Agenda item

Adam Barrett (Director of Resources, Lewisham Homes) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

·         Lewisham Homes is committed to supporting the Council in meeting its housing objectives. Over the last year Lewisham Homes has focused on increasing supply of new housing and reducing the number of people in temporary accommodation.

·         Lewisham Homes have also focused on improving resident satisfaction – carrying out an independent resident survey and finding ways for staff of all levels to engage with residents. Customer satisfaction rates increased to 77% in 2016.

·         The number of homes meeting the decent homes standard increased to over 90% in 2016 and is expected to increase to 100% by 2018.

·         Lewisham Homes achieved the Investors in People gold accreditation standard

Adam Barrett (Director of Resources, Lewisham Homes) answered questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted: 

·         Satisfaction levels for complaint handling reduced as a result of a new approach to handling anti-social behaviour complaints that didn’t work as hoped – officers are in the process of changing things back.

·         Lewisham Homes try to make sure that the dedicated anti-social behaviour team focuses on the more serious issues – those where people are most likely to be in breach on their tenancy.

·         Leaseholder satisfaction is usually lower, but officers are still looking to improve this. This year there has been lots of feedback from leaseholders about the impact of the decent homes work.

·         Lewisham Homes have reviewed the way they handle complaints to try to resolve more problems early on, at first point of contact – before it escalates to a formal complaint.

·         Although the anti-social behaviour team does some responsive work, it is intended to be more of a planned service, focusing on key issues and hotspots. The team maintains close links with the safer neighbourhood teams.

·         Although Lewisham Homes has been more successful over the last year in detecting tenancy fraud, officers believe that there are still plenty more cases out there.

·         Lewisham Homes rely from staff knowledge and past experience to detect tenancy fraud. They’ve also been working with a credit search company to find tenants who have other social tenancies.

·         Lewisham homes have been getting largely positive feedback since taking back responsibility for grounds maintenance.

·         Staff have had some mental health related training, including safeguarding training. There are also referral arrangements in place, but they have to be careful about data protection.

·         There’s also anecdotal evidence of resourcing issues with mental health teams, affecting what they can help with. Lewisham Homes keeps a record of tenants with known vulnerabilities.

·         Small maintenance jobs like painting doors or fence posts would usually have to wait to be done as part of a larger maintenance programme. If a tenant prefers not to wait however, they are free to do jobs like this themselves. If someone is not physically able, because they’re elderly or vulnerable for example, Lewisham Homes will decide how to deal with this on a case-by-case basis.

The Committee made a number of comments. The following key points were noted:

·         The Committee said it was good idea for the anti-social behaviour team to provide live updates on Twitter when they are on patrol

·         The Committee also congratulated Lewisham Homes for achieving the Investors in People gold accreditation

·         The Resolved: the Committee noted the report.