Issue - meetings

Lewisham Homes repairs

RESOLVED: that the report is noted; that the committee receives a further update later in the year; and that the committee refers its views to Mayor & Cabinet in the following terms:

The committee expresses considerable concern about the current high level of demand on the Lewisham Homes repairs service and the challenges that the service continues to face to meet this demand. The committee requests that the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning investigates the issue and reports back to the committee about what needs to be done to address these challenges and meet demand.

Jennifer Daothong, Executive Director for Housing, Regeneration & Public Realm, introduced the report noting that significant foundations have been put in place to improve the quality and timeliness of the Lewisham Homes repairs service, including significant investment from the council.

Fenella Beckman, Director of Housing Services, provided an overview of the report and the following key points were noted:         

1.1  An action plan to improve the handling of disrepair cases has now been agreed. This included the use of property MOTs for 2,000 properties at risk of damp and addressing 224 disrepair cases.

1.2  This is being monitored by the Lewisham Homes Board and the council’s clienting team. The council has also reviewed its clienting arrangements to ensure more stringent monitoring of Lewisham Homes in these key areas.

1.3  The council allocated an additional £30m last year to enable Lewisham Homes to accelerate the programme of capital works to improve its stock.

1.4  The council and Lewisham Homes are working together on a joint asset-management strategy which will set out to achieve 100% decency by September this year.

Mark Newstead, Director of Property Services and Safety, Lewisham Homes, provided more detail on the repairs service and the challenges it is facing. The following key points were noted:

1.5  There is a sector-wide increase in demand for repairs.

1.6  The most significant improvement that could be made would be to improve call handing and access to repairs. People are currently waiting on the phone for too long. Staffing levels are being increased, more staff are being brought back into the office, more channels are being opened up to give residents more alternatives to calling; and some contractor staff are being collocated.

1.7  Complex repairs are also a challenge and Lewisham Homes is recruiting more surveyors to provide a more professional service.

The committee asked a number of questions and the following key points were noted:

1.8  Many of the actions in the action plan will be complete by March this year. A process has already been put in place for inter-flat water leaks. Lewisham Homes aims for the improvements to start to become apparent to residents in the coming months, from April/May.

1.9  Lewisham Homes’ is currently exploring the possibility of a compensation policy for missed appointments.

1.10      The repairs service doesn’t always respond to emails and online repairs as quickly as residents expect. Residents need to receive same-day responses to start to build confidence in the online process.

1.11      Lewisham Homes’ current IT systems can be a barrier to internal communications between teams. Modernisation and replacement will commence in Spring 2023.

1.12      The average time to do a repair is currently around 18/19 days and Lewisham Homes is looking at a more ambitious KPI on this for next year, around 10/12 days.

1.13      Recruiting for staff is proving difficult in a challenging job market with a lot of job vacancies at the same salary.

1.14      The current repairs system can only track individual pieces of work related to a single  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4