Qgpeeninsham City Counci Date: 2 July 2009 Housing Liaison Boards Over recent weeks | have been made aware of growing concem amongst local HLB members about the unrest in City Housing Liaison Board and the impact this may have on the future of the Housing Liaison Board movement. | am writing to reassure you that | remain committed to working in partnership with local Housing Liaison Boards to continue our successful track record in improving the housing service for all tenants and leaseholders. You will recall, that when I came into office five years ago only one third of the council housing stock met the Decent Home Standard. | gave you the choice of four options for the future and you choose Birmingham's 4" Option, under which | promised to bring all homes up to the Decent Home Standard by 2010. Working together, we have delivered on that promise; 90% of our homes now mest the Decent Home Standard and we are on track to achieve 100% by next year. In addition, we have started our kitchen and bathroom renewal programme a year earlier than we promised. To deliver our investment programme we secured a commitment from the Council to invest over £600m in Council housing. Birmingham is unique as the only local authority to fund the Decent Home Standard from its own resources Our partnership has enabled us to deliver many other successes: our first extra care village for older people at Fossway Drive is near completion and a further 4 schemes are underway, rent arrears reduced by £2m last year and are continuing to fall this year, urgent and routine repairs are completed on time and we have no backlogs of work, this year we will introduce phase 3 of our very successful Neighbourhood Caretaking service. We have also delegated budgets to local HLBs so that you can implement schemes that meet local priorities. We have achieved a 92% improvement across all performance Elaine Elkington Acting Strategic Director for Housing and Constituencies Telephone: 0124 675 5998 Housing Department Facsimile: 0124 464 7889 Louisa Ryland House E-mail: paulette.|james@birmingham.gov.uk 44 Newhall Street Minicom number is 0121 303 2551 Birmingham B3 3PL (Louisa Ryland House)indicators during the past 3 years and we are improving faster than the country's average for all councils. Two weeks ago, | announced a new era in Council house building with the launch of Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust which will build 500 new homes a year for people of Birmingham. Things were very different 5 years ago when tenants had given a resounding ‘no’ vote to stock transfer, we had a 26 week backlog of repairs, poor customer satisfaction and no ‘plan B’ to bring our housing stock up to standard. Our success has recently been recognised by the Audit Commission, they awarded us 2 stars with excellent prospects for improvement. Many of our new initiatives and regeneration projects have achieved national recognition and awards for innovation and best practice in partnership working. Like you, | am saddened that a small group of disaffected tenants and residents appear determined to destroy CHLB. The group, in its current form Is not beneficial to our ambition and objectives. The meetings are dominated by a few individuals who are disrespectful to others, including staff, and do not act in the interests of those whom they purport to represent. Further, whilst we are extremely proud that the HLB movement has expanded over the years, a group of over 30 people is too large to be an effective forum. It is with great regret, therefore, that | have to consider whether, after 15 years, CHLB continues to fulfil the purpose for which it was established ie. to work in tenants’ best interests, or whether there may be a more constructive and effective means to engage tenant representatives at a city level in the future. In these circumstances, | have asked officers to consult with you about the future of CHLB and a number of alternative options that may serve our partnership well for the next 15 years. This consultation will take place over the coming months. | will write to you again when the consultation is complete. The Annual General Meeting of CHLB is postponed until such time as we have the results of the consultation. In the meantime, | repeat that | remain fully committed to working in partnership with local Housing Lialson Boards. The future of the local Housing Liaison Boards is secure. | hope that this provides you with the reassurance that you are seeking. | am of course aware that the proposed introduction of CRB checks for HLB members is controversial. However, | am sure that you will understand that the council may be considered negligent if it fails to ensure that HLB members are suitable to undertake the role. Tenants have the right to expect that we have taken all reasonable steps to safeguard them, and in particular, to safeguard vulnerable people. Over the last 5 years our partnership has gone from strength to strength. There is more to do and in particular we need to strengthen local HLBs to deal with local priorities. Your local HLB will continue to have my full support as will those of you who share our vision for excellent housing services.Yours sincerely Se LL Councillor John Lines Cabinet Member for Housing