Landlord Panel - 4 June 2025

Location: North Tyneside Council offices, Quadrant, Cobalt Business Park

Attendees

Tenant members: Linda, Kimberley, Patricia

Cllr Sandra Graham, Cabinet Member responsible for Community Safety and Climate Emergency

Peter Mennell, Director of Housing and Property Services

Dave Foster, Head of Property Services

Toby Brown, Head of Housing Management

Angela Melvin, Housing Engagement Manager

Apologies: Apologies have been received from tenant member Sav, and Cllr Harrison. PM chaired the meeting.

1. Minutes of the last meeting and action log

Notes of the last meeting were agreed.

Action log: Neighbourhood Strategy – a lot of work has been done since this was first considered at the Estates and Communities Panel last year. TB reported that the team is currently consulting with council staff outside the housing service. A draft will be shared with the Landlord Panel once available.

2. Review of draft annual tenants’ report 2024-25

AM went through the first draft and tenants were given a paper copy to consider at home, to provide feedback by Tuesday 10 June.

A comment made on the initial look through was that the tenant voice needs to be heard throughout, telling the story of change.

There was general discussion around understanding who our tenants are and the need to gather up to date equality and diversity data. This also helps us understand vulnerabilities. The panel felt this data is best captured as part of face-to-face conversations, such as the tenancy home visits, so we can better explain to the tenant why we are asking for this information.

A tenant member asked whether home visits could ask tenants about their skills, and whether they have experienced stigma as a social housing tenant. TB replied that the Estates and Communities Panel will look at this further, linked to work on the Neighbourhood and Community Strategy.

The panel would like to review our current tenant profile at the September meeting.

PM suggested that our tenant members could potentially present the annual report/challenges we are addressing, at the Secure sub-committee.

3. Quarterly Reports:

The panel had received the performance scorecard, annual complaints report and quarterly engagement report in advance.

Performance scorecard

Lift safety checks – the requirement is to have 100% of inspections done every six months. There are six lifts in our general needs stock, the rest are in NTL schemes which are covered by a PFI provider. DF explained that the provider missed the inspection deadline on 16 lifts. These have all been done since, but they hadn’t been by 31 March, which is when data for the Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey is collected. At that point, only 41% of our lifts had been completed. We will need to report that to the Regulator. We are very disappointed with this and performance failure deductions will be taken against the PFI provider. It was noted that low levels of performance on key measures like this could trigger an inspection.

Electrical inspections (56.7% of properties have had an inspection within the last five years) and stock condition surveys (43.5% of properties have had a survey within the last five years) – progress on these was considered at the last panel meeting as part of our self-assessment. Figures have continued to improve since these figures were reported. The targets for both are 100% by March 2026 and March 2027 respectively. Performance and delivery against these indicators are also monitored through the Repairs and Investment Panel.

Tenancy review visits (recently re-named ‘tenancy home visits’) – TB explained this is a brand-new measure and was also discussed at May’s meeting of the Estates and Communities Panel. The target for 2024-25 was 4,500 and 1,448 had been achieved. TB had provided a briefing note with the meeting papers to provide context:

This was an ambitious target for a new indicator, with no previous benchmarking data available
Visits are revealing some complex issues and tenants requiring a range of support
For comparison, Gateshead have a target figure of 10% of properties and we have done roughly that
We are reflecting on this year’s performance to adjust the target to be more realistic – targeting those with vulnerabilities, and tenants we don’t know as much about
Additionally, our NTL properties (900+) are well supported, so could be excluded from this indicator

A tenant member asked whether a target of 10% was sufficiently ambitious? TB replied that we have changed our process to reflect what we have learned. There are around 20 officers currently doing the visits, alongside other work. We have also recently made improvements following feedback from the Estates and Communities Panel, who suggested amendments to the wording of the letters used to arrange the visits, and to the name of the programme, to better reflect their purpose as being to support our tenants and get to know them better.

Another panel member asked about whether visits from different housing teams could be co-ordinated? DF responded that we can do that in some cases, but some visits are on different cycles, eg for the safety inspections.

The panel agreed for TB to review the home visit target so it is challenging but achievable, with a 10% target mentioned to allow a focus on quality visits, targeting the most vulnerable tenants. There would be flexibility to move this throughout the year and progress would be fed through the Estates and Communities Panel, as well as the Landlord Panel, with a rationale for any changes.

Communal inspections (57.4% for 2024-25) and new tenant visits (41.7% for 2024-25) – these have been low, but are increasing now. TB will supply additional papers for context and to outline what we are doing to improve. These indicators will be monitored by the Estates and Communities Panel.

Complaints

The panel reviewed data from 2024-25:

A total of 326 complaints were received at Stage One (compared to 329 in 2023-24)
Of these, 124 have been escalated to Stage Two.
98% of all complaints were responded to within timescales within the period
44% of the complaints were upheld, or partially upheld
Property Services complaints have reduced by 22%, with a 34% reduction in Responsive Repairs complaints compared to the previous year
Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) results show a significant increase in satisfaction with our complaint handling

DF explained that a particular highlight is the number of complaints relating to condensation, mould and damp reducing by 50%. This reflects improvements over the last few months – including a designated team and video diagnostic capability to help deal with issues quickly. Tenants have told us these issues are a priority and we have invested in resources to improve.

Housing Services complaints have increased in this period (109 for 2024-25, compared to 46 the previous year). This is partially due to the Community Protection team being brought back under Housing Management and the increased visibility of the teams since the implementation of a more estate-based Neighbourhood Housing Team.

Overall, we view our complaints data as positive. We have greatly improved our complaints handling processes over the last year, working closely with teams to review every complaint and learn from it. Each tenant panel is receiving a regular complaints update as part of their meeting papers.

A point to note with regard to Stage 2 complaints, is that a tenant doesn’t need a reason to go to Stage Two – it can simply be that they disagree with our response to their Stage One complaint.

The Housing Ombudsman has ruled maladministration in five of our cases, for a mix of reasons. Often, cases they become involved in are from complex households. We have complied with all the Ombudsman recommendations.

Engagement

Work to give our tenants more opportunities to share their views and get involved in the service have been developed over the last year, including:

Tenant panels
Focus groups
Drop-ins
The Our North Tyneside Voice engagement website
Consultations on policies and proposed changes
Our annual event
Our annual report
Better promotion, to promote opportunities and provide feedback

PM fed back that teams within the service were finding our engagement work beneficial and it was leading to better understanding of tenant needs.

The panel asked about a project included in the report, where a graduate trainee with the engagement team is working with a small group of young tenants (predominantly care-leavers), and some young people’s support organisations, to better understand their challenges and how the housing service can support them. AM replied that work is in progress on a handbook specifically for young tenants, developed with the young people, which various housing teams have been involved with.

A tenant member asked if young tenants could have a ‘buddy scheme’, where a neighbour can be a point of contact for them. This could be picked up as part of wider work on ‘being a good neighbour’, which the Estates and Communities Panel is reviewing.

AM reported that tenants registered on the Our North Tyneside Voice website (just under 600) are broadly representative of our tenant population as a whole, but our tenant panels lack diversity and AM is seeking to address this. At the moment, any tenant who has expressed an interest in being on a panel is on a panel.

The panel noted the report and are happy with the progress being made.

4. Any Other Business

AM informed the panel that the annual event has been booked for Friday 26 September. We will be looking to have discussions sessions once again and involved tenants will be invited to lead these on their tables. AM will share more details nearer the time and there will be an opportunity for tenants to volunteer.

The panel would like more time at these meetings, so it was agreed that the next one will have an earlier start time.

AM invited the tenants to suggest topics for future discussion.