To receive any statements from Directors of Council Owned Companies.
In accordance with Procedure Rule 4.2.24 the total time allocated to this item shall not exceed 10 minutes and no Director, except with the consent of Council, shall speak for more than 3 minutes.
Minutes:
Prior to the commencement of the item, the Mayor proposed that the time limit for statements under the item be extended 4.2.13.11 g) be extended in respect of Councillor David Chopping’s statement. This was agreed.
Councillor David Chopping, Non-Executive Director of Wokingham Housing
The detailed application to register Loddon Homes Limited, (LHL) as a For-Profit Registered Provider (Housing Association), was submitted to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) at the beginning of September. The detailed application forms included over 25 appendices (34 sets of documents in all) to make the case for registration and look to satisfy the requirements of the HCA.
The HCA typically takes between three to six months to determine an application for registering a new housing association and we will advise Council as soon as we have further news and updates on progress.
Encouragingly the HCA have asked for a couple of clarifications and for a copy of the Group Operating Protocol, which we advised was available on request; so we are pleased that things are clearly already moving on.
The submission is a culmination of many months of hard work by Wokingham Housing Limited, (WHL) staff, together with Wokingham Borough Council colleagues, along with detailed scrutiny by the Boards of Loddon Homes and WHL, before final sign off by Holdco.
Loddon Homes is a vital part of our strategy to support our affordable housing building plans using commuted sums to deliver projects like Phoenix Avenue and the Fosters Extra Care Home. With the significant changes being introduced by Government around housing policy, Loddon Homes may also prove useful as a way of mitigating the impacts of the Government's housing policy changes.
It is, perhaps, worth re-iterating the differences between the two Housing Companies. WHL is the Council’s development company, and is tasked with building homes on council owned land, as well as commercial sites. Loddon Homes is the first of its subsidiaries, and will, providing the HCA agree, be a registered provider. This is by no means definite, as the criteria was tightened late last year and then republished in the spring, and are harder to meet. They are also not helped by the current almost weekly rumoured policy changes as the new government draws up its Housing Bill, but Loddon Homes has been designed to grow within the new frameworks so we hope it is as future proofed as we can make it at this stage.
Loddon Homes Limite is answerable to WHL, but has its own board to meet HCA requirements about self-determination, and funding. WHL is answerable to Holdco, and we are all in the process of sorting out the detail corporate responsibility, hence the importance of the Group Operating Protocol.
Of our sites, Phoenix (formerly know as Eustace Crescent) the contractors will be on site in November 2015. Fosters has had a good response from possible contractors and a short list is being drawn up, the pre-qualification stage, to enable us to go out to tender. There are also another half dozen smaller sites, where we are obtaining planning approval, which should be built and available for occupation before either of these two flagship schemes are completed, giving us another 25 or 30 units, possibly even before the end of next year.
Our staffing is now complete with the addition of Karen Howick as our business development manager and the company is no longer totally male.
Finally we are constantly on the look-out for more sites, and are identifying more possibilities on Council owned land, and are also speaking with other sources. Please do not forget we do need land, and Councillors can all help.
Perhaps we should offer a prize of naming a site after a Councillor who identifies it?
Councillor Anthony Pollock, Non-Executive Director Optalis
Since the departure of Andrew Pickup in November 2014, the post of Managing Director was held jointly by the Finance Director, Paul Steadman, and the partnerships director, Mette Le Jakobsen. This ensured continuity and stability for the organisation and the positive impact can be seen in the organisations vital statistics (sickness absence and staff turnover). I am pleased to report that on 20 August 2015 Mette Le Jakobsen was appointed permanently to the post of managing director.
The only other change to the senior team is that Paul Steadman, Finance Director, has recently left the company after being head hunted by a London based private equity firm. Optalis has subsequently been successful in recruiting an experienced finance director, who will take up their position in early October. Adequate arrangements are in place during the interim period.
I am pleased to report that since November 2014 the Optalis staff turnover has improved significantly. Across the company, turnover is at 19% for the period January to June 2015, which is significantly below industry averages both locally and regionally (29% and 24% respectively).
I am pleased to announce that following an unannounced inspection by the regulator Care Quality Commision, (CQC) on the 1st and 2nd of September to Suffolk Lodge residential home, we have just received notification that the service received a ‘good’ rating. This is especially pleasing as Mette and her team have worked very positively to drive and deliver a caring and open culture which was highlighted within the report. Sickness absence has equally reduced to 8.1 days average per employee in June 2015, with an underlying rate of 5.6 days when long term sickness is eliminated. Again this is an excellent performance for the organisation and below typical sickness absence rates for the industry.
Optalis continues to experience success in recruiting to key positions in the organisation, but it is recognised that recruitment is challenging for the whole of the care sector not only in our Borough, but throughout the London and the Thames valley. Optalis has invested in improvements to recruitment and selection procedures and the company strives to be a good employer, which includes both the offer of reasonable terms of employment, (we already pay the new Osbourne living wage) and a positive, well supported working environment.