Issue - meetings

This item was chaired by Diana Minns (Vice-Chair Tenant 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 progress of the service review and compliance related work detailed within the report.

    ii.         Noted the status of the compliance dashboard with reference to Electrical Inspection Condition Reports.

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 Property Compliance and Risk Manager and the Head of Housing Maintenance and Assets said the following in response to Members’ questions:

      i.         With reference to the table in paragraph 3.2 of the report advised that compliance with fire safety regulations required a fire risk assessment to be carried out. Actions arising from risk assessments would be subject to a programme of works. Regular meetings with Heads of Service took place to discuss these.

    ii.         Confirmed that a letter was proposed to be sent to neighbouring properties where damp, mould and condensation (DMC) had been identified to raise awareness about DMC. The proposed wording for the letters would be circulated for comment to tenant / leaseholder representatives as well as councillors on the Housing Scrutiny Committee.

   iii.         If a tenant reported a leak in their property, this would be responded to as an urgent repair. If the leak also caused DMC but this wasn’t reported by the tenant, this should be picked up by the operative when they undertook their visit and would be passed to the Condensation Team to respond to.

  iv.         Agreed to check the script provided to the Customer Services Team to see if there was a prompt / question about DMC when a leak was reported to try to join up and improve the service provided to tenants.

    v.         Work undertaken on DMC was being met within existing resources. If it was found that this work could not be undertaken within existing resources, the matter would be discussed with the Executive Councillor and a budget bid would need to be made. 

The Committee resolved by 9 votes to 0 to endorse the recommendations.

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.

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

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor.