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Housing - Plans, Policies & Performance

The Housing Department manages the housing waiting list and a homelessness service which includes homelessness prevention, emergency housing and a comprehensive housing advice service. We are also responsible for implementing housing policy and the development of affordable housing within the district.

We provide services for our council tenants and leaseholders which include estates management, rent payment, sheltered housing, tenant participation, architectural and building maintenance services and council house repairs.

Our Services

• Housing – Estate Management
• Housing Maintenance and Repairs
• Rent Collection and Arrears
• Housing Advice/Prevention of Homelessness
• Special Housing Needs
• Housing Waiting List 
• Tenant Participation
• Supported housing
  

Service Aims

• To improve the quality of Council homes to provide a safe and pleasant environment in which people want to live
• To increase the availability of affordable housing by making best use of our housing and other assets
• To continue to deliver an excellent value for money service to people who live or want to live in Council homes 
• To provide a customer focused service through involvement of tenants, leaseholders and other stakeholders
  

Service Objectives

• Maximise the provision of safe, energy efficient, affordable housing
• Maximise, maintain and improve the condition of the Council’s housing stock
• Reduce homelessness
• Promote the development of sustainable communities 
• Foster tenant empowerment and partnership with all stakeholders
• Ensure good and continually improving environmental performance in respect of the Council’s housing function
• Promote equality of opportunity in relation to housing
• Provide good quality housing services that meet the chosen needs of tenants, leaseholders and the wider community, including supporting the needs of vulnerable people
• Collect all housing related fees and charges efficiently and effectively and ensure all services provide value for money
  

Service Standards

In addition to our Customer Charter we have adopted the following service standards that you can expect from us.

Housing Advice/Homelessness

We will:

• Prevent homelessness wherever possible 
• Provide an out-of-hours emergency service for people who are immediately homeless 
• Meet or telephone anyone presenting themselves as immediately homeless on the same day 
• Offer an appointment within 10 working days to people who believe they may become homeless within 28 days
• Aim to give a decision on homeless applications within 33 working days 
• Minimise use of bed and breakfast accommodation 
• Avoid use of bed and breakfast accommodation with shared facilities for pregnant women or families (other than in an emergency and then for no longer than 6 weeks) 
• Respond promptly to community emergencies by helping to establish rest centres where needed 
• Provide easily accessible weekly housing advice surgeries in Lewes, Newhaven, Peacehaven and Seaford 
• Maintain a telephone advice line on 01273 484001 every afternoon from Monday to Thursday (2.30 – 4.30pm) and until 4.00pm on Friday.
  

Housing Register

We will:

• Notify all new applicants within 15 working days whether they are eligible to be included on the housing register 
• Notify new applicants within 15 working days that their application has been registered 
• Visit and advise all new applicants in their home within 8 weeks of registering their application (unless they live outside of the Lewes District) 
• Review all applications every 12 months 
• Keep Housing Register applicants informed through a newsletter published every 6 months

Estate management

We will:

• Inspect all estates/communal areas every 12 weeks and arrange for necessary works.
• Remove abandoned and illegally parked cars on Council land within 4 weeks of being reported.
• Respond to complaints of harassment, neighbourhood nuisance or anti-social behaviour within 7 days.
• Re-let empty properties to an agreed void standard.
• Provide all new tenants with a Tenants Handbook explaining their rights and responsibilities.
• Visit all new tenants within 6 weeks of moving in and ensure they have settled in

Tenant participation

We will:

• Encourage the setting up of Tenants’ Groups
• Hold an annual Tenants Conference.
• Provide a Tenants Resource Centre in Lewes and access to administrative support in other areas.
• Provide a minimum of 4 meetings a year for tenants to monitor the housing service.
• Review our Tenant Compact every 3 years.
• Send out our newsletter ‘Housing Link’ and tenants newsletter ‘Tenants Voice’, to all Council homes 3 times a year.
• Provide training for tenant volunteers to enable full and active participation
• Provide a broad range of ways for tenants to be involved in housing services decision making process e.g. hold focus group meetings, carry out surveys etc. 
• Recruit and train a panel of tenant scrutineers, inspectors and mystery shoppers, to enable effective co-regulation of the housing service.

Rent collection and arrears recovery

We will:

• Advise all new tenants of payment options and ways of accessing all relevant benefits.
• Assist with completion of Housing Benefit forms
• Take action on rent arrears after 2 weeks.
• Provide advice and support to tenants having difficulties paying their rent.
• Provide choice of payment methods, including direct debit, standing orders, payment by credit and debit cards and an automated telephone payment system.

Repairs

We will:

• Provide an emergency out of hours service.
• Carry out all emergency repairs within 24 hours.
• Offer appointments for all non-emergency repairs.
• Notify you in writing when repair work is to be carried out.
• Give you a feedback form to comment on the work that has been carried out and investigate all reports of poor service within 4 weeks.
• Leave a card saying we called if no-one is at home.

Transfer and exchanges

We will:

• Acknowledge transfer applications within 7 days of receipt and arrange the delivery of a Homemove welcome pack within a further 14 days.
• Visit transfer applicants within 8 weeks to confirm details and inspect the property.
• Process all applications for mutual exchange within 6 weeks.
• Visit applicants for mutual exchange within 2 weeks of receipt of application form

Sheltered housing

We will:

• Provide a 24 hour call monitoring service to our sheltered schemes when the Scheme Manager is not available.
• Provide a communal room on each scheme for social activities
• Encourage and promote social activities on our sheltered scheme
• Provide area offices as a base for our sheltered scheme managers
• Provide named key worker for each tenant

Equalities

Under the General Public Sector Equality Duty (2010) we must :-

1. eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation;
2. advance equality of opportunity between different groups in the community; and
3. foster good relations within the local community

We carry out equality impact assessments (EIAs) for new or existing policies, strategies and services to see what effect they will have on different groups within our communities.  This helps us to identify potential consequences for these groups and ensure any negative impacts are eliminated or reduced.  They can also help us to identify actions to eliminate discrimination and promote positive relations between groups which are incorporated into our Departmental Service Plan.

Further information is available on our Equalities Policy and for copies of our Equality Impact Assessments.

Developing and Improving our Services

As an important frontline service we are always focussed on good customer care, service performance and value for money. There are a number of factors which effect what we do both national and local. The main drivers for change likely to impact the department in the coming years are set out below:

National drivers for change

• The economic recession;
• The new coalition government has introduced changes to housing finance;
• The new Public Sector Equality Duty;

Local drivers for change

• The change in political administration following the District Council elections in May 2011;
• Pressure on budgets arising from a challenging savings target.
  

Performance, Progress and Forward Plans

We have reviewed our progress and performance last year.  A summary is provided here.

PDF
 Housing Department – Service Plan - Progress & Performance Report 2010-11 (0.62mb)

PDF
 Housing Department – Service Delivery/Improvement Plan 2011 – 2012 (0.11mb)

PDF
 Housing Services Business Plan (2.12mb)

PDF
 Tenants Annual Housing Report 2011 (3.03mb)

Departmental Policies & Strategies

We have a number of departmental strategies and policies for which we are responsible. These guide various aspects of our work and include:-

PDF
 Anti-social behaviour policy (0.50mb)

PDF
 Choice Based Lettings - Allocation Policy (0.39mb)

PDF
 East Sussex Local Investment Plan (1.55mb)

PDF
 Housing Strategy (0.56mb)

PDF
 Homelessness Strategy (0.31mb)

PDF
 Housing Business Plan (2.12mb)

PDF
 Older Persons Housing & Support Strategy - 2011-2015 (1.12mb)

PDF
 Private Sector Housing Renewal Strategy (0.42mb)

Tenants' Compact

This is an agreement we have with our tenants and leaseholders demonstrating our commitment to work win partnership to improve housing services. It details a variety of ways tenants and leaseholders can be involved.

PDF
 Housing Services Tenants' Compact (1.90mb)

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