Mrs Marsh, Housing Manager presented on Key Performance indicators for the Housing Department.

This was an overview for the end Quarter 4.

Rent Collection  

In November 2017 Brentwood was moved over to Full Service Universal Credit (‘UC’). Tenants receiving this are responsible for making direct payments, which increases the level of risk to the Council as the landlord. There has been an increase in the level of arrears due to the roll-out of Full Service Universal Credit.

During this quarter resource issues were experienced which impacted on rent collection. The management team had focussed on ensuring this issue was not replicated in the next quarter. Tenancy management issues were not impacted on during the above period. Additional payment methods had been introduced to enable tenants to make payments more easily in an effort to empower them, for the purpose of improving rent loss.

Re-Let Periods     

There had been an increase in the average re-let time due to the requirement for an asbestos management survey to be carried out whilst a property is void [and asbestos removal where necessary]. Compliancy must be the primary focus, which had led to an average 3 day addition to the void period. To mitigate against any unforeseen delays, we had introduced a priority system by having weekly void meetings to focus on those properties that could be more immediately ready to let.

Whilst overall, there had seen an decrease in the average re-let time due to the requirement for an asbestos management survey to be carried out whilst a property is void the overall average re-let time for general needs housing had reduced slightly. Whilst this had reduced we will strive to continue to reduce the overall turnaround time for general needs properties.

Whilst there had been an increase in the average re-let time for sheltered accommodation, partially due to the requirement for an asbestos management survey to be carried out whilst a property is void we had also continued to have difficulty re-letting sheltered accommodation, which may be due to several factors, which include, the overall public perception of sheltered housing and the overall condition of the properties.

Temporary Accommodation

The amount of households housed in temporary accommodation had remained relatively static across the year, with focus being given to prevention work to avoid homelessness.

Gas servicing

We had increased the servicing level for Gas servicing following a review to streamline the process. We expected to see the servicing regime return to 100% by the end of quarter 1.

Customer Satisfaction

Wates – Customer satisfaction levels had increased slightly in Q4. We were  continuing to work closely with the contractor to improve customer satisfaction

level further.

Oakray – Customer satisfaction levels had maintained in Q4. We were continuing to work closely with the contractor to improve customer satisfaction.

Mr Carter presented on Empty Homes to the Committee. 

The Empty Homes Strategy would look at properties that been empty for 2 years or more. 

Looking at empty homes in comparison to the rest of Essex, Brentwood were 6^th.

There were 6 properties that were empty and no activity was taking place on these properties.  The Chair suggested that these 6 properties were investigated and an update on this be brought back to committee. 

The Chair also discussed that the resources for investigating Empty Homes were low throughout Essex and that a letter should be sent to the Chair of EHOC to create a task force throughout Essex and pool funs and resources to tackle this.