Agenda item

Objective: To provide a high-level overview of compliance with the Regulator’s Consumer Standards and the development of an Improvement Plan to resolve areas of non-compliance.

The Chief Executive addressed the Committee and explained that Cheltenham Borough Homes had managed the Council’s social housing for the past two decades and from the outside had appeared to be a high performing, well-functioning organisation as confirmed by an external review carried out in 2021.  He confirmed that the decision to bring housing services back into the Council was to ensure they had direct management of safety and compliance in light of the new regulatory regime.  As part of the transfer an extensive due diligence exercise had been carried out which had revealed areas of improvement needed, particularly in relation to health, safety and compliance.  He highlighted that whilst hundreds of dedicated officers have worked tirelessly on trying to maintain and look after housing stock, we are not able to evidence our compliance and the decision had been made to self-refer to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) on what improvements are needed and how they will be addressed.  He explained that we currently cannot demonstrate 100% compliance on the Safety and Quality Standard in some properties and expressed the Council’s apologies to the tenants living in these homes.  The Chief Executive gave his complete assurance that the organisation takes matters of health, safety and compliance and providing good, decent safe homes very seriously and stressed that significant action is already being taken to address these areas.  He highlighted that the Council’s collective aim, with the support and oversight of the Committee, is to deliver excellent homes and be an exemplar housing provider to the sector that continues to improve the services delivered and provide people with well maintained, safe and compliant homes. 

The Head of Community Services provided the Committee with a presentation that outlined CBC’s position against the four Consumer Standards.  She confirmed that an Improvement Plan had been developed and progress would be reported to the Committee at future meetings.

The Committee’s discussion raised the following points:

-       The importance of the Committee seeing the evidence behind the compliance with the Consumer Standards supported by clear explanations.

-       Work to collate all people and property data onto the QL system is ongoing.  In preparation for the stock condition surveys commencing the infrastructure has been built to allow automatic collation of the survey results.  The appointment of a specialist resource will be proposed at the next Appointments and Remuneration Committee meeting to address both system and people barriers in the use of QL and ensure the system is being used to its’ full potential.  A significant piece of work is also being carried out to ensure both existing data and future data is stored efficiently so we can evidence compliance.

-       On estates where non-Council owned homes sit alongside Council owned properties issues will be managed by the Council for leasehold properties where the Council is effectively responsible for maintenance of the block.  Whilst the Council does not hold the same responsibility or authority over individual privately owned homes, issues can be managed through appropriate departments within the Council depending on the specific circumstances.

-       During the planned review of the Tenant Handbook we need to ensure that the document is readable, accessible and easy to understand.  It should lay out both our responsibilities to tenants and their responsibilities in line with the Consumer Standards.  To support tenants who are not literate or who do not have English as a first language consideration should be given to the provision of an audio version or translated versions.