islington housing scrutiny committee jon milburn, group ... islin… · rents in islington • we...
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Islington Housing Scrutiny Committee
Jon Milburn, Group Development Director
Nahide Cook, Regional Manager
What’s going well and how can we improve
links with Islington?
Going well
• Excellent response and partnership work with Emergency
Planning Team
• Support with residents meetings from Technical reps and
Councillor Ward
• Good partnership work with our ASB team
Work in progress
• Improving joint work between local teams
• Joint approach to tackling fly-tipping
• Agreeing location of bulk rubbish collections
• Improved communication about changes in recycling
• Enabling new housing• Planning
Resident satisfaction
• 79% of residents who rent and 54% of homeowners are satisfied
with our services over the last 12 months.
• Improvements - New Guinness Service Style, complaints
handling, CRM, new Customer Liaison Service
• Housemark satisfaction benchmarking results (Q4 2016) - Amicus
Horizon (99% satisfaction) top rated and Metropolitan (57%)
lowest. There’s lack of consistency in questioning and
methodology between different providers.
• 4 satisfaction surveys by independent research agency Voluntas
on general satisfaction, responsive and planned maintenance.
• Piloted SMS surveying for repairs.
• Text analytics to analyse residents feedback to identify areas of
improvement.
• 8 schemes in Islington and none are in our top 20 complaining
schemes and one has zero complaints this year – Barnsbury
complex
Performance in Islington
Performance Measures Units Target YTD Avg
Number of Available to Let Empty Homes
number
in month 5
Average days taken to turnover Empty
Homes
average
in month 27.5 16
Current tenant arrears as % debit
% in
month 3.50% 3.65
Value of current tenant arrears
value (£)
in month £138,041.05
Anti-Social Behaviour Cases
number
in month 5.7
Gas Safety (408 properties)
number
in month 100% 100
Voids and relets
• 5 empty properties have become available so far
this financial year within Islington.
• 2 of which have been offered to LA nominations and
3 offered to our residents on our transfer list
emergency band A priority.
• We are committed to working to our nomination
agreement.
Rents in Islington
• We allocate our homes in partnership with
local authorities or from our own waiting lists.
If we are not able to allocate in this way we
may advertise directly to the public.
• We are currently converting applicable
properties to affordable rent although within
Islington this is at a maximum of 65% of the
market rent value.
Repairs Performance in Islington
Type Completed
Completed on
time
Average
Days to
Complete Open
Open and
Overdue
Aids and
Adaptations 6 83.3% 15.8 2 0
Cyclical and
Servicing 349 87.1% 14.5 280 26
Planned
Maintenance -
Capital 21 100.0% 9.1 7 1
Planned
Maintenance -
Revenue 19 47.4% 38.6 8 5
Responsive
Repairs 1,983 83.9% 13.1 266 134
Void Repairs 16 75.0% 16.6 17 14
TOTAL 2,394 84.2% 13.5 580 180
Finances and wages
• 2016/17 – £95.9m surplus on £354.4m turnover
• An extraordinary year reflecting profits from two large
development for sale
• Profits covenanted to the charitable parent / charitable
subsidiaries
• 2017/18 – 53m surplus budgeted on £319.7m turnover
• Budget will not be met due to extra maintenance work this year
• This is about “in the middle of the pack” and within our loan
covenants
• We do not have policies on the Living Wage or other pay ratio
Maintaining assets and developing homes
• Over 600 homes in Islington , 66,000 across the country
• Investment prioritised on the basis of building safety
• And then stock condition surveys and resident feedback
analysis determine long term needs
• This year we will spend £71m on maintaining our homes
• And continue to achieve 100% Decent Homes Standards
• We have not sold homes in the borough but we keep our stock
under review.
• We would love to build new homes for target rent in the borough
Welfare Reform changes
• 1400 residents in receipt of Universal Credit (UC)
• Arrears for this group stands at 20%, compared to 4% for those in receipt of Housing Benefits
• Targeted communications with those in receipt of UC and new claimants supported through our Customer Support Team.
• No increase in evictions yet but worrying level of arrears which aren’t sustainable in the long term.
• DHP’s for the shortfall of rent are available for short periods, 2nd and 3rd requests aren’t usually successful
Vulnerable people
• We provide sheltered housing but not in Islington
• National Customer Support Team work to maximise
income to improve financial stability, sustain tenancy
and to find the right external agency if there’s a specific
support need.
• Supported almost 7,000 residents across the country to
apply for benefits securing almost £7 million in benefits
(HB, UC, DHP's).
• Supported those in food and furniture poverty during the
UC waiting period through local food banks, national
furniture re-use organisations and Guinness hardship
fund.
Fire Safety measures for schemes with ACM cladding
• Ongoing communication with residents through door knocking,
meetings, letters and FAQs.
• Person centred fire safety risk assessments for vulnerable
residents
• Daily monitoring of fire escape routes and all communal areas
• 24/7 fire warden service who carryout 15 minute observations
of the entire block
• A full compartmentation survey and carried out additional fire
stopping work
• Repairs to fire doors including flat front doors regardless of
ownership.
• Upgraded the current fire alarm system (communal and in flats)
to facilitate a simultaneous evacuation strategy. Repeater
panels fitted to adjacent buildings to provide early warning of
fire.
Fire Safety measures for schemes with ACM cladding
What’s next?
• Nearing completion of existing structure
investigation works
• Options for re-cladding works to be finalised in
February
• Planning & Building Regulation submissions will
then be prepared and submitted
• Further discussion with suppliers and tender works.
• Once submissions approved works commence.
• Timeframe dependent on supply chain etc.