Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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p 20 London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) 84 We found improvements and new initiatives are driven by the objective of improving service delivery, the need to ensure such initiatives or services are VFM has less priority. Consequently there is no clear strategy to address VFM throughout the organisation and although there is evidence of a range of VFM assessments and benchmarking of costs this information is not comprehensive. 85 Caxton is currently inspecting and specifying decorations for older tenants minimising the number of technical staff involved in the process but we also considered there are opportunities for further efficiency savings from the response repair contract. For example, taking over pre and post inspections, which have yet to be taken forward. The estate and cleaning SLA with the council covers a wide number of service provision areas and as such may not be providing either VFM or have clear delegated responsibility for areas included. Stock investment and asset management 86 Stock investment and condition is an area of considerable strength. There is a clear investment strategy in place, supported by robust stock condition data. HFI has adopted a mixed approach to achieving Decent Homes (DH) including a public finance initiatives (PFI), and the use of their own resources. Apart from a projected deterioration in performance in 2006 it is likely that HFI will achieve the DH Standard by 2010. 87 The stock condition survey was carried out in 1999 based on guidance in place at the time. One hundred per cent of the externals of the stock and 10 per cent of internals of the stock were surveyed. An investment need of £614.5 million was established. The survey has been regularly updated since then and was further validated in 2003 by Homes for Islington’s asset management partner, Faithorn, Farrell, and Timms (FFT). 88 HFI will access additional funding for DH from the council, following the termination of a loan the council took out for investment in the 1970s, these payments will end in 2005 freeing up £15 million per annum of which £7.5 million has been allocated to HFI for DH work each year. This additional funding, known as the ‘Satman’ funding, has been built into the business plan. 89 HFI and LB Islington have taken additional steps to identify blocks which will require high levels of investment. They have carried out additional, more detailed surveys on tall blocks where they are going to have to invest in structural improvement. This covers about 6,500 properties, about 20 per cent of the stock, where officers anticipate it will be expensive to correct the problems. However, the worst have been tackled first over the past five years and have built them into the programme in the Business Plan assumptions. They have also set aside money for ongoing surveys and a repairs programme for their tall blocks. 90 HFI has had their interpretation of the decent homes criteria independently assessed by their asset management partners, and they are reviewing schemes on an individual basis. 91 Effective steps have been taken by HFI to develop IT systems to support the delivery of Decent Homes and capital programmes. The planned maintenance module of OHMs,and the repairs IT system is scheduled for implementation in May 2005, and the Codeman stock condition system is scheduled for implementation in January 2005. 92 There is an effective programme in place to develop feasibility studies for DH work. Templates have been developed for use by the asset management partners FFT, and will be completed to identify work required to 2010.
London Borough of Islington - Homes for Islington (ALMO) p 21 93 There are clear plans in place to fund the delivery of decent homes even if HFI is unable to draw on ALMO funding. A <strong>report</strong> has been prepared by the council to cover this eventuality. In the medium term the proposal is to use the Satman funding (£15 million per annum) to prudentially borrow in order to finance Decent Homes. In the short term this would mean that the 2005/06 programme would not achieve the HFI standard and would limit work on kitchens, bathrooms and double glazing. HFI may also be forced to review the £9 million allocated to the cyclical programme and may have to curtail work on environmental improvements. 94 Officers are also confident that there is an adequate contingency is place (£1 million per annum) to fund any unforeseen expenditure such as the structural problems with Churnfield and Packington estates. 95 Homes for Islington has a robust asbestos management system in place. They have introduced a risk banding system for asbestos onto the repairs IT systems for both themselves and the contractor. Properties are rated low, medium, or high risk and this information is also printed out on the job ticket. 96 Read-only access to the asbestos database has also been given to HFI Direct staff, including co-located Caxton staff. An audit system has been developed and practice notes and joint training sessions have been provided to staff during a health and safety week. 97 There are targets in place to achieve a 10 per cent asbestos survey representative of all their stock and they have also launched a project to look at the need to develop survey information and an asbestos management system for their communal areas. A survey of all communal areas has been commissioned which they want to complete in advance of the feasibility studies for the DH programme. 98 There are also effective mechanisms in place to manage and update the asbestos database and in high risk areas they have established a standard list of elements containing asbestos and have provided floor plans indicating the whereabouts of the asbestos to the contractor. Capital improvement, planned and cyclical maintenance, major repair works 99 In our previous inspection, the quality of the capital schemes we saw was generally high and information provided for tenants was easy and comprehensive to understand. We found that a range of new contracts had been put in place to improve the planned maintenance service and provide better value for money. By linking the installation and maintenance programmes for these, the council was ensuring a more responsive service, and rationalising the number of contractors it had streamlined contract management. 100 However, we found that the contract maintenance arrangements for capital schemes were not consistent and that on one scheme we saw poor quality of work, and poor site and health and safety arrangements. There was a lack of integration of the replacement of life expired (ROLEC) programme and the cyclical painting programme impacting on cost efficiency. The energy efficiency budget was not being spent on time having a negative impact on those tenants suffering fuel poverty or poor insulation. 101 Steps have been taken to address some of the areas of weakness that we had identified on out last inspection. HFI delivers a good quality capital programme and has a range of planned maintenance contracts in place. However, there is a limited level of resident involvement in capital works, the standard of site safety is variable, and the capital programme did not commence in a timely way. Overall this is an area of strength.
Page 1 and 2: Inspection report
Page 3 and 4: Summary London Borough of Islington
Page 5 and 6: London Borough of Islington - Homes
Page 7 and 8: Recommendations London Borough of I
Page 9 and 10: © Audit C
Page 11 and 12: The service London Borough of Islin
Page 13 and 14: How good is the service? London Bor
Page 19: London Borough of Islington - Homes
Page 45 and 46: Service charges London Borough of I
Page 59 and 60: Summary London Borough of Islington
Page 61 and 62: Documents reviewed London Borough o
Page 63 and 64: Gary Doolan GMB London Borough of I
Page 65 and 66: Positive practice London Borough of

Audit Commission report on Homes for Islington

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