Scottish Housing Regulator 2021-22 Landlord Report
North Lanarkshire Council · 16 November 2022
Back to Housing Committee — 16 November 2022 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Housing Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref SL/LS Date 16/11/22 Scottish Housing Regulator: 2021/22 Landlord Report From Stephen Llewellyn, Head of Housing Solutions E-mail llewellyns@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 274192 1. Background 1.1 The SHR and the SSHC were enacted by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010, which required Ministers to set standards and outcomes that social landlords should be achieving for tenants and other customers through their housing activities. The Act also established the SHR as an independent Regulator directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. Scottish social housing landlords significantly vary in stock size from 3 to 42,658 properties. 1.2 The SHR requires social landlords to collect and provide key information on their performance in achieving the SSHC outcomes and standards in an Annual Return on Executive Summary This report is to advise committee of the Landlord Report published by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) which shows Scotland’s social landlords’ performance for both Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords (RSL’s) against the Scottish Social Housing Charter (SSHC). Recommendations It is recommended that committee: (i) Acknowledge the content of this report and the link to the Landlord Report provided by the SHR in section 4 which identifies North Lanarkshire Council’s performance in relation to the SSHC. (ii) Acknowledge that a separate report has been provided to committee on 31 August 2022 on the Annual Assurance Statement. (iii) Acknowledge the progress being made in the production of our annual report to tenants. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities Ambition statement (1) Ensure a housing mix that supports social inclusion and economic growth
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the Charter (ARC). Returns are required by 31 May each year. Landlords also have a duty to publish a performance report, which requires to be made available to all tenants. 1.3 In addition, all landlords have a legal requirement to submit a signed Annual Assurance Statement to the Regulator by 31 October each year. A separate report on this was presented to Committee on 31 August 2022. 1.4 Following submission of each local authority and RSL’s ARC, the SHR publish a landlord profile of all social landlords, which allows tenants to compare landlord’s performance across Scotland. In addition, a Landlord Report is produced by the SHR which reports on indicators within five main categories: • Homes and Rents • Tenant Satisfaction • Quality and Maintenance of Homes • Neighbourhoods • Value for Money These areas for reporting were agreed by the SHR through significant consultation with tenants. These indicators require to be set in context as detailed in this report. 1.5 SHR publishes individual Engagement Plans in April each year for all social landlords highlighting any areas of service they will focus on to work with the local authority concerned. There are no current areas of concern however our Engagement Plan highlights those service areas which the Regulator monitors across organisations. 2. Report 2.1 On 31 August 2022, the SHR published its ninth Landlord Report reflecting the performance reported in each authority's completed ARC. At the time of writing this report, the Landlord Report has not been published as a separate document, but instead shows on the SHR’s webpage, therefore a link to the report for North Lanarkshire is included in section 4 of this report. 2.1.1 A comparison of the available data shows that North Lanarkshire Council has 13 Indicators in the top quartile and is consequently sitting 2nd across Scotland in the context of having the highest number of Indicators where performance is in the top 25%. 2.2 Landlord report categories A summary of the performance figures from the five main areas detailed within the Landlord Report is shown below. Homes and rents 2.2.1 This report indicates that the council are performing above the Scottish average in several areas reported. Average weekly rents are well below the Scottish average. The average rent for all North Lanarkshire properties reported in the ARC return for 2021/22 was £74.58 per week. When compared to others using the dataset available, this compares extremely favourably with the reported Scottish average for all landlords of £85.36.
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Tenant satisfaction 2.2.2 Our last tenant satisfaction survey was completed in August 2021 via telephone as opposed to the face-to-face interviews we have used previously. This change was necessitated by Covid restrictions which were still in place. Our performance continues to be strong despite the impact on services from Covid and for the majority of our satisfaction indicators we are above the Scottish average. 2.2.3 Overall satisfaction in the 2021 survey was 81.2% which was a 9.8% decrease on our previous survey in 2018 and 6.5% lower than the national average of 87.7%. It is likely that overall satisfaction decreased as a consequence of general disruption to all council services being halted or impacted by Covid restrictions rather than a decrease in satisfaction solely with Housing and Property services. The majority of local authorities who changed from face to face to a telephone or online survey have experienced a decrease in satisfaction. 2.2.4 There is a distinct difference in the baseline of those councils who saw an increase in satisfaction against those who saw the decrease in satisfaction: • Local authorities reporting an increase had much lower satisfaction levels prior to the new survey of between 73.81% and 86.92%. • Local authorities reporting a decrease had higher satisfaction levels prior to the new survey at between 81.64% to 94.77%, the largest drop in satisfaction was 20.33%, going from 83% to 62.67%. 2.2.5 The satisfaction level with opportunities to participate in the landlord’s decision-making process increased to 96.8% from 92.5% and is over 10% higher than the Scottish average of 86.6%. Our performance in keeping tenants informed remains strong at 92.6% (92.5% in 2018), against a Scottish average of 91.1%. Quality of the home decreased to 87.13% from 92% but remains above the Scottish average of 85.4%. Value for money of the rent charge decreased from 85.5% in 2018 to 78% in the 2021 survey. The Scottish average is 82.5%. 2.2.6 To continually improve satisfaction with our services, performance is monitored and reviewed within our service areas and with our contractors and partners. Internal performance reviews are carried out to ensure a consistent approach is being taken and procedures are being followed appropriately. Quality and maintenance of homes 2.2.7 The percentage of homes meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard was 70% compared to the Scottish average of 74.5% and Local Authority average of 69.6%. Most landlords saw a drop in compliance due to changes in the requirements. 98.5% of reactive repairs were completed “right first time” compared to the Scottish average of 88.3% and 94.8% of tenants who had repairs carried out were satisfied with the service they received, compared to the Scottish average of 88%. 2.2.8 Our time taken to complete emergency repairs was 3.18 hours on average compared to a Scottish average of 4.2 hours. This demonstrates a year-on-year improvement. 2.2.9 Our time taken to complete non-emergency repairs was 6.19 days compared to the Scottish average of 8.9 days. This reflects an element of focussed activity in this area to further enhance right first-time outcomes and service providers consistently exceeding target timescales.
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Neighbourhoods 2.2.10 For cases of anti-social behaviour reported in the last year, 99.1% were resolved at the year end and within the targets agreed locally, compared to the Scottish average of 94.7%. The remaining 0.9% of cases were carried forward to the following year and resolved within locally agreed targets in 2022/23. We therefore performed at 100% compliance for the targets agreed for the service. 2.2.11 A new satisfaction indicator was included in our 2021 tenant survey asking tenants if they were satisfied with their landlord’s contribution to the management of their neighbourhood. 88.4% of our tenants were satisfied which compares favourably to the national average of 85.1% and is considerably better than the local authority average of 81.2%. Value for money 2.2.12 Our rent collection levels for 2021/22 were 97.8% which is consistent with our 2020/21 performance. Our housing Central Rents team continue to secure more direct Universal Credit payments and pursue other non-Universal Credit tenant debt which has had a positive impact on the overall arrears levels. We continue to utilise the Universal Credit Assistance Fund for our tenants as approved by Committee in 2019. 2.2.13 Our average days to re-let homes increased to 31.81 days during the year mainly due impact of the pandemic, however we performed well when compared to the Scottish average of 51.6 days. Our housing and repairs teams are working together and liaising closely with our contractors to continually improve these timescales with a view to bringing our performance back to pre-pandemic levels. 2.2.14 Our void rent loss figure of 1% also compares favourably to the Scottish average of 1.4%. Monitoring rent loss continues to be a priority. Annual performance report 2.3 In line with the SHR requirements placed on the council to provide a report to tenants advising of performance against the SSHC, a group of tenant representatives has been working to review the performance data and to agree content and format for the annual performance report. The timescale for publishing the report is 31 October each year. A link to the annual performance report will be made available to all Members on publication. 3. Measures of success 3.1 All indicators reported on through the SSHC and ARC are included as a standard agenda item on each of the Housing Improvement Team meetings and Property Progress Team meetings that operate across all disciplines within both Housing Solutions and Housing Property and Projects respectively. These teams continue to review practices, procedures, and customer feedback to ensure that high standards of service delivery are achieved in all areas.
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4. Supporting documentation 4.1 There are no supporting documents, however, the full Landlord Report data is provided on the following link to the Regulators website. Stephen Llewellyn Head of Housing Solutions
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒
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If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g., Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? The completion of both the annual ARC and Annual Assurance Statement are statutory requirements and failure to submit on time is a risk and as such these are incorporated into the services overall risk register.