Presentation by the Head of Housing and Public Protection on future plans for Homes in Havering.
Minutes:
The Head of Housing and Public Protection thanked the Committee for the invitation and confirmed that, currently, the Council and Homes in Havering (HiH) remained separate organisations.
The ALMO had been set up originally as it was the option chosen, after consultation, to receive and administer the Decent Homes funding from the Government. The HiH Board was made up of four Councillors, four tenants and four independent directors. The Council was the sole shareholder in the HiH company.
The Comprehensive Spending Review following the 2010 election agreed to keep the Decent Homes Programme but required Councils to now find 10% of the funding direct. There was no longer a requirement to keep an ALMO in order to obtain the Decent Homes funding. Havering had been allocated a total of £62.7 million funding compared to an original bid of £112 million although this was still considered sufficient to deliver the Decent Homes programme.
The Council undertook a consultation with tenants between October 2011 and February 2012. The Council’s offer to tenants and leaseholders indicated that Council control would allow costs savings of at least £300,000 per year by for example combining Council and HiH call centres. The Council had also undertaken to maintain the quality of service and to deliver the Decent Homes programme.
The results of the consultation had indicated that 31% of tenants had wanted to keep HiH and 48% wished to return to Council control while 19% had not indicated a preference. This had resulted in Cabinet deciding in March 2012 to bring HiH back into the Council with a target to achieve this by 1 October 2012. A project board for the reintegration had been established, chaired by Cynthia Griffin. The HiH Board had agreed they would sign the termination agreement at their next meeting in early September and the Acting Chief Executive added that the independent directors wished to make sure that the directors were discharging their responsibilities properly.
It was confirmed that TUPE regulations did apply to the transfer and an HR sub-group was considering this. All permanent HiH staff would transfer to the Council on the same terms and conditions. There would be around 150 permanent staff transferred with a further 20-30 staff on fixed term contracts which would be extended to the end of March 2013. The TUPE protection period would last two years but reorganisations could still be undertaken during this period.
There would not be many changes for tenants as a result of the transfer and there would be no change to the tenancies themselves. The HiH Board would be abolished and a residents’ forum set up with the proposal that this be chaired by the relevant Cabinet member.
The new organisation would be called Havering Homes and Housing Service although the only immediate changes as regards branding etc would apply to letterheads and signage at the Chippenham Road building. Staff would not be moved from Chippenham Road and rebranding costs would be kept to a minimum. The overall costs of the transfer would not be more than the savings from the transfer generated in year one i.e. £300,000. The Council’s logo would be put on the HiH website with effect from 1 October 2012 but it was planned to have dual websites running for a period of three months.
Councillor Kelly explained that the rebranding was needed as it was important that the Council showed tenants that their requests for change had been listened to. The Council wished to avoid having a two-part service which would be confusing for tenants.
The termination agreement had been reached amicably with a unanimous vote of the Board in favour.
The repairs contract with Morrisons expired at the end of July 2013 and would shortly be retendered. It was clarified that Morrisons normally used a sub-contractor for void properties.
It was confirmed that a residents’ forum was used in many other areas and the Council felt that it was important to account to tenants. The aim was for the forum to look at the overall standard of service and housing policies etc.
There were approximately 2,500 leaseholders in Havering with around 20% of properties sub-let to others. Leaseholders were also consulted and favoured coming back into the Council. Leaseholders would have two representatives on the residents’ forum.
The Committee NOTED the update.