van Elk (Scrutiny Manager) introduced the report. The Committee discussed the work programme and decided that:

·      The following items would be on the agenda for the 9 March meeting:

o   New Homes programme

o   Lewisham Homes Management Agreement

o   Annual lettings plan

o   Affordability review – final report and recommendations

o   Key Housing Issues

o   Rehousing the homeless by charity groups

o   Houses in Multiple Occupation and Article 4 directions as an information item

·      The following items should be considered in the next municipal year:

o    Housing & Health to be considered at the April meeting

o    Lewisham’s Housing Strategy – Update on action plan

o    Communal heating systems review – Update on recommendations

9.1    There were none.