Agenda item - Housing Safety and Quality Compliance - Progress update

6.1 Cllr Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing, presented to the committee. She was joined by Genette Laws, Corporate Director for Homes and Adult Social Care, Mikila Beck, Head of Housing Repairs and Maintenance, and Stephan Scheiner, Head of Housing Safety and Regulatory Compliance.

6.2 Micheal Creedy said that he lived in sheltered housing and thought the process had been productive.

6.3 Cllr Cattell said that there were too many acronyms in the report which made it hard to read. She asked for a glossary in future, such as that provided in the SEND report to People Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

6.4 Cllr Wilkinson welcomed the positive news and asked about resident experience and how it was measured. Cllr Williams said that surveys were always important but that not everyone filled them in, and those that did were often motivated to do so because they were unhappy. She said that estate teams were out door knocking and asking residents what they needed. Genette Laws added that the repairs team and housing generally were very technically brilliant but were now becoming more person centred, which was a good culture change. She said that they had the annual Tenant Satisfaction Survey which had seen a 9 percentage point increase in dealing with repairs. She said that this goes to Cabinet every year and would go to People Overview & Scrutiny Committee for pre-decision scrutiny.

6.5 Cllr Lademacher welcomed the progress and asked how the council was ensuring that temporary housing contractors in the private sector were adhering to fire safety regulations, providing an example of prosecution that was in the news. Cllr Williams said that they worked closely with the fire services on prosecutions. Genette Laws said that it was important to distinguish between council commissioned temporary accommodation and private sector housing which may be used as temporary accommodation that has not been commissioned. She said that they have a responsibility as a council alongside the fire and rescue service on prosecution. She added that she was happy to speak outside of the meeting regarding the specific case mentioned.

6.6 Cllr Lademacher asked about response times related to Awaab’s Law as it was not clear in the data. Mikila Beck said that it was really important that the data was clear and that they were working to improve it. She added that it was important to distinguish between where it is the council not meeting target times and where residents have not provided access to their property within the timeframe.

6.7 Cllr Goddard said that it had been a very low point for the housing service and that this update is fabulous progress. He said that all housing staff deserved congratulations. He asked for further details on the damp and mould work and proactive outreach. Cllr Williams said that damp and mould was a scourge on the city and that no one should have to live with it. She said that they had been prepared for Awaab’s Law with a team contracted. She said that they had requested residents report damp and mould to them. Mikila Beck added that they had written to all residents prior to Awaab’s Law coming into effect. She said that they recognised that some residents felt a sense of shame at having damp and mould and so they approached the issue sensitively. She said that they worked with residents to find the cause and then to find a solution that worked for them to resolve it.

6.8 Cllr Miller asked what category one hazards where and why certain things that seemed very serious were not category one. Mikila Beck said that category one hazards posed a significant impact on health or death and were treated as emergency repairs. She said that the Housing Health and Safety Rating System looked at the likelihood of something happening and the impact of it happening which then produced the ranking.

6.9 Cllr Miller asked if damp and mould was cleaned away and repainted if that counted as a repair. Mikila Beck said that it was a mitigation to the immediate health hazard whilst they looked into the required repairs.

6.10 Cllr Sykes asked about the Personal Evacuation Plans and what was being done about the remaining people without them. He also asked about the relationship between the council and the Building Safety Regulator, and the Bristol Estate buildings being classed as high rise. Genette Laws said that the council had a surprising number of people needing a PEP compared to the number of tenants, potentially over 1000. She said that PEPs were co-produced with tenants rather than done to them. She said that the law requires best endeavours rather than 100% but that they were working as close as possible to 100%. She said that Martin Reid, Director for Homes and Investment had been holding meetings regarding access issues to really understand that and where the council may need to use stick rather than carrot to ensure those residents are safe as well as their neighbours. She said that the Bristol estate was a technical surveying issue and that they were continuing to treat them as high rise in agreement with the fire service. She said that it could take up to 40 weeks to get a decision from the regulator, and that they were focusing on applications for new builds and works towards buildings rather than building safety casework. Stephan Scheiner said that people needed to self-identify their need for a PEP and numbers may fluctuate as people’s needs change, or people move in or out. He said that they were treating all of their blocks over the 18 metres range as high rise and having a cautious approach, exposing them to the long waits of the building safety regulator applications.

6.11 Mark Strong asked about tenant engagement and notice boards that were very out of date. Genette Laws said that she was happy to discuss the issue with tenancy services, but that on some estates notice boards were lead by tenant reps rather than the council. She would like something more digital and were looking at refreshing the tenant handbook with things like QR codes to keep information up to date.

6.12 Cllr Winder asked about the backlog of works and when it could be considered to not be a serious backlog. Mikila Beck said that hopefully they would be at that point in a few months’ time. She said that the outstanding work depended on the number coming in and that their proactive work to encourage reporting had increased the amount of work. She said that they would require under a month of work to not be a serious backlog and at the moment were at six weeks of work, so were getting there.

6.13 Cllr Meadows said that good work was being done with sensible solutions that she would agree with.

6.14 Cllr Wilkinson asked why asbestos compliance had fallen to 89.6% and domestic lift and stair lift servicing had fallen to 66.7%. Mikila Beck said that asbestos was a rolling program where they had re-inspected communal areas, and that it was not a significant concern. She said that they would get back to the committee regarding the lifts.

6.15 Michael Creedy asked about older people in sheltered housing having to self-identify for PEPs. Genette Laws said that it was slightly different in sheltered housing then general housing and that residents in sheltered housing would not be expected to self-identify as the scheme manager should do this.

6.16 Cllr Miller said that there were small pockets of council homes across the city and that councillors should get information of where these properties were so that they could engage with residents. Cllr Williams said that residents were connected via the area panel meetings and that there was a map of properties. Genette Laws said that the acquisitions of council properties have been a success meaning there are more council homes in different areas. She said on request from members they have shared GIS mapping. Mikila said that these tenants were connected to area panels and that they were engaging with them regarding repairs. She said that teams were out in the community in different spaces to connect with people.

6.17 RESOLVED - That the Place Overview & Scrutiny Committee note and comment on the progress made in addressing the issues identified by the Regulator of Social Housing.