Council Tax does not equal Rent Increase

Had a good swap of emails with an opposition member yesterday, regarding his proposal to reduce cyclical maintenance in the budget, in order to peg the increase in social housing rent, to be the same percentage as the proposed council tax increase.

At first glance, the principle of keeping the rent as low as possible drew my interest, and I'm always one to investigate such a possibility, whether it comes from a Tory colleague, or the opposition. However, on further detials, and consideration, I believe that the proposal confuses good aspirations, with a slight lack of medium-to-long term thinking, and, a simplistic view of percentages.

The budget for cyclical maintenance has been pretty low in recent years, and both main parties in Waverley held the same desire to increase this, but both have operated under the same horrendous constraints of the negative housing subsidy. However, even in this envrionment, it is myopic to think that saving money now on maintenace, will not translate into greater costs in the long-term.

Therefore, deciding to increase this maintenance budget by 60% for 2009/10 is a considered, and responsible step. A proposal to reduce it in order to align two percentages, which don't in reality relate, may well be more political posturing than community compassion.

In the words of a fellow councillor:

Rent is a charge for the right to occupy a dwelling and for it to be maintained by the landlord (in contrast to homeowners who meet their own maintenance costs as well as paying mortgage charges in most cases) while Council Tax is charged for the services provided to all occupiers, irrespective of the nature of their tenure.

As landlords it is imperative that we are honest and accurate about our budget needs, and certainly must do our very best to maintain our housing stock to as good a standard as possible. This year's increase of 60% represents that judgment, and adjusting that to match council tax as a percentage, and thus make a good headline, is not good leadership.

Live! From the council chamber

Is this the first blog post from the Waverley council chamber?

18.59: Just been asked by another councillor to chat about blogs after the meeting. Excellent.

19.20: Well, I'm at the Community Overview & Scrutiny Committee, and in a short but very appropriate item on communications with tenants, and the key being frequent updates, rather than being kept in the dark.

19.26: STATUS Survey - 85% overall satisfaction, on a response rate of 56%.

19.34: But, once broken down a bit, it reveals some real differences between, say, younger families and those in sheltered accommodation. Satisfaction of younger people is significantly lower, and this maybe due to type of home being unsuitable.

19.42: John Swanton makes a good point - that even where issue is sorted out, the solution may not be to the tenant's preference, and therefore not deliver "satisfaction".

19.55: Just shared some puzzlement at some of the survey questions - puzzlement shared by the officers! I wish we were allowed to add supplementary questions.

20.20: A great review of the Careline service - a wonderful provision for those who need it.

20.34: Hurray for technological innovation - the extensions to this service include smoke alarms, fall detectors, external door detectors. All sorts of comfort for those in need.

20.46: Bit of a discussion about reliability of technology - the risk that it doesn't work, especially once the 24 hour fault reporting service is demised. Very unlikely, but what about monitoring / polling of units from the centre?

20.50: So, tech possible, but we don't use that version of the equipment yet.

21.03: Councillor Webster has just introduced the performance stats in his own inimitable style.

21.09: And concluded by agreeing for Councillor Wilson to replace me on that sub-committee.

21.14: Just learned that WBC have to pay council tax on its own void properties! E.g. £60,000 pa on Rowland House alone.

21.19: Good news item - 100% gas servicing.

21.20: Meeting closed. Home I go.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Txt 2 u

Moving into the 21st Century - that was my thought when I noticed a story on the front page of the latest Homes and People magazine for Waverley's tenants and leaseholders. Regular readers (10 of you?) will know that I'm geek - a fan of gadgets. And so text messaging is something I use every day (although not as much as my Mum).

The story is about the fact that EPS, the company who carry out housing repairs on behalf of the council, can now text residents to remind them of when they are coming. What a great, simple, useful idea. With the prevalence of mobile phonea almost 100% now, this should give a lot more people more certainly when waiting in for EPS to call.

I don't have an answer...

... to some resident queries. And this fact particularly distressed me tonight when I visited a family who feel under siege in their home due to the terrible behviour of neighbours who treat the road as a private playground, with scant regard for anyone else around.

I so wished I knew just what to do, and that everything would be alright, but I know that it's going to be a lot harder than that. But, I did feel that this family, whilst wishing in many ways to be living somewhere else, are also prepared to be of the solution. If I can find a few more families nearby willing to be involved, perhaps this 'community' will find a way of healing its fractures.

Frustrated from Wrecclesham

At least, that's the way I feel like signing my emails today. I've been striving to represent a number of residents of a small new development in the village, who feel very much ignored / frustrated / badly treated by the property management company chosen by the builders to manage the estate. It's resulted (after 18 months of well documented meetings and letters) with a debt collection company threatening the residents, some of them elderly, with County Court Judgments.

Now, I dare say as with all situations, there are reasonable explanations of mistakes in communication, but there's no excuse for such a hardline attitude, particularly after the building company had committed not to do so.

However, my frustration is compounded by the sheer inability for the property management company to find anyone of any authority to speak to me, from 10.35 this morning when I first made my call, until now, almost 6 hours and 7 phone calls later. In my view, this tells me that the issue isn't important to them, and there lies my ultimate frustration: that we give planning permission for a development of homes, only to result in a new part of our community upset and angry and not enjoying living in our village.

Arghhh.....

Hands up if you want to concrete over the South-East?

Ah, that will be the Secretary of State then.

If a development of 2,500 dwelling at Bordon/Whitehill didn't seem enough, then you'll be pleased. The Secretary of State has increased this provision to 5,500!

5,500!!!! And where, I hear you all ask, is the associated plan for infrastructure - roads, doctors, dentists, schools.. - that must surely accompany it. Well, I think that it's buried in a number of other documents, but at 54 pages, I haven't quite read the whole of the 'Regional Transport Strategy (Chapter 9 of Regional Planning Guidance for the South East RPG9'. And, I'm certain that it doesn't include a by-pass for Wrecclesham. However, it does make reference to our area - recognise / understand any of this? I'm pretty certain it was written by Sir Humphrey:

Delivery of the necessary step change in the development and management of the transport system is likely to require the adoption of an 'integreated management' approach to the delivery of investment across all modes, supported by the consistent application of a strong suite of supporting mobility management measures.

The SoS's proposals to change the existing plans must be open for public consultation, and the 12-week period has just started. To make comments you can visit the Government Office for the South East website.

I'll try not to do it again

It's an unwritten rule for me: don't publish the Waverley Press Releases on my blog. Blogs need to be original content.

However, I must make something of an exception by way of quoting one that arrived at my inbox just a few minutes ago. It's about our negative housing subsidy (that I only blogged about again just last night), and is written passionately:

The Borough’s director of housing David January is a speaker at the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference in Harrogate on 18 June as part of a session titled “The Housing Revenue Account is dead – long live the HRA?”

He says that because the borough now contributes 48% of tenants’ rents to the Government as negative HRA subsidy it is unable to meet the Decent Homes Standard.

“We have started a campaign group to argue for a sustainable housing finance system for council housing,” he adds. “I passionately believe that the current system is grossly unfair to all local authorities with housing stock and that the HRA subsidy system is a pernicious tax on tenants and local decision making.”

The best committee meeting I've attended

Tonight's Community Overview & Scrutiny (or Overview & Mutiny according to one tongue-in-cheek council officer) was fantastic. I simply can't think of another committee where all the papers attached to the agenda are about topics that so clearly, directly, and acutely, affect the way residents live their lives, and especially the most disadvantaged and socially excluded residents.

Maybe it was also the fact that a few councillors couldn't make it, and so the committee was slightly smaller than normal, but, its momentum and dynamics were spot on, with wide-ranging contributions and discussion, and high-quality input from the officers attending. In the departments represented, its obvious that the teams are committed to their work, and are seeking to do a great job.

Much of the agenda regarded our housing in the borough, and the nightmare scenario of the next few years, during which the amount of rental income that we must give to central government will reach 58%! That's right, 58% of rental income will make up the negative subsidy (what a horrible phrase) that the government insists we give to them as we are so clearly a borough that doesn't need the funds. Serious sarcasm.

What rot. It makes no sense at all. The papers with the agenda last night make it all too clear that our borough does not have the finances to sustain toleration of this kind of daylight robbery. By 2012 we will have zero in our reserves, and scrape by on a minimum fund for maintenance and repairs.

Much praise must go to our chief executive and out-going head of housing David January for speaking up so clearly and loudly on this issue, but as yet, there's no public sign of a change of policy (or heart).

Rent Asunder

I don't think that I've ever bought a copy of the Guardian. There we go - my confession of the day. However, today would have a good day to break that vow of abstinence, as the paper covered what we in Waverley have been making a noise about for some time now: our negative housing subsidy.

It's a tragedy that because Waverley is perceived (in many ways accurately, but only in general terms) as a wealthy borough, it's pockets of poverty are dealt an awful hand by way of the central government's treatment of housing rents. We give back to the treasury 47% of the £23 million! Imagine what we could do with those funds to improve our housing stock, the lives of our tenants, and our communities.

Thanks to the efforts led by Waverley, this issue is now receiving the attention it deserves.

So, something that I didn't think I'd be writing in my blog today - I take my hat off to the Guardian.

Re: Structure

Some more movement at the top in Waverley. David January, long-standing director of Housing, is leaving Waverley in July, after 21 years service, and also Sheila Goodall, Housing Services Manager, after 18 years.

This gives the opportunity to create a new department of "Community Services". It's a title that's close to my heart, as I love the Community committee, where we debate and decide on matters relating to how our communities are served by what Waverley does, and in many ways, serves the most needy and vulnerable.

Great news within this, is that John Swanton will take responsiblity for the Housing Service within this new department - an experience and passionate leader, with an equally enthusiastic and able team.

It's good to talk - and act!

As my wife reminds me - "I want actions, not just words!" And so I've eventually put a new list on the side bar of useful telephone numbers.

Actually, I was also prompted by a meeting I had in the council offices this morning, when I was given a little postcard with most of these numbers. Really handy, and just the kind of thing that I'd put on my fridge door.

Walkabout

I've just returned from an 'estate walkabout' around Beldham Road, Cobbett's Way, and Greenfield Road. These are conducted periodically with the Tenant's Panel, Housing Dept, and the organisations that conduct repairs and grounds maintenance.

Today we spotted quite a lot of things that will be brought to the attention of the correct parties, and hopefully moved on swiftly. I've included a few of the photos in this post. I'd be really happy to revisit if we've missed something.

And finally... Pat Wright, the chair of the Waverley Tenants' Panel, has asked me to appeal for a volunteer to act as a local monitor for the area. This would simply be a matter of periodically looking closely around these few roads, and ringing through any issues to the council, who will deal with them straightaway. It's a great way to ensure that local issues are raised and resolved quickly. Please do let me know if you're interested!

It's good to talk - again

Following on from a few weeks ago, I've listed a few more key phone numbers below. One of these days I'll create a side bar item down the right to keep them our neat and tidy and to hand.


Tenant Repairs : 08009 547 548
Emergency out-of-hours repairs : 02392 242161
Emergency central heating services : 08009 179306

Statistics, damned statistics, and, BVPIs?

Every Overview and Scrutiny committee of the council reviews a subset of BVPIs (Best Value Performance Indicators). Last night there were a few cynical comments about accuracy, necessity and coherency of the set of indicators we use.

I have a foot in both camps. Whilst I think that some statistics can be nonsense when they aren't designed to encourage specific desired behaviours, and therefore simply become numbers that 'they' want to see, it's also possible that these indicators can truly show how well we are doing. This is the case for many of our Community stats, and I hope will continue to do so. There are things that Waverley do really well, and we should be proud of them.

It's good to talk

I've had reason to hunt out various phone numbers today, so here's a list of those I've used, that are probably pretty popular with residents of Waverley:

Graffiti hotline - 01483 523405
Tenant reporting repairs - 08009 547 548 (repairs@waverley.gov.uk)
Potholes - 08456 009 009

If I get a moment, I'll add an item to the righthand menu with key phone numbers.

Stats? No, Best Value Performance Indicators

There are many requirements on local councils to measure and report on their services. Thankfully, in the new tax year the number of these mandatory statistics is reducing quite drastically to 198! (See this exec briefing paper)

At first glance some of them seem at worst useless, or at least out of the control of the council (i.e. crime numbers). However, being on the sub-committee that reviews the indicators for community issues (housing, maintenance, safety), I'm finding that these numbers do actually reveal a good understanding of how well our services are working out. Our performance isn't perfect, but in many areas we are well over the target, and where not, are working hard to be so.

The devil is always in the detail of course, and in these instances it's understanding the exceptions, and acknowledging the often personal circumstances of tenants (for housing indicators), or homelessness enquiries, that mean our actions are appropriate, but don't always result in a nice statistic.

You will find the housing performance numbershere.

Waverley Tenants

A couple of weeks' ago I posted about the Special Interest Group (SIG) looking at Landlord Services in Waverley, and how it would be responding strategically to the challenges facing us when our next audit of these services is conducted in late 2008.

Well, a key section of that SIG is comprised of participants from the Tenants' Panel. I received an email yesterday from its chair, Miss Pat Wright, and along with details of the current tenants serving on the panel, she mentioned that she would be very pleased to have more offers of help.

The panel is a key way for the council and its councillors to hear about the critical issues in our housing services, and thus enable us to address them. If you think you might be able to give some of your time, and live in a Waverley owned property, please do consider offering. We want to get our services right, but can only do so if we are informed clearly and coherently, from across all areas of Waverley.

Contact Pat Wright: http://www.waverley.gov.uk/tenants/involvement.asp

Members and Tenants

On Wednesday the Members' and Tenants' Special Interest Group came together to review the results of the mock inspection of Landlord Services in the borough. A thoroughly comprehensive report of over 200 slides of presentation (usefully summarised to 60 at our meeting...), demonstrated the value of such an exercise, directing us to both practical and strategic issues we must address before our official inspection in October this year.

Building on our last inspection when Waverley were given a promising one star, we're aiming for two stars this time. That means the continuation of the good work on grounds and maintenance, the further development of the council's approach to anti-social behaviour, and a renewed equality and diversity policy across all the services.

Oh, and I should say that if any tenant of Waverley wishes to be involved, then the Tenants' Panel would be delighted to hear from you. Pat Wright is the chair, and details can be found at http://www.waverley.gov.uk/tenants/involvement.asp