Agenda item

To consider the attached report of the Chief Executive (East Kent Housing).

The Director of Customer Services (East Kent Housing) advised that the Chief Executive (East Kent Housing) had sent her apologies for the meeting. In her absence the Operations Manager Compliance & Maintenance (East Kent Housing) and himself were in attendance and they presented the latest Compliance Report to the Committee as part of the East Kent Housing (EKH) Update.

Compliance Report

The compliance report covered both communal blocks and domestic properties and reported the following levels of compliance:

Communal Properties

·         Gas – 100.00%

·         Asbestos – 35.92%

·         Passenger Lifts – 100.00%

·         Fire Risk Assessment – 100.00%

·         Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) – 29.15%

·         Fire Alarms – 100.00%

·         Legionella Risk Assessments – 100.00%

·         Emergency Lighting – 100.00%

In respect of the EICR target, the certificates were held by a mixture of EKH, Dover District Council and Mears. The data for EKH and Dover District Council had now been combined and Mears were due to supply their data shortly. It was estimated that this would increase the performance from 29.15% to a figure in the mid-30% range. The expected target for completing the missing EICRs was February 2020.

In respect of Fire Risk Assessments (FRA), there were the following outstanding actions:

In respect of Water Hygiene Actions, there were the following outstanding actions:

Domestic Properties

·         Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) – 58.66%

·         Gas – 99.97%

·         Smoke Detectors – 88.77%

·         Asbestos – 20.44%

The Director of Customer Services (East Kent Housing) advised that the costings for the asbestos work had been sent to the councils and that it was anticipated that the asbestos targets would be achieved by mid-December 2019.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

The Director of Customer Services (East Kent Housing) advised that Mears conducted satisfaction surveys for approximately 38% of all repair works undertaken. This was primarily through the Mears operative providing the tenant with their personal digital assistant (PDA) device. Members were advised that the operative would not see the answers to the two questions and a number of follow-up validation assessments were undertaken by Mears. In addition, resident scrutiny had conducted a review in January 2018 with a follow-up review in January 2019 that had expressed a strong degree of confidence in the results of the surveys and was consistent with the data from Mears own validation assessments.

If a resident requested, they could complete the survey via the post or over the telephone instead of using the PDA. However, historically postal response rates had always been very low when it was the primary survey method.

RESOLVED:   That the officers from East Kent Housing be thanked for attending the meeting.

(Councillor T A Bond declared an Other Significant Interest (OSI) in Minute No. 37 (East Kent Housing Update) by reason of his position as a Director of East Kent Housing to which he was appointed by the Council and withdrew from the meeting for the consideration of the item of business.)