Minutes:
Allen Macpherson, area housing manager presented this item. He outlined the structure of the teams: area management, asset management, investment planning, business support services and home ownership which deals with sales and leaseholders.
The area housing office in the Rotherhithe area is responsible for:
· 3500 tenants
· 1000 leaseholders
· 640 garages
· Covers Rotherhithe & Surrey Docks plus part of Livesey wards
· Some non-estate properties
· Housing estates include: Bonamy, Tustin, Canada, Abbeyfield, Albion, Hawkstone, Osprey, Chilton, Swan, Adams Gardens
· 2 estates with concierge
· 2 sheltered Housing Units
Key activities
· Rent income - £17.8m annual debit
· Arrears – currently £680k
· Notice to seek possession (NSPs) currently 600 per year
· New lettings – currently 220 per year
· ASB & nuisance currently 150 cases
· Tenancy checks
· Cause for concern particularly for vulnerable adults
· Customer visits/calls
· Resident Involvement work
· Estate checks every 6 weeks – communal repairs
· FRAs – Fire Risk Assessments
Rotherhithe major works
· Maydew House: Cabinet agreed all tenants needed to move out. 17 households have found a new home. A further report is to be considered at cabinet to set out options for the building.
· Hawkstone Estate: Major scheme agreed as part of programme by the previous Executive. The work involves refurbishing John Kennedy House and low rise properties. Consultation for this is underway.
· Lift renewal and refurbishment: Major work to lifts on Silverlock and Silwood Estates planned but currently delayed with no start date.
· Minor refurbishment work to Maydew House lifts due to start 30 January 2011.
· Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) related work undertaken at Canada estate recently.
Your Service Your Choice
· What is Your service, your choice?
The next few years will see big changes in the way the council run their housing service and Your service, your choice is the name for the conversation the housing service want to have with residents to involve them in the decision making.
Further information would be provided to community councils, area housing forums and Tenants and Residents Associations (TRAs).
Vangent Customer Service
Adrian Jones from the client side of the service centre was present to discuss the call centre figures for housing repairs. During his presentation he referred to the waiting time for calls, including the volume of the calls. He mentioned that the one stop shop at Spa Road would be relocating but remain in the north east of the borough – hoping to find a more accessible location.
Adrian responded to questions regarding the long delay in the service centre answering calls, drop call after waiting etc. Adrian explained the call is traced back and the person is then contacted. Any delay with calls is an exception rather than a general rule.
The chair thanked the presenters for attending the meeting.