To receive an update from settle on their work in North Herts.
Decision:
A presentation was received from settle Group providing information about the organisation, with a focus on the projects they have been working on over the last 12 months.
Minutes:
Audio recording – 3 minutes 16 seconds
The Chair invited Mr Anderson and Ms Coulson, from settle Group, to provide Members with a presentation providing information about the organisation, with a focus on the projects they have been working on over the last 12 months. Mr Anderson and Ms Coulson thanked the Chair for the opportunity and provided a presentation, accompanied by slides, which advised of the following:
· settle was a Letchworth based housing association with around 10,000 properties of which 8,600 properties were in North Herts.
· settle wanted to help their customers to comfortably live in their homes and to be able to lead the lives they wanted.
· They focused on being a good landlord and providing services that customers valued.
· settle wanted to provide quality affordable home and to also improve the areas where their homes were based.
· settle was regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) which was part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
· The Rental Reform Act would not have an impact on settle as it related to private landlords and not landlords providing social and affordable lettings.
· A main area of focus was providing a first-time fix of problems for their customers which was currently at 95%.
· There were robust anti-social behaviour policies in place and specific staff who worked with stakeholders to manage any anti-social behaviour.
· There had been around 400 customer complaints received so far this year.
· settle had a two-stage complaint process. The first stage was the raising of a complaint and if this was not satisfactorily resolved, a resident could escalate this to a stage 2 complaint by taking it to the Housing Ombudsman.
· settle was now investing £13 million in their properties.
· There was 97% customer satisfaction with the work carried out on their properties.
· Decent homes compliance was performing well with 99.6% being graded as decent.
· 37 homes were completed in the summer of 2022 at Kingfisher House.
· The John Barker Place development had only been delayed by 3 months due to the contractor going into liquidation.
· The new planning application for Hawksley Bungalows at Letchworth was close to being submitted and this would provide 157 new homes on a site where currently there were only 80 homes.
· settle provided new homes across North Herts, working with developers through section 106 contributions and were very happy to have been able to provide an adapted bungalow on one site, to meet specific needs of a family.
· They regularly worked with Cala, who lead on private sales and settle would oversee the affordable home sales.
Councillor David Levett advised the committee that he was a settle tenant.
The following Members asked questions:
· Councillor David Levett
· Councillor Daniel Wright-Mason
· Councillor Clare Billing
· Councillor Nigel Mason
· Councillor Ralph Muncer
· Councillor Adam Compton
In response to questions, Mr Anderson and Ms Coulson advised of the following:
· Section 106 contributions in North Herts enabled settle to charge the 80% target affordable rent to any properties with below 3 bedrooms.
· The government provided extra funding through Homes England which enabled settle to provide homes with social rent.
· There was a 32% dissatisfaction rate for complaints and analysis had shown this equated to only 20 customers.
· They had 260 open damp and mould cases and a team of surveyors and operatives had been set up to monitor damp and mould in any of their properties.
· One mal administration case had been filed this year and this was currently being reviewed by the Housing Ombudsman.
· settle had multiple solutions to assist with insulation of properties and would carry out either external or internal insulation depending on the age of the property.
· 63% of properties are at Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) standard or above and work was being carried out on the 600 properties that were below this to get them complaint.
· settle agreed to share their maps and software system, ‘Land Insight’ with the Council, which showed ownership of properties.
· settle had a mutual exchange process through which they promoted exchange of their properties through Home Swapper.
· If a property was overcrowded, it would be banded and entered onto the shared housing register which settle had with the Council.
· settle worked with the Council in cases where a property was at undercapacity.
· Robust repair policies were in place and stock investment analysis was carried out to find out what repairs were required.
· settle would not put any residents into hotels whilst they were waiting to move into the new Letchworth development and the decamp would be managed by utilising properties on site.
· settle was 100% complaint with Forward Rate Agreements (FRA) actions.
· Their viability rating had been downgraded to grade 2, which was still a compliant grade, due to changes in development of their financial matrix.
The Chair thanked Mr Anderson and Ms Coulson for their and for taking the time to answer questions from Members.