Housing
Introduction
We aim to deliver sustained investment to provide decent homes for all Lewisham’s residents and responsive and effective housing services which operate to the highest standards of quality and equality. We work closely with partners for the well-being of Lewisham’s communities, linking housing to the wider agenda, maximising the supply and choice of affordable housing and creating balanced communities.
Strategic objectives
We aim to provide an excellent, accessible customer-focused housing service which promotes sustainable communities. Our key objectives include:
- working collaboratively, to help successfully deliver the Council’s mixed approach to the achievement of the Decent Homes Standard by 2010
- to listen and learn from what tenants tell us, encouraging involvement and engagement from all sections of the tenant and leaseholder population
- to work in partnership to deliver value for money services and improved efficiency, with a specific focus on securing a best value repairs and maintenance service.
Performance against 2005/06 top level commitments
We delivered a number of key actions to help drive up the housing comprehensive performance assessment score. We:
- reorganised the Housing Service to ensure consistently excellent services are provided across the borough. We have also created a new client to drive through improvements in the Repairs Service.
- limited the use of bed and breakfast despite substantial demand by homeless households
- progressed our work to address the main recommendations of the Audit Commission’s report on repairs and maintenance, linking this to our wider service improvement work
- put in place a robust service improvement plan, monitored regularly at a senior level to ensure delivery, which addresses Audit Commission best practice as set out in its Key Lines of Enquiry.
We also worked closely with tenants to support the setting up of both an ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation) Steering Group and shadow ALMO board. They will work in partnership with us to set up a new organisation to manage and deliver Decent Homes improvements to over 12,000 tenants and manage over 4,000 leasehold homes. We also supported work to take forward the other options for achieving the Decent Homes Standard across Lewisham – which include Phoenix Community Housing and other areas pursuing the stock transfer option and Brockley and Chrysalis PFI.
We did not further improve our performance in re-letting empty properties, failing to achieve our challenging target of 4.75 weeks. However, we have now centralised responsibility for void management and ensuring that best practice is followed by all areas. We expect that the use of consistent practice will ensure high-quality service delivery in all areas, leading to performance improvements over the coming year.
Key achievements in 2005/06
During the year we also:
- produced a Leaseholders’ Handbook
- carried out a mock inspection of housing management to assess the quality of our services and help our planning for future service improvements
- opened the Housing Options Centre, with a focus on preventing homelessness
- developed the benefits of benchmarking and working with other similar organisations to share good practice
- continued to increase the proportion of planned to responsive works (increased from 37% to 51%)
- made and kept appointments for over 96% of non-emergency repair jobs, exceeding our 95% target; we completed these repairs within just over 10 days on average
- launched the new Tenant Participation Compact Summary
- relaunched the Handyperson scheme, through funding from the Government Office for London and the South East London Housing Partnership (SELHP)
- reviewed the Housing Assistance Policy
- extended the Choice Based Letting Scheme (Homesearch) to all bed sizes
- held our second equalities summit, developing a Housing Equalities and Diversity Strategy supported by a robust action plan
- increased the level of tenancy profiling (details of who lives in our properties) to over 50%.
To ensure we delivered the best services for our estates we:
- continued to keep all tenants and residents informed about when routine cleaning tasks are to take place – and did our best to keep to these times
- deep cleaned all blocks at least once during the year
- inspected most blocks at least once a month to ensure the cleaning standards are being maintained
- reglazed most broken windows within 24 hours of report
- refurbished a further nine play areas.
Key commitments for 2006/07
To help drive up the housing CPA score we will continue to set challenging targets and use the mock inspection of the housing management service as the key tool to move the service from its current one star rating to two stars.
Linked to this improved performance, and as part of the agenda to deliver decent homes in Lewisham, we will establish an arms length management organisation (ALMO) and the appropriate governance arrangement for a successful organisation. Brockley PFI should achieve financial close and progress be made in procuring PFI4 for Street properties in Rushey Green, Sydenham and Forest Hill and the Sydenham Hill estate. Work will continue to support the proposed stock transfer areas. We will also continue to support Phoenix Community Housing, as they take forward the community gateway model for stock transfer in the Bellingham, Bankfoot and John Henry neighbourhoods.
The current Best Value review of homelessness will lead to improvements in the way the service is delivered and put in place a clear path to halve the number of households in temporary accommodation by 2010.
Other actions to be taken during the coming year to improve services are set out below.
Other commitments for 2006/07
During 2006/07 we will:
- introduce the housing health and safety rating system and launch compulsory Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensing, in line with government timescales
- improve the satisfaction levels of all residents with the housing management service
- introduce a sanctuary scheme for victims of domestic violence
- implement the key recommendations of the housing equalities action plan and strategy
- put in place modern arrangements for delivering the repairs service
- having reorganised the repairs and maintenance function and identified £1 million in efficiency savings, be reinvesting this money in repairs during 2006/07
- work to drive up our performance in re-letting empty properties
- increase participation in decision making by BME and other hard to reach groups
- ensure tenancy profiling covers all our tenants
- carry out a leasehold satisfaction survey
- continue to work, through Supporting People and other stakeholders, to improve housing services
- implement stage 2 of the Sheltered Housing Strategy
- further develop a new system, Caseworks, for mapping and monitoring anti-social behaviour.
To ensure we deliver the best for our estates we will continue to keep all tenants and residents informed when routine cleaning tasks are to take place, deep clean all blocks, at least once during the year, and inspect blocks at least once a month to ensure the cleaning standards are being maintained.
Following the transfer of the internal cleaning aspects of Caretaking into Housing, we are working to develop and implement a number of new initiatives around the internal cleaning and tree maintenance on estates, which will be set out in a revised service agreement. Following consultation this year, with all tenant and resident associations, we will work to adopt a new set of service standards for the cleanliness of internal areas and a process for monitoring and recording.
