Issue - meetings

This item was chaired by Diana Minns (Vice-Chair Tenant Leaseholder Representative)

Matter for Decision

The report provides an update on the compliance related activities delivered within the Estates & Facilities Team, including a summary on gas servicing, electrical testing, and fire safety work.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Housing

      i.         Noted the status of the compliance dashboard with reference to Electrical Inspection Condition Reports. The compliance team were currently reviewing and consolidating Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) and Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR) data. The heating services and maintenance contract was to include the delivery of electrical inspections reporting from November 2022. The request related to Electrical Inspection Condition Reporting as data was being reviewed and verified and had not been completed at the time of reporting.

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Property Compliance and Risk Manager.

The Head of Housing Maintenance and Assets said the following in response to the Committee’s questions:

      i.         The cause for concern cards which were used by officers when undertaking inspections of properties had been updated to include damp, mould, condensation and fuel poverty concerns. It was noted that any officer within the council could refer concerns to the Condensation Team.

    ii.         The high proportion of concerns raised regarding condensation came from people living in older solid wall properties. It was expected that the number of concerns raised about condensation would increase over the winter months.

   iii.         The email address to report concerns about damp, mould and condensation to was condensation@cambridge.gov.uk.

  iv.         EIC stood for Electrical Installation Certificate and EICR stood for Electrical Installation Condition Report. An EIC could be accepted for an upgrade to a whole system within a property and it could reset the timer on the condition report.
An EIC could therefore act as a condition report for a new installation provided that it covered the whole system. The difference between an EICR and an EIC was that an EICR included observations which an EIC did not.

    v.         It was noted that there were some delayed repairs and complaints arising from a change in the heating services contractor. Datasets could be provided on request. Officers were monitoring the performance of the new contractor to ensure that performance of repairs was back up to 98-100%.

The Committee unanimously resolved to endorse the recommendation.

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendation.

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.