Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director of Environment and Housing which provides a summary of the most recent performance data against the new six Housing Leeds priorities and informs the Board of progress with the development performance measures and dashboards for each priority.  The purpose of the dashboards and extended range of performance measures is to give greater insight on matters that affect tenants and to help to put service performance into context.

(Report attached)

Housing Advisory Board considered a report of the Director of Environment and Housing summarising the latest available performance against measures relating to the new six Housing Leeds priorities which had been agreed by the Board.  The report also highlighted the ongoing development of the relevant performances measures and included statistical and graphical information in the form of dashboards to illustrate the work being undertaken and to provide useful context.  Members were informed of an error in the report relating to the figures in the end column of the dashboard relating to priority 1

The Head of Resources, Housing and Strategy presented the report and outlined the current position in relation to each of the Housing Leeds Priorities, (referring the Board to other agenda items that provided further information on particular performance areas).  The following information being provided:

·  Priority 3 – Housing People – homeless preventions were exceptionally high and Leeds was a top performer in relation to comparator authorities.  Councillor Ritchie welcomed the provision of additional information on Homelessness assessment outcomes and commended this performance.  In relation to re-lets the number of days had reduced and the cumulative average was now 33 days

·  Priority 4 – Repairs – that in general a steady performance was being achieved although not quite to target, and there were some issues in one geographical area which were being addressed

·  Priority 6 – Knowing Our Tenants – that the Department was above its target for Annual Home Visits

In terms of apprenticeships the Chair welcomed the hard work which

had been undertaken on this

  The Board considered the report and commented on a range of issues, with the key areas of discussion relating to:

·  re-let times, with Officers advising that work to speed up the process was being undertaken through a more collective approach, with the figures for July showing an average re-let time of 27 days

·  the possibility of highlighting the financial benefits achieved through shorter re-let times

·  disrepair claims – the work being undertaken to reduce these with better management and increased resources, including picking up issues through the annual visit

·  the target for completion of repairs correctly first time and the associated costs of this.  The Board was informed that Officers were looking at how targets were managed across different contractors

·  the use of local firms by contractors, with the Board being advised that contractors were actively encouraged to use local firms and local labour wherever possible and practical

At this point Councillor Hamilton brought to the attention of the Board

 that she had recently been involved in dealing with a long-standing repair issue for a family member

·  whether tenants were referred to other agencies if additional support was considered necessary.  The Chief Officer, Housing Management advised that Housing Leeds had a duty to provide advice and support and was currently undertaking work on this together with a review of the work carried out by the Tenancy Sustainment Officers, with further information being made available to Members if required

·  Housing Advisory Panel funding, with a verbal update being provided on the number of projects which had been supported; those which were in progress and the level of funding which was committed.  The Chair asked that this information be put in writing and sent to all Board Members

RESOLVED -  i) To note the most recent performance information

relating to the six Housing Leeds priorities

  ii) To note the progress being made to develop dashboards for each of the six Housing Leeds Priorities which will be reported to future Board meetings

  iii) To note the details of apprenticeships at section 4 of the submitted report