Issue - meetings

To consider the attached report of the Strategic Director (Operations and Commercial).

The Head of Assets and Building Control presented the report on the Adoption of Housing Stock Compliance Policies.

It was stated that East Kent Housing had found itself in the situation where a significant proportion of its housing stock did not have up to date gas safety certificates. As a consequence, Members were advised formally that they could no longer place reliance on the fact that the Council was discharging its statutory duties with respect to the health and safety compliance of its housing stock. The resultant recovery plan was predicated on creating and adopting robust health and safety compliance policies, together with devising and implementing robust methods for ensuring operations were in accordance with these policies.

The statutory nature of health and safety compliance determined most of the policies. The policies had been drafted by an external organisation with considerable experience and expertise so that the Council could place reliance on the new policies.

In response to a question concerning the state of the digital record keeping for compliance information, the Head of Assets and Building Control advised that the intention was to have a robust digital record to enable tracking and reporting on the level of compliance. It was suggested that a report could be made to the committee in the future on the progress in digital record keeping for compliance once the housing service had returned to the council’s direct control.

Members discussed the need for regular reporting on compliance performance during the transitional phase of moving the service back in-house to ensure that performance continued to improve and did not slip again.

RESOLVED:  That it be recommended to the Cabinet:

                        (a)     That the Council adopts the suite of policies, written on behalf of the four local authorities whose assets are currently managed by East Kent Housing, which relates to the various aspects of statutory health & safety compliance associated with managing housing stock.

(b)     That Cabinet delegates to the Strategic Director (Operations and Commercial) the authority to adopt minor amendments.

(c)     That a report be submitted to every Cabinet meeting for the next six months on the Key Performance Indicators relating to safety compliance and that the continuation of this be reviewed after six months.

To consider the attached report of the Strategic Director (Operations and Commercial).

Responsibility: Portfolio Holder for Housing and Health

It was agreed:

(a)   That the suite of policies, written on behalf of the four local authorities whose assets are currently managed by East Kent Housing, which relates to the various aspects of statutory health and safety compliance associated with the management of housing stock, be adopted.

(b)   That the Strategic Director (Operations and Commercial, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Health, be authorised to adopt minor amendments.