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| GENERAL MEETING MINUTES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Minutes of General Meeting Present -
1. Welcome & Introduction - Rena welcomed everyone to the meeting. She then introduced Gordon Birrell, Housing Strategy Manager, Dundee City Council and Kirsty Wells, Independent Advisor, Tenants Information Service Apologies - Gina Runciman, Cathie Webster, Sadie Valentine, Marion Bathgate, Margaret Scott, Lana Coffey, Sheila Walker, Lawrence Young, Eddie Simpson, Nessie Thomson, Sheila Sinclair, Robert Law, Doris Howie 2. Adoption of Minutes of General Meeting held on Proposed by Morag Hutcheson and seconded by Peter Waugh Matters Arising: There were no matters arising. 3. Gordon Birrell, Housing Strategy Manager, Regulation and Inspection Update The Inspection Process • Carried out by the Scottish Housing Regulator • Dundee City Council were given notice of the impending inspection and completed a self assessment document • The inspection team spent three weeks in the offices doing reality checks • Dundee City Council received a draft report for comment • After comments were considered, the report is published. • An Improvement Plan must be given to the Regulator within 8 weeks of publication for any service graded as C or D. • Services graded D will be re-inspected within two years • The report identifies strengths and areas for improvement in three of the department's key functions and graded these as follows: – Homelessness: Fair (C) – Asset Management: Poor (D) – Housing Management: Poor (D) Strengths • Homelessness – good access to their homeless services – working well with partners to provide a good range of temporary accommodation – generally good decisions on homeless applications – reduction in the use of bed and breakfast accommodation – more houses let to homeless people – good homeless strategy • Asset Management (repairs and improvements) – development underway of a strategic framework for the management of housing needs – good access to their repairs service – good at working with tenants when improving homes – good at managing asbestos in houses • Housing Management (letting houses, managing antisocial behaviour) – Provision of a useful range of written and web based information to tenants and applicants – Reduction in the use of evictions – Good approach to managing antisocial behaviour – Neighbourhoods are generally well managed and in good condition Recommendations for Improvement – Generally: • Developing leadership and management capacity to deliver change and improvement in services • As a matter of urgency, put in place a robust performance management framework across their services • Review their approach to procurement to ensure that they are transparent and provide value for money • Improve customer focus and joined up working between all of their services • Develop their approach to collecting and using tenant feedback to improve service delivery; and • Widen their approach to tenant participation. – Homelessness • Review the homeless operations to ensure it is meeting all of its statutory duties, particularly in relation to temporary accommodation; • Improve their performance in maintaining contact with people who apply for assistance, and work to shorten the time it takes to make decisions; and • Make better use of referrals and nominations to Housing Associations to maximise lets to homeless people – Asset Management & Repairs • Ensure they meet their legal duty and regulatory obligations in relation to gas safety; • Ensure they meet their statutory obligations on the Right to Repair; • Develop a robust and regularly updated information base on housing demand and need for stock; • Closely monitor and manage the risks to their progress towards meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard; • Review their management of completing repairs on time to improve performance. – Housing Management • Implement the new allocations policy quickly, and improve access to, and management of, the housing waiting list • Ensure all of the lettings decisions are transparent and in line with the new policy; • Improve their approach to sustaining tenancies and identifying vulnerable tenants; • Improve the standard at which we let empty houses; and • Deliver demonstrable improvements to their performance in collecting rent and letting empty houses quickly What are they doing about it? • Setting up a Best Value Review group to oversee the development and implementation of an Improvement Plan • First meeting of the Best Value Review Group held on 15th April • Improvement Plan approved by Housing Committee on 27th April • Plan submitted to Scottish Housing Regulator • Project plans Tenant Involvement • It may be possible to deal with some of the recommendations fairly quickly but they recognise that some may require more detailed thought and consideration. • Communication • They want as many tenants as possible to be involved in helping to meet the Regulators concerns. • This could mean setting up a range of participation activities such as: – focus groups, – tenant led inspections – tenant conferences A meeting has been arranged for the 14th May to discuss tenant involvement further Scottish Housing Quality Standard Root and Branch • Councils and Registered Social Landlords must ensure houses meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015 • Dundee Plan approved in June 2006 – Root and Branch Review 2009 • Standard: – Free from serious disrepair – Energy efficient – Modern facilities and services – Healthy, safe and secure Key parts of the review • Progress to date • Stock condition information • Future housing need and demand – Craigforth Study • Financial planning to deliver SHQS by 2015 and maintenance of stock going forward Tenant involvement and communication • DFTA • Focus Groups • RTOs • Tenant Conference - February • Bulletin • Tenants Forums • Tenant consultation ongoing Current position Stock Information • Annual investment of around £12M to 2015 • Annual continuing annual investment of over £13M required to keep the stock in good state of repair Housing need and demand • Craigforth Report being finalised • Performance assessment on at risk stock Financial planning • Meetings between Council and TIS Financial Adviser Issues • prudential borrowing and interest rates going forward • capital receipts – house sales and land sales assumptions • new factors e.g. council new build • debt levels • rent levels • Scottish Government guidance • Exemptions from SHQS ? Gordon finished his presentation then invited questions from the floor. Q Why is Dundee City Council, housing younger tenants in blocks with older tenants in sheltered housing? A Unfortunately there is a lot of sheltered housing that was not purpose built, sitting empty in blocks that are now being decommissioned due to lack of need. Dundee City Council has large waiting lists for housing and have to let the properties to younger people, however they are trying to do more in-depth checks on prospective tenants and do more sympathetic lettings. Q The Sheltered Housing Complex at Craigie has had no security door for quite a while. A Details will be taken after the meeting and investigated. Q What happens is someone purposely makes themselves homeless A If someone purposely makes themselves homeless then they will be detected as they go through assessments and checks. Q How were two tenants chosen that are on the Best Value Review Group? A There were four tenant representatives put forward, two from Dundee Federation of Tenants Associations, a tenant from the east of the city and a tenant from the west. As the timescale for the council’s improvement plan to be submitted to the regulator was initially eight weeks but was reduced to six. By the time the elected members had looked at the plans and approved these, it left little time to identify representatives. As the Tenant Participation Officers worked with groups this was discussed and those present felt the fairest method would be to use existing umbrella organisations ie Whitfield Forum for Tenants (East) and Dundee West Communities Association (West) to identify delegates to put forward. The west delegate was identified, however Whitfield had no one to delegate at the time and supported a delegate from Craigie, which is in the East. The Best Value Review Group is set up to monitor progress and is a monthly meeting; however the most valuable work will be done through tenant involvement in the improvement plan. 4. Kirsty Wells, Independent Advisor, Tenants Information Service Showers – The conference opinion was split over this issue and the issue remains unresolved. Dundee City Council have included this in the inspection improvement plan. There is no consensus about how the showers should be paid for. Owners – It was felt at the Joint Conference that better publicity which promotes security might encourage owners to agree to door entry systems being installed. Diverting money from roofs to pay for showers – there was a feeling at the conference that money should be diverted from roof programmes to speed up kitchens and bathrooms. Craigforth Need Demand Study – the final report is still awaited by Tenants Information Services. It is due on 29th April. Financial Assessment – some remodelling has been done - Lower interest rates have a positive effect on the business plan - The rent increases of 4 and 6% showed large surpluses on the Housing Revenue Account therefore are not acceptable. - There is still an over reliance on receipts from Right To Buy sales and land sales. If the sales didn’t come through then the plan would need to be financed by prudential borrowing. Dundee City Council has couple of bits of land to sell in the next few months so this will test the market. - Dundee City Council is awaiting a new valuation of its stock. The debt on the houses should ideally not exceed 30%. - Tenants Information Services is still waiting to see a revised business plan in the next few weeks. Kirsty concluded her presentation by stating that Dundee City Council were being transparent with their information and were committed to working together through the Root and Branch Review. Rena thanked Gordon and Kirsty for their presentations and the tenants who attended the meeting. Annual General Meeting - Next General Meeting - |
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