| Lead Manager: | Project Manager |
| Responsible Senior Manager: | Asset Manager |
| Approved By: | SMT |
| Date Approved: | 14.07.21 |
| Date for Review: | 14.07.24 |
| Replaces Previous Version: | 3 |
| Version Number: | 4 |
| Linked Policies: | Asset Management Strategy ,Responsive Repairs Policy, Management of Asbestos Policy, Affordable Warmth Policy, Enabling Independent Living Policy, Central Heating and Servicing Policy, Procurement and Contract Rules, Business Plan, Equality and Diversity Policy, Disturbance Policy, Repairs Maintenance Policy, Lettable Standard, Complaints Policy and Procedure |
1.Introduction
1.1This framework covers the management of planned maintenance for all properties owned or managed by Shropshire Council and managed on their behalf by Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing Ltd.
1.2 As a landlord Shropshire Council has responsibilities to ensure that it’s housing stock is maintained to an acceptable standard to provide safe housing for its tenants. As part of the management agreement Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing ensure that these responsibilities are met.
1.3 This is also a key component of the overall Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing Ltd Asset Management Strategy, ensuring that the housing stock is well maintained and is safe for our tenants. Effective planned maintenance will ensure that the useful life of components is maximised and that value for money is optimised.
1.4 We will carry out the following tasks to manage the long-term maintenance of our houses in order to maintain the Organisation’s assets:
- Conduct regular surveys of our stock to inform the Planned Maintenance programme.
- Arrange for the regular maintenance of items necessary for the safety, security and comfort of our tenants, and for the general upkeep of our stock.
- Plan the long term maintenance of our stock
- Provide information to enable financial planning over a 30 year period, ensuring that our homes comply with the Decent Homes standard.
1.5 The Planned Maintenance Framework has been developed to take account of legislative, regulatory and good practice requirements in relation to service delivery in this area of operation. It will be subject to review following the conclusion of the current “reinvigoration” of the Decent Homes Standard by the Department of Homes, Communities and Local Government that is currently anticipated to be completed in summer 2022 and the implementation of the Fire Safety Act 2021.
2.Purpose
2.1 This document includes policy criteria and procedures to be followed to effectively control and manage Planned Maintenance.
3.Key Details
3.1 Planned Maintenance deals with the natural deterioration of buildings and their components. This can generally be predicted and therefore planned for. Planned Maintenance is cyclical in that the maintenance process will have to be repeated at regular intervals during the life of a building.
3.2 Planned Maintenance is one of the largest single items of expenditure for the Organisation. It is therefore essential that our future programmes are effectively planned.
3.3 There are four main aspects required to prepare the Planned Maintenance programme:
- Property Information – property details for all houses are recorded in our Asset Register (Open Housing software), and are used to inform us of our medium and long term business planning and our Planned Maintenance Programmes.
- Regular inspection – provides regular updates on the condition of the Organisation’s homes for future Planned Maintenance.
- Budget control and estimating – information that is critical for the preparation of long term plans
- 30 year life cycle costs – specific detail held for all homes, enabling long term financial planning for major maintenance.
4.Property Information
4.1 The following information is maintained by the Planned Maintenance team;
- Details of construction type, date of build, maintenance history and property types.
- Property attributes for each house on our Asset Register. Details recorded include information on condition, specification, likely date for replacement and cost of replacement for each attribute.
- Annual servicing of gas/oil/air source/solid fuel heating systems and five yearly service of electric heating system – Detailed records about the heating systems in our houses, and information about service dates are held. Copies of relevant certificates and other data are held against each property on our management system.
- Plans for each estate showing open spaced maintenance areas, indicating the areas adopted for maintenance purposes under the Housing Revenue Account are held via the Shropshire Council maintained GIS system.
- Detailed inspection reports prepared by the Planned Maintenance team, highlighting identified repairs and future maintenance requirements.
5. The Planned Maintenance Inspection Programme
5.1 The condition of our housing stock is inspected on a 5 yearly cycle.
5.2 The Inspections will consider components listed in the 30 year life cycle costing model, and other property attributes recorded on the Asset Register.
The inspection criteria includes;
- The current condition of the component;
- The potential remaining life span of that component until replacement or major repair is required.
5.3 The inspection results are recorded in the Asset Register, and the information used to prepare the Planned Maintenance programme.
5.4 We also arrange inspections of electrical systems in all of our houses, to conform to the latest edition of the I.E.E Regulations,BS7671 18th Edition, on a five year cycle or when a property becomes void or a mutual exchange. These records are held on our asset management system and as at 1st April 2021 we have valid inspections for 98.56%our stock. We continue to work towards all stock having valid inspections but this has been delayed due to the COVID 19 pandemic and social distancing/shielding restrictions
5.4 We have also arranged for asbestos inspections to be carried out in line with our Management of Asbestos policy and procedures and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2016
6.Decent Homes Standard
6.1 The Department for Communities and Local Government introduced the Decent Homes Standard in 2006. This is a minimum standard that every house provided by a social landlord in England and is currently under review with a new standard due to be published in summer 2022. Following additional “back log” funding from the Homes and Communities Agency we achieved this standard throughout our housing stock in April 2015. Since this date we have continued to meet this standard.
6.2 Planned Maintenance progress reports are used to inform Shropshire Council Asset Assurance Board, STAR’s Board and senior managers as to progress for all planned maintenance programmes as well as information confirming how we are maintaining the Decent Homes standard.
7.Planned Maintenance Programmes
7.1 We will consult our tenants and leaseholders where applicable on our proposals for our Planned Maintenance programme, seeking their views on the content of the programmes.
7.2 The Project Manager is responsible for the production of the proposed Planned Maintenance programme for the following year. The programme will include the following:
- Works carried forward from previous years
- Work required achieving and maintaining Decent Homes standard
- Components identified during the annual inspections
- Work that is required to renew obsolete items, such as central heating systems/electrical rewires.
7.3 Budgets for the Planned Maintenance programme will cover the following contract areas:
- Planned Maintenance Improvement; Improvements and major repairs (such as window replacement and other significant repairs)
- Planned Maintenance Cyclic; recurring maintenance work such as annual servicing and paintwork.
- Planned Maintenance Other; Includes expenditure on items such as Adaptations.
7.4 The Planned Maintenance programme and budget is approved by Shropshire Council as part of their overall capital programme.
7.5 The estimated cost of maintenance expenditure for the 30 year period is reviewed by the Director of Finance and Resources and is included in the 30 year Cash Flow Model.
8.Annual Servicing of Heating Installations
8.1 In addition to the maintenance identified within the Planned Maintenance programme all gas, solid fuel, air source and oil heating installations will be serviced annually by an approved contractor. All electric heating installations will be serviced every five years by an approved contractor.
9.Monitoring and Reporting
9.1 Our Board receive contract progress reports every 3 months detailing progress of individual projects; monthly spend measured against the approved budget profile and anticipated annual expenditure.
9.2 This report will also be circulated to Shropshire Councils Asset Assurance Board on a 3 month basis.
9.3 For planned works all contracts are monitored on a quarterly basis which is circulated to the Senior Management Team and Board members.
9.4 We have previously asked for feedback from every tenant who has had work carried out to their home as part of a Planned Maintenance project. We currently request customer satisfaction feedback via “Voicescape” telephone surveys. We have had this form of satisfaction in place since April 2021 and we receive greater numbers of responses with more comprehensive feedback that in house telephone calls or via paper format.
10.Post Decent Homes Standard
- Following reaching 100% decent homes and as part of our Management Agreement with Shropshire Council we have a performance indicator to maintain the housing stock at this level. This performance indicator has a tolerance level of 0.5% subject to results of the on-going stock condition surveys and implications of cash flow.
This tolerance is subject to Annual Review of Key Performance Indicator’s and any amendments is with the mutual agreement of Shropshire Council.
11.Policy Review
11.1 The Project Manager will ensure this framework is reviewed every two years or earlier if there are any changes to legislation. The Senior Management Team have delegated authority to approve minor changes to the policy. Significant changes will be submitted to the Board for approval.
12.Equality and Diversity
12.1 Shropshire Towns and Rural is committed to delivering a high standard of customer service at all times. We recognise that different communities and neighbours have different needs. We aim to treat everyone fairly and any support given will be with sensitivity, tact and diplomacy.
12.2 Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing will ask tenants about their needs so that services can be provided to ensure they are fair, and will publish this information.
12.3 Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing will monitor the services and referrals for support provided to ensure they are fair.
12.4 Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing will undertake Equality Impact Assessments for customer facing housing policies to make sure that tenants are not treated unfairly. These checks will be undertaken with customers.
12.5 Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing will use the information provided by tenants about themselves and the information held about their homes to assist in carrying out its legal responsibilities.
13.Role of Managers
13.1 It is the responsibility of the managers within the Asset Management team to ensure that:
- All relevant staff are aware of the Planned Maintenance Framework.
- All relevant staff are trained and have an understanding of the Decent Homes Standards included the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
- It is the responsibility of all staff to ensure that this framework is applied.
14.Relevant Documents
- Decent Homes Standard 2006 (Communities and Local Government)*
- Housing Health and Safety Rating System 2006 (Communities and Local Government)
- Control of Asbestos Regulations 2016
- IEE Wiring Regulations (BS 7671) 18th Edition including latest amendments (published 1st July 2018)
- THE Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) 2012
- The Common hold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, Section 151 (formally Landlord & Tenant Act 1985, Section 20)
- Fire Safety Act 2021
*currently under review.
Appendix 1 Decent Homes Criteria
(currently under review by Department for Homes, Communities and Local Government) To be considered decent a property must have the following:
All key components in GOOD or FAIR condition and within their expected life cycle:
External walls, roof structure and covering, windows/doors, chimneys, central heating boilers, gas fires, storage heaters, plumbing, and electrics.
No more than one non-key component in POOR condition and outside their expected life cycle:
Kitchens, Bathrooms, Radiators
A reasonable level of thermal comfort:
An EPC score of greater than 37, a full primary heating system, a programmable heating system, and,
If the property has Gas or Oil heating, it must have EITHER cavity wall insulation OR loft insulation greater than 100mm.
If the property has LPG, Electric, or Solid Fuel heating, it must have BOTH cavity wall insulation AND loft insulation greater than 200mm.
Reasonably modern facilities and services (at least four of the following):
A reasonably modern kitchen (20 years old or less), a kitchen with adequate space and layout, a reasonably modern bathroom (30 years old or less), an appropriately located bathroom and WC, adequate insulation against external noise (where external noise is a problem), and adequate size and layout of common areas for blocks of flats.
No category 1 Housing Health and Safety Rating System failures (meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing):
All 29 HHSRS criteria must have a condition of TYPICAL or MODERATE. HHSRS is the only statutory element of Decent Homes and replaces the fitness standard.
Notes:
For a component to be considered non-decent it must be both in POOR condition AND outside of its expected life cycle. If a property is EITHER in POOR condition OR outside of its expected lifecycle, it is considered potentially non-decent. This prompts us to survey the component to either replace, or extend the lifecycle of the component. Component lifecycles are only a guide and so can be extended or reduced based on condition when inspected. Please see examples below:
| Description | DH Identifier (Key component/ Non-Key component) | DH Lifetime (months) |
| Bathrooms | NKC | 480 |
| Doors | KC | 360 |
| Heating General (LGP Gas and Electric/Boiler) | KC | 180 |
| Storage Heaters | KC | 240 |
| Full Central Heating System (radiators) | NKC | 480 |
| Kitchens | NKC | 360 |
| Pitched Roof (general) | KC | 900 |
| Double Glazing | KC | 360 |