Issue - meetings

To present to Cabinet the following housing policies for approval and adoption:-

? Reasonable Adjustments Policy;

? Vulnerability Policy; and an

? Unacceptable Customer Behaviour Policy.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    approves and formally adopts the Reasonable Adjustments Policy, Vulnerability Policy and Unacceptable Customer Behaviour Policy;

(b)    authorises their direct implementation; and

(c)   authorises the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery) to make future updates or amendments to the above policies, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder responsible for Housing.

Earlier on in the meeting, as detailed under Minute 4 above, Councillor Bray had declared for the public record that he was a housing tenant of this Council.

Cabinet considered a report of the Housing & Planning Portfolio Holder (A.4), which presented to it the following housing policies for approval and adoption:-

·      Reasonable Adjustments Policy

·      Vulnerability Policy

·      Unacceptable Customer Behaviour Policy

It was reported that these policies formalised the work that was already undertaken in the Housing and Environmental Directorate.

The Reasonable Adjustments Policy defined what a reasonable adjustment was and provided an overview of the types of adjustments the Council would consider together with details of how customers could request a reasonable adjustment.

The Vulnerability Policy set out the Council’s commitment to assisting vulnerable customers to ensure they could access Council services and to vulnerable tenants to ensure they received assistance to sustain their tenancy. The Policy set out how the Council would support tenants who were vulnerable and explained how the Council would define, assess and record vulnerabilities.

Communicating with housing customers was usually a straightforward process and Council customers had the right to express their views and ask questions about the Council’s housing services and their comments and suggestions were important in helping the Council shape and improve the services it delivered. However, in a minority of cases, some customers chose to behave in a manner towards Council staff, contractors or others providing housing services on the Council’s behalf and/or place demands on Council services that were unacceptable. The Unacceptable Customer Behaviour Policy defined what behaviour would be classed as unreasonable and how the Council would respond to such behaviour.

Cabinet was assured that all of three policies met the Regulator of Social Housing’s revised Consumer Standards that had come into effect from 1 April 2024 and the expectations and recommendations of the Housing Ombudsman.

In order to ensure that the policies were appropriately adopted, in accordance with the Council’s Constitution, and to evidence compliance with regulatory standard:-

It was moved by Councillor Baker, seconded by Councillor Kotzand:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    approves and formally adopts the Reasonable Adjustments Policy, Vulnerability Policy and Unacceptable Customer Behaviour Policy;

(b)    authorises their direct implementation; and

(c)   authorises the Corporate Director (Operations and Delivery) to make future updates or amendments to the above policies, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder responsible for Housing.