Agenda item

RESOLVED: That the Committee note the report.

3.1      Andrew Potter (Chief Executive, Lewisham Homes) and Adam Barrett (Director of Resources, Lewisham Homes), presented the report to the meeting. The key points to note were:

·         Tenant satisfaction with overall services has increased to 71%, up 11% over the past six years. Satisfaction with their Repairs Service is up by 10% in two years.

·         Rent income collection was an area of significant success for Lewisham Homes in light of welfare reform changes, collecting 99.9% of the debit against a target of 99%. This was an improvement on 98.7% for the previous year, representing an extra £860,000 in income for the HRA. Rent arrears reduced to 3.8% compared to 4.7% in March 2014, a reduction of £530,000.

·         Lewisham Homes made over 2,130 properties decent in 2014/15 meeting its target of having 80% of homes meet the Decent Homes standard by March 2015 and leading to 81% of tenants being satisfied with their neighbourhood and:

o   tenant satisfaction with the quality of their home has increased to 70%, up 7 percentage points from two years ago;

o   tenant satisfaction with the repairs and maintenance service is up to 72%, up 10 percentage points from 2 years ago; and

o   92% of tenants were satisfied with internal Decent Homes work done to their homes.

·         Lewisham Homes built the first six of 500 new social rent homes in partnership with Lewisham Council.

·         Lewisham Homes responded to 91% of complaints on time compared to a 90% target and 83% the previous year.

3.2       In response to questions from the Committee, the following was noted:

·         The dynamics for leaseholds have been changing over the years, with the increasing costs of properties leading to a rise in expectations from leaseholders so this had to be addressed by Lewisham Homes to keep their satisfaction high.

·         The level of charging for leaseholders is approximately £100 per annum for maintenance, which is comparably low, but even so Lewisham Homes have an undertaking to be more responsive to the queries and complaints of leaseholders, and a programme of training of staff has been carried out to help facilitate this.

·         Additional research will need to be carried out to see what is behind the reason that tenant satisfaction with overall services has increased to 71%, up 11% over the past six years.

·         Officers would re-assess the ‘percentage of tenanted homes that meet the Decent Homes Standard’ key performance indicator (KPI) to make it clearer. Lewisham Homes are on target to meet their Decent Homes indicator in 2015-16, with some external work on properties that needs to be completed to help achieve the target.

·         Lewisham Homes have no plans to tackle the soundproofing issues that affect some properties, due to the cost of works required.

·         Lewisham Homes have residents sitting on its Board, and also looks to get tenant feedback from a Lewisham Homes Customer Panel, and a Residents Scrutiny Committee, with this Committee reporting directly to the Board. There are also other projects that Lewisham Homes funds to get tenant feedback.

·         Lewisham Homes are looking to reduce their Board from 15 to 12, so are not looking to fill the three additional posts. The posts not being filled are two resident vacancies and one independent vacancy.

·         Lewisham Homes will send copies of the ‘Big Conversation’ feedback to Committee members.

·         Lewisham Homes managed to get their letting of general needs properties to an average of 40 days compared to 71 days the year before by having better management focus and planning.

·         Lewisham Homes has its own in-house service to carry out day-to-day repairs. They did have a contractor who carried out the Decent Homes work on their behalf, and are aware that some responses to residents were not adequate. This has led to the decision that all remaining internal work for Decent Homes will be carried out by the in-house workforce; and have changed the current contract arrangements to the contractor to ensure customer focus.

·         Lewisham Homes have a rolling programme to improve internal door-entry systems. They also have an Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Team that is now operating on extended hours on a Friday and Saturday night to deal with any ASB complaints.

3.3       RESOLVED: That the Committee note the report.