Agenda Reports Pack (Public) 15/10/2012, 19.00 - Meetings ...

Building a Housing Ladder of Opportunity - Housing StrategySection 4 - Better, streamlined council housingservicesKey Facts - Hammersmith & Fulham:• Has approximately 82,000 homes in the borough, of which nearly athird are owned by the Council or other social landlords (26,000homes) with the remaining two thirds (56,000 homes) in privateownership.• Provides direct services to residents living in 17,500 homes managedby the Council. 13,000 homes are for rented by tenants with theremaining 4,500 owned by leaseholdersSee Annex 1 for more informationImprove resident involvement and satisfaction in housing and widermanagement services4.1 Responsibility for the management of the council housing returned tothe borough from Hammersmith & Fulham Homes Ltd. (the arms lengthmanagement organisation) in April 2011. Now managed by theCouncil's Housing and Regeneration Directorate, the Council directlyprovides housing management services to over 17,500 tenantedhomes and leasehold homes.4.2 The Council is determined to increase the quality of housingmanagement services and will need greater resident involvement tomake that happen.4.3 In March 2012, the Council adopted a Resident Involvement Strategyand Action Plan designed to promote the Council’s accountability as ahousing service provider to its residents, whilst providing a means forresidents to feedback and improve those same services. In terms of theprinciples to the approach, the Council will increase the number anddiversity of residents involved; widen the ways in which residents canbe involved; ensure resident involvement delivers continuousimprovement, value for money and services shaped by residents;ensure that residents have the information needed to monitor andmake accountable housing service provision.4.4 The Council also intends to introduce greater transparency on the costsof housing management provision. An initial means to achieving thiswill be through the introduction of tenant service charges, providingclearer information on the cost of various estate management services.As importantly, there is the broader objective of increasing awarenessto tenants and other interested parties the levels of expenditure andincome from rent and the public purse required to support the servicesprovided.18Page 378