Agenda item

Social housing maintenance and repair

A citizen asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Housing:

Please could you explain why Nottingham City Council Housing Services has got progressively worse since Nottingham City Council took it back under its control? It was not a good service before, but now it's truly poor. There are never ending queues, not only to get through to the Repair Call Centre but for tenants also to get essential work done (if at all). There are not enough operatives, high sickness rates, and many other problems. This results in a terrible knock-on effect for tenants, and at the same time rents and service charges go up considerably annually (7.7% rent increase plus an added 6.7% service charge increase this year as well as other charges). As social housing tenants, we have no way of making our voices heard. I would please ask how and when Nottingham City Council will improve these matters, as Nottingham City Council is now fully responsible?

Councillor Jay Hayes replied as follows:

Thank you Lord-Mayor, and thank you to this citizen for the question.  The City Council recognises that the housing service under Nottingham City Homes needed improvement to deliver the standards that tenants and the Council expect, and therefore it was brought back in-house last year.  Since then we have developed a new housing service within the Council and we are currently implementing our service improvement plans. It will take some time for these plans to work and build up a good quality service that our tenants can trust. At the Executive Board meeting in February, the Housing Revenue Account business plan was approved and additional resources have been included in the budget for the next financial year to implement the service changes and improvements that are needed. The citizen mentions the rent increase. This rent increase is the maximum that is allowed under the Social Housing Regulator. This increase will be covered by the Local Housing Allowance and Housing Benefit for those who are in receipt of benefits, but there is also a Hardship Fund to support those who do not qualify for any help through our Tenancy Sustainability Team.  The Council is committed to engagement and an accountable service. At last month’s meeting of the Housing and City Development Scrutiny Committee I presented a report about the new Tenant Engagement Board. This Board is in the process of being set up. We will have tenants on Board, engaging with us as the Council, holding myself as Portfolio Holder and officers to account, helping us to improve the service and deliver a robust service for our tenants.  While the service is not where we want it to be and there are a lot of issues inherited from Nottingham City Homes since we brought it in-house, I can assure the citizen that officers are working incredibly hard in implementing new ways of working, improving the system and engaging with tenants and we will continue to do that so that the tenants have a sustainable and good quality housing service that they deserve.  Thank you.