Agenda item

[Jenny Lewington, Service Manager - Housing Strategy & Policy, to present report]

Jenny Lewington, Service Manager – Housing Strategy and Policy, presented the report. The Service Manager advised the panel the report was being presented for comment about planned changes to the monitoring arrangements between the Council and its housing managing agents. The panel comments will be considered by the Council’s Housing Strategy Landlord Services Team.

The Service Manager also wanted to brief the panel about changes to the reporting and monitoring arrangements of the Council’s housing stock in response to the requirements detailed in the Government’s Charter for Social Housing White Paper.

The Service Manager advised the panel about the monitoring arrangements for the management of the Council's housing stock managed by Wolverhampton Homes and the three tenant management organisations, Dovecotes, New Park Village and Bushbury Hill Estate.

The Service Manager explained that the monitoring arrangements set out in the report are required to enable the Council to respond to increasing regulation of the sector, and inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The Council through its existing management agreements has monitored the services provided and performance of its housing managing agents.

The Service Manager advised the panel that the Government published a White Paper in November 2020. The document included a proposal that the RSH move from a reactive service to a proactive consumer regulatory regime. This role would include proactive oversight of the consumer standards and mandatory inspection of landlords with more than 4000 homes, which will include the City of Wolverhampton Council.

In response to this proposal it was considered timely to review the Council's monitoring and reporting arrangements. The Service Manager commented on the four consumer standards set by the RSH against which the performance of the Council would be monitored. The Service Manager advised the panel that Councillors would be responsible for ensuring that the housing provider – Wolverhampton Homes and the three tenant management organisations met these standards.

The Service Manager advised the panel that the RSH expects systems to be in place to provide assurance to Councillors, that the standards are being met with the responsibility remaining solely with the Council and not the housing providers.

The Service Manager briefed the panel on the monitoring arrangements which will review performance, asset management, finance, and the delivery plan. The housing business plan is presented to Council annually for approval, which is supported by quarterly monitoring progress reports presented to Cabinet.

The Service Manager advised the panel to further improve and strengthen the Council's understanding of its housing managing agent’s compliance with the proposed consumer standards an external company Savills were commissioned to undertake an independent review. The details of the review findings are summarised in the main report.

The review concluded that for most areas, the Council, and Wolverhampton Homes, has an adequate policy framework in place to ensure compliance against the consumer standards. The report did however identify specific areas requiring improvement.

In response to the review Wolverhampton Homes developed an action plan to improve those areas identified for improvement. The progress of the action plan will be monitored by internal audit against compliance with the consumer standards. An annual performance monitoring report will also be presented to Our Council Scrutiny Panel to review progress of compliance against the consumer standards.

The panel were invited to comment on the report and presentation.  The Chair invited Sean Aldis, Chief Executive, Wolverhampton Homes to comment on the report. The Chief Executive thanked the panel for the opportunity and offered reassurance about the steady progress being made to meet the consumer standards. The Chief Executive added that the service is meeting its health and safety responsibilities which is supported by the findings of the independent review.

The panel welcomed the report. The panel suggested that a six-monthly monitoring report should also be shared with the panel for comment as Cabinet will be receiving monthly progress reports. The Chief Executive agreed to this request.

Resolved

1.    The panel comments on the report to be considered by the Council’s Housing Strategy Landlord Services Team.

2.    The Service Manager, Housing Strategy and Policy to present a six-monthly progress report and an annual report on performance against the four consumer standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing to a future meeting of the panel to check compliance.