Examination of Witnesses (Questions 196
- 199)
MONDAY 22 JANUARY 2007
MR KARL
TUPLING AND
MR PETER
MORTON
Q196 Chair: Could
I welcome the first two witnesses this afternoon and ask you,
if you would not mind, to introduce yourselves and say which organisation
you represent. Then when we get into questions, given that we
have got quite a lot of issues we want to explore with you and
the time is not infinitely expandable, please do not feel obliged
for each of you to answer every question unless you are going
to say something different from the other.
Mr Morton: I am Peter Morton,
the Chief Executive of Sheffield Homes.
Mr Tupling: Good afternoon. I
am Karl Tupling, Director of Housing, Sheffield City Council.
Q197 Chair: Thank
you very much. Could I start by asking you about your commitment
to reaching your Decent Homes target. Are you on course to beat
the target by 2010? How do you monitor progress and how do you
inform your tenants about the progress towards that target?
Mr Morton: Presently we are on
target. Our Decent Homes programme presently is just up to 20,000
homes improved against the target which is just over 19,000, so
we are around about 1,000 properties ahead of the programme. We
have improved around about 10,000 and we already had 20% of the
stock decent before we started. We monitor on a monthly basis;
we have targets we agree with the DCLG and with the Council; we
keep a regular track on the performance of our contractors, and
that is done in conjunction with the local boards and the main
board. In Sheffield we have got six local boards and they monitor
progress at a local level, both their contractors and the progress
of the work on the estates.
Q198 Chair: Sorry,
did you say in there how you inform the tenants of progress?
Mr Morton: We have regular newsletters
to individual tenants. Before the work starts we tell them when
it is; we consult them on what they are looking for; they have
choices of kitchen and bathroom fittings and so forth, but on
the local boards—there are five tenants out of 11 on the
board—and we report progress to them and they, in turn,
cascade it to the Area Investment Working Groups where we have
got tenants' reps and local members. There are levels of monitoring
through the system there and we also report progress to the Council
and they monitor the work as we go through.
Q199 Chair: As
you know, the Government is suggesting extending the 2010 deadline.
What would be the repercussions for you of re-profiling your spending?
Mr Morton: We made commitments
to tenants to complete by December 2010. We have a programme agreed
with tenants and contractors to achieve that and we are actually
confident we can deliver that. We have spoken to the DCLG about
the question of re-profiling and we have argued strongly that
we should maintain the December 2010 deadline, largely to maintain
those commitments to tenants because the programme has been hugely
successful and for the promises to be broken would undermine confidence
in the programme, the city council and the ALMO. Also, if we were
to re-profile beyond 2010 it would cost more because the programme
that we have got with the seven partners is to squeeze as much
value between now and December 2010. If we go over, then there
will be inflation and greater costs, so it would be counter-productive
for Government, ourselves and the tenants to go over 2010.
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