Agenda item

RESOLVED:

·         that the report be noted along with the fact that the Committee still had very serious concerns about Lewisham Homes’ repairs;

·         that Lewisham Homes attend the Committee’s meeting in March 2023 to provide a further update on repairs;

·         that Lewisham Homes provide the Committee with further information on how many legal cases were being brought against them every week and how much money from their disrepair budget was being spent on legal fees and compensation.

Margaret Dodwell (Chief Executive of Lewisham Homes) and Sarah Willcox-Jones (Director of Repairs at Lewisham Homes) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

5.1.    Lewisham Homes had appointed a dedicated Director of Repairs which underlined their commitment to delivering efficient repair services.

5.2.    In January 2022, Councillor Penfold had expressed his dissatisfaction with the level of money that was being paid to solicitors for costs. Lewisham Homes had since increased the size of their Legal Disrepair team.

5.3.    Work was being done on the implementation of a customer experience application called Localz. The introduction of the Localz app would help to identify where repairs had not gone well. This would allow the team to proactively contact residents and improve the repairs service while reducing the number of calls to the contact centres.

5.4.    Lewisham Homes recognised and accepted the need to reduce its reliance on sub-contractors. They recently recruited 4 operatives and were actively looking to recruit 6 more. Staff were also working with Lewisham College to look at options for apprenticeships and were training staff who wanted to join the repairs team.

5.5.    Residents found it difficult to contact Lewisham Homes, so ease of access was still an issue. People were waiting for unacceptably long times to get in touch with the contact centre. Although 6 new starters had been recruited in the contact centre, it was noted that the turnover was really high.

5.6.    Lewisham Homes was still averaging around 5000 repairs per month and the aim was to have no more than 3500 repairs at any given time. They were approximately 1000 repair jobs over where they needed to be and were taking a project team approach to clearing the backlog of repairs. This was expected to be completed by mid-January 2023 subject to the recruitment of 10 temporary operatives.

The Committee asked a number of questions about the status of repairs in Lewisham Homes    and the following key points were noted:

5.7.    The Committee was concerned about the high turnover in the contact centres and low retention rates. Lewisham Homes still had a 100% work from office approach for contact centres which was not helpful with staff retention as other places offered a 60-40 split between work from home and work from the office. Due to reliance on old IT systems this 60-40 split couldn’t be provided by Lewisham Homes. There was hope that the introduction of Localz app would help the contact centre as it would take a proactive approach in picking up dissatisfaction with repairs, in turn reducing the calls to the contact centre.

5.8.    An exit interview process did exist in Lewisham Homes, but it was not mandatory. Most of the exit interviews had revealed that very old IT systems and the level of use of sub-contractors which meant longer time in getting answers for the residents, led to dissatisfaction amongst the contact centre staff.

5.9.    The Localz app had been tried and tested by other housing associations. Lewisham Homes took references from Fairhive Housing, one of the early adopters of Localz. Localz had 3 elements to it- a text element (which residents could access without smartphone), a web portal element (which was only available to residents with smartphones) and a survey element which was a satisfaction survey sent to all residents after the repair service.

5.10. There was a lack of trust amongst residents in Lewisham Homes’ online reporting system. Lewisham Homes acknowledged that the online portal was still clunky and that they were working on a longer-term solution following the introduction of the new housing management system.

5.11. Lewisham Homes had organised estate days and open days for repairs, but follow-through had been an issue for some residents’ whose issues could not be resolved on the day. There was no access to proper IT on the estate days / repairs open days which had been a key issue. In the future, Lewisham Homes would better pre-plan for such events in advance to ensure public confidence in these outreach events was not lost.

5.12. The Committee had concerns about how the repairs in the current backlog of repairs were being prioritised. Prioritising was being done in a number of ways such as looking at the age of repair, type of repair (particularly focusing on leaks, damp & mould) and resident vulnerability.

5.13. A recent inquest report concluded that the tragic toddler death in Rochdale was caused by the mould affecting his airway. Following this news, Lewisham Homes briefed all its repair staff on the importance of responding with empathy and pace. Lewisham Homes has a damp & mould register and is reviewing all outstanding damp & mould cases to proactively tackle cases at pace. As of 26^th of November, Lewisham Homes would carry out damp & mould repair works on Saturdays in addition to during the week. Operatives were happy with this overtime possibility as it was an opportunity for them to earn additional income in this cost-of-living crisis.

5.14. There had been a significant increase in disrepair cases across the social housing sector. In January 2022, Lewisham Homes had 224 legal cases and out of their disrepair budget spend of £1 million, 75% was spent on compensation and legal fees. At the time of this meeting, Lewisham Homes had 267 live legal cases which was an increase from January 2022. The Committee asked for further information on how many legal cases were being brought against Lewisham Homes every week and how much money from their disrepair budget was being spent on legal fees and compensation.

5.15. Property MOTs were still being undertaken by Lewisham Homes but in a more targeted way rather than as a blanket offer for all residents.

5.16. It was suggested that the use of smart meters might help households to decide how much and when they could use their heating. Lewisham Homes had linked with Switchee to provide smart logging thermostats to help identify condensation, damp, or mould risk. Lewisham Homes were also signposting residents to South East London Community Energy for guidance and advice around their heating options.

RESOLVED:

·         that the report be noted along with the fact that the Committee still had very serious concerns about Lewisham Homes’ repairs;

·         that Lewisham Homes attend the Committee’s meeting in March 2023 to provide a further update on repairs;

·         that Lewisham Homes provide the Committee with further information on how many legal cases were being brought against them every week and how much money from their disrepair budget was being spent on legal fees and compensation.