Housing performance report

Quarter 3 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 9 of the indicators. However, some delivery challenges remain. The report covers Quarter 3 (Q3) 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 (10 indicators)		Improved since last time (9 indicators)
	Amber – near target (5 indicators)		Same as last time (1 indicator)
	Red – off target (12 indicators)		Poorer than last time (17 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)	10-11
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)	15-16
Calls answered (Housing Customer Services)	16
Tenancies sustained	16
Council housing – empty homes
Re-let times	17
Empty homes (snapshot figures)	17
Council housing repairs and maintenance
Repairs completed in time	18
Satisfaction with completed repairs	18
Calls answered (Repairs Helpdesk)	18
Council housing investment and asset management
Decent Homes Standard	19
Energy efficiency rating of council homes	19
Gas safety compliance (council homes)	19
Lift breakdowns	19
Leaseholder disputes	20

		Customer feedback – all Housing services		Target	Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
1.1			Compliments received from customers	Info	92	74	n/a		n/a
1.2			Stage one complaints responded to within 10 working days	80%	76% (168 of 220)	83% (161 of 195)
1.3	Stage one complaints upheld or partly upheld			Info	50% (110 of 220)	60% (117 of 195)	n/a		n/a
1.4	Stage two complaints upheld or partly upheld (less is good)			18%	28% (9 of 32)	35% (14 of 40)
14 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. The top categories for these were: 6 (43%) due to delays completing repairs/works, 3 (21%) unhappiness with service delivery and 3 (21%) due to appointments not being kept.

		Private sector housing	Target		Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
2.1	Total fully licensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)		Info	1,500		1,555	n/a	n/a
2.2	Corporate KPI: HMOs where all special conditions have been met (for licences issued over 12 months ago)		73.5% for Q3	74.28% (1,802 of 2,426)		73.83% (1,856 of 2,514)
The target of 73.5% for the end of Q3 is set as a step towards a target of 76% at the end of Q4 2023/24. 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 service are able to check conditions that were set as part of this scheme and will continue to do so to ensure that these properties are well managed and maintained.
2.3	Requests for assistance received (RFAs)		Info	187		184	n/a	n/a
Request for assistance top categories during Q3 were 72 (39%) disrepair and 55 (30%) dampness.
2.4	Property inspections completed		Info	273		363	n/a	n/a
2.5	… of which RFA inspections		Info	61		170	n/a	n/a
2.6	… of which HMO licence inspections		Info	212		193	n/a	n/a
2.7	RFA cases closed		Info	85		209	n/a	n/a
2.8	Properties with Category 1 and 2 hazards resolved through informal action (closed RFAs)		Info	91% (21 of 23)		98% (56 of 57)	n/a	n/a
2.9	Properties with Category 1 and 2 hazards resolved through formal action (closed RFAs)		Info	9% (2 of 23)		2% (1 of 57)	n/a	n/a
2.10	Private sector vacant dwellings returned into occupation (empty for more than two years)		9	11		3
The Q2 figure above has increased from 8 to 11 since previously reported. This is because Council Tax records have identified more homes brought back in use during this period, and there is a reporting lag between the date they were back in use and the date this could be confirmed.

		Housing adaptations		Target	Q1 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
3.1	Private sector housing – average weeks taken to approve Disabled Facilities Grant applications		10		15.1	16.1
3.2	Private sector housing – average weeks taken for contractor to complete major adaptations		Info		34.9	28.3	n/a	n/a
3.3	Council housing – average weeks taken to approve applications for major adaptations		10		12.8	9.2
3.4	Council housing – average weeks taken for contractor to complete major adaptations		Info		17.0	13.7	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 homelessness	Target	Q2 2023/24		Q3 2023/24		Status against target		Trend since Q2
4.1	Corporate KPI: Homelessness cases presenting during the prevention duty stage		45%		42.61% (196 of 460)		29.62% (101 of 341)
The target for 2023/24 has been set at 45%. This is a progression target working over a two-year period, aiming for 45% by the end of 2024 and 50% for the end of 2025. Although this target is challenging, work continues to increase the proportion of homelessness cases presenting during the prevention duty stage. During Q3 a number of workshops and sessions were held with various partners, including the Social Prescriber Network, stakeholders working with refugee and migrants and partners working in health. The new Housing Advice & Triage team has since gone live from 8 January 2024 and is responsible for managing all contact into the homelessness service as well as quickly and effectively ‘triaging’ people who are homeless ‘on the day.’ The review of the council’s Housing Allocations Policy was presented to Housing & New Homes Committee on 24 January 2024, where it was agreed for consultation to begin on the proposed changes, which will run between February and March 2024. One proposed change is aimed at encouraging households who are at risk of homelessness to access our services earlier on, to support this objective and our overall prevention work. The Homelessness & Housing Options service now has its Service Plan, outlining the changes it will be making in the coming two years, as well as its wider Performance Management Framework, which includes a dashboard of performance indicators to better monitor and respond to service performance.
4.2	Corporate KPI: Homelessness prevention cases closed with a successful prevention outcome		55%		71.00% (142 of 200)		67.05% (116 of 173)
4.3	New households with a full housing duty accepted		Info		103		102		n/a		n/a
4.4	Number of households on the housing register		Info		7,611		7,637		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	Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
5.1	Corporate KPI: Total households in temporary accommodation		1,535 for Q3		1,724	1,730
The target of 1,535 for the end of Q3 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 4.1 and 4.2 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. However, this performance is in the context of there now being more households in temporary accommodation nationally than there has ever been before, which is largely due to factors outside the control of the local authority (such as the cost of living making the private rented sector less affordable, and also smaller due to many landlords selling their properties due to increasing mortgage costs). The temporary accommodation Reduction Strategy continues to drive action, which has helped to mitigate the impact of the unprecedented levels of demand. The Private Rented Sector Offer Policy was approved by Housing & New Homes Committee on 15 November 2023 and now provides an avenue to discharge duty into the private rented sector. Targeted action is being undertaken to assist long-term occupants of temporary acommpdation to bid on the housing register and the council also working with private sector landlords to convert leased and block booked accommodation into a direct tenancies.
5.2	Rent collected for emergency accommodation		95%		91.33% (£1.63m of £1.79m)	89.82% (£2.42m of £2.69m)
5.3	Rent collected for leased properties		95%		94.73% (£3.00m of £3.17m)	97.21% (£4.49m of £4.62)
5.4	Rent collected for Seaside Homes		95%		93.75% (£2.57m of £2.75m)	97.32% (£3.99m of £4.10m)
The three indicators cover the financial year to date, and their methodology has been revised for 2023/24 due to the development of a new reporting system developed in consultation with Finance and the Corporate Debt Board, to align with other income collection indicators used across the council. This methodology excludes rent loss from voids but factors in changes to the amount of rent arrears over time. Rent collection for emergency accommodation is challenging to collect because the placements are shorter-term than for other types of accommodation, with income from Housing Benefit often coming in several weeks after the placement started, due to the time taken to process the claim.
5.5	Void temporary accommodation dwellings		For info		47	44	n/a		n/a
These are dwellings that were available to let as temporary accommodation at the end of Q3, excludes voids that were with the Empty Homes Team for works.
5.6	Seaside Homes properties with a valid Landlord’s Gas Safety Record		100%		98.99% (489 of 494)	99.60% (492 of 494)
5.7	Leased properties with a valid Landlord’s Gas Safety Record		For info		83.27% (463 of 556)	79.26% (428 of 540)	n/a		n/a

		Council housing – supply		Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24
6.1			Additional council homes (new supply)	15	18
6.2	… at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rents			38% (6 of 16)	33% (6 of 18)
6.3	… at 37.5% Living Wage rents			50% (8 of 16)	44% (8 of 18)
6.4	… at 27.5% Living Wage rents			6% (1 of 16)	17% (3 of 18)
6.5	… at social rents			6% (1 of 16)	6% (1 of 18)
6.6	Council homes sold through the Right to Buy			6	2
Of the 2 homes sold during Q3, 1 was leasehold and 1 was freehold.
6.7	Net change in the number of council homes – all rent levels			+10	+16
6.8	Net change in the number of council homes – social and 27.5% Living Wage rent homes only			-4	+2
6.9			Total council owned homes	11,898	11,914
Total council owned dwelling stock of 11,914 includes 10,834 general needs, 895 seniors housing, 38 council owned emergency accommodation, 76 council owned temporary accommodation and 69 NSAP/RSAP dwellings.

6.12 Council housing – buy backs (Home Purchase, NSAP, RSAP and LAHF)

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	156	156	93	79	630
… of which became purchases	2	32	53	91	82	48	12	320
… of which rejected by either party	3	21	35	65	73	40	9	246
… of which outcome pending	0	0	0	0	1	5	58	64

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	65	89	70	39	320
... general needs social rent	0	0	1	4	0	2	0	7
… general needs 27.5% Living Wage	0	0	5	17	21	11	6	60
… general needs 37.5% Living Wage	1	5	24	15	42	39	20	146
… general needs at LHA rates	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	5
… temporary housing at LHA rates	0	8	13	29	26	18	8	102

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 (£)
320	7	60	146	107	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	Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
7.1	Corporate KPI: Rent collected from current council tenants				95.36%	93.66% (£61.0m of £65.1m)	93.63% (£61.0m of £65.2.m)
The methodology for the indicator above excludes rent loss from voids but factors in changes to the amount of rent arrears over time. The Q2 and Q3 collection rates are forecasts for the 2023/24 financial year. Performance was particularly impacted by staff vacancies in the Income Management team earlier in the year, which have now been resolved, and the impact of Universal Credit on tenants’ incomes remains a challenge (please see commentary for indicator 7.2 below). A number of procedural changes introduced over the last year place a greater emphasis on early intervention. The Income Management team has introduced proactive casework, including the use of the ‘Low Income Family Tracker’ (LIFT). This will help deliver targeted advice and benefit maximisation for tenants. A key element of the recovery plan is the further development of the housing management IT system to improve the income recovery through a system led escalation policy. This will also help categorise, prioritise and automate some of the casework. The revised escalation policy is currently in progress with a ‘go live’ date expected at the end of March 2024. The revised collections approach has been introduced to the team and has been partially implemented, focusing on personal contact which will form the basis of a wider collection procedure. A ‘go live’ date for the full procedure is expected to be released alongside the escalations policy in March 2024. Tenants also have the offer of the money advice and debt provider (Money Advice Plus) service which is separate to but funded by Housing.
7.2			Current tenants known to claim Universal Credit		Info	1,727	1,819	n/a	n/a
At the end of Q3, around 16% of households (1,874 of 11,609) were known by Housing Income Management to have someone claiming UC, because they had an Alternative Payment Arrangement (APA) in place with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Based on data collected since the introduction of UC it is thought that around 35% of households (4,102 of 11,609) may potentially be claiming UC, but this is likely to include many who self-reported this when they started claiming it but no longer do. Households known to claim UC account for 36% of total arrears and those potentially claiming UC account for 66% of total arrears. An increasing number of claimants are migrating on to UC from legacy benefits. The DWP have confirmed that migration will resume in Brighton and Hove in February 2024. This is expected to have an impact on at least 800 households over the coming months. This automatically impacts arrears, as UC claimants are generally paid five weeks in arrears.
7.3	Evictions due to rent arrears				Info	0	0	n/a	n/a
7.4	Evictions due to anti-social behaviour (ASB)				Info	0	1	n/a	n/a
7.5	New reports of ASB from victims and witnesses				Info	194	156	n/a	n/a
7.6	ASB perpetrator cases opened				Info	113	96	n/a	n/a
7.7	ASB perpetrator cases closed				Info	125	82	n/a	n/a
7.8	Average days to close ASB perpetrator cases				Info	135	157	n/a	n/a
7.9	Active ASB perpetrator cases at quarter end				Info	145	159	n/a	n/a
The ASB indicators in this report 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. Please note that the Housing service wishes for residents to report ASB, so the number of cases can driven by reporting as well as incidents and the service welcomes the former.
7.10				Calls answered by Housing Customer Services	85%	86% (5,722 of 6,660)	81% (4,480 of 5,565)
7.13	Closed Tenancy Sustainment cases with positive outcome				90%	100% (5 of 5)	88% (35 of 40)

		Council housing – voids and lettings		Target	Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
8.1			Average re-let time in calendar days excluding time spent in major works	21	57	47
Performance for this indicator improved with each quarter during the previous 2022/23 financial year (93 days in Q1, 80 days in Q2, 64 in Q3 and 61 in Q4) and has continued to for the first two quarters of the current 2023/24 financial year (60 in Q1, 57 in Q2 and 47 in Q3). Re-let times still remain high while recovery efforts remain underway to tackle a backlog of empty council homes, which although decreasing still 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 is also the additonal challenge of letting a large number of new homes during the current financial year including two new build schemes already completed in Portslade (42 at Victoria Road in March and 49 at Quay View in April) and expected completions of 127 new homes at Denman Place in Coldean and 38 at Kubic Apartments in Whitehawk during Q4 2023/24.
8.2	Average ‘key to key’ re-let time in calendar days including time spent in major works			Info	96	109	n/a	n/a
8.3	Number of previously occupied council homes re-let (general needs and seniors)			Info	153	134	n/a	n/a
8.4	Number of new council homes let for the first time (general needs and seniors)			Info	20	11	n/a	n/a
8.5			Void general needs and seniors council homes (includes new homes)	Info	142	106	n/a	n/a
8.6	Void council owned temporary and NSAP/RSAP accommodation homes (includes new homes)			Info	13	17	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		Q2 2023/24		Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
9.1	Emergency repairs completed within 24 hours			99%		94.8% (3,272 of 3,452)		95.2% (3,345 of 3,512)
9.2	Corporate KPI: Routine repairs completed within 28 calendar days			70%		49.8% (2,502 of 5,029)		50.4% (2,899 of 5,755)
9.3	Average days to complete routine repairs			15		90		92
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. The year-to-date 2023/24 result for the proportion of routine council housing repairs completed within 28 calendar days is 47.81% (7,733 of 16,173). This is impacted by the number of very old non-urgent jobs (4,218 were originally issued before 1st April 2023). Of the 11,955 newer jobs issued on or after 1 April 2023, 63.07% (7,540 of 11,955) were completed within 28 days, which is closer to the 70% target. There were increased pressures earlier in the year following a period of poor weather and significantly higher levels of reported damp and condensation cases following the tragic Rochdale case. Repairs & Maintenance had registered 1,010 live damp and condensation cases in mid-December 2023, which is up from 862 at the end of September 2023. All recruitment has now been completed however the service is still looking to engage additional contractors which is now in progress following committee approval. Two contractors have been identified and rates have been agreed. There has been an early mobilisation meeting with both and these will be offered for sign-off by the end of January. The service completed an average of 7,538 repairs per quarter (2,909 of which are emergency and 4,629 of which are routine repairs) during 2022/23. Since then, the quarterly average for 2023/24 to date has increased to 8,831 (of which 3,440 emergency and 5,391 routine). The average number of repairs per quarter between 2015/16 and 2019/20 when Mears held the contract for repairs was 8,102 repairs per quarter.
9.4			Calls answered by Repairs Helpdesk	85%		94% (14,571 of 15,581)		92% (18,315 of 19,807)
9.5			Surveyed tenants satisfied with repairs: standard of work	96%		98% (1,415 of 1,444)		97% (1,128 of 1,161)
9.6	Surveyed tenants satisfied with repairs: overall customer service			96%		98% (1,412 of 1,444)		97% (1,123 of 1,161)

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	Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24	Status against target	Trend since Q2
10.1	Corporate KPI: Council dwellings meeting Decent Homes Standard				100%	95.9% (11,332 of 11,822)	96.6% (11,428 of 11,828)
There were 404 non-decent homes at the end of Q3, down from 490 at the end of Q2. Of these, 52% were because ‘key components’ such as windows and external doors were not up to standard. Another 45% 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. There have been performance issues with kitchens and bathroom contractors, and additional contractor resource has now been appointed, with a view to enhance the programme accordingly during 2024/25. The government are reviewing the decent homes standard as part for the Social Housing Regulation Act. To prepare for this, the Housing investment & Asset Management service have been planning and resourcing the service for expected increases in requirements. Two asset stock surveyors have been appointed to improve the information held on the asset management IT system and to provide additional review of that information, their priorities will be internal surveys of our stock and to update on the condition of kitchen and bathrooms in particular as well as general conditions and identifying damp and mould issues.
10.2	Corporate KPI: Energy efficiency rating of council homes (out of 100)				73.8	74.1	74.1
10.3			Council properties with a valid Landlord's Gas Safety Record		100%	99.92% (10,069 of 10,077)	99.97% (10,073 of 10,076)
10.4				Lifts restored to service within 24 hours	95%	90% (125 of 139)	89% (118 of 133)
There were 15 lifts that took longer than 24 hours to restore to service during Q3, which took an average of 4.5 days to restore to service. The longest one took 15 days to restore as, following attempts to repair a component, a replacement needed to be sourced, installed and tested. This was followed by two lifts which took 9 and 8 days each, where components were removed for repair off site in both instances.

		Leaseholder disputes	Q2 2023/24	Q3 2023/24
11.1	Stage one disputes opened		11	39
11.2	Stage one disputes closed		2	39
11.3	Active stage one disputes (end quarter)		36	36
11.4	Stage two disputes opened		0	8
11.5	Stage two disputes closed		3	6
11.6	Active stage two disputes (end quarter)		5	7
11.7	Stage three disputes opened		0	0
11.8	Stage three disputes closed		0	1
11.9	Active stage three disputes (end quarter)		2	1


99.97% Gas safety compliance	93.63% Forecast rent collection rate	47 days Empty home re-let time

96.6% Dwellings meeting Decent Homes standard	81% Customer services calls answered	74.1 Average energy efficiency (rating out of 100)

83% Complaint responses within 10 working days	92% Repairs helpdesk calls answered	92 days Average time to complete routine repairs