The procedure for submitting public questions in writing no later than noon 2 working days before the meeting is available upon request from Democratic Services (the contact details for which appear on the front page of this agenda).
Minutes:
Question from Joan Barrowcliffe
Has anything been achieved from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting of June and July 2015 and the final report of the Service Charge Review Task and Finish Group, which went out from Ms Diane Shepherd on 11th September 2015?
Answer
Thank you for your question.
At the meeting of 15th September 2015 the Overview & Scrutiny Committee received a report from a Task and Finish Group that had considered many complaints received from Hyde tenants about their Service Charges in the preceeding months. The Committee instructed the then Head of Housing and Environment Services to write a letter to the Hyde Group setting out the Committees concerns and asking for a review of certain service charges it believed may have been incorrectly billed, including certain specific housing schemes. The Committee also asked for a response from Hyde to come back to the Committee in January 2016 to cover the methods used to calculate service charge increases, the progress made in resolving complaints and Hyde’s performance against their key performance indicators.
In response to the resolution, and resulting letter from the Head of Housing & Environment, a report, produced by Hyde, did come to the January 2016 meeting and MrMorrisey the Director of Core Operations at Hyde attended the Committee to answer questions.
Hyde advised that the addition of Health and Safety Compliance costs and the impact of better informed service cost estimates had resulted in the increases, however, they accepted that these changes could have been communicated more effectively to tenants. They also accepted that in the case of the specific schemes highlighted by the Committee, the overall percentage increases were high. In the main, this was due to the health & safety compliance service costs being included for the first time. Hyde confirmed they were committed to delivering services that were value for money, but also service charges had to accurately reflect the costs incurred. Hyde thanked the Task & Finish Group for its work in highlighting the concerns and committed to working with residents in the Chichester area to resolve any specific issues or concerns they may have around their service charges.
Copies of the agendas and minutes of the relevant meetings, including the report from Hyde that went to the January 2016 meeting, are available on the Council’s website which will include more detail, however, Hyde have also been asked to comment on the outcome of the meetings in their address to the Committee today.
The Chairman added that the reason Hyde Housing had been invited to attend a further meeting of this Committee, along with the Council’s Cabinet member for Housing, Communications, Licensing and Events, was due to the importance that this Committee placed on the housing provided for tenants in the District.
Mrs Barrowcliffe was invited to email her District Ward member, copying in the Chairman, if she had any further concerns to raise. The Chairman advised that during the Covid 19 pandemic officers had been working with Hyde Housing and the other social housing providers in the District to ensure that residents received a good service.
Supplementary question from Joan Barrowcliffe
Mrs Barrowcliffe referred to a letter from Hyde, dated 11 September 2015, to Mrs Shepherd stating that service charges reflected the costs of providing chargeable services. According to her lease, health safety and fire safety were not chargeable but residents were being charged. She quoted Section 7 (vi) of her lease that stated “the expression costs, expenses and outgoings, as herein before used, shall be deemed to include not only those expenses outgoings and other expenditure here before described in actually dispersed or made by during the year in question but also such reasonable part of all such expenses, outgoings and other expenditure, herein afore described, which are of a periodically recurring nature”.
Answer
Mrs Rudziak explained representatives from Hyde Housing were in attendance at today’s meeting who would undertake to reply to questions but detailed individual cases should be raised with them direct. The Chairman added with the involvement of the District Councillor for Mrs Barrowcliffe’s Ward.