Agenda item

Further to Minute No. 89(3) of 30^th November, 2009, the Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services reported on the detailed work that had been carried out by the Neighbourhoods and Adult Services Performance Team and 2010 Rotherham Ltd.’s Empty Homes and Performance Teams.  A new calculation methodology was also proposed from 1^st April, 2010.

Progress against the recommendations of the Scrutiny Review was as follows:-

Recommendation 1 - That improvements are made to the CBL process in line with the recommendations of the current Scrutiny Review

Progress had been reported separately by Housing Choices Manager

Recommendation 2 -That the verification process is made more efficient by screening out ineligible bids at an earlier stage

Reported as complete in November, 2009

Recommendation 3 – That clear criteria are published about the circumstances in which decorating vouchers will be issued to new tenants and that the allowance of £25 per room is reviewed

2010 Rotherham Ltd. had reviewed and clarified the process and clear information was made available to tenants via the website.  Complete.

Recommendation 4 – That in line with good practice demonstrated by high performing ALMOs consideration is given to a reward scheme to encourage tenants to leave properties in good condition

The “Fond Farewell” scheme had been up and running since October, 2009, and to be evaluated during April, 2010.  If it was identified that the scheme was saving money over and above that paid out, then consideration would be given to extending the scheme.

Recommendation 5 – That information is provided to Elected Members on a regular basis on the void properties in their Ward including reasons why a property is empty and when it is expected to be re-let

2010 Rotherham Ltd. continued to provide regular briefings to Members on empty properties in their areas.

Recommendation 6 – That more detailed information is provided when reporting on voids to give a clearer picture of why properties are empty and the financial implications

Empty properties were monitored via joint RMBC/2010 Rotherham Ltd. Working Group.

Recommendation 7 – That action taken towards the recommendations of 2010 Rotherham Ltd.’s Empty Homes Service Review ‘Every Day Counts’ be monitored and reported back to the Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel in due course

A further 2 of the 16 actions had now been completed (14 in total) – review of decoration allowance and review of all new procedures.

The joint Empty Properties Working Group had compiled a database of all properties that had been empty for over 16 weeks which was monitored and updated on a weekly basis.  A target was set to reduce the number of properties empty for longer than 16 weeks from 116 in November, 2009 to 75 by the end of March, 2010.  As at 31^st March, 2010, the figure stood at 76 with a further target set of 25 by March, 2011.

As a result of concerns raised by Members, the Council had carried out a series of reality checks and reported to 2010 that performance did not include voids requiring Decent Homes and other major works.  2010 had conducted an internal review of processes and agreed that the overall “turnaround” figure should include all void properties.

As a result of the new methodology to be used, performance will appear to drop in 2010/11 compared to previously reported figures.  Sub-indicators and targets would be developed so that it would be possible to monitor separately performance on routine ‘simple’ voids and on more complex voids.  2010 was to produce a detailed report setting out the new methodology and, once approved, would be implemented as from 1^st April, 2010.

2010 had put a significant amount of additional resources into reducing the overall number of empty Council-owned properties and as at 1^st April, 2010, 248 properties stood empty compared with 386 at the end of September, 2009.  Of the 248, 50 were not available for letting due to Neighbourhood Investment Service decision (19), non-traditional properties undergoing major refurbishment works (21) and Warden flats requiring further assessment before being let (10). 

Resolved:-  (1)  That it be noted that the recommendations of the Scrutiny Review had now been addressed by 2010 Rotherham Ltd.

(2)  That it be noted that the methodology used by 2010 Rotherham Ltd. to calculate void turnaround times would change as from 1^st April, 2010.