Agenda item

Report of Corporate Director for Growth and City Development

Councillor Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Housing, introduced the report.

Alison Brown, Director of Property Services, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the Council are required by regulation to ensure that all its social housing meets the government’s Decent Homes Standard, which sets out a minimum standard for social housing and is underpinned by four criteria linked to a statutory minimum standard based on the 29 hazards detailed in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), reasonable state of repair, having modern facilities and meeting identified levels for thermal comfort;

b)  the Council maintains decency through the delivery of repair, maintenance and investment works to homes, blocks and estates, done through a mixed service delivery model of directly employed staff, trade colleagues and external contractors who provide additional capacity and technical expertise;

c)  the report seeks approval to appoint two contractors to form part of the mixed delivery model as the Council do not have sufficient internal capacity or expertise to deliver the scale and scope of works to ensure the Council maintain decency across its housing assets;

d)  a decision from Committee is required urgently due to the impact on delivery of works after one of the key partners for investment works went into administration and also with the current lack of ability to recruit staff;

e)  the HRA Capital Investment programme, which this work will be carried out under, was reported to Executive Board on 13 February 2024 as part of the Capital Programme;

f)  the 2006 Decent Homes Standard is currently under review as part of one of the most significant regulatory reviews of social housing in the last decade. Using the consultation that has taken place to date, there are likely to be additional measures the Council will have to take on as a landlord to ensure it is compliant with the decency standard;

g)  the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 (‘Act’) introduced a requirement for landlords to evidence how they ensure compliance with the decency standard through the Consumer standards, specifically the Safety and Quality standard;

h)  many of the provisions in the Act are responses to the tragedies of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, and the death of two-year old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 from exposure to serious mould;

i)  the Act allows the Regulator of Social Housing to take action against social landlords before people are at risk and hold landlords to account with a reintroduced regime of service inspections;

j)  the Act also gives the Secretary of State power to require social landlords to investigate and rectify serious health hazards, possibly including intervention within the Property Service.

Resolved to delegate authority to the

(1)  Corporate Director for Growth and City Development to enter into contracts with United Living and Lovells to enable delivery of the HRA Capital Programme up to 31 March 2025, with an option to extend for a further 2-years to 31 March 2027, up to a maximum total cost of £80,000,000;

(2)  Head of Service to set up the required Contract Purchase Agreements to cover the works to be delivered, and to raise purchase orders under the signed contracts for the duration of the contracts.

Reasons for recommendations

a)  Nottingham City Council Housing Services team are required to ensure that all of its Social Housing homes meet the governments Decent Homes Standard which means that they will meet the minimum statutory standard for housing including no category one failures under the Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), properties are in a reasonable state of repair, we have reasonably modern facilities and services, and homes provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort;

b)  the Act includes a requirement to meet our obligations under the newly introduced Building Safety Act 2022 and Fire Safety Act 2021 and the forthcoming Awaabs Law to ensure that Social Housing is free from damp and mould, disrepair, HHSRS hazards and are structurally sound and safe. We are required to demonstrate our compliance using the consumer standards, specifically for property the safety and quality standard. We have adopted a mixed delivery model to help us manage and maintain decency across our Housing assets. This is to reflect the scope, scale and timescales, capacity and technical expertise needed to deliver the required works. External contractors form part of this mixed delivery model;

c)  The types of works we deliver to maintain decency includes:

·  replacements works and refurbishments works to key building elements and components including roofs, structural works, doors, windows and heating systems;

·  replacement of key facilities including Kitchens and bathrooms;

·  control measures to manage Hazards including damp and mould, falls, electrical hazards and fire;

·  preventing disrepair by dealing with property deficiencies within a reasonable timescale;

·  work to improve thermal efficiency including external wall insulation or alternative heating systems;

·  decent neighbourhoods work, including boundary issues, garages and HRA pathways;

·  support for development of mixed communities including HRA shop conversions and works to properties bought on the open market.

Other options considered

a)  carry out the work with internal resources, rejected as not achievable to scale, scope, volume and timescales;

b)  award to a single contractor - rejected. To apply learning from what has happened during 2023 and mitigate against a contractor going into receivership we have proposed two contractors to spread the risk. It also provides an opportunity to benchmark to demonstrate value for money.