Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Gurdip Bungar and Councillor Jordan Meade.  Councillor Alison Williams and Councillor Alan Metcalf attended as their substitutes.

The minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 11 November 2025 were signed by the Chair.

Councillor Lyn Milner declared an interest in agenda item 10, Consumer Standards, as she was awaiting adaptation works to be carried out in her home.

The Committee were presented with the Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy.  The purpose of the report was to update Housing Cabinet Committee on the requirement for a Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy and consultation with residents.

The Head of Housing Assets outlined key points from the report:

•           The Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy was a legal requirement of the Building and Safety Act 2022.

•           Secondary legislation under the Building & Safety Act 2022 stipulated that as part of this strategy the Council must:

-           make provision to inform residents of works carried out as the result of a building safety decision. 

-           Update residents of dates and times of when work would be undertaken and to how disruption would be mitigated.

-           Explain how any consultation responses would be considered.

-           Explain how records of the Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy would be kept.

-           Explain how consultations would be carried out within the Resident Engagement Strategy and the building safety decisions within it.

-           Use appropriate methodologies for all, which may include digital, in person events or poster engagement.

-           Ensure appropriate steps were taken to make all residents aware of consultations for a reasonable period of no less than 3 weeks.

•           In order to achieve a building safety certificate, the Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy was mandatory.

•           Failure to meet the new requirements was a criminal offence.

•           Consultation of the draft strategy had begun at the start of March, with the Council’s 5 high rise buildings – Carl Ekman House, The Hive, Chantry Court, Gravesham Court and Homemead Court.  Consultation would continue until the end of March. 

•           In order to ensure engagement was appropriate for all residents, a variety of consultation methods were being undertaken including door knocking where demonstrations of the My Building Safety app were provided.

•           There had been much resident interest in joining the Building Safety Resident Panel.

•           It was a requirement for all consultation feedback to be logged appropriately.

Following questions from the Committee, the Building Safety & Investment Manager updated that throughout the high-rise buildings, the ambition was to gain feedback from approximately 450 residents.  The Head of Housing Assets added that the consultation had already achieved a 40% response rate at the Hive and Carl Ekman House, with similar levels at Gravesham Court and Homemead Court. Feedback was being tracked, so those who had not responded could be contacted in the coming weeks.

The Building Safety & Investment Manager presented the My Building Safety Application, which had been launched recently and provided a short demonstration and overview.

•           The application was available to all residents of residential blocks to download via their phone app store or QR code. 

•           The application provides building safety information bespoke to their residential block. Information included all survey inspections, maintenance carried out, any concerns found, such as issues relating to fire safety, asbestos, gas safety, electrical safety, water safety, structural integrity and lift safety. 

•           The app would provide information documents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

The Committee were updated on the current work being undertaken to ensure that housing services were engaging with tenants, ensuring tenants were at the centre of decision making and ensuring compliance with the new consumer standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) outlined key points from the report:

• Gravesham had a Tenant and Leaseholder Strategy which outlined commitments for affective engagement, including being transparent, publicising engagement activity with a range of engagement methods and topics, consulting tenants and leaseholders, plus providing feedback.
• A housing hub had been established with senior officers visiting a variety of locations across the Council’s housing estates, on a monthly basis to engage with Council tenants and leaseholders, dealing with any resident concerns.  So far over 170 tenants had been engaged with at the 4 sites visited.
• The council had an existing partnership with Kent Police but would soon welcome the NHS, who would offer residents welfare, blood pressure checks and so on.
• A tenant celebration day is planned for 11 April 2025.  The event is sponsored by key partners and will provide an opportunity to meet tenants and build relationships.
• A digital platform has been introduced that will enable tenants with the option to self-serve, report a repairs etc and in addition the housing service are also using the corporate GoVocal platform to consult and advertise events.
• The Housing team were looking to create a new Tenant and Leaseholder Involvement Panel with 10-12 members.  The purpose was to ensure the effective work of the Council, having regard to objectives and the legal and moral obligation to both tenants and leaseholders. The aim was to provide tenants with a voice and the opportunity for the panel to attend future Housing Cabinet Committees.

Following questions from the Committee, the Assistant Director (Social Housing) updated that:

• There would be a Leaseholder Panel in addition to the Tenant & Leaseholder Panel.  The Tenant & Leaseholder Panel would comprise of 12 members - 10 tenants, the Chair of the Leaseholder Forum (representing the Leaseholder Panel) and the Chair of the Independent Living Forum.  There was a member structure within the agenda pack on page 69.
• The Assistant Director would establish if the terms of reference, code of conduct, expenses policy and structure would form a constitution for the Panel and would inform Members outside of the meeting.
• A new Tennant Engagement Manager (soon to be appointed) will be supporting the panel.  The Code of Conduct documentation set out in the report on page 59, outlined the confidentiality policy and sanctions for any breeches.  The Gravesham audit team had also checked the papers and were satisfied.
• Every member of the Tenant & Leaseholder Panel would have a voice and would be overseen by the Tenant Engagement Team, led by the Manager.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

The Committee were presented with the proposed new Tenant and Leaseholder Vulnerability Policy.  The purpose was to seek Member views prior to ratification by the Cabinet Member for Housing.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services advised that as a responsible housing provider, the Council’s aim was to ensure everyone could access the help and services they needed.  It was noted that vulnerabilities could manifest in many ways and therefore a number of examples were outlined in section 6 of the policy, on how officers could recognise vulnerabilities in residents.  The policy would ensure safeguards and where vulnerabilities were detected, adjustments could be made and determined on a case-by-case basis.

Following questions from the Committee, the Head of Neighbourhood Services updated that:

• Opportunities to engage and detect any vulnerabilities took various forms including meeting tenants at the new housing hub events and through tenants calling the repairs team.  The policy would be referred to by staff to help the team detect vulnerabilities, with transparent conversations to assist and signpost residents where needed.  The Assistant Director (Social Housing) advised that the aim was that the policy would become a daily conversation, ensuring that teams were able to recognise signs of vulnerabilities in every interaction, so should become second nature.

• The policy is designed to target those who may not be able to sustain a tenancy and therefore included trigger points to assist in identifying issues, such as was a property being well looked after, rent arrears, and so on.

• The Neighbourhood team was due to expand and would therefore mean that the workload would be more manageable and provide opportunity for better engagement with tenants moving forward.

• The policy had not undertaken a resident consultation yet however, the suggestion to conduct user testing of the policy was a good idea.

• The housing hubs had proved a useful indicator of vulnerabilities, with the face-to-face interaction and an invaluable opportunity to engage and to help residents.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

The Committee were presented with the new Tenant and Leaseholder Compensation Policy.  The purpose was to seek Member views prior to ratification by the Cabinet Member for Housing.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services advised that the policy would provide a clear, consistent and fair approach in regard to the compensation of tenants and leaseholders, in situations were there had been service failures, delays or inconveniences due to the organisations actions or omissions.

The policy outlined how remedies were determined with three categories of compensation; Mandatory/statutory payments, reimbursements/refunds and discretionary payments.

The policy would enable improved tenant satisfaction, reducing complaints and also demonstrate a commitment to accountability and high service standards.

Following questions from the Committee, the Head of Neighbourhood Services updated that:

• Financial compensation was provided on a case-by-case basis, where there had been a service failure.  The policy related to stage 1 and 2 complaints.  There were exclusions outlined in section 4 of the policy, where compensation would not be possible.
• Any fraudulent claims were noted to be unlikely, as the decision to agree compensation would be officer led with due diligence checks undertaken.  If there was an element of uncertainty, the fraud team would be consulted.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

The Committee were provided with a presentation which detailed Social Housing Consumer Standards and the revised Consumer Standards for social housing providers that came into force on 01 April 2024.  The presentation was available within the agenda pack.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) explained that the new standards were introduced to protect tenants and drive improvements in the services of social landlords. Since the new standards were introduced, officers had been working towards reaching compliance and ensuring that there was viability and a clear transparent plan on how these standards would be met.  The action plan set out Gravesham’s position and had 4 standards to address:

-        Safety and Quality

-        Transparency, influence and accountability

-        Neighbourhood & Community

-        Tenancy Standard

Members were informed that the action plan could be found in appendix 1 of the agenda pack and had been presented to Cabinet in February 2025. Progress throughout the plan would be shared at future Housing Services Committee meetings.

Members thanked the Assistant Director (Social Housing) for a clear and concise presentation. The Committee were informed that the standards discussed would also be emailed to all Members of the Committee in due course.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

The Committee were presented with the Annual Social Housing Complaints and Service Improvement Report 2023/24.  The purpose was to update on housing related complaints received.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) explained that the Social Housing Regulations placed responsibility on the Housing Ombudsman to monitor compliance with the Statutory Complaints Handling Code.  The last self-assessment was in April 2024 and would be reviewed again this year.

Members attention was drawn to section 4 of the report, which highlighted key statistics which included that:

• 86 stage 1 complaints had been received, in which 39.5% were upheld.
• 9 stage 2 complaints had been received in which 11.1% were upheld.
• 50% of stage 1 complaints related to repairs, which mirrored national trends. 
• 44% of stage 2 complaints related to tenancy management.
• 2 Ombudsman cases, which had concluded that 100% had no maladministration by GBC, which was positive.

Operational Improvements had been identified and were set out in the conclusion of the report on page 136. These included improved communication, consider recording of calls, updating of policies and improved customer service.

Work had been undertaken with the Chartered Institute of Housing to ensure staff had in depth training and as from September 2024, complaints were forwarded to the Cabinet Member of Housing for review, offering another level of assurance that complaints were dealt with effectively.

The Chair noted the great success of the housing hubs, which had identified issues swiftly.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

Members were presented with the Corporate Performance Report: Q3 2024-25.  The Assistant Director (Social Housing) highlighted key headlines from the report:

•           PI 26 – It was noted that the Private Sector Housing team had worked hard to ensure residents within the borough lived in good conditions with notices being served on 8 private properties, due to identified safety issues.

•           PI 27 – The borough had the highest number of licensed HMOs to date, which stood at 82.

•           PI 33 – The average verified rough sleepers had fallen to 19.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

The Committee were presented with the Housing Assets Compliance Report Quarter 3.  The Council’s Housing Assets Team managed the occupation, refurbishment and maintenance of the Council’s residential properties and were therefore responsible for the safety of residents under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Housing Act, the Fire Safety and Building Safety Act and other associated legislation.

The Building Safety & Investment Manager gave an overview on each element of the dashboard together with the work that had been carried out in Quarter 3 in relation to the Council’s compliance and position in respect of fire, gas, water hygiene, asbestos, lifts, electrical safety, energy performance and damp and mould.  A new section relating to housing stock condition and decent homes, had been included in the dashboard, to monitor how the Council was performing in line with the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018.

The Chair praised the team for their work, ensuring the safety of Council homes, noting the recent survey indicating that 91% of GBC housing stock were classified as decent homes.

Following questions from the Committee, the Building Safety & Investment Manager informed Members that:

• High rise sprinkler systems were inspected on an annual basis.  Systems were checked and it was noted that some systems also had back up battery supplies, in case of power cuts, which were also tested annually. Such information was now available on the My Building Safety application.  Individual flats were also checked annually where access could be gained.
• Certification of safety checks were not displayed in the flats, but where available via the My Building Safety app.  Displaying within buildings would be resource intensive due to the turnaround of inspections, with some on a monthly basis.  The app was an effective way in keeping information up to date.
• Where access to individual properties had proved difficult, entry would be tried again.  With fire door inspections, the regulations required the Council attempt access to their best endeavours.  Gaining access proved resource intensive as several attempts would be made.  Evidence was required to show attempts to gain access.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.