Agenda item

With reference to article 13 of the minute of the meeting of 21 November 2024, the Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director – Families and Communities, which presented Committee with the bi-annual report, to enable Members to have oversight of all housing improvement activity being coordinated by the Housing Board.

The report also aimed to satisfy a previous instruction to report the implications of resource planning assumptions made by the Scottish Government, when known. 

The Committee heard from Lewis McGill and Geraldine Matthew, who represented the Aberdeen Housing Service Review Group and provided an overview of the review that had been undertaken.  The review was an appendix to the report.   

Ms Matthew began by advising that from the beginning, the group had agreed that there would be no barrier to joining the group, and wanted to ensure that the group truly represented all of its tenants and to be fully inclusive.

Ms Matthew indicated that they worked closely with the communities team, Community Councils and also had a member of the Aberdeen Youth Group attend their meetings.  They were also engaged with the Aberdeen Learning Disability Group.  Ms Matthew highlighted that the group had received several national awards over the years and had recently been shortlisted for tenant group of the year 2025, as well as individual recognitions and awards, which highlighted the dedication that the volunteers put into their communities.

Ms Matthew spoke about what had been working well and also what could be done to improve things from a tenant’s perspective.   Ms Matthew indicated that they were pleased to say that they now felt empowered, more now than ever.

Mr McGill then spoke and advised that the group aimed to represent all Council tenants and noted that communication and engagement were very important, with social media playing a key role and they used it frequently to connect with tenants.  They also made sure they met people face to face too.  The Facebook group now had over 4000 members and it was an active space where tenants could stay informed, ask questions and share their views. 

Mr McGill noted that to date, the Housing Service Review Group had completed six full reviews and one read review.  Every set of recommendations they made were included in an action plan, as part of their final report.  These actions were implemented unless a specific reason was provided, such as limitations due to the technology.

Mr McGill provided a summary of the work that had been undertaken so far, and noted that the group took pride in making sure the reports were clear, well represented and accessible.   He thanked the communications and design team for their ongoing support.   In order to reach as many tenants as possible Mr McGill asked that the Council email the reports to everyone with an email address, which was around 13,500 tenants. 

Mr McGill thanked Members for inviting them along to the meeting and noted that he hoped it marked the beginning of a stronger tenant involvement.  He also hoped that Members found the latest report and its recommendations informative and constructive, in order to work together for better services. 

Members then asked a number of questions of Ms Matthew and Mr McGill.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee -

(a)            note the progress made by the Housing Board from December 2024 to May 2025;

(b)           endorse the amended Plan available in Appendix A;

(c)            instruct the Housing Board to present an amended and measurable Improvement Plan for approval as part of the Housing Board Bi-Annual Report in November 2025;  

(d)           note the key data summary available in Appendix B;

(e)            note the Terms of Reference for the Cross Party Working Group available in Appendix C;

(f)            welcome the findings of the Aberdeen Tenant Service Review Group available in Appendix D;

(g)           instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to work with the Aberdeen Tenant Service Review Group to positively respond to the findings of their review and report progress against tenant recommendations through a subsequent Housing Board Bi-Annual Report;

(h)           approve the arranged access procedure available in Appendix E in relation to Electrical Installation Condition Report inspections to ensure that all Council owned properties comply with necessary health and safety checks;

(i)             instruct the Chief Officer - Housing to implement the Quality Improvement Framework available in Appendix F; 

(j)             instruct the Chief Officer Housing to evaluate the impact of the Quality Improvement Framework on an annual basis and present an updated Framework to Committee for approval within one calendar year as part of the May Housing Board Bi-Annual Report;

(k)           note the homeless benchmarking summary report available in Appendix G; and

(l)             note the resource planning assumptions issued by Scottish Government on 18 March 2025 for the affordable housing supply programme in 2025/26;

The Convener moved, seconded by the Vice Convener:-

That the Committee approve the recommendations contained in the report.

Councillor Graham, seconded by Councillor Watson, moved as an amendment:-

          That the Committee –

1.     note that there was an ongoing housing emergency, and that there were still significant levels of homelessness in Aberdeen and the Council house voids figures were still woefully high;

2.     note that the Convener of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee  did not attend the last Voids Working Group;

3.     note that the Housing Emergency Action Plan was not working quickly enough; and

4.     instruct the Executive Director - Families and Communities  to submit an updated Housing Emergency Action Plan  to the next Communities, Housing and Public Protection  Committee which reflects the true scale of the housing emergency in Aberdeen.

On a division, there voted – for the motion (5) – the Convener, the Vice Convener and Councillors Bouse, Davidson and McLellan – for the amendment (4) – Councillors Cross, Graham, Malik and Watson.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)            to request that the Chief Officer – Housing, provide information to members by way of email, in regards to the various tenants groups and provide details on frequency of their meetings, as well as how members were recruited; and

(ii)            to adopt the motion.