Gentoo homes set to meet standard by summer 2018

A recent report by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) found that a percentage of Gentoo homes in Sunderland had fallen below the standard of housing conditions for all those who are housed in the public sector.

Following the report, Conservative Coun Michael Dixon asked at a full council meeting whether the Portfolio Holder, Coun Graeme Miller, agreed that the recent report by the Homes and Communities Agency regarding Gentoo being noncompliant to the Decent Homes Standard was disappointing.

Coun Dixon said: “Bearing in mind that the condition of social housing in the city is very important to the elected members and the public alike, has he made any inquiries himself or though his councillor colleagues from the majority party who sit on the Gentoo Board as to the specific areas of concern from the HCA?”

In his response, Coun Miller said he had been speaking directly with Gentoo who assured him they were addressing the issue.

He said: “Our disappointment with Gentoo is nowhere near to the scale of their disappointment with themselves.

“At the end of the day, a small percentage of Gentoo homes - of which the 8.9% of stock- fell short of the Decent Homes Standard.

“That was largely due to structural issues of which Gentoo were in the process of going to get sorted anyway as part of the ongoing work in that area.

“Gentoo have assured me that this will be reduced to 4% by March of 2018 and they will be in full compliance by the summer of 2018.”

Gentoo operates principally in Sunderland, where the group is based in Doxford Park, and it has small numbers of homes in Northumberland, Redcar and Cleveland, and South Tyneside.

It owns and manages approximately 29,000 homes the majority of which are for general needs.

In addition, it has approximately 900 leasehold and affordable home ownership properties.

After the meeting Coun Dixon said: “The details were actually reasonably positive.

“Non-compliance by Gentoo should obviously not have occurred in the first place and the figure given was 8.9% of their properties, although my question was not fully answered as no specific information was provided as to what areas of a property this non-compliance covered.

“But there was no real joined-up partnership here between the Council and Gentoo.

“With three Labour Councillors on the Gentoo Board I hope procedures improve and there is more open information provided by both Gentoo and the Council when it comes to important housing issues such as this.”

Commenting following the meeting, Graham Gowland, executive director of Property at Gentoo Group said: “The achievement of the Decent Homes Standard is based on detailed knowledge of the overall condition of all of the Group’s stock.

“In 2016 we recognised that our stock data was not as comprehensive as it should be and we therefore commissioned independent experts Savills to carry out a 100% stock condition survey.

“A 100% survey is seen as best practice within the sector.

“Traditionally, most organisations only hold between 10-30% full data and use this along with previous investment data as their overall benchmark.  

“Recently some organisations have fallen foul of the regulator by not having up to date or comprehensive data which has then caused problems with both their investment and compliance programmes.

“In commissioning a new 100% survey, Gentoo has displayed proactive governance and best practice.

“Additionally, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) also recognise that: ‘When a new stock survey has been completed landlords may find that a proportion of their stock has become non-decent.

“Future refurbishments will need to deal with these hazards.’

“Upon completion of our survey at the end of March 2017, a number of properties were deemed to have failed the standard because of some known and potential problems with gable walls.

“We were aware of a number of gable issues and have been addressing them in work schemes, the survey identified additional properties requiring attention.

“All of the works are part of our investment plan and have an allocated budget.

“All properties will be completed by summer 2018, returning the group to 100% compliance with the Decent Homes Standard.”