Issue - items at meetings - Cover report: Annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2012

Report of the Strategic Director, Place

27.1 The Sub Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director Place which provided a copy of the Annual Report for year ending 31 March 2012 which is sent to all council tenants and leaseholders. Members of the Sub Committee were asked to comment on both the Annual Report (appendix 1 to the report) and the summary version of the report (appendix 2 to the report).

27.2 Councillor Farrow thanked officers for producing the Annual Report, but felt that it could be improved. It was important that the document was read, and it was therefore important to ensure it was accessible to all. Councillor Farrow suggested that the Annual Report be passed to journalists within the council to see if it could be improved. Officers advised that the document had been produced in conjunction with the Corporate Design Team. There was a legal requirement to produce the report, and officers had liaised with tenant groups when producing it. Whilst it was very important that the document was read, it was also important that it contained the necessary information. It was essential to get the balance right and have the information available in an accessible way, but at the same not to patronise anyone.

27.3 Councillor Mears appreciated the work which had gone into producing the Annual Report and agreed that it was necessary to strike the right balance, but had concerns that it was too simplistic. On page 56 there was a heading for ‘What we are doing’, and she suggested that information on the number of kitchens and bathrooms fitted would be useful. On page 60 there were two diagrams showing Income and Expenditure, and Councillor Mears thought the information was not detailed enough. There was a figure for ‘Rents, other’ which needed further explanation. Officers agreed that information could be included, and also suggested that additional information could be provided under ‘Value for Money’.

27.4 Mr Crowhurst thanked officers for the report and felt that a good balance had been reached. He agreed that more information could be provided, but it was important that there weren’t pages of facts and figures as that could put people off reading it.

27.5 Mr Cohen thanked officers for preparing the Annual Report and agreed that it was important to get the wording correct to ensure as many people as possible read it. Mr Cohen suggested that a short version of the Annual Report be provided for Homing In.

27.6 Councillor Shanks thought it was a very good report with good news contained within it. There was a section on anti-social behaviour, and Councillor Shanks asked whether there were a number of departments within the council all dealing with this issue. Officers advised that there was Corporate Safety Team which Housing worked closely with to ensure there was duplication of work.

27.7 Ms Barnard asked for clarification on whether bullying, name calling etc would be classed as anti-social behaviour. It was confirmed it would.

27.8 Councillor Peltzer Dunn thanked officers for the report, but noted there were a few inconsistencies Some parts of the report referred to ‘working days’, or ‘days’, and it would be useful to use one or the other. For example the report said that the average time to re-let a property was 17 days, but it wasn’t clear if that was working day.  Councillor Peltzer Dunn suggested that additional information could be provided.  He referred to the summary sheet which referred to the ‘ASB’ service, and thought it would be useful to clarify what that stood for. Page 60 of the report, which gave the Income and Expenditure could explained more clearly, and suggested that there could be a diagram showing how each pound of rent collected is spent.

27.9 Officers agreed to consider all the comments and suggestions. An updated version of the Annual Report and Summary Sheet would be circulated to all members of the Sub Committee.

27.10  RESOLVED - That the comments of the Housing Management Consultative Sub Committee on the 2012 Annual Report to Council Tenants and Leaseholders and of the Summary version be noted.