Agenda item

To receive a progress report on the work related to the Social Housing Regulation Act.

The Panel considered the Social Housing Regulation Act (2023) progress report.

The Assistant Director – Housing reported that the update on progress outlined the Council’s progress towards meeting the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 and the consumer standards which came into force on 1 April 2024.  The earlier items the Panel had considered on the agenda demonstrated the work being carried out within the housing department in order to embed the requirements of the Social Housing Regulation Act and ensure that this be formalised with new and updated strategies and policies.

The housing department had a good level of compliance, particularly in relation to health and safety matters as well as a balanced HRA budget which was positive, however there was a continued drive to improve for the benefit of housing tenants.  The recent Corporate Peer Challenge review had recognised the success of the housing department. 

The District Council was required to be compliant across four consumer standards and an inspection would be carried out at least once every four years by the Regulator for Social Housing, on a risk based approach.  Matters such as health and safety compliance, policies and procedures, the stock condition survey, and the number of homes meeting the decent homes standard would all form part of the inspection.  A six week notice period would be given of the inspection.  Given this was a risk to the council, it was proposed that as part of the preparedness for inspection and assurance that the future inspection be added to the Corporate Risk Register. 

The Chairman, on behalf of the Panel requested thanks be passed onto officers in the housing department for their hard work.

A Panel Member questioned whether there were any high rise buildings which needed to be considered under the Fire Safety Act.  The Service Manager Housing Major Projects, responded, reporting that as a local authority there were no high rise buildings under the regime, nor were there any in relation to the second tier down which was buildings over 11 metres.  There were however regulatory requirements under the fire regulation order.  A large piece of work had been carried out in relation to fire safety which involved writing to tenants, holding engagement sessions, information in the Hometalk magazine as well as the creation of a new fire safety webpage, therefore, it was felt that the council was in a good position in relation to compliance with its regulatory fire safety duty.

A Panel Member questioned the quality of the data collected and the ability to interrogate it to identify any areas of concern.  In response, it was noted that the data was good quality and that it could be acted upon.  The Strategic Director of Housing and Communities further highlighted that the data collected was used to produce a comprehensive set of performance dashboards which were updated monthly and this would flag up any issues at an early stage.  The Tenant Satisfaction Measures sat behind the data reports which would inform managers.  There was confidence that there were systems in place to identify problems.  It had been identified that the housing department was light on some tenant data in relation to vulnerabilities around protected characteristics, and this data would be collected by a third party, working with tenants and this information would feed into the design of policies and strategies.

In response to a member question about benchmarking with other social housing landlords, it was confirmed that as the Tenant Satisfaction Measures data had been published for other social housing landlords, it enabled officers to compare its performance with that of others.  It was also noted that across Hampshire, a landlord group was being brought together to consider a more strategic approach and through this, information would be shared, enabling learning from others.

RESOLVED:

1.     That the Housing department’s compliance with the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 and progress in improving services for tenants be noted;

2.     That the work associated with improving preparedness for inspection was noted;

3.     That putting preparedness for regulatory inspection on the Corporate Risk Register be supported