Agenda item

To consider the following three reports relating to housing issues in the Inner West area.

a)  Housing Leeds involvement in Area Committees – To outline how Housing Leeds contributes to the place agenda and to explore ways of making that contribution as meaningful and productive as possible.

b)  Housing Leeds – Housing Service Review Update – To update Members on the progress of the service integration  back into Council control within the Housing and Environment Directorate

c)  Private Rented Sector Service - Summarises the role of the Council’s Private Rented Sector Service, and outlines its current priorities around improving Private Sector housing, reducing the number of empty properties and increasing membership of the Landlord Accreditation Scheme.  

 

(Copies attached)

Three reports respectively entitled Housing Leeds Involvement in Area Committees, Housing Leeds – Housing Service Review Update and Private Sector Housing Service had been submitted by the Director of Environment and Housing.

 

The Chair thanked Officers for the comprehensive reports and for attending the meeting.

 

Housing Leeds involvement in Area Committees

 

This was the first report produced by the new Housing Leeds Service following the decision to terminate the role of the former Leeds ALMO’s and bring housing management services back into Council control within the Environment and Housing Directorate.

 

The report noted that Housing Leeds provided a range of housing management services in the West and North West of Leeds. The Inner West Area Committee was coterminous with the Inner West housing management area comprising 5,500 properties in the Armley and Bramley / Stanningley Wards.

 

The Neighbourhood Performance Manager presented this report and highlighted a number of issues outlined in the report including:

 

New Council Housing, the Broadleas was one of the 10 shortlisted sites for development under the Council Housing Growth Programme which had been approved by Executive Board.  Developments were at an early stage with consultation ongoing with Ward Members.

 

Contractor performance has now stabilised with Mears now recognised as contractors for the area, following their take over of Morrisons FM (Facilities Management). Performance continues to be an issue and repair enquiries formed the basis of many Member enquiries and the majority of formal complaints. Indicators were improving and performance in relation to gas repairs continued to be good. Discussions were ongoing with Mears to re-establish the contractor repairs surgeries at local offices which were planned as a response to the STAR survey.

 

The STAR survey, undertaken in December 2012, was the most comprehensive tenant satisfaction survey undertaken across the city. Citywide, overall tenant satisfaction increased 74% over the preceding period, however it was noted that there were marked variations both across the city and within the former WNWhL area. Three areas in particular produced lower levels of satisfaction, one of which was Armley, satisfaction levels in Bramley were above average.  In West Leeds a correlation was identified linking low levels of satisfaction to areas with high concentrations of multi storey accommodation.

 

An officer from the High Rise Management Team was in attendance at the meeting and updated the Members on the work being undertaken to increase tenant satisfaction for those living in multi storey blocks.

 

It was noted that the team worked with customers, the Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team and the police, alongside various other agencies such as BARCA. Work taken place included, upgrades to CCTV at the Clydes and Wortley blocks,fob access to a number of blocks, secure communal doors to prevent unauthorised access, cleaning and re-decorating of communal areas.

Property Maintenance Cleaning had been charged with providing an enhanced level cleaning of the outside of and the communal areas within the multi storey blocks.

 

Housing Leeds – Housing Service Review Update

 

The Interim Chief Officer, Housing Management, Housing Leeds presented the report on behalf of the Director for Environment and Housing.

 

The report provided Members with an update on the progress with regard to the service integration of the housing service into the Council’s Environment and Housing Directorate.

 

On the 1^st of October 2013 1,200 staff were TUPE transferred into the Environment and Housing Directorate.

 

A review of the service was currently taking place and it was proposed that the new structure would contain 3 Chief Officer posts detailed below;

 

Chief Officer – Strategic Housing

•Responsible for strategic housing issues across the City, including private sector housing

•Housing options and housing need assessments across the City

•Lead role on policy issues

•Interface with Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)

•Lead on environmental sustainability, fuel poverty and climate change.

 

 Chief Officer – Housing Management

•Tenancy management across the city

•Delivery of an Allocations and Lettings function, including policy planning

•Tenancy involvement including the strategic interface with LTF

•Income management and arrears recovery (including welfare change)

•Delivery of an older peoples housing service through sheltered provision

•Tenancy sustainability through independent living support teams

 

Chief Officer – Property and Contracts

•Delivery of the responsive repairs service and Capital programme

•Management of the internal DLO

•Procurement and contract management

•Commercial asset management

•Construction Health and Safety

 

 

The review had been used to look at the different ways of working across the city and to identify the model of best practice that could be used to ensure a consistent service model was adopted, to avoid confusion and inconsistency. The integrated model of service delivery would also include;

•Location of face to face service (links to Customer Services)

•Office opening times

•Impact of Universal Credit

•Tenancy sustainability and support

•Housing needs assessment

•Management of MSF’s

•Generic v Specialist

•Investment strategy

•Business growth

•Links to Police Review

•Poverty strategy

•Social contract

•Sharing best practice

 

It was noted that a number of formal briefing sessions had taken place with staff and Trade Unions and more were to be arranged throughout the process. Frontline staff had been engaged through a series of operation workshops and a regular briefing was circulated to all staff.

 

A customer communication plan had been developed which would conclude with a tenants’ conference in early February 2014.

 

Individual briefing sessions were to be provided to Members on request with formal consultation taking place through the Housing Advisory Board.

 

It was envisaged that the new service model for the delivery of housing services in Leeds would be fully operational from 1^st April 2014.

 

The Director of Environment and Housing entered the meeting at 17:30 and stayed for the duration answering a number of questions posed around each of the reports on the agenda linked to his Directorate.

 

(Cllr Lowe left the room at 17:43 returning at 17:49

Cllr. Harper arrived at the meeting at 17:48)

 

Private Sector Housing Service

 

The Head of Housing Partnerships presented the report on behalf of the Director of Environment and Housing

 

The submitted report updated the Area Committee on the work of the Council’s Private Rented Sector service and introduced a new initiative to focus on the sector in the Edinburghs area of Armley.

 

It was proposed to adopt Armley as the second LNA area targeting 130/140 properties in the Edinburgh area of the ward.

Overall the following activity had been undertaken in Inner West:-

•A total of 79 requests for service (related to housing disrepair) had been received in Armley and a further 13 for Bramley between 01/04/2013 and 04/12/13.

•Leeds 12 had been a priority area for increased take up accreditation by landlords. Since 01/04/2013 there has been a 12% increase in bed space coverage in the area. This was due to the proactive promotion of the scheme within the area.

•There were 24 licensable HMO’s in Armley and a further 2 in Bramley. All have been subject to compliance inspections since mandatory licensing was introduced by the Housing Act 2004

•A total of 119 properties in Armley had been inspected by officers in Armley and a further 12 in Bramley between 01/04/13 and 04/12/13. These inspections covered disrepair complaints and applications for licensing or were linked to the private sector letting scheme or Housing Bond scheme run by Housing Options.

 

The Leeds Neighbourhood Approach (LNA) was a model adopted by the Council to work with small neighbourhoods to try to make them more sustainable. The approach works with the owners of properties on a street by street basis looking at 150/200 properties at any one time.

 

The aim was to improve the area via a multi-agency approach with partners, led by Private Sector Housing.

 

A review of potential areas was undertaken and it was agreed that the Edinburghs in Armley be the next location for the LNA. The private rented sector was the main form of tenure within the area. Initial investigations have revealed that approximately 20% of the stock was multi occupancy housing that fell outside of mandatory HMO licensing requirements (mainly converted flats and bedsits). Despite the poor quality of the accommodation very few complaints were received from residents and there is a low level of landlords who are accredited.

 

It was proposed that the initial engagement with the area would occur in early January 2014. All owners, residents, managing agents etc. would be contacted to outline the approach and would be offered the opportunity to engage with the Council and its partners. Any landlord or empty property owner who did not engage with the approach would then be subject to full enforcement action by the Council and partners from around the middle of February.

 

The content of the reports brought about a number of questions and lengthy discussions relating to all the issues covered in the reports.

 

Including;

 

·  The issue of pets specifically dogs in high rise blocks

·  The tenure type of the proposed new builds

·  The energy efficiency of the proposed new builds

·  Incidents of hate crime within the West Inner area and how Leeds Housing was to tackling the issue.

 

 

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the Area Committee noted the content of all the reports.

(b)  That Members be updated on the review of Housing Leeds, with a report on tenant satisfaction brought to a future meeting.

(c)  That the Committee offer support on the Neighbourhood Approach initiative in Armley, and encourage the sharing of local knowledge of issues around the private sector across the two wards.