Folkestone and Hythe Council Housing Update: August Bulletin
By Tim Prater
Following the decision of Folkestone and Hythe District Council (and the other three partner Councils) to close East Kent Housing and return to direct control of their own housing stock, work has been progressing fast.
The Council will be taking back direct control from 1 October, and in the run-up and ongoing has started publishing a stakeholders bulletin with progress.
The August briefing note was emailed out to Councillors, Staff and the Tenant and Leaseholder Board today. They will / are being publshed on the District Council website soon, but for those who just can't wait for this months edition, you can download it here.
Update 29/8/2020 - I asked on Friday that the briefing notes be made available on the Council website. As of today, they have been (July and August are the only two published to date) at https://www.folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/housing/housing-strategy - thanks to the officers that made that happen!
Some important numbers from that report:
Statutory Compliance inspections or testing in blocks of flats
|
Element |
Activity |
No of blocks requiring inspection or testing |
No of compliance inspection or tests carried out |
% compliant |
|
Gas |
Annual servicing |
11 |
11 |
100% |
|
Electric |
Testing |
147 |
147 |
100% |
|
Fire alarms |
123 |
119 |
96.74% |
|
|
Emergency lighting |
139 |
139 |
100% |
|
|
Fire |
Risk Assessments |
180 |
180 |
100% |
|
Water |
Legionella testing |
32 |
32 |
100% |
|
Asbestos |
Testing |
116 |
116 |
100% |
|
Lifts |
Annual servicing |
14 |
14 |
100% |
Statutory Compliance inspections or testing in individual homes:
|
Element |
No of homes requiring tests |
No of tests completed |
% compliant |
|
Gas servicing |
2834 |
2822 |
99.58% |
|
Electrical testing |
3401 |
1023 |
30.08%* |
*This is a new programme and is on target.
Households in temporary accommodation and rough sleepers accommodated
|
Number of people in temporary accommodation |
33 |
|
Number of rough sleepers accommodated |
17 |
The Gas Servicing figure *should* be 100%, but with Covid some residents are being very wary about allowing in inspectors to carry out the tests, hence why there are 12 still due. The tests are statutory and the Council is required to do them: all staff have to use PPE, and arrangements can be made to keep in different rooms for example, and the drive is to get that figure back to 100% as soon as possible in agreement with the tenants involved.
Also in the briefing is about the bid for funding to improve provision to help the homeless, the new strategy document to help prevent homelessness (including a really clear "End Rough Sleeping" target that I fully support) and work on developments to target building low carbon homes to support the Council's commitment to get to net zero carbon emmissions by 2030.
