Issue - meetings

[To review and comment on the performance and key areas for improvement]

Kate Martin, Service Director of City Housing briefly introduced the report which showed positive trends on performance of Wolverhampton Homes and the Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) in managing and maintaining council owned dwellings during the third quarter of the 2018-2019 financial year.  The Service Director also highlighted that the report included feedback from consultations on improvements to the New Park Village Estate.

Anthony Walker, Homeless Strategy and External Relationships Manager spoke in more detail on Wolverhampton Homes and the TMOs performance.   Overall there was good performance across the indicators being measured. Universal Credit continued to have an effect on rent arrears collections.  This was a national problem.  The Housing Strategy team was also seeing an increase in the use of homeless services.  The Service Director of City Housing reported that additional funding had been provided to Wolverhampton Homes to support the role out of Universal Credit and it had been confirmed that the funding would continue during the 2019/2020 financial year, through the Housing Revenue Account.

Members of the Panel requested information on how successful the Rent Bond Scheme, figures and trends on the housing waiting list; and data on tenants at risk of eviction by TMOs.  The Service Director of City Housing undertook to report back on these issues in the next quarterly monitoring report.

Councillor John Reynolds commented that from his involvement on the Social Inclusion Board, data showed that Wolverhampton Homes was successfully managing rent arrears however, TMO performance on rent management had not been as successful in the same period.  He asked whether there was a support issue for the TMOs on their rent management procedures.  The Service Director of City Housing undertook raise the point with the TMOs and report back to the next meeting on the processes they have in place and if there are any unmet support needs to help them manage rent arrears.

Resolved:

That the performance of the housing management agents for quarter three of 2018/2019 be noted.