Tenants Consultative Committee 25 July 2019
Agenda 1. Minutes and matters arising 2. The Housing Strategy 3. The Capital Programme 4. Terms of Reference for the TCC 5. Feedback from CIH conference 6. Voids Standards 7. AOB
Draft Kensington and Chelsea Housing Strategy Update for Tenants’ Consultative Committee 25 July 2019
What is the draft Housing Strategy? • The draft Housing Strategy brings together our plans for Housing, including: – Our work with Council tenants and leaseholders to improve housing management services; – Our plans to deliver new homes and to encourage others to build more genuinely affordable homes – Our work with residents who are homeless or in housing need. • It sets out our vision and priorities for Housing in K&C. • We want to hear residents’ views on the draft strategy, including those of our tenants.
Why a Housing Strategy now? • Housing is central to the broader ambitions set out in the new Council Plan. • A safe, secure and affordable home is vital for ensuring that all residents have the best possible chances in life, ‘narrowing the gap’ and promoting opportunities for all. • Since Grenfell, we have been scrutinised and challenged by Government, the media, our partners and, most importantly, our residents. • We have made major changes to our housing services but residents have challenged us to be exemplary. • We need to bring our housing plans together in one place and show how we will work across the whole Council.
What does this mean in practice? We’re committing to six key priorities , which reflect what we’ve heard from residents over the past two years: 1. Supporting Grenfell survivors 2. Improving the safety, quality and security of housing 3. Increasing the supply of genuinely affordable housing 4. Putting residents at the heart of housing services 5. Supporting vulnerable residents 6. Tackling and preventing homelessness This is a cross-Council strategy and it will be for the whole Council to deliver (including Planning, Environmental Health etc.)
Give me some examples! • Investing over £300m in existing Council homes and driving improvements in key areas, such as fire safety. • Working with Council tenants and leaseholders in new ways to ensure that services reflect their priorities. • Delivering at least 600 new homes on Council homes, of which at least 300 will be at social rent. • Using planning policy to encourage developers to build more genuinely affordable homes. • Reviewing our work to tackle and prevent homelessness for those at risk.
How can residents shape the strategy? • We’ve published the strategy in draft form, to be developed further with residents, partners, staff and other stakeholders. • We are planning to publish a final version in the autumn, with a detailed action plan. • Residents can comment on the strategy on our website at www.rbkc.gov.uk/housing-strategy until the end of September 2019 . • We are already working with residents on the detailed plans and activities that sit underneath the strategy (e.g. Repairs policy, antisocial behaviour policy etc.)
How can the TCC help? • We want to hear from tenants and leaseholders about: o whether these priorities are the right ones o what the Council should focus on, particularly in the areas that are most relevant to them o how the Council can engage more widely with tenants and leaseholders on the strategy • In particular, we want to hear ideas about how we can involve tenants and leaseholders in shaping the final version of the strategy.
Questions?
Housing Management Capital Programme
Stock Condition Survey • £10m backlog in 2010 • £60m backlog in 2018 – will take a number of years to catch up • Mostly building infrastructure issues such as windows, rooves, district heating systems and lifts • M&E survey currently underway • Concrete survey to be issued shortly
Current Plan
Resources • IT – efficient systems and processes • People – setting the bar • Supply Chain – the right contractors and consultants
Year 1 – 2019/20 • Adair and Hazelwood • Silchester • Fire doors • FRA actions/installations • Lifts
Supply Chain - Frameworks • Contractors and Consultants • Small to medium sized companies • 60-75% of the programme over a four year period • 25-30% projects procured on a stand alone basis and 10% in house
Resident Involvement • Procurement panel • Evaluation event • Ongoing contract monitoring • Early engagement on projects
TCC Terms of Reference CONSULTATION 25 th June - 22 nd July • • 17 Responses • 9 from TCC members • 8 from HOMES members
What’s important to residents? What are the important issues that the TCC should be considering at meetings? Reviewing performance targets Ensuring strategic changes are being reflected on the ground Key issues Every day Housing Matters and Policies Adherence to the Residents Charter Future proofing of services Depreciation Policy for replacement of assets An improvement programme for estates Policies and procedures
What should the council be doing? What should be the council be doing to support the TCC? Provide an online Forum Document to be disseminated early Be frank and open Ensure senior management are present Seek regular feedback Ensure meeting dates are publicised well in advance Organise and make sure all RAs and Compacts are viable Offer and pay for more RA rep training and briefing Ensure all RA reps are elected What should residents be doing? What should residents be doing to support the TCC? Become more participative Give positive and negative feedback
Residents associations will be entitled to send two delegates to TCC meetings, one of whom must be a tenant. Do you agree? Most responses are with the two delegates Half support the tenant/leaseholder split, but acknowledge for many RAs this will not be feasible Who should chair the TCC? Should this be a resident, or a councillor and a resident? Mixed response – Resident, resident and councillor, councillor , senior officers and independent facilitator. Calls for efficient chairing.
How many residents should the HOMES group have at the TCC? 1+ W ho should chair the HOMES group? Should this be a resident, or a councillor and a resident? Mix of responses- but clear majority for Councillor and resident.
Local Associations and compacts, to attend TCC should have an appropriate constitution; operate in an inclusive manner; hold at least 3 meetings and an AGM and make available minutes and annual accounts. The majority agree. Who should attend the Task and Finish Groups? Anyone who wishes Max of two per estate/compact Majority agree 2 per RA and 2 from Homes.
Should minutes be a summary of the key issues or verbatim? Most responses want meetings to be recorded verbatim for reference but the minutes to be a summary with action points. Do you have other comments? Joint action groups at local/ward level to break down silos More focus on case studies Staff to attend TCC and respond to residents concerns Frequency of meetings is very high, in addition to Local Housing Meeting and Task and Finish Groups See strategic issues sorted on the ground
Feedback from CIH 2019 conference Manchester 25-27 June 2019
• Held over 3 days • Billed as Europe’s largest Housing Festival • Mixture of Keynote speeches, best practice sessions and fringe events • Exhibition with 400 stands Attended by: • Nahid Ashby – Silchester RA • Opportunities for networking – • Iain Smith – Pond House RA • Samia Badani – Bramley House and finding out what others in RA the sector are doing • Bernadette Fry – Staff Member • Keith Benton (in his own capacity)
Topics covered • Planning & Housing supply • Homelessness • Social care • Affordability and universal credit • Resident Engagement • Addison Act (100 years of social housing) • Fire Safety (Tower Blocks – Fringe session) • Housing Design • Healthy communities • Attended some sessions together and some separately
Highlights • Spending time together & representing RBKC • Fringe event on Tower block fire safety • Prime ministers unannounced speech to conference • Keynote speech from the Regulator
Simplify Reporting The Noise App And Investigation
Dream Bigger, Build faster
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