The Committee was presented with a draft copy of the Annual Council Housing Report for 2023-24.

The Committee was informed that the Annual Council Housing Report will provide tenants with information relating to the achievements of the Council over the last 12 months and to celebrate the successes. It will provide tenants with information regarding the services the Council provides and will give an insight into what they can expect in the coming 12 months.

The report also informed tenants regarding the number of complaints and compliments received. This was an opportunity to let tenants know that the Council did not always get it right first time, but if it didn’t, then it was committed to putting it right and to thank all of the tenants who took the time to compliment the Council.

In line with the new Consumer Standards introduced in April 2024, the Regulator of Social Housing was looking for registered housing providers to engage and communicate with their tenants and leaseholders on matters that were important to them in a more creative and meaningful way. Therefore, as part of this year’s Annual Report, both the Assistant Director (Social Housing) and Head of Housing Assets reviewed what had previously been produced as well as annual reports which had been published by other housing providers who were known to do engagement well.

The Head of Housing Assets advised the Annual Report was a working document and had been updated since publication of the agenda. Therefore, the latest version was circulated to Members at the meeting and sought their views on the content of the report prior to it being finalised. It would then be made available to tenants.

The Committee considered the report and highlighted the following:-

• on some of the figures presented within the report, it would be helpful to have some context to those figures for example a comparison with the previous year and/or other local authorities; and
• in relation to the ‘your rent matters’ page, it stated that 99.51% rent was collected which was an increase and that the total rent arrears were £1,086,981 for the year which had decreased, the Committee asked how there was a significant differential in terms of rent collected and rent arrears.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) advised that the rent arrears figure was the cumulative/total amount over many years; it was not a snapshot of the current year.

It was requested that the rent arrears section be rephased to state that it was a cumulative/total figure.

It was also requested that ‘rent arrears’ be a future agenda item so that the Committee could gain an insight into the scale/cumulative amount of debt, the reasons associated with those arrears and what work was being undertaken to support tenants whilst making every effort to collect the arrears.

The Committee requested that there be a section on this page and/or a designated page to state the importance of paying rent on time and what support was available should a tenant be struggling.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) advised that she would arrange for ‘rent arrears’ to be a future agenda item and that, outside of the meeting, she would circulate details to Members on the help available and would ensure that these details were included within the report.

The Committee commended officers on Annual Report in that it was really well presented and easy to understand.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.