Agenda item

Further to Minute No. 56 of 10^th December, 2009, Jane Davies-Haire, Landlord Relations Manager, 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 on void turnaround performance.  A new calculation methodology was also proposed from 1^st April, 2010.

As at December, 2009, 3 of the 7 recommendations had been complete and the remaining 4 on target for completion.  A summary of progress was as follows:-

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 ( a decision was taken to retain the decorating allowance at £25).  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 was still being evaluated.  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 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 2 remaining actions (incentives to stay and review of the process of backdating tenancy commencement dates) were still to be completed.

A database of all properties that had been empty for over 16 weeks had  been compiled and was monitored/updated weekly. 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 would 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 decisions (19), non-traditional properties undergoing major refurbishment works (21) and Warden flats requiring further assessment before being let (10). 

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues/comments highlighted:-

-        New methodology made sense

-        Proposed required major structural work could legally be excluded from the figures

-        Push nationally to illustrate rent loss through voids rather solely turnaround times

-        Every property was treated on an individual basis

-        Standard of re-lets – representatives of Rotherfed to carry out spot checks?

-        Why can there not be 24 hour turn round of a property given that in many cases there were was pre-termination notice so any problems resolved at the pre-termination inspection?

-         Decent Homes coming to an end so there should be no more complex voids

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Resolved:-  (1)  That it be noted that the recommendations of the Scrutiny Review have 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.

(3)  That the evaluation of the Fond Farewell Scheme be submitted to this Scrutiny Panel when completed.

(4)  That a report be submitted on private sector landlords and void properties.