Housing performance report

Quarter 1 2023/24

This report provides updates on performance indicators covering a wide range of Housing services. There continue to be areas of strong performance, with 10 indicators on target and an improvement in 14 of the indicators. However, some delivery challenges remain. The report covers Quarter 1 (Q1) of the 2023/24 financial year and uses red, amber and green ratings, as well as trend arrows. Commentary has been included for all indicators which are red. The ratings and trends for the quarter are as follows:

	Green – on target (9 indicators)		Improved since last time (13 indicators)
	Amber – near target (9 indicators)		Same as last time (4 indicators)
	Red – off target (9 indicators)		Poorer than last time (10 indicators)

Contents – performance areas	Page
Customer Feedback – all Housing Services
Compliments received	6
Stage 1 complaints	6
Stage 2 complaints	6
Private Sector Housing
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensing	7
Property inspections completed	7
Requests for assistance (RFAs)	7
Private sector empty homes returned to use	7
Housing major adaptations – private sector and council
Time to approve applications	8
Time to complete works	8
Housing options and allocations
Homelessness preventions	9
Homelessness acceptances	9
Social housing waiting list	9
Rough sleepers	9
Temporary and emergency accommodation
Households	10
Rent collected	10
Empty homes	10
Gas safety compliance (Seaside Homes and leased)	10
Council housing supply
Additional council homes	11-12
Right to Buy sales	11-12
Other additional affordable homes	13
Council home buy backs	14
Council housing management
Rent collected	15
Universal Credit	15
Tenants evicted	15
Anti-social behaviour (ASB)	15
Calls answered (Housing Customer Services)	15
Tenancies sustained	16
Council housing – empty homes
Re-let times	16
Empty homes (snapshot figures)	16
Council housing repairs and maintenance
Repairs completed in time	17
Satisfaction with completed repairs	17
Calls answered (Repairs Helpdesk)	17
Council housing investment and asset management
Decent Homes Standard	18
Energy efficiency rating of council homes	18
Gas safety compliance (council homes)	18
Lift breakdowns	18
Leaseholder disputes	19

		Customer feedback – all Housing services		Target	Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
9.1			Compliments received from customers	Info	90	87	n/a		n/a
9.2			Stage one complaints responded to within 10 working days	80%	75% (155 of 207)	81% (164 of 203)
9.3	Stage one complaints upheld or partly upheld			Info	43% (88 of 207)	46% (93 of 203)	n/a		n/a
9.4	Stage two complaints upheld or partly upheld			18%	41% (9 of 22)	36% (9 of 25)
Nine stage two complaints were upheld or partly upheld following investigation by the corporate Customer Feedback team, after they were escalated following the stage one response from Housing. These most commonly related to delays in completing repairs, and more information about this area of performance is provided on page 17 of this report.

		Private sector housing	Target		Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
10.1	Total fully licensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)		Info	1,335		1,390	n/a	n/a
These numbers have gone down as a result of the Additional Licensing Scheme finishing in February 2023.
10.2	Corporate KPI: HMOs where all special conditions have been met (for licences issued over 12 months ago)		68.5% for Q1	66.43% (1,490 of 2,243)		72.04% (1,680 of 2,332)
The indicator above measures cases where the council has verified that works required via special conditions have been completed. This still includes HMOs covered by the additional licensing scheme which ended in February 2023, as the Private Sector Housing team are able to check that conditions have been met up to 6 months past the end of a scheme.
10.3	Requests for assistance received (RFAs)		Info	237		124	n/a	n/a
Request for assistance top categories during Q1 were 55 disrepair (44%) and 15 dampness (12%) and 11 neighbour’s disrepair (9%).
10.4	Property inspections completed		Info	227		219	n/a	n/a
10.5	… of which RFA inspections		Info	93		50	n/a	n/a
10.6	… of which HMO licence inspections		Info	134		169	n/a	n/a
10.7	RFA cases closed		Info	180		98	n/a	n/a
10.8	Properties with Category 1 and 2 hazards resolved through informal action (closed RFAs)		Info	98% (47 of 48)		88% (21 of 24)	n/a	n/a
10.9	Properties with Category 1 and 2 hazards resolved through formal action (closed RFAs)		Info	2% (1 of 48)		12% (3 of 24)	n/a	n/a
These numbers relating to the two indicators above are relatively low for now as recording only began in Q4 2022/23
10.10	Private sector vacant dwellings returned into occupation (empty for more than two years)		9	6		7

		Housing adaptations		Target	Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
11.1	Private sector housing – average weeks taken to approve Disabled Facilities Grant applications		10		15.4	22.0
11.2	Private sector housing – average weeks taken for contractor to complete works		Info		35.1	39.0	n/a	n/a
11.3	Council housing – average weeks taken to approve applications and commence works		10		20.3	12.6
11.4	Council housing – average weeks taken for contractor to complete works		Info		16.5	13.2	n/a	n/a
The amber threshold for the two targeted indicators above is set at 26 weeks based on historic guidance timescales, with the target of 10 weeks reflecting revised guidance timescales.

		Housing options and allocations	Target	Q4 2022/23		Q1 2023/24		Status against target		Trend since Q4
12.1	Corporate KPI: Homelessness cases presenting during the prevention duty stage		45%		45.0% (215 of 477)		40.4% (168 of 416)
12.2	Corporate KPI: Homelessness prevention cases closed with a successful prevention outcome		55%		49.7% (95 of 191)		66.1% (119 of 180)
The two Corporate KPIs above are newly introduced for 2023/24, although we are able to also provide data for them for the previous quarter in order to monitor the trend.
12.3	New households with a full housing duty accepted		Info		121		127		n/a		n/a
12.4	Number of households on the housing register		Info		7,691		7,707		n/a		n/a

The November 2020 figure above used a blended methodology of an estimate with a spotlight count, due to the national Covid lockdown at the time. Please note that estimates have only been carried out at times when counts have not been.

		Temporary accommodation (including emergency accommodation)		Target		Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
13.1	Corporate KPI: Total households in temporary accommodation		1,655 for Q1		1,715		1,712
The target of 1,655 for the end of Q1 is set as a step towards a target of 1,472 at the end of Q4 2023/24. This is a challenging target which has been set to meet financial savings and requires coordination accross Housing and other council services. Key to this is reducing the number of households going into temporary accommodation through preventing homelessness (please see the indicators on items 12.1 and 12.2 on the previous page) and finding suitable longer term accommodation to move households into from temporary accommodation, such as social and private sector rented housing.
13.2	Rent collected for emergency accommodation		95%		96.43%		89.57% (£812k of £906k)
13.3	Rent collected for leased properties		95%		92.71%		97.70% (£1.52m of £1.56m)
13.4	Rent collected for Seaside Homes		95%		92.76%		94.17% (£1.30m of £1.38m)
The methodology for the three indicators above has been revised as a result of the development of a new reporting system developed in consultation with Finance and the Corporate Debt Board, in order to align with other income collection indicators across the council, including the rent collection indicator for council housing on page 15 – the targets for 2023/24 have been set at a similar level. This methodology excludes rent loss from empty homes but factors in changes to the amount of rent arrears over time. These indicators cover the financial year to date. We expect rent collected for emergency accommodation to improve over the course of 2023/24 as more income is collected from Housing Benefit, which often comes in several weeks after the emergency placement started, because of the time taken to process the claim.
13.5	Empty temporary accommodation homes		For info		35		48	n/a		n/a
The indicator above includes 25 block-booked, 14 private sector leased and 9 Seaside Homes dwellings. These are dwellings that were available to let as temporary accommodation.
13.6	Seaside Homes properties with a valid Landlord’s Gas Safety Record		100%		99.3% (420 of 423)		99.5% (421 of 423)
The target was slightly missed because two checks were overdue on 30 June 2023.
13.7	Leased properties with a valid Landlord’s Gas Safety Record		For info		82.5% (463 of 561)		85.2% (471 of 553)	n/a		n/a
Performance is expected to improve further following the recent resolution of IT systems and temporary staffing capacity issues. A transfer of the gas safety information and processes onto the housing management IT system from an older database has now been completed.

		Council housing – supply		Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24
14.1			Additional council homes (new supply)	56	60
14.2	… at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rents			53% (30 of 56)	2% (1 of 60)
14.3	… at 37.5% Living Wage rents			38% (21 of 56)	3% (2 of 60)
14.4	… at 27.5% Living Wage rents			9% (5 of 56)	7% (4 of 60)
14.5	… at social rents			0% (0 of 56)	88% (53 of 60)
14.6	Other stock increase			0	16
The 16 homes above are counted separately from the new supply because they were already had tenants when Charles Kingston Gardens was acquired as a new seniors housing scheme by the council. The 2 empty homes there have been counted towards new supply. All homes at this scheme are at social rents.
14.7	Council homes sold through the Right to Buy			9	7
Of the 38 homes sold during Q1, 7 were leasehold (flats) and 0 were freehold (houses).
14.8	Net change in the number of council homes – all rent levels			+47	+69
14.9	Net change in the number of council homes – social and 27.5% Living Wage rent homes only			-4	+66
14.10			Total council owned homes	11,819	11,888
Total council owned dwelling stock of 11,888 includes 10,819 general needs, 895 seniors housing, 38 council owned emergency accommodation, 70 council owned temporary accommodation and 64 NSAP/RSAP dwellings.

14.12 Council housing – buy backs (Home Purchase and Next Steps / Rough Sleepers accommodation)

Buy backs by application date	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24 to date	Total
Total applications	5	53	88	157	158	97	32	590
Of which, became purchases	2	32	53	91	81	28	0	287
Council declined	1	13	11	16	10	11	0	62
Owner declined offer	1	5	12	15	14	3	1	51
Owner withdrew	1	3	12	34	51	23	0	124
Outcome pending	0	0	0	1	2	32	31	66

Completed buy backs by rent level	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24 to date	Total
Completed purchases	1	13	43	64	90	69	7	287
… general needs social rent	0	0	1	4	0	1	0	6
… general needs 27.5% Living Wage	0	0	5	17	21	11	3	57
… general needs 37.5% Living Wage	1	5	24	14	43	39	3	129
… temporary housing at LHA rates	0	8	13	29	26	18	1	95

Summary of all buy backs since start of programmes, September 2017

Total purchases	Social rent	27.5% LWR	37.5% LWR	LHA rate	No. rent reserve applied	Total rent reserve applied	Net modelled subsidy (surplus) over all properties to date (£)
287	6	57	129	95	53 *	£2.371m **	(£0.326m)

* Of the 126 purchases following Housing Committee decision to use rent reserve to keep rents as low as possible

** Applied up to 31 March 2023 – this leaves £0.891m to be carried forward to 2023/24 to be used against the future programme.

		Council housing – tenancy management			Target	Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
15.1	Corporate KPI: Rent collected from current council tenants				95.36%	94.02% (£55.1m of £58.6m)	93.90% (£61.1m of £65.0m)
The methodology for the indicator above excludes rent loss from empty properties but factors in changes to the amount of rent arrears over time. The Q4 collection rate is the final result for 2022/23 and the Q1 collection rate is a forecast for the 2023/24 financial year. Performance has been particularly impacted by staff vacancies in the Income Management team. As part of a recovery plan to improve rent collection, the team launched a recruitment campaign in June 2023 for eight vacancies, which has been successful so far and is expected to fill all but one post by August 2023.
15.2			Current tenants known to claim Universal Credit		Info	1,558	1,659	n/a	n/a
The indicator above has been revised to count only current tenant households which Housing Income Management can verify as claiming Universal Credit (UC) because they have an Alternative Payment Arrangement (APA) in place. Based on data collected since the introduction of UC it is thought that up to 3,900 households may potentially be claiming UC, but this is likely to include many who informed us at the time they started claiming UC but no longer claim it. Households known to claim UC account for 36% of total arrears and those potentially on UC account for 65%.
15.3	Evictions due to rent arrears				Info	0	0	n/a	n/a
15.4	Evictions due to anti-social behaviour (ASB)				Info	0	0	n/a	n/a
15.5	New reports of ASB from victims and witnesses				Info	141	154	n/a	n/a
15.6	ASB perpetrator cases opened				Info	86	107	n/a	n/a
15.7	ASB perpetrator cases closed				Info	67	88	n/a	n/a
15.8	Average days to close ASB perpetrator cases				Info	120	199	n/a	n/a
15.9	Active ASB perpetrator cases at quarter end				Info	136	154	n/a	n/a
The ASB indicators in this section were developed to reflect the way ASB is recorded on the housing management IT system, which includes reports from victims and witnesses as well as linked cases dealt with in relation to the perpetrators. There can often be multiple victims and witnesses linked to a single perpetrator.
15.10				Calls answered by Housing Customer Services	85%	89% (5,839 of 6,536)	89% (6,089 of 6,874)
15.13	Closed Tenancy Sustainment cases with positive outcome				90%	94% (19 of 20)	88% (7 of 8)

		Council housing – empty homes		Target	Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
15.14			Average re-let time in calendar days excluding time spent in major works	21	61	60
Re-let times have improved but are still high while recovery efforts remain underway to tackle a backlog of empty council homes, which includes many homes which have been empty for long periods of time. However, the number of re-lets during 2022/23 (560) and 2021/22 (472) were both up on 2020/21 (213) and above pre-pandemic levels seen during 2019/20 (445). There has also been the challenge of letting a large number of new homes delivered though two recently completed new build schemes in Portslade (42 at Victoria Road in March and 49 at Quay View in April). This is reflected in the number of new council homes let for the first time greatly increasing from 22 in Q4 2022/23 to 122 in Q1 2023/24 (this figure also includes other new homes such as Home Purchase policy buy backs).
15.15	Average ‘key to key’ re-let time in calendar days including time spent in major works			Info	88	106	n/a	n/a
15.16	Number of previously occupied council homes re-let (general needs and seniors)			Info	106	113	n/a	n/a
15.17	Number of new council homes let for the first time (general needs and seniors)			Info	22	112	n/a	n/a
15.18			Empty general needs and seniors council homes (includes new homes)	Info	180	175	n/a	n/a
15.19	Empty council owned temporary, NSAP and RSAP accommodation homes (includes new homes)			Info	22	22	n/a	n/a
The two indicators above provide a snapshot of empty council owned homes on the last day of the period, whether they were available to let or otherwise (for example, because they were undergoing major works at the time).

		Council housing – Repairs and maintenance			Target		Q4 2022/23		Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
16.1	Emergency repairs completed within 24 hours			99%		96.3% (3,181 of 3,303)		95.1% (3,084 of 3,243)
16.2	Corporate KPI: Routine repairs completed within 28 calendar days			70%		50.2% (2,747 of 5,475)		42.9% (2,279 of 5,308)
16.3	Average days to complete routine repairs			15		81		103
Repairs completed recently have included jobs from a backlog of older non-urgent jobs, which is in the process of being reduced. This means that these jobs took longer than their target timescales once they were completed. Performance of new incoming jobs are above target: 88.1% (2,087 of 2,369) of jobs issued on or after 1 April 2023 were completed within 28 days. There have also been increased pressures owing to significantly higher levels of reported damp and condensation cases following the tragic Rochdale case. Repairs & Maintenance had registered 862 live damp and condensation cases at the end of June 2023. All recruitment has now been completed however the service is still looking to engage additional contractors.
16.4			Calls answered by Repairs Helpdesk	85%		78% (18,538 of 23,781)		95% (15,108 of 15,925)
16.5			Surveyed tenants satisfied with repairs: standard of work	96%		97% (486 of 502)		98% (1,754 of 1,787)
16.6	Surveyed tenants satisfied with repairs: overall customer service			96%		98% (491 of 502)		98% (1,754 of 1,787)

Please note the figures for the first three indicators in the table above are provisional as there are currently issues with reporting of repairs data arising from the switchover of our main housing management IT system since the start of July 2021. At present two IT systems are being used and it is not yet possible to fully integrate reporting between them, meaning that performance data is currently being extracted and manually combined.

		Council housing – investment and asset management			Target	Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q4
17.1	Corporate KPI: Council dwellings meeting Decent Homes Standard				100%	95.8% (11,265 of 11,765)	95.8% (11,315 of 11,813)
There were 498 non-decent homes at the end of June 2023, 61% of which were because ‘key components’ such as windows and external doors were not up to standard. Another 36% were because ‘non-key’ components such as kitchens and bathrooms were not up to standard, and 3% were because of identified health and safety risks (which are prioritised). Delivery of planned works for all areas is ongoing following delays in establishing contracts and five-year improvement programmes are now in place for these, including kitchens, bathrooms, roofs, doors and external/communal decorations. A difficulty with works such as kitchens and bathrooms is that they are disruptive to tenants, and often have to be carried out while properties are empty. The Housing Investment & Asset Management service are preparing for the government’s upcoming review of the Decent Homes standard, including through appointing two new asset stock surveyors and beginning procurement of external consultants for a stock condition survey of 20% of council homes, which is expected to start in early 2024.
17.2	Corporate KPI: Energy efficiency rating of homes (out of 100)				73.8	74.1	74.1
17.3			Council properties with a valid Landlord's Gas Safety Record		100%	99.98% (10,108 of 10,110)	99.95% (10,092 of 10,097)
The target was slightly missed because five checks were overdue on 30 June 2023. Performance was affected by the change in gas contractor, as the previous contractor experienced staff shortages towards the end of their contract. Now that a new contact is in place with PH Jones, performance is expected to improve.
17.4				Lifts restored to service within 24 hours	95%	92% (147 of 160)	90% (171 of 191)

		Leaseholder disputes	Q4 2022/23	Q1 2023/24
18.1	Stage one disputes opened		3	1
18.2	Stage one disputes closed		4	2
18.3	Active stage one disputes (end quarter)		28	27
18.4	Stage two disputes opened		3	2
18.5	Stage two disputes closed		4	1
18.6	Active stage two disputes (end quarter)		7	8
18.7	Stage three disputes opened		0	1
18.8	Stage three disputes closed		0	1
18.9	Active stage three disputes (end quarter)		2	2


99.95% Gas safety compliance	93.90% Forecast rent collection rate	60 days Empty home re-let time

95.8% Dwellings meeting Decent Homes standard	89% Customer services calls answered	71.4 Average energy efficiency (rating out of 100)

81% Complaint responses within 10 working days	95% Repairs helpdesk calls answered	103 days Average time to complete routine repairs