Agenda item

The Committee has invited representatives from Hyde to attend this meeting.

The Chairman welcomed, Ms Cox, Mr Hunter and Mr Batchelor from Hyde Housing.

The Committee had provided the Hyde Housing representatives with a set of questions on the following themes: Housing Stock and Standards, Contracted Works, Service Charges, Communication and Engagement with tenants, Covid 19 and miscellaneous in advance of the meeting (appended to the official minutes).  The representatives also answered questions raised by members at the meeting:

·  Liberator Place, Chichester:  Waking fire watch service set up during October 2019 and work taking place to mitigate these fire concerns.  Accreditation awaited following work on fire doors and fire stopping.  Hyde establishing if the defect was the responsibility of the developer. 

·  Damp and general condition of existing stock:  Survey established that, in comparison to general housing stock, properties were not of an age or banding significantly less than expected.   Will improve conditions of 2,500 properties in the District to band B and C by 2030.

·  £3-4 million spent on stock investment and £3 million on repairs and voids per year.  Planned maintenance on old stock increased spending.

·  At the start of the Covid 19 Pandemic maintenance work reverted to essential repairs only.  No longer restrictions on carrying out works following updated Government advice. 

·  88.6% repair satisfaction rate, 3% higher than other Hyde areas.  Repair appointments arranged by the Call Centre.  Text messaging service enabled tenants to review their repairs.  24 hour online repair appointment service to be introduced with facility to send video of repairs required.  Ability to contact Hyde by telephone if preferred. 

·  Since Covid 19 maximum waiting time for average repairs increased to 14 days.  Good progress being made to reduce this time.  Good relationship with the Council in dealing with damp problems and outstanding cases.  Mr Batchelor agreed to investigate the emails sent to Mrs Sharp from residents, some who had complex health needs, concerning long delays to repairs and their not being completed, including damp issues.

·  Mr Batchelor was disappointed to hear the examples of a lack of customer service by Hyde to residents and elected members.  He agreed to investigate the examples given by Mr Johnson including the delay to fix heating and dismantling of a fence and creation of a driveway.

·  Mr Hunter asked Mrs Apel to forward him details of the issues raised by residents who had not received a response to their queries.

·  Hyde’s Residents Voice open forum enabled tenants to raise issues. Resident involvement included consultation on any of Hyde’s services under review.  Contact details for Hyde’s services, as well as for councillors and members’ of Parliament were provided to tenants.

·  Many renewable energy replacements were not suitable for installation in Hyde’s social housing properties and new housing was still fitted with gas. 

·  Mrs Lishman, observing, asked about damage from a shared drainpipe. Mr Batchelor advised the matter should be reported to the Repairs Maintenance Team and the occupier of the private property should claim for any damage on their house insurance. 

·  Mr Oakley, observing, asked about service charges for amenity open space and tree preservation orders. Hyde covered the costs for properties no longer in its ownership.  No ability in tenants’ leases for Hyde to claim these costs or to place an estate charge on properties now in private ownership. 

·  Procurement of the Grounds Maintenance Service would include an assessment of future amenity land, to include wild flower areas and managing areas better ecologically.  Protected trees removed due to poor health were replaced.  A tree surveying review would include how Hyde would work with tenants to maintain trees.  There would be liaison with parish councils and other partners to see if they would take on responsibility for communal trees. 

·  A member commented there should be more joined up maintenance work for areas of open space where there was more than one owner.

·  Ms Cox confirmed that she would look into the issues raised in Joan Barrowcliffe’s public question concerning service charges.

·  Following this Committee’s review of Hyde’s service charges in 2015 the Customer First project was created.  The Central Team dealt with queries and liaised with other departments to check if charges were correct. 

·  Shared ownership leases stated if charges were for an equal share or on square floor meterage and details now included in Service Charge. 

·  Services Charges paid for the services delivered by Hyde.  Blocks of flats may have a sinking fund for larger maintenance work.

·  Since this Committee’s review a lot of work has been undertaken to improve services.  The Corporate Strategy included ensuring there was evidence of good value for money for residents and quickly resolving service charge errors. 

·  A member suggested that the service charge letters could contain an explanation of the differences between their neighbours’ service charges.

·  Mr Hunter acknowledged residents felt it was not easy to get hold of an officer and there was a misconception that different people dealt with the various enquiries and this matter would be investigated further.  The contact number was: 0800 3282282. Alternatively tenants of flats could speak to their property manager.

·  Tenants should only have to chase a response once before using the official complaints procedure.  Mrs Rudziak advised there was a document advising members of the complaints escalation route.  There was an “Elected Representatives” email address for members use if contacted by a Hyde resident, which was monitored against performance targets. 

·  The recent Social Housing white paper had reduced the response time of 10 days from 20 days.  Customers should see a noticeable reduction in response times to complaints by March/April 2021.

·  Since Covid 19, property management visits to properties continued, in a safe way, to ensure they were safe and all repairs had been completed. 

·  The Hyde Foundation provided support ranging from help with form filling to financial assistance as a result of Covid 19. 

·  Mr Hunter would investigate further Mrs Apel’s comment of the difficulties experienced by tenants and herself in getting a response to anti-social behaviour issues.  This behaviour had increased in the last year and the closure of magistrates courts had not helped resolve the issues.  Injunctions did not have an effective result.  If possible Hyde encouraged tenants to talk to their neighbour in the first instance and online toolkits were available.  Serious noise complaints would include liaison with the Council’s Environmental Health Service, otherwise all Hyde could do was ask that tenant to stop their behaviour and tell them they were in breach of their tenancy.  Covid 19 restrictions had stopped eviction proceedings.

·  Mr Sutton advised he and Mr Briscoe would be happy to take any issues forward under their respective Cabinet portfolios.

·  Allotment plots were available by contacting the Central Team.  With parish councils looking at alternative usage, including resizing to smaller more manageable plots.  Members’ suggestions were welcome.  Ms Cox would provide Mrs Bangert with further information outside of the meeting. 

The Chairman advised the Hyde representatives any further questions from members would be collated into one document before being sent to them for consideration.  It would be useful for members to have details of Hyde’s reporting arrangements with a contacts list.

Mrs Bushby reported that the Council’s relationship with Hyde was good, particularly concerning anti-social behaviour and during the Pandemic Hyde had responded quickly to issues that arose.  Hyde supported the Council’s Community Warden Service and Social prescribing Service. 

Mrs Grange reiterated the comments made by Mrs Bushby on her experiences with Hyde.  Regular liaison meetings took place between her and Ms Cox.  In future regular meetings would also take place with Mr Hunter and Mr Sutton, Cabinet Portfolio holder for Housing.  The Council was working with Hyde’s Development Team on their Hyde Asset review.  Mr Oakley’s question concerning amenity land was addressed in Hyde’s draft Strategic Plan 2050 who would present it to Cabinet on 2 February 2021. Hyde owned amenity land could potentially be transferred to parish councils.

The Chairman thanked the Hyde representatives for their attendance.  The work being undertaken by Hyde, especially during the Pandemic, was appreciated.