Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee - Tuesday 13 January 2026, 6:30pm

Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee
Tuesday, 13th January 2026 at 6:30pm

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Good evening.

Welcome to this first housing regenerations committee meetings for 2026.

Happy New Year to you all.

My name is Ahmad Khan and I will be chairing this meeting.

This meeting has been recorded and broadcast for the council to website, council website

for public being.

If a technical error prevents online attendees participating

in the meeting, I'll make the decision

how to proceed the meeting after taking advice

from the officers.

Members should only speak to my directions

and ensure that you speak clearly into your microphone.

If the courtesy, please, have your mobile phone on silent

and people joining online, can you keep your microphone

on mute, except when you're speaking.

Those of you attending online and wish to speak, please raise your hand function.

We have a new DSO who would have been formally introduced to the subcommittee, but I understand

that Justina will be covering this meeting tonight.

So we'll hold off until the next meeting for the formal introductions

So I'm thank you just enough coming and covering

Thank you is the extra work you did we gave you say to buy goodbye to you last time, but it was it was a goodbye

So probably this this time it will be but goodbye for from this meeting

Just just do we have any apologies

Yes, Chair, I have apologies from Councillor Amin Rahman and apologies from Councillor Kabir Ahmed.

Thank you, Justina.

Apologies, sorry. Councillor Iqbal Hossain is substituting for Councillor Amin Rahman.

Thank you.

Before we move on to DPI, I'm sure many of you would have heard that news, but I want

to take a moment to acknowledge the recent death of our sound back star, our corporate

director.

If I'm sitting here, I can feel that he is sitting on one of these chairs, because frequently

he used to come to this meeting and put in his expertise to our members and answer these

by his not here anymore with us.

Both the mayor and CEO have put the statement,

but I'm too one to acknowledge the Simon commitment

to the public service and lasting impact he has made

across the organisation and our residents.

On behalf of the colleagues here today,

I want to express my condolences to their families,

friends, and all who work along with him.

Simon will be missed and his contribution

will not be forgotten.

Thank you.

Can I ask committee members to introduce themselves and declare if you have any DPI?

If any, please indicate which aspect is it.

State water is of a personnel of judiciary nature.

Provide the explanation for these declarations.

Can I now remind members that the guidance not to declare the interest including on page

7, 8 of the Agenda Pack. So if you are in any doubt, please refer to this guidance.

So I start from Asma Islam.

Councillor Asma Islam, Weaver's Ward, no DPIs.

Thank you.

Good evening, Councillor Iqbal Hussain from Let's Bury Wurdhams, substitute for Councillor

Amina Rahman.

Thank you.

I'm Susanna.

I'm the leaseholder representative, leaseholder of Tower Hamlets Council estate.

No interest to declare.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Councillor Ahmad El -Kabir, Bethnalgan East Ward.

I have no DPA chair.

Good evening.

Mohammed Chadri, my name is Mahbub.

Good evening.

I'm Mahbub and I'm the tenant co -opty.

Tenant co -opty and nothing to declare.

So I have to declare that I'm one of the residents of

the Riva Side Share housing associations.

Chair.

I'm Mahbub.

Miss my declaration. I have nothing to declare. Thank you

So as I say I'm under the resident of one housing sorry Riverside Housing Association's

The minutes from the last meeting 8 December have been circulated

Can the committee members confirm as this as a to an accurate record?

Yes?

So we have received response to set out the action log.

Do member have wish to comment or can you move our main agenda items?

Thank you, Chair. Can I please just come back to the last conversation that I've had in

this committee. There's a couple of things I want to say and then you can tell me, Chair,

if this affects our Action Log and officers are here who can help respond to this and

I'm sure they will know more. So the first one is about sanctuary housing that I've bought

up last time. So colleagues have heard from more sanctuary residents in the Isle of Dogs

where lifts break down and are out of service for weeks on end. We ask that the Housing

School Unity Committee for an update on the action LBTH is taking to get sanctuary to

improve this service, but in particular for sanctuary. And so what has the response been

and if you can help me work out how we can keep track of this. The other question I have

for tonight is Bow River Village, which I'm sure you probably are aware of,

Southern Housing Group. Residents in phase one raised concerns since they first moved in four years ago

and they weren't getting adequate heating and hot water, especially in the early mornings and evenings

during the winter. The cause of this was the communal boiler system, but there were disputes

between SHG and its construction partner, Higgins, about who was responsible.

No effective solution was implemented until phase two residents started moving in as well, which was a couple of years ago.

Things were so bad last winter, so this December that just went, that SHG eventually agreed to make changes to the system which took place in the late summer and early autumn.

However, residents are still suffering from inadequate heating and hot water, including some with temperature that won't go above 18 degrees and no hot water for baths.

So we've raised this at the beginning of September and was told it had been sorted,

but residents had further problems over Christmas in the New Year.

Member of Parliament Uma's involvement last week has shown that SHG says the system has been put up to maximum capacity,

but a longer term solution is needed.

So the question for this committee and officers, if you can help me,

Why has it taken SHG and Higgins until hundreds more residents move in to try and get to the root problem?

Has SHG ensured that residents have adequate replacement heating, oil radiators to supplement the radiators,

and will SHG cover these extra costs at all?

And what has Tower Hamlets Council done about this situation over the past five years?

I'm sure we have a role to play.

By the way, I'm happy to send all of this over to yourselves if you want and I can do that right now

Thank you

Officers able to answer as well or you're gonna be can respond

I can definitely give a response on the southern housing group one because I was in contact with councillor mark Francis on the 9th of January

and liaising with him and with Southern Housing Group about what was happening around the

intermittent heating of water.

So I'm more than happy to share with the committee what the latest update is.

I mean, in the correspondence with Councillor Francis, he does acknowledge that some progress

is being made, particularly around coming up with a sort of an alternative fix before

the long -term remedy can be put in place.

and certainly in terms of better communications with residents and sort of alternative sources of heating.

It looks like Southern are making better attempts in those areas, but I'm more than happy to share with the committee what the latest position is from Southern.

And they are keeping the ward members involved, including making sure their communications.

I can't speak for Southern but from what I've seen so far they are in communication with

their residents and with the ward members and trying as hard as they can to mitigate

the situation until the long term remedy can be put in place.

So I'm more than happy to share that and I'm more than happy to take whatever you've got

there as a sort of you know directly to me and then I can sort of pick it up with them

again.

On the sanctuary, was it at this last meeting when the one before that because I was just

I was looking at the notes of the last meeting, I couldn't see that as a direct action, but again if you wanted to send that back to me, I'll have a look at that.

But it's not listed in the action log for something for us to pick out.

So in the last meeting, the first time I raised it back in September, we were given a report on lift services for all RSLs, which didn't cover sanctuary and it didn't cover the problem that I raised.

So I raised it again at the second meeting, and that was supposed to be taken away.

I have not seen anything since then and this is the third time I raise it but I am in particular

concerned about these sanctuary housing residents, so at some point I don't want to wait for

the next meeting to raise it again, can I get a note to see what we can do about this?

If you send it to me and Philip then I will pick it up directly with sanctuary.

Just so you know, I know Councillor Manan is not here but he is the ward Councillor

for the previous case that we talked about, SHG, and he actually seconded what I had said.

I know he's been working on this, but more support is needed for these residents, and

if I could get some reassurance about what's been done, that would be really helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Asma and thank you, Caroline, as well, because we want to stick with our agenda,

so this could bring into any other business item, but this came, this came, it's okay.

Now we have to move on with our...

So we have to go to tonight our first agenda item.

Our first substantive item this evening is reviewing and considering the Landlord Report

for QE25 -26 which considering the performance matters.

So for this item, can I now welcome Karen Swift, Strategy Policy and Regulations.

I can't see here.

So, Moo Binh is going to introduce the report.

But I'm going to invite colleagues from Riverside to come and join us here.

So we thought what would be useful is that when these items come up that we invite registered providers

who is looking at to actually come to the meeting.

So we have invited Riverside to come along today.

Then other registered providers would come at other points.

Okay.

So also I would like to welcome Mumin Chaudhuri, the performance and improvement analysis.

And before that, I want Elizabeth William to introduce herself.

Welcome to our meetings.

And we will be coming to our meetings.

Introduce yourself to your members.

Good evening.

My name is Liz Williams and I'm the Chief Operating Officer for Poploharka and I've

recently taken over as Chair of the Tower Hamlets Housing Forum following Andrea Baker's

retirement.

So thank you for having me.

I'm pleased to be here.

Thank you.

Can you summarise your presentations, Mumin Chaudhry and Kiran?

I'll give you five minutes for the overview.

We also have Robert McNall from the director of development and Charlie Baker, director

of properties, service, repairs and maintenance from the Riverside group.

Welcome.

I am grateful for your attendance.

I suspect we will have some questions for you and welcome to this meeting.

Please take the paper as read and highlight anything, information that committee need

to know.

Be aware of.

Then I will move on to discuss and questions from the committee members.

Good evening, everyone.

I will be presenting the quarter 2 performance for registered providers in the Tower Hamlet.

This report evaluates RP performance using data and commentary aligned with the regulator

of social housing's tenant satisfaction measures.

Just to begin with stock figures, the Council holds the largest number of stock with 11 ,995

units followed by Poplar Harka with 10 ,474 units.

Smaller providers like Providence Row and Spitalfields have under 1 ,000 units each.

On Decent Homes, Providence Row, THCH and Spitalfields all reported a non decency rate

of 0 % for quarter two.

The council had the highest non decency rate at 26 .4%.

The council has a target for reducing non decency to 18 to 22 % by March 26.

They remain on track for this target.

The council aims for 100 % stock condition data by the end of 2026 and full decency by

the end of the five -year MTFS period.

On repair completions, Poplar, Harker, Spitalfields, Gateway and THCH all achieved over 90 % for

both emergency and non -emergency repairs.

All RPs achieved over 70 % of repairs on time for both emergency and non -emergency repairs.

I think on the actual printed document we haven't...

I think some of the numbers have been cut off.

I think if you look to the online version you'll have the full set of data hopefully.

I checked the online version.

I think there's something due to the...

You're missing on naming the bars.

Okay, yeah.

So if that's the issue on the online version we can fix that as well.

Talk through me.

Okay, yeah, we'll

fix that on the online version as well.

So just on complaints, Notting Hill Genesis had the highest number of complaints relative to stock size at

13 .6 complaints per 100 units of stock. All other RPs received fewer than 10 complaints of

100 units of stock. Poplar Harker and L &Q received fewer than one complaint per 100 units of stock.

On safety cheques, gas safety, four RPs reported 100 % compliance in gas safety.

Only East End Homes and Sanctuary reported below 99%.

On fire safety, seven RPs reported 100 % compliance.

Only East End Homes reported compliance below 97%.

On asbestos safety, eight RPs reported 100 % compliance.

Only Riverside and Taohamlet's Council reported compliance below 99%.

On water safety seven RPS reported 100 % compliance

With East and Eastern homes being the only RP to report below 99 % on lift safety for our piece

reported 100 % compliance and two RPS reported of

compliance below 90 % on

antisocial behaviour cases Tao Hamlet's Council had the highest number of ASB cases at

1 .53 percent of stock followed by Providence row at 1 .38 percent

All other RPs reported ASP rates of below 1%.

On reload times, L &Q reported the longest average reload times for major works at 608 days,

followed by Sanctuary at 280 days and East End Helms at 249 .5 days.

Notting Hill Genesis reported the longest average reload time for standard reloads at 158 days,

followed by Sanctuary at 155 days.

And finally on vacant units, Riverside had the highest percent of stock unavailable at the end of the letting period at 1 .6 % of their stock, followed by Peabody at 1 .14 % of their stock.

All other RPs reported less than 1 % of their stock as being unavailable at the end of the letting period.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your report tonight.

So, do member have any question

on what you have heard tonight on this item?

I'll take one.

Yes, yes, we have a question please.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation

page 23

Starting with it with the council's housing stock and then I've got another question later for Riverside, but

There's about 12 ,000 housing stock the council has and I'm assuming their tenants not and it's excludes lease holders

So maybe I think just in the future to maybe just into right -hand as council tenants. So that just clarifies it

I think that would be you know, just a useful the second thing

Which I was kind of speaking to the chair kind of pre -meet is that with the council's housing stock

More than a quarter does not basically meet decent home standard

Which is basically more than 3 ,000 properties

So that could be I don't know six seven thousand residents and why I was suggesting to the chair them, you know, although yes, there's a

You know commentary on page 26, but I think you know, maybe we should do is do a deep dive into looking

I appreciate that a lot of the properties or buildings are you know quite old and probably post World War two probably 50s and 60s block

But I think we need to cheque and look in and review why we have such more than 3 ,000 units that are not meeting kind of

decent home standard

That residents that are living in those stock and it's basically probably not in the habitable

You know or in a good use

I say this as a tenant and there might be residents who have issues like damp mould,

repairs issues, you know, ASP issues, so I think that's something that I think that probably

would be useful for us to look into and see how it's affecting residents and also then

look at specifically at things that the repair schedule, the investment programme over a

period of years.

The second question which I wanted to ask kind of colleagues in Riverside, and I guess

similar to kind of my question was it was actually you know again from a

riverside perspective in your development pipeline and again your

planned investment strategy how does it align with the council's priority and

how do you also ensure that we you know we prevent those kind of decency

failures those kind of you know compliance with decent home standards

that ensuring that residents you know have properties that are at the very

You know meet the decent home standards

Okay back of this to correction. Can I ask another question? So it will be

answered in one one go

my question is

What is what is the scheme label costing?

investment plan windows roof and doors and

That shift the town council from 26 percent

26 .4 % to 18 .22 % by March 26.

What mitigation exists if challenged,

such as contractor capacity or influence risk materials?

Thank you.

So more than happy to come back and do a deep dive

on Decent Homes.

in fact we've got a meeting of officers on the end of this month to do exactly that.

We met with the regulator last week to set out, we meet with the regulator every month

and we met with the regulator last week to set out a year's worth of monthly meetings.

And some of those meetings are going to themselves become deep dived and be themed.

At the moment when we meet the regulator we talk about performance across the whole piece

but now that they're familiar with how the information is reported,

they feel that they could do a lot of that sort of performance checking offline,

but to make best use of the times on those monthly meetings,

we've agreed a schedule of deep dives.

The first one in January is on fire safety remediation actions,

and the second one in February will be on decent homes.

So we're already trying to see how we can accelerate the non -decency work.

Mobin said that we've got a target of 18 to 22 percent by March.

We're on track to do that and that relies on the investment programme

and the capacity for us to undertake the work in that time scale.

But post -March we need a forecast of when we will actually get closer to the 100 percent.

We think with the programme that we've got at the moment it may not be till 2030, but

we want to move that, get that bit further, you know, closer.

So looking at the investment that we can put into that, those properties, in order to get

them over that non -decency sort of line before 2030.

So that work is happening now, so more than happy to share that with the committee at

some point.

So in terms of our development strategy linking in with our decent homes, there is some crossover

but we continue to invest in our homes that are occupied regardless of development pipeline.

So even where we've got planning commission in place, we've got residents that are living

in those homes, we continue to carry out necessary repairs that are required in those homes.

And where we potentially have future pipeline discussions, we continue to invest in those

homes in respect of lift replacements or major components to make sure that those homes remain

decent.

We do have some homes which are currently void as part of the regeneration projects

and some of those void homes are not decent where they link in with our regeneration proposals.

So, but happy to take any kind of individual circumstances or concerns around these homes

separately if required.

You got any follow -up questions?

Your question, please.

Thank you. Thank you for the report.

You know the data presented like emergency repair, non -emergency,

these housing associations, this much, how could you say, I mean,

how do you know these data are valid?

because when I see the decent house, THCH reporting 100 % and we know only a few months ago

THCH was on national media and now only a couple of months after we see that they have their stock

and whereas their stock is about 3 ,000 plus stock and they're saying they're reporting they go 100 % decent homes

I can see Poplohaka reporting emergency repairs 99 .3 % on time.

I represent my land and the biggest, you know, the housing, you know, the stock of Poplohaka is the biggest stakeholder.

So when you see these numbers, I have it, you know, reasonably I have a doubt.

So how do you know these data are valid? Thank you, that's my question.

So recently the 25, the year 25 -26, 24 -25 figures for the TSMs were published by the regulator of social housing.

So we can use that as a reference to say that, you know, if this is the number of homes that are non -decent,

say for Clarion, for example, in their entire stock, like beyond Tower Hamlets, then we can use that as a reference point.

Otherwise we have to rely on the credibility of the actual RPs to report accurate data to us on a quarterly basis.

But we do have that annual data from the regulator that we can cross -cheque with that in case there's any issues with that.

Thank you, Chair. Can I start off with the data presented?

I know you referred us back to the online.

A lot of the sections, Tower Hamlets Council is cut off.

And then some places, Tower Hamlets Council is the first section that's in there, repairs, complaints.

It's nowhere. How is this even okay?

With the biggest social housing landlord?

Yeah, I think that's a printing error or just an error of getting the graph within the page, I think.

Because the version I have has got the full data.

I think it's just a matter of reflecting that onto the online version, I think.

We'll correct that. I didn't realise that was the case.

But the template is still here, it's the same template we use all the time and nothing's

changed, the template hasn't changed and I'll come back into what I raised last time about

data and having more data, more context so we can be quite granular with some of our

questioning.

How is that, I don't even understand how this happens, this is a standard piece that comes

to this committee every time and I need, like I talked about Tahemsi Council data last time

round asking for more information now, like information is missing and how come it took

up to this point to realise this information was missing. I know you gave a context and

overarching, you spoke to it, but like what am I supposed to do during this time if I

just a verbal update on this.

I have one question, is last time around we were told

the figures are starting to look different,

it's starting to look positive,

because I don't have the data in front of me,

can you speak to that and tell me how it's positive,

what changed, what shifted from last time,

so I can do that comparison,

and also the request last time around

about more information, not less information,

if you can come back and touch on that,

where we are, when do we think we'll be able to see

things like that.

So you're absolutely right, the report that Mubin submitted is not the report that's printed

in front of you and it's not the report that's on the website. So the report that Mubin is

reading from is what he's submitted to Democratic Services but the formatting for it appears

to have sort of altered. Something's not quite right, it hasn't translated properly onto

the website. So there are missing columns on some of the tables. So I spotted that today

and I asked Moo Bin about that. He checked his copy and he said no it's all fine but

then he realised he was checking his own version as opposed to me who was checking the online

version. So all I can say is we apologise that we didn't spot that sooner but we definitely,

Justina and Felic, we need to correct that next time to make sure that whatever we're

and he is submitting his officers, which has all of the information, is actually what's actually in the packs.

So, sincere apologies for that.

Can you email them now? I don't mind having them now.

You know my email address. If you can send your version to me.

Yes, he can send his original version.

Asma, you have to go through me, please. Can you email to her your versions?

We have sent you the fill of cancer. We will send it to everyone, okay?

The question was what has changed?

Last time round we were told you were starting to see positive changes in the data.

So now I haven't got it in front of me.

Can you tell me what's changed, what's improved since the last update?

Are you referring to any measure in particular?

So when we did this, we were looking at repairs in particular, complaints, like all the sections

where Tohamless Council is, can you tell me has it improved?

Because I was told I will see a difference in this meeting.

Okay for we sorry

Let me get back to you on that actually let me have a look at the

You know the data from quarter one and the date from quarter two

I'll compare the two and then I'll produce something for you before the next meeting. I think because I off the top of my head

I can't

Turn you want to say something?

Are you particularly talking about performance improvement for Tower Hamlets homes or just for any provider for us?

Council. You were there last time.

So tomorrow night we have the cabinet subcommittee and all of the performance papers for everything

related to what we do as a housing provider are there tomorrow night. So there has been

movement on all of these in terms of fire safety, asbestos and lift, and we report that

every time we go to the cabinet subcommittee. So rather than compare it to this slide deck,

that actually comes only every quarter. I would say to anybody on the committee, if

you're interested specifically in what the council is doing to improve. It's those set

of papers as opposed to these set of papers which actually tell you how we're measurably

improving from month to month, because the data that we have in the cabinet papers is

you can see the monthly improvement. These are really a set of papers that are assessing

the performance of the registered providers, but the detail on Tower Hamlets Homes is in

the papers that are coming to cabinet tomorrow.

And I know that the committee get those papers because the chair comes to the committee at

the start of the cabinet committee and gives an update.

So I mean if there's, I mean I would direct the committee to those papers for a deep dive

into our handless performance as opposed to these papers.

If you have any questions, please ask them.

Thank you.

Susan, your question?

I just want to echo Asma Islam.

It is not for us to confirm today, but if it is more useful, should we then look at that set that you are preparing for the cabinet instead of every time looking at this,

and then each of us having questions, trying to understand improvements,

because then it may not mean very much to us to look at 99 % or 100%.

Is it better that you save your department's work

and give that one set that you prepare for the Cabinet

and you share it here instead of doing two times the work?

And I can understand the misalignment, it happened to me before,

when you type and then the legend goes off somewhere,

so I think it's quite forgivable.

So the question for the committee to decide whether we look at the set of improvements that is going to be prepared for tomorrow's meeting.

At the same time you can still give this to us because this encompasses all the social housing providers.

But I think we should talk about improvements rather than sit down and look at 100%, 99%,

which I think every meeting we keep saying that we don't understand the data or we don't believe in the data.

So I think it's just for us to think about, Chair.

And my second question to Karen and Moo Bin is, on the decent homes,

is it the root cause of us, Tal Hamlet's home suffering, low, very high, indecent homes,

Is it due to the delay in the major works and the capital challenges predominantly?

Which is because you don't have enough housing capital to conduct major works and they've

been always pushed back and that is now reflected in the low decency of the high rate of non -decent

homes.

The focus on decency is coming down.

So there is a programme to deal with what constitutes decent homes because there are particular

things that come into the definition of decent homes.

So we are not delaying the programme because we are waiting to do a major procurement exercise,

but there are other frameworks that we can use in order to make sure that the programme

continues.

So I wouldn't, I mean the money is there, the 140 million, it's about making sure that we're commissioning that in a timely way.

So, but I think when we get into the detail of, at the end of this month around how we can accelerate some of the non -decency work,

then I think it will be a good opportunity to come back and talk to you a bit more about that.

And I totally agree with you about the set of papers that are going to cabinet tomorrow

night are very forensic on all areas of performance of the Council.

And they should automatically come to the committee, you should automatically get them,

and through the chair come to the committee and raise particular issues that you as members

of scrutiny want to raise at the cabinet meeting.

That's the whole point of that slot at the beginning of cabinet.

So maybe you need to find time within your sort of busy schedules when those papers land

to come together to give the chair some direction in terms of the questioning at the committee.

That's fine if there are any questions.

and I will go to the President myself in the committee.

I will ask those questions on their behalf.

Now a question from Councillor Iqbal Uce.

Thank you, Chair. Through social media and reliable sources,

it has come to my attention that auto supply failure on Devon State,

which managed by Poplar Kharkha is apparently seven buildings are affected

and many homes have a second floor and not having water at all,

hot water or water supply.

And apparently Poplar Kharkha came back saying they will take eight months to fix this problem.

I just wonder what will happen to those residents living there, eight months with the water?

And what's the plan in place to mitigate this crisis?

Elizabeth will be the best person to answer these questions.

Thank you.

So yes, we're aware there is an intermittent problem with water on the Devon's estate and

and we think it's affecting around seven buildings at the moment.

This really happened over the weekend.

So I'm not sure where eight months has come from.

That sounds like a rumour of some sort.

So what we've done...

Probably those people, affecting people, try to reach Herka,

find out the answer for the water shortage,

probably they get from the Herka that it will take six, seven months.

Or probably the local representative with the local council

probably making you carry on their behalf.

Probably he got the answer that it will take seven months.

The question is that what these people will do

in this second month?

What's the plan for that place?

So we're going to make sure that everyone has water

very, very quickly, and that's the main thing.

So we've been working with residents,

we've been reaching out to all of our vulnerable residents

today to make sure that they're fully supported.

We have Thames Water and our specialist contractor

carrying out surveys in the area.

We've been delivering bottled water,

and we're putting together a full plan,

which we'll be sharing with everybody who's

got an interest in that state, including the local councillors,

to make sure that everyone's aware of exactly what we're

doing and what steps we're taking.

But people will not be without water for eight months.

We will make sure that that doesn't happen.

And yes, we'll be sharing our plan hopefully tomorrow

when we have one.

But in the meantime, we're taking some emergency measures

to make sure that everybody's safe and okay.

And the water, it is a low pressure,

and some people on the higher floors are losing water

for I believe three or four hours, which is awful,

and I do not underestimate how distressing that is,

but there is access to water as well during that time.

So we will keep you posted, and yes,

I understand that it's very upsetting for those affected.

Elizabeth, that water shortage makes a crisis in that area.

So as you say, it's going to be a short time.

If you can't be able to answer these questions, can you give us a timeframe that by then when it will be up and running,

the water pressure and people will not be suffering this water shortage?

I can't give you a promise on a timescale as we sit here right now, but what I can do

is make sure that all of our plans are shared and that the information that residents receive

is shared more widely with councillors and people who come into contact with residents

regularly so we can be very transparent about it and make sure that this is resolved very

quickly.

Is it possible to share the plan with the committee so that we will be able to answer

the residents of people who want to make it.

And I would hope to get that out by the end of tomorrow,

an update on that.

Philip, you will be able to circulate to everybody, yeah?

Thank you very much.

I'll be grateful.

Everyone coming, yeah?

So when these situations arise where

there are sort of outages of water or intermittent supplies,

we often reach out to our leisure colleagues about

whether residents could access shower facilities at local baths.

So I've made that approach to the Director of Leisure about the poplar baths,

which might be too far away for some residents,

but there are other facilities in Bartlett Park.

There are shower facilities there.

So we're talking to Elizabeth about how that might be available.

We'd need some assistance with some sort of security

to make sure that's open and it's safe,

because it's not necessarily, it's not used during the week.

but if that's not possible we'll link up with Poplar Baths.

It's an offer that we make when there are these sort of intermittent long -term outages.

People will know all these things.

If there's something in place we'll communicate that and people have to take along something that shows their idea that they are a tenant of that block.

We've done it before so we know how it works.

So if we're able to put something in place, because in dialogue with Poplar Harker and our leisure services, tenants will know about that.

Thank you, Chair.

Just follow up, a supplementary question.

So I believe it's a car -free zone and a lot of residents will have without car or transport.

So people who don't have the transport are vulnerable people like children or elderly.

was the arrangement for them to trip going to the popular bath or having a shower there.

Thank you.

That's why we thought popular baths may not be the best option but the Bartlett Park

facility, it's a changing facility that's used at the weekend, it's not used during

the week but we need to have somebody present there, a security guard or a concierge operating

that at set times when people could actually use it because it is closer to the estate.

We need to talk to Elizabeth about that because the offer just came through from leisure this afternoon

So we need to think about whether that's something residents want and if they want

How are we going to make the arrangements around sort of opening it up and somebody being there to make enclosing it when it's finished?

Councillor Armacost, you have a question.

Thank you, I'd like to ask

and the lift is not working and you guys promised them the new lift will be put on there.

And also the building has water leaking for a very, very long time and still not fixed yet.

So what is the update on that Kelsenhaus? Thank you.

And after that I will ask Karan.

In terms of the development investment strategy, we have a wider development investment strategy

and asset management strategy that takes into account decent homes across our portfolio

and our TSM reports.

Our level of decency is very good at 0 .5 homes within the sector.

So in terms of town hamlets, we do have some challenges in age of stock, as I've said earlier,

and some of those link into our redevelopment and regeneration of those homes.

What I can confirm is that we aligned with that strategy, we continue to invest in homes

that are earmarked for potential regeneration or where we have ballots in place, that doesn't

affect our continued investment in repairs in those homes.

In respect of the lift at Kelsen House, I believe I can answer that.

Thank you, good evening everyone.

We know we have issues with some of the lift management that we've had in the past, particularly

with Kelsen House and other blocks.

So we've recognised it's a key improvement area for us,

and we've established a senior colleague task

and finish group to improve our overall lift management.

So as part of that, we've developed an investment plan,

and we've also created an instant management system

for all lifts, which is regulated based on the volume

of breakdowns, as well as lift condition

and availability of parts.

We've enhanced the servicing and maintenance schedules for what we're classifying as red

lifts and that's now being developed.

We do have development proposals for addressing service failure and managing at risk lifts

with a range of tactical improvements that can be made to keep lifts functioning.

In terms of Kelsen House specifically I can come back to you by the end of tomorrow with

specific details around the Kelsen House lift.

In terms of the water ingress as well, we're aware of the water ingress and we're working

to resolve that issue.

But again, in terms of specifics and deadlines, I can come back to you on that tomorrow.

to all those of us because this is

Over to the peoplewhith their

figures?

the building called Ashington House on 28 Burnsey Street and they don't have lift for

the last three weeks and there are the vulnerable people there.

They contacted me many times and also I made an inquiry and they can't give the proper

answer.

I don't know, the resident, they are asking specific those Ashington House building, what's

the plan?

Are you going to demolish this building or are you going to riff off this building?

Please, thank you.

I think on the missing data point, is that the same point that we picked up earlier on

about the papers not being in the right format?

So we'll make sure that – well, I think moving's probably already sent, Philic, the

report.

So that should have all the right figures in it, so apologies for that.

But all of the columns are now there in the report that you've got.

On Ashington House, I will come back to you on what the plans are for Ashington House,

and you are right to ask what is, is it a refurbishment, is it a demolition,

so I will come back to you on that tomorrow and I will talk to my regeneration colleagues.

In terms of the lift breakdown, which block did you say that was in?

That was in Ashington too, okay.

I mean there is only a few remaining people in Ashington.

Who are lease holders, they are mostly there asking.

Okay, yeah, because it's not tenanted.

Okay, fine, I will come back to you on the lift and on the regeneration tomorrow.

I will go to the next question.

I will forget

Karen.

Who will pay for all this

about

the water

pressure

and water

shortage

people will

get the water

at home.

People will have to go

to Milan or

Poplar.

Who will pay for this?

If people will go there,

it will be a free shower.

People can have a free

shower at

Poplar.

I mean,

the...

Harka should pay for all this because they should provide their residence with the water and supply.

I think Elizabeth is providing bottled water to the premises, which I think in terms of which people could heat up and have a wash.

But if people want to have a shower, we'll look at whether people can, well, when we've done it in the past, people have been able to have a free shower.

They're not using the swimming facilities or gym facilities. It's about access to hot water and have a shower

So that will be for a short period of time to assist popular Harker if we use popular if we use Bartlett Park

I will be asking Elizabeth whether she'd be able to pay for the concierge or the security to open it

That's the conversation Elizabeth and I need to have because we don't have anybody there during the week managing that

Changing in hot water facility, but that's a conversation

I mean it really very much depends whether residents want that option and also how long we need to put it in place for

Particularly if if they can get the hot water the intermittent water supply resolved quickly

Residents may not may not wish to take up that offer

Have any question for Riverside

Thank You, can I ask a question to Riverside and

So in general we see in the new build the loss of hot water and heating is very frequent.

So for example I visited Goldfinger Court and Gilmore Court a couple of months ago and

apparently it looks like a common problem for the residents, the loss of hot water and

heating.

and yesterday I visited the new built and I received several complaining

complaining about the loss of heat and hot water so my question to how can we

avoid this this problem in the beginning so planning or who can ensure how can

ensure that the water supply, that's basic, most important is a facility in

water. With the water you can really have a life, can't have a life. So make sure

the new world has educated pressure and the water supply not interrupted every

now and then and that's in general.

And the other question for, I raised an email

with Riverside a couple of months ago.

Two months later I received an apology for being late

but all the inquiry I made, no response to the main inquiry.

And so I would like to see when a member inquiry raised

a proper

response satisfactory response from the

from the landlord so we can relate to the

relevant residents

Thank You chef

Is that what you wanna go first

Yes, so I've a set house the poplar Harker and property

I'll need to look into the exact details of the heating and hot water issues there and come back to you on that because I

wouldn't like to give you any missing information. So I'll look into that particular case and have to come back to you.

Okay, we have spent enough time on the side of our issue you can ask questions.

I just want to know I can see the HRCA is very lowest in terms of receiving complaint

I just want to know how do you verify the number of complaints, how can we say this

is a reflection of the complaint you received?

How many received?

Is it just eight complaints you received over the last year or one year time?

Complaints?

Is that correct?

The number of complaints received is just for quarter two.

When a resident put a complaint online, does it go to any central body, so making sure

this number is verified by other agencies or council or something like that?

Who is controlling there?

So Nick, my question is the complaint is not manipulated by the landlord.

So if any complaint is made by the resident, how can you make sure the complaint is there

and is being registered?

So every complaint, or it's an expression of dissatisfaction, so it doesn't have to

be titled a complaint, is recorded through a process that we have to, and all landlords

have to have because the housing ombudsman service has quite clear criteria around complaint

handling. It's all recorded and processed in line with the policies and the procedures

that align with that ombudsman code.

A quick question. I think it makes me realise that maybe some context setting to remind

everyone about the data capture is necessary because I think 0 .8 % of it, 0 .8 % complaints,

I guess is this popular as in total popular and not Tower Hamlets popular?

And that figure is for number of complaints relative to stock size, so that's not the

full number of complaints, that's relative to stock size.

So I think I'll make it very short, maybe at the beginning of every report you actually

give a context that this number is the total housing stock is not limited to the Tower Hamlets borough stock.

Yes, so this is relative to the stock size within Tower Hamlets.

So it is Tower Hamlets but it's not just popular.

Because I think every meeting we actually question the data, so I think the more context you could give us, probably the better.

Yeah.

Thanks.

The last question from me is to the left side.

What immediate operational change contractor management resource allocation digital schedule

will you implement to achieve at least 90 % by quarter 4 and how will you improve the

to the residents.

My second, yeah, it's about Riverside non -emergency repairs.

Complaint conditions rate is 83 .4 below the section leaders, 96 .99.

So this is why I ask you the questions.

Sorry, Chair, could I just clarify that your question was around achieving 90 % of emergency

repairs being completed in time?

Non -emergency.

Non -emergency, thank you for clarifying that, Chair. So we have an improvement plan in place

across London around our repair service and that does centre on our repair completions

and also complaints associated with repair completions. So we have recently carried

out, we've recently carried out some recruitment to help us deliver our repair service. We've

also recruited some additional contractor support to help us deliver our repair service

and we are closely monitoring our repair completion times.

We are reviewing how we deliver all of our repair services.

Well, we have a brilliant at -basics programme

that is addressing some of the dips in performance

in terms of our repair services.

So we will continue to ensure that our service improves

quarter on quarter and month on month.

We have also carried out some work around the systems that we use

and we have a transformation programme around that.

So we will be happy to come back and report on progress on that.

So my second question and this is the last question to the river side.

Can you share the outline what design and specifications are being embedded in new development

to minimise future poet turnaround times and major work delay and how the lesson from the

current poet challenge informing you 2026 and 2028 development programme?

So in terms of our current voids, we specifically available voids, we've had some challenges

with the Tower Hamlets system which we're working through and we've got some additional

training actually working together with Poplar Harker to address that and we're hoping we've

had some specific training of allocations teams within Riverside to

improve that and we're trying to bring down the time it takes to get properties

on the Tower Hamlets common housing system to develop that so that is in

progress but we're hopeful that that will improve through training and

additional systems.

Where there are void properties, getting them onto the letting system so that people can

bid for them is really important. We started to notice a trend where there was a drop in

the number of registered provider properties coming forward. When we had the discussion

with the registered providers, we identified this training issue within their lettings

and I understand that your letters teams have high turnovers, so there's often sort of changes in personality.

So we've had this training session where we've made sure that the relevant letters officers are putting things on this

choice based letters in a timely way because obviously, you know any drop in

offers around permanent lets really affects people's chances of getting rehoused.

So we've all put a lot of effort into sort of making sure that

that staff in the registered providers are putting properties on there in a timely way.

Okay. So thank you to officers and all providers for their contributions.

The committee welcome their years of strong performance but remain concerned about the career gaps identified.

Today, particularly when it comes to non -decent repairs, complaint, handling and safety, compliance

to several landlords, these issues affect residents daily and improvement is both necessary

and essential.

We want to see the improvement from the lower performance provider and we expect to see

measurable progress in the coming month.

The committee will continue to monitor this close Lee and ensure that residents of tower humdas receive a safe

recent and and

responsive housing service I

Now move on to our next before I move on to next

item

This evening. Thank you very much

Movin coming here

Karen and also you come all the way probably from Liverpool

Riverside come to London welcome to London and

Your your

Present is was important for our residents for our member to ask few questions and in future. We'll see you more

So because you got a lot of properties lot of properties around London

So your input is very very your present is very important for us and for our residents

Elizabeth also

Providing really importance

information and taking a lot of questions from the members.

So you'll be accordingly talking to the Harkai and others.

So thank you very much for coming everyone.

So now we'll move on to our next item this evening.

Can I now welcome Kiran Swift.

Chair.

Okay.

Can I raise something before we go to the agenda?

It's linked to this agenda.

Okay, so at the last meeting I asked about bringing the conversation back here and we

all agreed as a committee about the discussion around our self -referral to the social housing

regulator.

It is on the action log.

However, on the action log it says it's assigned to you, not to an officer, but to you as chair.

I think it is important to have a conversation with the people

about what is going on.

I think it is important to have a conversation with the people

about what is going on.

I think it is important to have a conversation with the people

about what is going on.

I think it is important to have a conversation with the people

meetings that the officer on that day was saying that by March they will be available

to give you all the answers you want. So in the future, in the next meeting, we will probably

bring this one into the agenda items and we will look into that one. That's why the late

referral was done. So I will ask, we will see in our next meeting the items.

The last meeting I said the officer was presenting and he was asking these questions.

I said we don't want the action logs because they said until the March they will not be

able to give you all the clarifications regarding these late referrals and everything.

And also what it also means looking into that as well.

So as today we'll look into that what you requested as an agenda item in the next meeting, which is in March.

I disagree with your memory and luckily it's all recorded.

There was no conversation about audit committee, it was about the self -referral.

I've already seen details of some of that self -referral that's come up on the council's

thing context.

This has nothing to do with the audit committee, this is our committee.

Something has happened that is connected to the housing committee and as chair you're

saying it's the next meeting, whereas at the last meeting you said it's this meeting.

Both the corporate director were very, very helpful and they were like, yes, this is something

we should do.

Even the cabinet member did not say, because there is a conversation about transparency

and accountability and it's actually helping the council, it's not, I don't understand

the defensiveness from yourself.

If you couldn't make that happen I'd much rather you tell us that actually logistically

it couldn't work because the cabinet member wasn't here, let's do it at the next meeting,

but for you to try and avoid it by giving me another context of what actually happened

on the day, it's all recorded, Che.

That's not exactly, that's not what you said.

What I've said, I said, clearly I didn't say that we're looking

into this meeting, otherwise this would come as agenda items

or you'll have a report on that one.

So I reflect what you have just said, so I'll make sure

that next meeting, March meeting, we'll have agenda item,

this one, and we'll discuss thoroughly why it was late

referrals, so I think this is the end of the matter.

Okay, Chair, and just correction for yourself,

the audit committee does its work,

this committee does its work, so it's not

connected.

Regarding the improvements, yes, we

should give them time up to March, the

whole year, however long it takes.

But what happened didn't require time,

and the corporate director, it was just

about this has happened, we get to ask our

questions and that was it.

Then we move on to how the improvement

journey looks like.

You've absolutely given an explanation that

isn't the truth.

No, no, no. As I said again, I reflect what he has said.

So we'll look. Last meeting I didn't say...

We'll discuss that one thoroughly. So what I'm saying is that I reflect what he has said.

Right now, next meeting, we'll have this one as the agent items and we'll go thoroughly why it was late referrals.

We'll ask the corporate director to come in present and give his explanation on that late referral.

So I think we will move on to the next item.

You've changed what you just said.

Okay, fine.

Okay, we now move on to the next item.

Okay, so now I cannot say welcome.

I cannot say policy, housing policy strategy, regulator, compliance,

and Jonathan Lilly, assistant transformer,

management project manager.

You will have up to ten minutes to give us a strategic overview.

Please take the paper as read and perhaps highlight the most issues this committee needs

to know, aware of.

Then I will swiftly move on to committee members to ask questions.

Now your time starts now.

I'll let you know when you are nearing your ten minutes.

So you can start now.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll do the first part and then I'll hand over to Jonathan to talk about the big conversation.

So going back to what Councillor Islam said, I mean, the Council made a self -referral to

the housing regulator in October.

We did in fact talk to the regulator in August.

We had a meeting with them to say we were hoping to self -refer.

That was all in the audit report because we gave the audit committee the timeline for

the self -referral.

So we spoke to the regulator in August to say that we were going to self -refer,

but we wanted to self -refer with the improvement plan,

and that's when we formally did the self -refer.

Sorry, I understand that. I'm in the audit committee, I understand that.

The issue was...

Okay.

Okay, so the self -refer was made in October.

We had the inspection in April.

we received a C3 grading which we were happy with because we thought that reflected where

we were at that time and that was one of the reasons why we self -referred because we realised

we were breaching some of the standards. We put in place the regulatory improvement plan

which was supported by the regulator, it's called Your Voice Our Action and phase one

runs up to March 26 and totally addresses the regulatory failing. So the improvement

plan is looking at the regulatory sort of outcome and is trying to address each one

of those issues. It has 10 work streams, they're all listed on the slide, and it has 128 deliverables.

The slide that I'm looking at now is the one that shows where we've completed them. So

we've completed 78 of 128 deliverables, 47 of them are in progress, three have not started,

and a number are overdue, but none of them are at risk of completion.

So where they haven't started, that's fine, we know that that's okay,

we're going to get round to doing them before March.

Where they're overdue, we've extended the deadline for completion,

but they will all hopefully be completed by the end of March.

And what will happen then is that that programme will close down,

we're already started to thinking, well what be the Your Voice, Our Action phase 2,

once we've closed down these deliverables and that will really focus on decent homes and fire safety

because we know those are the two things that really affect your regulatory judgement.

So although there are four tenancy standards we know that those are the ones the regulator is

very very interested in so we're hoping once we've closed down these ones that the phase two,

Your Voice, Our Action will be far more sort of around leaning into some of those sort of

big issues that we need to get on top of. So the other slide, it gives you some examples

of what are the sorts of things that we completed in terms of those 128 deliverables. Some of

the examples are some of the things that are in progress and then talks a little bit about

the stage two and our development of stage two as well. I'll pause there and hand over

to Jonathan who's going to say a little bit about some of the door knock exercises which

which is fitting in with some of the transparency

and the accountability standard,

and it feeds into the sort of work stream

on improvement resident engagement.

Yes, thank you, Karen.

So early last year, coming out of some of the benchmarking

working that we were doing and some of the best practise

work that we've been doing to see what other

local authorities have been doing,

This idea sort of manifested of the big door knock which was hoping to address a number of kind of objectives.

Both kind of create a stronger two -way dialogue between us and our residents.

Both hear more about what we can do for them and also for our own staff to understand more about the estates and feedback more into what their work was doing.

This project took place over July, August, September and was run entirely by volunteers throughout Housing Management.

2004 doors got knocked on throughout the course of this exercise across seven different pockets of states that we identified throughout the borough.

It was run by 76 volunteers and from out of that we had 417 meaningful conversations on the doorstep with residents.

The feedback from those residents was largely positive, whether it was about their satisfaction with their homes and their local area,

and also about engaging in the conversation in the first place.

But we also got a number of issues raised that they were having in their homes and their local neighbourhoods,

which we took away and fed back into the relevant teams to action.

Yes, the feedback was largely positive also about us engaging in the first place,

and a number of people have commented that we've done something about the thing that they raise an issue about as a result of those conversations.

There's still ongoing work in a variety of areas. The issues that were fed back were on a whole bunch of things,

whether they were on existing repairs that were outstanding,

whether ASB issues in the local area,

or slightly more complex individual needs,

which required a more sort of bespoke response.

Thank you very much for your report.

Now I go to the member for your questions.

The boundary estate was one of the first that the project was implemented.

So we tried to, when we heard that this is happening as a TRA, we tried to communicate with the residents.

I have some really honest feedback as well.

It is wonderful to see the visibility and I think you have a big take on visible on the estate.

But there are some actions that were taken that look quite superficial, where you have the whole gang of housing caretakers painting the bollards and some quite superficial things like blowing away the leaves days before.

That's fine, I think it enhances the overall estate, but it kind of looks like comical,

like sunny, there's a frenzy of activities.

That's my comment.

Second comment is, while it's great to be there on the spot to address immediate issues

that residents bring up on the day, has there been any kind of correlation to complaints

made or repairs already requested where you actually connect with the contact centre and

actually physically, let's say if I call up a month ago to say that something is wrong

in my flat and on the day when you come you knock on my door and say hey you made this

complaint, I'm here to fix it or hey you made this complaint, how was the repair done, was

satisfactory, so if there's a kind of triangulate with actual repairs that were reported, we'll

make it even stronger and we'll make it like a PR exercise, which felt a bit like that

to us, maybe because we are the first estate.

We tried to cooperate, but there was some scepticism from the residents saying that

like why sunny this frenzy?

The other comment was it's held during the early afternoon and some of them rushed back from work

but actually saw that your work packed up and gone.

So we tried to tell people, oh they will be there till four, please come, please come.

And then some turn up and it's like, no, but they were gone.

So I just want to give you, but ours was a pilot. I think we were the first estate, boundary estate.

So I think there is, continue doing it, but I think there are ways to make it even stronger.

Indeed.

Give a shout out to the

Khalil

Harmit

such as update information, tenant overcrowding,

etc.

And how are you going to collect this information

in real time and future?

Secondly, I mean, don't look happen in my board.

And I was informed just couple of days before,

there's the don't look.

I'll be honest with you, I did not know.

Don't looking means like you guys, staff going there

and the big things, specific time,

eight till four you'll be there, things like this.

It was big, but if you do it next time,

please inform and I can inform the residents so they can benefit of it.

Thank you.

Let's go.

Absolutely right about there are different ways that we could approach it

next time. So you gave a really good example of if we had officers going out

on an estate and there were 300 flats that we knew we had to door knock, what

do we know about those individuals in those flats that we can then have a

meaningful conversation with that person about something that they've reported to us and

wanted to know what their experience was.

And also it might be a flat whereby we're having access issues to deal with some asbestos

or to deal with some water or to deal with some cheques.

And therefore knowing that before we door knock is really important as well.

So that's one of the things that we've picked up as well is about having some intelligence

about the people behind the doors that maybe we can, you know, if there's something that

maybe we've been trying to reach out to the person about,

whether it's a compliance issue or not, and we've had issues,

then being aware of that when we're actually

knocking on the door.

And I think your suggestion of being

aware about any particular transaction

that we might have had with the person complaint

or compliment or otherwise, the person knocking on the door,

having at least three or four things

that they know about that person's transaction with us

would be really helpful.

So I mean, Jonathan's the architect of the big door knock.

He's now talking about a big telephone call, but he's yet to explain that to me what that is.

But Jonathan's tasked with sort of like just refining the door knock process as we go on.

So all of this stuff is really important for him to hear. I don't know if he wants to come in himself.

Yeah, no, thanks Karen. Yeah, I mean, as you say, the battery state was the first day that we did

and there's certainly a lot of lessons learned that we had from that day

and also from the rest of the six days that we did over the summer.

And I think one of the lessons learned is that preparedness about,

you know, what what we give to the

to the officers that are going door to door.

And that's actually quite a sort of complex logistical question.

You know, you were saying that people

came home early to make sure that they could be in, which is fantastic.

But obviously, if we've only got, let's say,

eight pairs of door knockers going around in the state,

then there's no guarantee if they get home at 3 .30

that we'll be able to get to them.

So I think there's a lot of questions

about how we best operate and how we best inform people.

And yeah, one of the answers to that is about

making sure that we're reaching out

by all available channels that we can,

hence the idea of also reaching out to people

via telephone as well.

I think, yeah, we will be iterating on the learning that we've done.

One of the other significant pieces of learning is about making sure that we have the tools

available to have a digital integration.

So if people are talking about existing repairs, then being able to cheque on the system on

the day to see what that issue is.

But again, yeah, it's a logistical challenge that we're going to figure out next time.

Okay.

Montiadri, your question, please.

Thank you, Chair.

The services reported a reduction of over 6 ,000 cases in the housing application backlog.

alongside a 12 % year -on -year improvement in call centre answer rates between April and

October.

Could you outline the specific operational changes, staffing decisions or process improvements

that contributed to these results and how the Council intends to maintain or further

strengthen this performance going forward?

Thank you.

So on the backlog...

Before that, my colleague asked you, but it wasn't addressed.

I will do it again. Basically you have been doing the knock and you are getting so much information during the down knocking.

and you probably picked up the overcrowding issue and many things.

How are you going to collect this information in real time and future?

That's the question.

Sorry, the second question was, I mean, I wasn't properly informed when you door knock

and I don't know what that door knock means and if you do it in the future,

as a representative, I believe you should inform us so we can inform the residents

that will be taken benefit of it.

On the second point, absolutely completely take that on board and we'll make sure to better inform in the future.

As for the first point about issues like overcrowding, all of those

reports were logged in.

Most of the

questionnaire that we took was in a qualitative form, which meant that we were taking in that information

just

qualitative feedback from people and we were feeding that back to relevant teams just so

that they had record and information given to them. We didn't have a specific response

for things like overcrowding in terms of what the follow up would be because obviously we

have existing processes in place for how we manage our overcrowding issues in the borough

and specific officers that manage that.

So we just fed that information into them

to go into their standard work log.

One thing that I think that we do want to improve upon

in the future is just making sure that we have

more active and transparent dialogue with the residents.

So when they do report something back to us,

then we can tell them what we've done with that information.

I think that's the main thing that we'd like to improve upon

and iterate in the future.

So in terms of the backlog of the housing applications, that was purely done by a backlog

team. So there was a backlog team that were employed to just address the backlog. So a

really specific focus and that was what they were doing in there. There was a lot of work

done just in terms of understanding what was making up that backlog. So were there applications

that were maybe an application had been written to and they're asked to provide more information

and there'd been three or four letters written. Our policy is to write one letter, in some

cases we write in three or four letters, and it might have gone back three or four years.

So there was some weeding of the data and categorisation of the 6 ,000 and then the ones

that we knew were potentially going to come in and be a live application, we were focusing

on those. So it was real understanding what the 6 ,000 were and employing people just to

do that job. In terms of the call centre, the Cabinet report tomorrow always reports

on call centre performance and pleased to say that months on months the call centre

improvement is going up. So the underlying trend is it's continuing to improve. I would

say that the biggest impact, and if Golan was here he'd say this because he'll say it

The biggest impact has been that we've had a new head of service come into that team.

It didn't have a dedicated head of service. One of the other heads of services was overseeing it.

But we've now got a dedicated head of service. There were vacancies, we've now recruited to the vacancies.

And we've required staff to come into the office more often.

So there's more performance management of the staff who are answering the calls.

So I think that's enabled us to have more visibility of the calls that are coming in

and better able to respond.

In the performance pack tomorrow night going to cabinet, the call centre has its own slide

in it, has all the performance and it has all of the reasons for the continued improvement

and then other mitigations that are underway as well.

Thank you.

Do you have any other questions?

Okay.

Questions.

Oh, Councillor Lake, what are your questions?

Thank you, Chair.

It's a big idea.

It's a big door knock.

I think it's I welcome this idea.

And you're going to do one in 2020 to 2026.

I think it's a good idea.

So your finding suggests that the worst problem were repairs in ASB.

So if you add them up together, 40 % of the responded, which I interpret, they are not quite happy.

So people experience ASB and dealing with ongoing repairs issue,

they are not happy residents living in their state or in the area which

reflects the past the current or past survey. The yes became top and the word I

represent every time I go out I face angry people their current...

But can you ask the question, please?

So they are unhappy about the current buildings

cross, the phone being snatched.

And this is the daily, almost very frequent,

crime happening in Poplar, in a less very word.

In particular, towards Brownfield,

a profoundly state in this area.

And there is no action so far.

So my question is how Poplohar can the council, are there a lot of these crimes happening,

the ASB, and what action are they going to take to tackle this problem? Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

So ASB on our Lansbury estates and we have an ASB team that Poplar Harker has that are

working really hard to reduce ASB and to make sure that all processes are followed appropriately.

If there are any individual cases I'm happy to follow those up if you could let me know

about those and I can give you a bit more detail, but we have a dedicated team, strong

protesters in place and we follow all those protesters to deal with antisocial behaviour

on Poploharka areas.

Thank you. This question was not related to this agenda but still you try to answer the

questions anyway. There is a question coming from me, it's about the big door knocking.

The presentation set out in 128 deliverable and 78 has been completed, 47 in progress,

not to start.

Which five in progress, item are most at risk of slippage of March 2026?

What is the slippage margin weeks and what might mitigation and decision point are in

place?

The second question is that when you go to door knocking, people who go to the doors,

do they have, because in most of the doors there will be people speaking another language,

especially Bengali or Somali language.

Do you have anybody with this group so that they can go and support their colleagues when

they don't knock?

Thank you.

I can go to that second one.

It's quite an easy one.

Obviously we do have Somali and Bengali speakers amongst the staff.

We took the best of our abilities, separated people out so that there was mixed teams.

We were trying to get men and women mixed together as well as people of different ethnicities

and nationalities and language speakers were spreading as thinly as we can.

But obviously when we're knocking on doors, we were just knocking on the doors that were the doors on our list.

We weren't specifically asking specific people to knock on specific doors.

Although some of the feedback that we did get was that people were not able to contribute to the conversation

because they weren't able to communicate with us, which we then fed back into the housing officer's team

so that they could then know that the resident there

wasn't an English speaker and prepare accordingly

when they went to speak to them.

The other question you had was about

which deliverables are gonna move past March, right?

There's a few kind of key areas, I think,

so the ASB workstream is a workstream

that is gonna continue on past March.

there is currently an overhaul of the ASP service which is going on, which is going to impact

significantly the ways and means of those deliverables.

But that is, so the delivery date is all in 2026 but some of those are moving past March.

Yes the professionalisation framework, our competence and conduct framework.

so the regulator of social housing is bringing in a

fifth

standard which which they will be which will be coming in in October of this year and we are preparing for that and

For the for that October October deadline, but some of that work will continue on past October in alignment with their

three year

Plan to to get people on board with this new competent and conduct

Standard which they have which is basically about making sure that everybody in the housing services

qualified to a standard which they have which they'll be bringing in in October and then yeah the

Contact centre restructure is also going to be continuing past past March as well and it is underway now

But it will the deadline is past March

question

from Susanna, please.

It's just a

comment following from

Karen.

Our TRA definitely

experienced a better

experience with your call

centre.

We could even name an

individual for you at some

point who is excellent.

I think

sometimes as a resident, we

need to be

coached what to say when we

pick up the phone, what to

take note of, and then when

we call back, the other

party will be able to

to answer our questions. So it's part of that round education and thanks to our chair and

Philok there will be arranging a visit for all of us to the call centre in the coming

week or two. But I just want to say that we personally experience a better service.

That's really good to hear Suzanne and perhaps outside of the meeting if you gave me the

name of the colleague I'll pass that on to Gulen.

Thank you.

Is there any other question on this item?

If not, then we move on to next item.

Okay, thank you.

No question on this item.

So once again, Karen and Jonathan, thank you for your work, and your answering all these

questions.

Our committee is recognising progress.

progress and Karen made a cross -regularity improvement programme including strength policies,

improving the health and safety compliance, reducing housing application backlog and positive

impact on the big door knockings.

I think there are highlighted areas needed to continue to focus on including the remaining

part one action on time.

Ensuring the residents considering quality in repairing and damp and mould responses.

Accelerating NEC driving data improvement and delivering clear outcome from the antisocial

behaviour and the contact centre. We strongly, we expect stronger tracking issues and raising

the residents' clearance evidence on how the resident voice has influenced the service.

Thank you again officers, Karens and Jonathan's for coming and improving service for our residents.

We will now move on to our next item.

Karen, I just want to ask you the next item.

The officers, Salimuddin and Kikaowah, is not here.

So would you be able to, it's not fair on you,

but still if you want it, then it's okay.

So we don't have any apologies for these officers

that they will not be able to come.

And you coming in their place,

There is no apologies from them. So in future they have to be if they say they're gonna come

We expect them to come and if they are not able to come and who is replacing them

We should know in advance so that we not be in confused

Confusions so our final item this evening will be the rent right?

at 25 updated the council

Prepareness

For this item. I would like to welcome a sorry Carol

I understand we have also additional

There is no officer. So this item is also

Welcomes now. We're giving you camera ten minutes, then we move on to the committee members

for member questions

Please take the paper as a read and happy for you to highlight the

Information information only so that we can move on to the discussion. We now start how

how you are ready, I will let you know,

that's it before your time run out.

So, Karen, it's to you.

I did know that Kyoko wasn't coming

because she's gone on annual leave, so I knew that,

and I worked closely with her on this item,

so I was aware of that,

but she obviously didn't let Justina know,

so I'm more than happy to present this for her.

I think last time, a couple of months ago,

I came and talked about the Renters' Rights Act and it hadn't got Royal Assent I think

when I came, but it got Royal Assent on the 27th of October and the main changes will

come in on the 1st of May 2026. But I just wanted to point out some of the key provisions

and that is that it's ending no -fault evictions. So if landlords want to evict a tenant in

future they'd have to have a valid reason. And just to be aware that this legislation

is retrospective. So it's all about tenants who are living in

tenancies now as well as new tenancies that may form in the future. So it will

have immediate effect on all of the current tenancies that exist. There

will no longer be fixed term tenancies, it's a periodic open -ended tenancy. That

rent increases are restricted to once a year along with the market rate. There is

a ban on bidding wars. So if you see a property advertised in an estate agent and it's 1500

a month, that's how much it has to be rented for. There are no arguments between tenants

anymore about how you could pay a little bit more, so bidding wars are no longer allowed.

There's restrictions on the amount of upfront payments that you can make, so it limits that.

and also there are anti -discriminatory measures so landlords will be prohibited from discriminating against tenants based on their receipt of benefits or them actually having children.

And in the future, not for now, but the government intend to bring in a property standard similar to decent homes and AAB's law as well.

They're a little bit further down the line and they won't be implemented, certainly by the 1st of May.

So the May, the 1st of May is obviously the thing that we're focusing on the most and

that's where most of those provisions that I've outlined will come into play. And what

that means is that if there's a landlord at fault of any of those or they report them

into us, we are the enforcement authority for those offences. So working very closely

with colleagues in trading standards, in housing options, in the environmental health team,

It's a whole council effort.

So that if there's a service request that comes in to us

about any one of these breaches,

we know exactly where to triage that to

and that we've got the resources to pick that up.

So we have a working group that is working through

all of the different processes,

the points of contact for residents.

And obviously key to all of this

is a communications campaign.

I think at the last meeting, members,

we're keen to see that communications campaign equally go out to landlords as well as going

out to residents because whilst we have enforcement powers, what we want landlords to do is to

get on the right side of the legislation and to be complying with it. We're holding a landlord

event at the end of January and we'll be talking a little bit about the Renters' Rights Act

to them about as well as other things as well. The other big change that will come in will

be at the back end of this year, 2026, and that's the national database. So all landlords

will have to be registered on a national database, they'll have to upload gas safety certificates,

and have to upload tenancy agreements. The government haven't confirmed whether that

will be yearly, but as gas safety certificates are yearly, we expect that it will be a really

requirement from landlords. There will be a fee every year for landlords when

they upload and set out in the legislation is a provision for the local

authority to get a top slice of the fee to pay for the enforcement of the

legislation. So we are also the enforcing authority for any

landlords who don't register and the fine is seven thousand pounds. In terms

of the other breaches, our fines have gone up from 30 ,000 to 40 ,000. The government,

when you have sent webinars with the government, they often say that this is a sort of, it's

a perpetrator pays bill and that means that there's a real focus on enforcement in order

to drive behaviour change. So the top slicing of the landlord database that we will get,

there will be a requirement on us to be using that to enforce where we know that there are

breaches. I mean we'll probably be coming to cabinet in July or August with an enforcement

policy which sets out what our approach would be when breaches are brought to our attention.

So it's about trying to remedy the breach but if the landlord is not willing to do that

then obviously there's a fine that will sit behind that. So there are lots of preparation

happening behind the scenes to make sure that that enforcement policy is

respecting the spirit of the legislation. So there's a lot of work for us to do

between now and May and then the other thing to mention is that the government

have already released some new burdens money so whenever there's a new

requirement on local authorities the government do an assessment of what they

think the local authority will have to put in place in terms of resources. So

just before Christmas we had our first tranche of new burdens money, it was 177 ,000 pounds,

there'll be more new burdens money coming in the new year in order to help us to sort

of fulfil the requirements and the obligations in the legislation. And that was based, that

allocation was based on the number of private sector homes that are in the borough. So we

We don't know how much the top slice will be of the database.

But that again will be money that will be brought to the council in order to fund the

additional resources that we need to enforce the bill or the act.

Do members have any questions?

Councillor Ahmad Alkabir.

Thank you, Susan.

Thank you for your presentation.

Basically, as you mentioned on the presentation, there is no lifetime tenancy.

Is it, I mean the people who have the previously lifetime tenancy, is it going to be on different, or is it applied from now on?

It will apply from May. So from May there will be...

May last year?

This year. This year. May this year.

So fixed term tenancies start to come to an end, they'll just be rolling over.

They'll just be carrying on their now called periodic tenancies.

The resident who has their lifetime tenancy is going to be end for everybody or just people who have now from May onwards.

It's for everybody.

So there is no lifetime tenancy anymore.

They're banning fixed term tenancies and moving them into what's called periodic tenancies, which is, you know, they can be open -ended.

What my colleague tried to say is that people say, you can start from this May, yeah? May 2026.

But what the people previously, they had a short tenancy, is this continue or is it going to end as well?

So landlords will have to go until May, but if the landlord wants to end the tenancy,

they obviously can do that using the existing legislation, but after May, if a tenancy is

going to end, the fact that the fixed term has come to an end is meaningless.

So after May, if a landlord wants to evict somebody, they'll have to evict in accordance

with the legislation in the Renters' Rights Act.

So that limits the reasons for eviction.

So if you wanted to evict after May it would have to be for one of the reasons set out in the Act.

And you can't just evict them because the tenancy has come to an end.

There has to be for a reason. So it has to be because you want to move in or you want to sell the property.

Or the person hasn't been paying the rent or they've committed some antisocial behaviour.

Or there's a breach of the tenancy.

The tenancy's breached the terms but not fixed term.

That's a ground for possession as well as you want them to move in or you want them

to sell.

So the whole purpose around the legislation is to provide security to people who are renting.

So you know, and landlords have known about the legislation for a long time because it

was previously a bill under the previous government and the current government have picked it

up.

They've changed the title slightly, but the threads of the bill are still there.

And the landlord organisations, the national landlord organisations, have been heavily involved with government

and heavily consulted on the bill and on the drafting.

So for example, in the area of ASB and rent arrears, they've lobbied hard for some fast -tracking court procedures

because obviously you know if the tenant isn't paying their rent that they

they you know that's a big issue for a landlord. So the government are

looking at sort of fast tracking court proceedings for areas where landlords

are you know out of pocket or the ASB is you know it's causing a nuisance and

distress to neighbouring communities. But it has cross -party support, the Act

had cross -party support and landlords were engaged. So whilst we've got lots of

communications to do to landlords and to tenants, even if you walk past an estate

agent now, it says it talks about new things happening in May. So the agents,

most landlords use agents and most of the agents have been pushing this

information out to their landlords, you know, for the last year. So we're

We're expecting most landlords to know that it's coming and that there are things that they have to comply with.

But we'll make sure that the comms is directed firmly at estate agents and to landlords.

And in our own stock, 50 % of the stock is leasehold stock.

We know that quite a lot of that is rented out.

So we're going to do direct mail shots to leaseholders, just informing them that if they are renting out, that the law is changing.

They need to be aware of certain things and pointing them to, you know, resources that

they can get access to.

Our resources on our website, but also directing them to landlord agencies, national landlord

agencies who can give them advice from a landlord perspective.

We've just signed off an insert to go out in the next leaseholder newsletter, or there's

going to be a mail shot to leaseholders in the next months, and we've just signed off

the content for that. So having that direct dialogue with leaseholder land boards, we've

definitely marked that as a priority. But we need to be reaching out to all the land

boards in the borough as well. But there are 500 letting agencies in the borough, so we

see them as being a real good channel of communication, because most land boards will use a letting

agency.

Sorry, I'm not quite clear on this.

I'm just asking from our

, Tower Hamlets

, the tenants

who got a lifetime tenancy previously,

is it going to be

terminated on May

or whoever got this

can have this

tenancy for a whole life

It is a new thing.

It is not quite clear.

Can you say that?

Tower Hamlets

So it's only affecting private tenants.

It's only for private tenants.

So it's only, it's just affecting private tenants.

It's only affecting private tenants.

That's fine, thank you. That's clear.

Because as you said, we...

People got worried by when you say...

We all got worried.

Why were you worried?

Because it...

Now is okay.

Oh, all Tennessee's are ending in May. I don't have that much power.

Everyone here thinking that

what about the

what about

Our comms when it goes out, it's really clear.

This is about private renting.

For quite a while you make some people scared.

I'm like, what about the succession?

Some people are passing away here.

I can't remember what is the situation.

What?

Sir, that's good.

Thanks a lot, Iqbal Hussain.

Your question, please.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to understand with the new power,

How are you going to regulate or control the rental appraisal for any property and the

rent increase? Do you have any control to like if I put in a scenario I have a property

I want, how the power will decide what's the current rent for this property and how the

would you control the reckless increase year by year?

What the legislation doesn't do is try to have any sort of rent control.

It isn't a rent control mechanism, I guess what you would call it would be, it's a rent stabilisation mechanism.

So this is where, I mean you'll have seen reports in the local, in the national newspaper

about tenants being asked to leave if they don't, you know, there's a six monthly rent

review and your rent is going up after six months and if you don't like it then you can

leave.

So it's outlawing, you know, it's outlawing that and saying you can only have an increase

once a year and that has to be in line with the market rates for your local area.

trading standards will be monitoring that from a consumers perspective

and where we feel that maybe the market and it will be very much reliant on

residents contacting us by making complaints, but where we feel that maybe

agents are not increasing rents in line with sort of market conditions

the trading standards will sort of intervene. But it will be very much reliant on I think residents

you know who are in tenancies coming to us because the landlord has tried to increase the rent beyond

what would be a market. There's lots of sort of intelligence gathering for trading standards. I

mean trading standards are very active in this area anyway from a consumer perspective in relation to

deposits. So this is falling to trade and standards to pick up. So what we've done with

all of the provisions in the Act, we've allocated them to housing options for evictions, rental

increases to trade and standards because it's a consumer issue, and then for other matters

like the landlord database, we've allocated that to environmental health. So the cabinet

report, which will come in the summer, will sort of set out where the different provisions

of the Act are sitting within the Council and will give them the delegated powers to

use their powers to prosecute landlords.

So it will be a delegation report to cabinet.

How do you work out the market rate?

Because when you say market rate, it doesn't give us the idea that how much it can be like

market rate.

How you work out market rate.

Second is that I recently visited one block and two bedroom flat and that block is say example 1900 pound.

Same two bedroom, same building, two bedroom is 2200.

So why is that and what the resident can do if this occur to them?

I have to get my colleagues in trading standards to come back and answer that one if you don't mind.

They are putting in place mechanisms whereby they can track rents. So if I can get my colleagues to come back to you on that.

Let us know who can approach. Like if I live in a two bedroom flat, my colleague living here also living in the same flat, same building.

I've been charged by private landlord 1900, he's been charged 2100.

Then who can we approach to sort out this difference between safely.

I would think that there would probably be a range and that range might be okay.

You know, 1900, 2000, 200 might be within the range for a two bed flat in that geographical area.

So if the landlord, if you were on 1900 and the landlord wanted to increase it after a year to 2100,

it might be within the range because I guess within the range you have to take account of the quality within the flat,

in that the 2100 flat may have power shower or may have better heating or better quality kitchen,

may have more facilities, more modern facilities.

So I would imagine it would be within a range.

And if we divide the borough up into four areas,

say in certain areas we'd say,

well the average two bedroom is 1 ,900 to 2 ,200.

And the landlord would have to increase within the range.

Because that would take account of

Pacifics within the individual flat.

But I'll get trading standards to confirm,

But it seems to me that that would be an obvious approach.

Just AOB.

Can you repeat the question?

You have set out an anti -discrimination measure,

limit on rent increase upfront,

rent and bidding warband.

Can you tell us what the Council Trust Hold Work Follow is to investigate this offence?

Covered test purchasing platform scrapping, we shall lower roads.

How will you report the outcome of the publicly without free judiciary?

On those provisions they will all sit with a particular service. So on the anti -discriminatory

measures I would say that sits very firmly with trading standards because it's a consumer

piece of work. So when we get service requests about those we'll have to manage those service

requests and deal with the offence. As part of the provisions within the Act, there is

a provision for us to report to government. I think there's about 50 KPIs that we have

to report on, which is really trying to capture our enforcement activity and the outcomes

from the legislation. So there will be a lot of data that's being collected around the

enforcement and that will be reported through to government, but it equally could be reported

through here because what we want to do is for the legislation to land well and to be

meaningful and in order to track that we need to be providing some performance information

so that could come here but we'd also be submitting it to government too.

Thank you for your view.

You and the members have discussions.

Committee welcome the progress made so far.

Expect clear update on the RANTS -RIGHT Act milestones approach.

We have participated and work underway.

We will continue to monitor this readiness closely.

So thank you very much, Kiran, once again.

We've been a whole night with us.

Thank you very much for answering all these questions and you are free to go.

So I need Karen and Elizabeth as well, please.

Okay.

Thanks, Chair.

The AOB I want to raise is, is there a new asset management strategy coming up?

There is an asset management strategy, housing asset management strategy,

because I received an email inviting,

It's an invitation from Notch Moo Hussein to attend this, but I guess on behalf of the

committee here, when will we be presented with this draught strategy?

I don't think there are any plans to review it here.

There's going to be a little bit of a cabinet as one of the policies that we are taking

to the cabinet subcommittee.

Is there a reason why?

Because it's about housing asset.

I think it's something for the chair and they look to consider because it's going to cover

everything on housing asset, your parking garage, your housing stock and everything

on the housing asset.

We have noted and we will look into that after the meetings.

Thank you.

I don't know whether you circulate items outside of the meeting for input.

I mean that's something to think about.

It will come to, I'll cheque out when it's coming to the cabinet subcommittee.

We've got one more meeting in March and then we won't have any further meetings till July.

If I can add, I just find it strange that it's going out to the public without coming

here.

I receive it as a resident.

You are a leaseholder and a resident of the stock, so the asset management strategy is

about how the council is managing, is going to in the future manage its council stock.

So you are receiving it as a resident.

Any other business?

Anybody got anything to say on another business?

Kiran, you are free to go now.

Okay, Elizabeth as well.

Thank you very much, Elizabeth. We will see you in future meetings.

And hopefully we work together to look after our residents.

Harakath.

Near to end,

just as a polite reminder to our colleagues, we have a site bridge arranged for Wednesday 21st, January

2026, 1 p .m.

Officers have sent us the request to cheque if the member wish to join me. Please,

can you let the Phillip know if you wish to attend?

We need to let the service know that members

and manage capacities, because we'll go look after them,

see them, so we'll have to let them in advance

that so many people come in so they will manage us.

Yeah, is that something possible to do

in the beginning of the working hours or the end of the business hours because

one to three is like middle of nowhere. That's a bit because what happens to me

because I worked in a day job so I cannot get it difficult to get break in

the lunch in the in -between so if I do in the morning say between 9 to 11 or

between three to four, so I start late or finish early, but in between, like coming from Ulic, where I'm based, so it's very difficult.

So I think it's been arranged, so in future we'll look into that. Can you, in future, if we say that three to four, would you be able to do it?

Yes, we should be fine.

We can ask them to rearrange this one. If not, in future we will look into that.

Thank you very much. Our next meeting is the final housing and regeneration

subcommittee meeting for this municipal year will be 9th of March 2026.

Thank you, Scrutiny Member. You've been wonderful.

so that there is no other business to discuss, I call this meeting to close.

Thank you very much.

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Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee - Tuesday 13 January 2026, 6:30pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub CommitteeTuesday, 13th January 2026 at 6:30pm

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Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee
Tuesday, 13th January 2026 at 6:30pm