A star is born

While Medway Council’s housing stock is small the local authority’s plans for its homes are anything but with energy efficiency and quality high on the agenda

The council’s housing services have come a long way in recent years from a zero star rating from the A udit Commission to the strong twostar organisation of today, led by assistant director of housing and corporate services Deborah Upton.

She explains: “There was no housing strategy at the time of inspection and there was a lack of any strategic direction. There were only two people working in private sector housing out of a team of 14, there were virtually no staff, no HMO s had been licensed and there were only four homeless preventions that year.”

Upton’s main aim was to give “a clear sense of direction and leadership” and she restructured staff and introduced a robust performance management system, an improvement plan monitored on a monthly basis and a housing strategy that was fit for purpose.

The biggest areas of improvement have been in private housing and housing solutions, which covers homelessness. T here were about 650 people in temporary accommodation three years ago but the council has now exceeded the G overnment target reducing the number to about 130. The local authority now also deals with all homeless decisions within 33 working days, whereas several years ago there weren’t any targets in place. All Houses of M ultiple O ccupation that need licensing have also now been licensed.

"It was fantastic to discover that we had achieved two stars,” says Upton. “We were surprised because we are the first council that has ever made such a big jump and the Audit Commission said that it was tremendous progress to go so far so fast. It is a real tribute to the staff and the work that they have put in.”

The council is on target to meet the Decent Homes Standard for its stock of 3,000 units and is making great strides with its affordable warmth strategy with targets of decency for both private sector homes and its retained stock.

In terms of the private sector it has been successful in a bid from the regional housing board for cash to provide people with assistance towards improving energy efficiency in their houses.

It is also looking at an additional way of getting funding in through the community energy saving programme, and is making a bid for its own stock with a housing association partner for a programme of retrofitting, to provide air source heat pumps and biomass boilers.

Making sure that there is enough suitable and affordable housing to meet need and helping vulnerable people to lead independent lives are also priorities and the council has a number of schemes for client groups with particular disabilities including a group of flats for people with Aspergers. It is not just bringing its own stock up to standard that is important to Medway Council it also works with partner agencies to improve private sector housing.

The local authority’s Homebond system is linked to the private sector and properties are inspected for hazards before Homebonds are issued.

“ Medway is an area where housing is quite cheap and there has been quite a lot of poor quality housing so we have used our Homebond system to improve conditions in the private rented sector,” explains Upton. “We also have a very well-attended landlord forum and a landlord accreditation scheme so if you are an accredited landlord we will put someone in your property with a Homebond without checking your property.”

The council has its own temporary accommodation that it leases through an RSL subsidiary and has a very good relationship with Medway Housing Society, which has a stock of 7,000 units, meeting with the organisation regularly and carrying out benchmarking to ensure that standards are consistent across Medway.

New build is also an important part of the drive to provide more affordable homes and while the council doesn’t have its own new-build programme it has a target of 25 per cent affordable for new-build developments. “We have significantly over-achieved on our target and national indicator by working with RSL partners and developers to make sure that we maximise every single opportunity to get additional units,” explains Upton. “The team is very good at identifying opportunities where they can use funding to help deliver and we have a very good working relationship with our RSL partners.”

The drive to provide more new affordable homes is just another shining example of how this council has worked its way up from zero to hero in such a short space of time.