Receive (if any)

Apologies were received from Councillor Laurance Garrard and Councillor Osman Dervish. +Councillor Damian White substituted for Councillor Dervish.

Members are invited to disclose any interests in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.  Members may still declare an interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There was no interest disclosed at the meeting.

To approve as a correct record, the Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 3 February, 19 February and 6 March 20205 and authorise the Chairman to sign them

The minutes of the meetings of the sub-committee on 3 February, 19 February and 6 March 2025 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Report and Presentation attached.

At the request of the sub-committee, the Assistant Director of Housing Property Services provided Members with the Council’s current Damp and Mould Policy and the recent revisions relating to Awaab’s Law. 

The Assistant Director of Housing Property Services advised the sub-committee of some of the measures that are currently being undertaken to ensure compliance.

A new Damp and Mould policy was approved by Cabinet on 11^th June 2025. The revised policy sets out how the Council will deal with Dampness and Mould and clarifies the Council’s commitment to supporting residents’ health and wellbeing, through addressing any detected presence of damp and mould in its properties.

The new Damp and Mould Policy is based on the proposed Awaab’s Law, the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard and sets out to clarify the Council’s commitment to supporting residents’ health and wellbeing, through addressing any detected presence of damp and mould in its properties.

The Sub-Committee was advised that the policy confirms the Council’s commitment to comply with the current legislation and explains the circumstances in which we will manage the treatment of damp and mould.

The Assistant Director of Housing Property Services stated that the Damp and Mould issue within Havering is a complex matter with many contributing factors:

•       The Havering housing stock consists of older buildings which often come with low thermal efficiency.

•       Low thermal efficiency can create surface areas that are more prone to condensation. If left untreated, condensation allows mould to occur.

•       Housing pressures and overcrowding with larger families residing within smaller dwellings allows for excess moisture production.

•       Cost of living pressures prevent residents from heating their homes effectively.

•       Complex residents require additional support and strains already stretched services.

Members were advised that Havering have introduced the Damp and Mould MOT approach to help support residents over the cold winter periods when some of Havering’s property archetypes are prone to condensation based mould.  This provides mould treatments once a month for 4 months with a surveyors inspection which can determine and raise any required or additional remedial works.

The Sub-Committee noted the service are actively collecting and using data to highlight areas that are more prone to condensation based mould. This includes short-term and longer-term environmental monitoring, and thermal imaging surveys at scale.

Following discussion and question, Members agreed the following recommendations for officers to take away and consider for follow-up action.

Recommendations:

1. Data Analysis & Predictive Modelling
   The Sub-Committee to follow up with the officers/service regarding the feasibility of predicting damp and mould issues using demographic and community group data. This will support targeted intervention efforts.
2. Councillor Training
   The Sub-Committee suggested providing training for councillors on identifying early signs of damp and mould. While this has already been raised at Cabinet level, it was agreed it should be reiterated as a formal recommendation.
3. Annual Resident Communication
   The Sub-Committee recommended the introduction of an annual communication to all residents regarding damp and mould issues. This information should also be included in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.

Report and Presentation attached.

The Assistant Director of Housing Property Services provided the sub-committee with an overview on Voids. Members received an update report on the progress of the Council’s management of void properties within its housing stock.

Members noted that the key objectives for the housing service are to make void properties available for letting as quickly as possible, minimising rent loss and maximising the housing available. It is also to ensure that the homes we provide are clean, safe, secure and comply with the Council’s ready to let standard.

The Sub-Committee was informed that the council manages approximately 9,250 homes including Private Sector Housing (PSH) of which approximately 757 became vacant last year. It was noted that on average, there are around 80 voids with the maintenance & lettings service at any one time. Last year we received 14.5 voids per week.

The Assistant Director of Housing Property Services stated that the council’s customer satisfaction data relating to void performance was poor. Members were advised that the service have just launched customer satisfaction postcards that gathers resident’s feedback in relation to the voids and lettings service.

The sub-committee service is also implementing a pre-exit process lead by the re-housing and terminations team. During this time, a pre exit survey will be undertaken identifying resident recharges thus reducing the costs of works and the amount of work required. The introduction of the advance notice period will also allow for the pre-organisation and allocation of the correct resources

The Assistant Director of Housing Property Services advised that the historic void process was cumbersome with multiple tasks required prior to the raising of the main voids works order. The time between notification and the raising of the primary void works order was between 5-10 working days.

It was stated that all of the tasks have now been streamlined into the main voids works order eliminating the pre void period of 5-10 days. The only void work order raised is the primary void basket rate and this is raised and processed on day one.

The Sub-committee noted that Havering’s void performance when benchmarking against our London peers is not only top quartile performance, but also significantly outperforming top quartile performance.

Top quartile performance is considered 66.27 days with The London Borough of Havering’s current void performance is achieving an impressive 55.13 days.

The benchmarking data used is based on 2023-24 HouseMark Annual benchmarking for the same indicator measures (keys to keys) the average end-to-end time London council peer group.

The keys to keys turnaround times’ year-end 2024-25 returned a performance of 55.1 days against year-end 2020-21 80.2 days. The comparisons demonstrate the significant improvement in current Key-to-key performance of 25.1 days.

Following discussion and question, Members agreed the following recommendations for officers to take away and consider for follow-up action.

Recommendations:

1. Key-to-Key Process Data
   The Sub-Committee requested detailed data on the key-to-key process, including:
   • The point at which works are deemed complete.
   • The time taken from completion of works to property being re-let.
   • A breakdown of turnaround  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.