Issue - meetings

Background:

This report set out changes in the way complaints from the Council’s Housing Revenue Account tenants were handled, as introduced by the Localism Act 2011.

It was noted that a tenant or leaseholder who had exhausted the Council’s internal complaints procedure and remained unhappy with the response to their complaint could ask a ‘designated person’ to refer their complaint to the new Office of the Housing Ombudsman. It was noted that a ‘designated person’ could be any Member of Parliament or Councillor from the local housing authority district or there could be a designated tenant panel, i.e. a group of tenants that was recognised by a social landlord for the purpose of referring complaints against the social landlord.

The report set out structure options detailing how a ‘Designated Person’ could be identified, setting out the advantages and disadvantages of each. Whilst noting that every tenant or leaseholder still retained the right to refer their complaint to any designated person if they so wished the report recommended that a‘Designated Person Panel’ be identified (option 2).

It was noted that the Regeneration, Community and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered this report on 27 June 2013. Details of the discussion at the Committee, including an explanation as to how the new system would work if option 2 were to be adopted, was set out in the report. The Committee agreed to recommend adoption of option 2 and recommended that the Designated Person Panel should comprise 5 Councillors (3 Conservative members, 1 Labour member and 1 Liberal Democrat member nominated by Group Whips); that the advisory independent person should be from Gravesham Council (or another neighbouring Council) on the basis of a reciprocal arrangement with Medway and the advisory tenant representative should be nominated by the Tenant and Leaseholder Scrutiny Panel.

Reasons:

This provides complainants with the option of discussing their complaint and possible referral to the Housing Ombudsman with a small panel of Councillors, working in their capacity as designated persons, who will build up a level of experience and knowledge of housing operations and obligations.