Issue - items at meetings - Annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2011

Report of Head of Housing and Social Inclusion (copy attached).

(1)       That the Cabinet Member for Housing approves the annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2011 at Appendix 1 for publication and distribution to all council tenants and leaseholders.

28.1    The Cabinet Member considered a report of Head of Housing and Social Inclusion which requested approval of the final draft annual report to all council tenants and leaseholders for the year ending 31 March 2011 at Appendix 1, for publication and distribution to all council tenants and leaseholders with Homing In later in the month.     

28.2    The Housing Stock Review Manager tabled the final version, with outstanding photos and some small corrections from the version previously circulated.

28.3    As the first annual report last year was very well received, officers followed a similar plan and format for this year.  On 24 January 2011 the Housing Management Consultative Committee agreed the plan and timetable for involving as many tenants and leaseholders as possible in producing and scrutinising the report.   Details were included in the annual report itself and the cover report.  Final scrutiny was provided by the Housing Management Consultative Committee on 5 September, when the report was warmly received by resident representatives.  

28.4    The report included in their own words and in pictures tenants’ and leaseholders’ own perceptions of the council’s performance and what resident working groups had achieved, working in partnership with members and officers.  It set out how the council performed in 2010/2011, how the council met its commitments made to residents in last year’s report and the council’s improvement plans for this current year.   Under the regulatory framework, landlords must meet the commitments they make to tenants in their annual report.

28.5    Councillor Peltzer Dunn thanked officers who had worked in conjunction with tenants on producing an excellent report.  He commented that people who were interested in the subject would read the report.  However, he considered that the most members of the general public would not read the report in its current form.  He hoped that a shorter and more readable version of the report could be produced in future. 

28.6    The Chair welcomed this comment and agreed that the council wanted members of the public to access information.  She suggested that in future, there could be two versions of the Annual Report. A full document and a briefer version possibly folded into A5.   

28.7    The Head of Housing and Social Inclusion agreed that this would be possible.  He stressed the need to balance the requirements of the regulator whilst ensuring that the report was accessible.  Officers would investigate ways of producing the report for future years. 

28.8    RESOLVED (1) That the annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2011 as attached at Appendix 1, be approved for publication and distribution to all council tenants and leaseholders.