The Chair reported that Councillor Rowley had been unable to attend the meeting but provided the following observation in advance: “I hope the Panel will be reassured by the voids report.  For various unavoidable reasons detailed in the report, the time taken to re-let void properties was getting out of hand, and I know this has been a concern for a number of Members, including of course myself.  Officers have done very well to bring the problem so quickly under control: we are now well within our targets, and doing well on benchmarking.”

The Landlord Services Manager was pleased to report the progress with this matter since the team dealing with it had been reconstructed and the accompanying processes re-engineered, all of which had resulted in moving the Council’s performance (when compared with other authorities) from the bottom to the top quartile. Among other things, tenants now dealt with one member of staff throughout the process rather than several. There was stability in the new team which had settled down well.

Tenants are legally required to give 28 days’ notice of intention to quit. While the notice period cannot be shortened, in practice if a tenant wants to return the keys early, officers are pragmatic and can waive the rental charge so that void work can begin and the property can be re-let quicker. It was noted that the internal audit had seen no need to recommend the production of a formal policy to cover this area of work, regarding a service level agreement between the Council’s parties as being sufficient.

Officers were ready and willing to share the team’s good practice with other authorities as and when the opportunities arose.

Agreed that it would be helpful for Members to be given a tour of void properties.