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Audit Commission Inspection Report (April 2004)

 

Strategic Housing Services

 

Report Summary

 

  1. Peterborough City Council is a unitary authority in the East of England. Designated a 'New Town' in 1968 and now part of the London-Stansted-Cambridge (LSC) growth area, the population has grown to 156,050 of which 10.3 per cent are from minority ethnic communities. Over the coming years, the population of the city is set to continue to grow to 181,800 by 2016.
  2. The council is Conservative led with 30 of the 57 seats.
  3. The council employs 5,500 staff across all services with 60 staff working in the Strategic Housing Division in the Community Services Directorate.
  4. The inspection of the Strategic Housing Services covered:
    • Access to services and customer care;
    • Equality and diversity; housing strategy, enabling;
    • Supporting People;
    • Housing needs, homelessness and housing advice;
    • Housing register;
    • Private sector housing; and
    • Performance management and value for money.
  5. Peterborough's Strategic Housing Services are estimated to cost the housing general fund £2.38 million for 2003/04. The capital budget for the current year for housing renewal assistance and adaptations through disabled facilities grants is £2.675 million.

    Scoring the service

  6. We have assessed the council as providing a 'good', two-star service that has 'promising' prospects for improvement. Our judgements are based on the evidence obtained during the inspection and are outlined below.
    The scoring chart displays performance in two dimensions. The horizontal axis shows how good the service or function is now, on a scale ranging from no stars for a service that is poor (at the left-hand end) to three stars for an excellent service (right-hand end). The vertical axis shows the improvement prospects of the service, also on a four-point scale.

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  7. Residents in Peterborough find it easy to access the city's Strategic Housing Services. There have been marked improvements in access to services as a result of the creation of the housing options service early in 2003, which is situated in the central library. There have also been noticeable improvements in services resulting from the review of homelessness and through the Supporting People programme introduced in April 2003. These recent improvements were cited by users, voluntary organisations and housing association partners alike.
  8. The council has a good understanding of the local housing market where house prices are well above the regional average. Peterborough has a low wage economy, which because of the high costs in home ownership, results in a very high demand for social housing. The pressure on the local housing market has been accentuated by the city's designation as a cluster area for the dispersal of asylum seekers. The council has coped well with this increase in demand.
  9. We identified the following strengths:
    • All customer service points in the central library and the citizens' advice bureau are easy to access, comfortable, with polite and helpful staff. Frontline staff are knowledgeable and helpful. Telephones are answered promptly and efficiently and there is an informative council website from where information and advice can be downloaded.
    • Care and Repair is piloting a new service which means hours of working will be adjusted to meet the needs of clients who are visited in their homes.
    • The council has a good understanding of the local housing market and has used its capital resources to fund new social housing. During the current year the council has secured £5 million from the Housing Corporation for the delivery of 130 affordable homes.
    • The housing options service that is based in the library offers an excellent translation service, which is immediately accessible using a dual phone system.
    • The support being given to asylum seekers and refugees is impressive. There are excellent working relationships with national asylum support service's agents for accommodating asylum seekers.
    • There has been a successful ballot for transfer of the council's housing stock to Cross Keys Homes.
    • The shadow Supporting People strategy was rated as 'excellent'. Since 'floating support services' were commissioned and funded by Supporting People, there has been a much-improved service and a marked reduction in the number of former clients returning for assistance.
    • The council ceased use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families in October 2003, five months ahead of the ODPM deadline.
    • Direct access and temporary accommodation provided by both the council and by Peterborough's partners is of a high standard.
    • The council determines homeless applications quickly. Ninety per cent of homelessness applications are being determined within 33 days with an average time of 22 days.
    • The council operates its own highly successful in-house home improvement agency (HIA), Care and Repair. A successful house doctor home maintenance skills project in central ward is funded through the new opportunities fund.
    • Progress is being made in dealing with the 700 plus long-term empty homes. The council has a policy and practice of using compulsory purchase where persuasion fails.
  10. Despite the clear strengths described above, we identified some weaknesses some of which were already being addressed through strategic housing's five service plans:
    • A range of housing information leaflets is available but only a few are in languages other than English.
    • Signposting to the housing advice service provided by the Advice Alliance is not adequate. The appointments system restricts clients to same day appointments and is not satisfactory.
    • More work is needed to fully understand and address the housing and support needs of BME and other diverse groups, such as travellers.
    • Delivery of homes through planning obligations under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 has historically been poor. However, the council now takes a robust view on delivering affordable homes through planning obligations and recent section 106 agreements have required that 30 per cent of large housing developments should be affordable. Given the very high demand in Peterborough for affordable homes, the existing local plan threshold of '25+ homes' that triggers a requirement for affordable homes is too high.
    • Although a good start has been made in using the new resources for Supporting People in the community, greater focus is needed to maintain the impetus.
    • There has been no coherent annual review of housing conditions carried out to identify unfitness, disrepair, multi-occupation and opportunities for area renewal. The council has not yet started work to identify vulnerable people living in non-decent private sector homes.
  11. The Strategic Housing Service has promising prospects for improvement. We make this judgement for the following reasons:
    • Peterborough City council has a clear recent record of tackling difficult issues and seeking continuous improvement. Much of this work has been overseen by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Best Value Policy Overview Committee.
    • There are clear mechanisms for positive and productive dialogue between the housing portfolio holder and officers with a high level of commitment from senior officers and members to the role of the strategic housing service.
    • Individuals and teams are clear about how they contribute to corporate objectives via their service plans and personal targets.
    • The council has taken a bold decision to use the flexibilities provided by the health acts to improve services to older people by pooling budgets.
    • Choice based lettings will improve transparency and choice. The council has commissioned a review of the 'accommodation needs of older people' in Peterborough.
    • To measure and to monitor performance a simple balanced scorecard reporting system was developed by strategic housing and is now being rolled out across the council.
    • The adoption of a specific management model to track processes and to identify and eradicate unnecessary tasks and duplication has had clear benefits.
    • New effective partnerships with external agencies have been forged. These organisations report that working with the council is positive and effective.
    • The council encourages feedback and complaints and can demonstrate that it uses this as a way of improving housing services.

      However:

    • There is a recognised serious lack of capacity in the housing advice service.
    • The council does not yet have an effective corporate strategy for delivering additional affordable homes through planning obligations under section 106 of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act.
    • Budgetary control for renovation grants and disabled facilities grants needs to be monitored more robustly.

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