Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member for Housing Services attached.

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services presented the report which set out proposed changes to housing functions including the permanent addition of several key roles within service. The changes will ensure the service is able to deliver improved services to tenants, ensure tenants’ homes are safe and well maintained and that the Council meets the requirements of the Regulator for Social Housing’s (RSH) Safety and Quality Standard.

Councillor Bernstein raised a question regarding the financial implications of the proposed changes. He asked, in the context of a return to zero-based budgeting, how confident the service was in its ability to achieve a significant level of efficiencies.

Sian Grant, Director of Housing, responded that the service had undertaken a review of the repairs function and was actively identifying areas where efficiencies could be made. She confirmed that the service is committed to delivering value for money while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and maintaining high-quality outcomes for tenants.

Decision:

The Cabinet:

1.    Approved the additional full-year costs of £979,527 from the HRA for the proposed structures as set out in the body of this report.

2.    Approved the proposed structures outlined in the report for the repairs, building safety and asset management structures as a basis for a 30 day consultation with Trade Unions and affected staff.

Reasons for the decision:

To support the delivery of efficient and effective property services to Bury Council tenants, ensure our council homes remain safe and well maintained and to ensure we meet the requirements of the RSH’s Safety and Quality Standard.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

To maintain the current structures. This is not a viable option, the current structures are interim structures which are staffed with either permanent staff TUPE transferred from Six Town Housing in interim roles or are interim agency staff. This is leading to a high level of uncertainty within the affected teams. In the case of the both the asset management structure and the building safety structure the structures are not fully staffed and this is impacting the ability to deliver core housing services to tenants.