Part 1
______________________________________________________________
REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF HOUSING AND PLANNING
______________________________________________________________
TO THE LEAD MEMBER FOR HOUSING
ON 15th February 2007
______________________________________________________________
TITLE: Landlord Accreditation reward grant – LPSA1 target 8
______________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATIONS: That Lead Member approves:

The use of the LPSA1 target 8 grant to promote membership of the City
Council’s Landlord Accreditation Scheme through a programme of
incentive grants, available to existing and new members of the scheme.

That such grants should be limited to assisting landlords with the cost of
works which contribute to bringing their properties up to the Government’s
Decent homes Standard.

That the value of such grants should be between £150 and £1,500 per
property depending on the landlord’s status and the property’s condition;
and be conditional on the landlord match funding any grant approved.

That the use of dedicated resources to support such a programme of
grants should be authorised as an exception to the SALFORD CITY
COUNCIL, PRIVATE SECTOR HOUSING ASSISTANCE POLICY,2006.

That the opportunities for joint working between the Landlord
Accreditation Service and the City Council’s Handyperson Service be
explored, and the use of Helping Hands to undertake grant aided works
be promoted to landlords where appropriate.
______________________________________________________________
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This report will review the background the awarding of a reward grant of £382,000
under round 1 of the LPSA programme to the Landlord Accreditation scheme, and
provide details of the proposals for the use of the grant that have been developed by
the Accreditation team.
The report will provide details of a programme of limited grant assistance to
encourage new landlords to become accredited, and reward existing members of the
scheme.
In particular the report will review the contribution that this grant programme can
make to the City Council’s wider strategic aims, and the opportunities that exist to link
the delivery of this programme with other initiatives in order to achieve added value
and maximise the positive impact of the investment.
Finally, the report will outline the arrangements that will be put in place to monitor the
delivery of the programme and seek the approval of the Lead Member for the
proposed course of action.
______________________________________________________________
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: Landlord Accreditation Code of standards
Housing Act 2004
A Decent Home: definition and guidance for implementation
SALFORD CITY COUNCIL, PRIVATE SECTOR HOUSING ASSISTANCE POLICY,
2006
_____________________________________________________________
ASSESSMENT OF RISK: The risk is perceived as being Low. The main risk to the
success of the proposed scheme is a lack of take-up by landlords. This is unlikely as
the scheme has been developed in close consultation with accredited landlords.
Additionally, an active advertising campaign will be undertaken to promote the
scheme to potential new members.
______________________________________________________________
SOURCE OF FUNDING: LPSA 1 target 8 reward grant
______________________________________________________________
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS: Report sent to Tony Hatton. No legal implications have
been identified.
______________________________________________________________
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Nigel Dickens - Spend will be resourced from ringfenced capital funds and has been built in to the capital programmes for 2006-07 and
2007-08.
COMMUNICATION IMPLICATIONS: The City Council’s Marketing and
Communications Division will be commissioned to produce a leaflet to promote the
scheme, and letters will be sent to accredited landlords to inform them of the reward
grant.
VALUE FOR MONEY IMPLICATIONS: The promotion of the Landlord Accreditation
scheme as proposed will assist in the delivery of a range of strategic goals and add
value to a number of existing projects:o Increasing the number of accredited landlords will facilitate the introduction of
mandatory and selective licensing
o Linking the availability of grant assistance to the decent homes standard will
contribute to meeting the Council’s obligations under PSA7 and, in some
cases, result in energy efficiency improvements in line with Salford’s
Affordable Warmth Strategy.
o Promoting the use of Helping Hands to deliver improvements to properties will
support the City Council’s handyperson scheme and facilitate the referral of
any vulnerable tenants to other relevant services
o
Effective and appropriate information management and sharing will ensure
that properties which host Supporting People service will be identified, and
any conditions which may be a cause of concern brought to the attention of
relevant colleagues.
CLIENT IMPLICATIONS: N/A
PROPERTY: N/A
______________________________________________________________
HUMAN RESOURCES: No additional staff required. Associated workload will be
allocated to officers within existing and future work plans.
______________________________________________________________
CONTACT OFFICER: Caren Kihal – Principal Officer, Housing Market Support
______________________________________________________________
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S): Citywide
______________________________________________________________
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES: Housing Strategy, Affordable Warmth Strategy
Homelessness Strategy
______________________________________________________________
DETAILS:
1.0 Background
The Landlord Accreditation scheme seeks to promote responsible and professional
behaviour among private sector landlords, assist in meeting the requirements of the
schemes code of standards and to encourage landlords to improve their property and
achieve recognition for higher property standards.
The overall aim of the scheme is to improve property standards and provide
assistance towards meeting the decent homes standard with the added value of
improving standards for tenants.
The Landlord Accreditation Scheme has received £382,000 as “reward grant” for
achieving the stretched target set by LPSA 1 target 8. It is proposed that this reward
grant funding is targeted at promoting the Accreditation Scheme by providing
financial assistance with the cost of relevant improvements to accredited properties.
This assistance would be available to both existing members of the Scheme who
helped the City Council to achieve the target to encourage their continuing
involvement, and as an inducement to the recruitment of new members.
Detailed proposals regarding the levels of assistance to be made available, the types
of work that would be eligible for assistance and the conditions that would govern the
operation of the proposed assistance are detailed below.
2.0 Eligible Works
The proposed financial assistance will support landlords to carry out works to their
properties that either bring them into compliance with the Decent homes Standard, or
contribute to bringing them closer to compliance with the standard.
In order to meet the Decent Homes Standard a property must:
 meet the current standard statutory minimum standard for housing
 be in a reasonable state of repair
 have reasonably modern facilities and service
 provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.
Therefore, only works which help to make a property safe, warm and weather proof,
or that provide basic amentities to a modern standard will be eligible for assistance.
When a landlord applies for assistance under the proposed scheme a member of the
Accreditation Team will visit the property in question and assess its condition against
both the Decent homes Standard and the hazard health and safety rating system
(HHSRS). A schedule of works will for the property will then be prepared that reflects
the level of assistance to be made available. However, where conditions are found
that could affect the safety of a tenant, the landlord will be required to take the
necessary remedial action.
Only works on this schedule will be eligible for financial assistance and all works on
the schedule must be completed for the assistance to be paid. Financial assistance
will only be paid to a landlord on the completion of works to the satisfaction of the
Accreditation Team and the production of appropriate invoices.
3.0 Levels of assistance
The level of assistance made available to a landlord will depend upon their length of
membership of the scheme and will be dealt with on a per property basis. Based on
consultation with landlords and previous experience of operating more limited
incentive schemes to promote accreditation, it is proposed that the level of
assistance offered to a landlord will be proportionate to the length of their
membership of the Accreditation Scheme; i.e. incentives will be greater for longer
standing members.
The maximum level of assistance will be set at £1,500 per property for landlords who
became accredited no later than March 2004; whilst landlords wishing to become
accredited for the first time will be eligible for financial assistance of up to £150 per
property.
In all cases financial assistance will be limited to no more than 50% of the cost of
undertaking the schedule of works issued by the Accreditation Scheme.
4.0 Delivery
It will be the responsibility of each landlord benefiting from the proposed assistance
to arrange for the necessary works to be carried out by a competent and reputable
contractor.
It is anticipated that the work facilitated by the proposed financial assistance will
relate to minor repairs and improvements in most cases. As a result of this landlords
may struggle to identify reputable builders willing to undertake the necessary works
at competitive rates, due to on costs such as call out fees, etc.
In order to assist landlords and facilitate the delivery of the proposed programme of
incentives, the Accreditation team has liaised with colleagues in the Commissioning
and Projects team to secure the support of Helping Hands, the City Council’s partner
for delivering handyperson services, for the proposed programme.
Helping Hands are local community based enterprise with a core business of
undertaking minor repairs and other small scale works to older and vulnerable
householders in the City. As such they will be able to offer landlords a flexible, quality
assured service at competitive rates in relation to many of the items expected to most
commonly be included on schedules of work. The involvement of Helping Hands also
offers a number of opportunities to add value to the incentive programme, which are
discussed below.
Landlords will be made aware of the availability of Helping Hands’ services and the
potential advantages in employing them. However, Helping Hands will not be the
most appropriate choice in all cases and landlords will not be obliged to use them.
5.0 Monitoring
Monitoring of the proposed programme will be undertaken on each of the following
levels:



Programme monitoring – progress on the delivery of the proposed scheme
will be reviewed as part of the monitoring of the wider LPSA programme by
the corporate centre and by the Landlord Accreditation Executive Board.
Financial Monitoring – As the proposed expenditure has been built into the
Housing Capital Programme it will be monitored on a monthly basis through
the established Capital Programme Monitoring Group.
Quality assurance – As well as the procedural checks outlined above the
Landlord Accreditation team will inspect works funded under this programme
in 10% of cases.
Customer Satisfaction – Customer Satisfaction checks will be undertaken
both with participating landlords and, where applicable, affected tenants.
6.0 Strategic linkages and added value
In addition to promoting membership of the Salford Landlord Accreditation Scheme
as a key tool in the Council’s commitment to improving management standards in the
private rented sector, the proposed programme will also directly contribute to the
Council’s strategic objectives as follows:
Decent Homes in the private sector
Under the targets set in Public Service Agreement 7 (PSA7), each local
authority is obliged to reduce the proportion of vulnerable household, living in
private sector accommodation, whose homes fail to meet the Decent Homes
Standard. Government figures show that approximately 30% of such
households were living in privately rented accommodation.
By basing the eligibility of works for assistance under the proposed scheme
on the Decent Homes Standard, expenditure will directly contribute to
reducing the number of non-decent homes in the private rented sector and
therefore help to meet this obligation.

Affordable Warmth
As it is a requirement of the Decent Homes Standard that homes should offer
a reasonable level of thermal comfort, it is anticipated that energy efficiency
improvements will be included in the approved schedules of works for a
significant number of properties benefiting under the proposed programme.

Added value resulting from the support of Helping Hands
As well as the benefits to landlords in terms of costs and quality of service,
using Helping Hands to undertake works where appropriate also offers
potential added value to tenants and the City Council:o Through their links with the Affordable Warmth Referral Network,
Helping Hands will be able to assist vulnerable tenants to access a
range of services aimed at reducing fuel poverty and promoting
energy efficiency.
o At no extra cost to the proposed programme Helping Hands will
complete a visual property maintenance checklist that will be returned
to the Accreditation Team. Where this identifies issues that require
action the Accreditation Team will either deal with them directly or
refer the matter appropriately, for example to the Supporting People
Team.
o As a significant number of vulnerable householders are private sector
tenants, the high levels of customer care delivered by Helping Hands
will provide re-assurance and facilitate the carrying out of work with
minimal disruption or delay. For example all Helping Hands staff are
subject to Criminal Records Bureau checks and carry photo I.D.s

Match Funding
By making it a requirement that all financial assistance provided matched by
investment by landlords, the proposed programme would secure a significant
investment of private funds.

Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy
The City Council’s current Assistance Policy does not make specific provision
to allow the use of public resources to promote membership of the Landlord
Accreditation Scheme, The Policy does allow for grants to landlords to fund
energy efficiency and security improvements, which will represent a
significant proportion of the improvement works to be funded under the
proposed programme.
Additionally, the proposed programme is consistent with and supportive of
both the Council’s strategic approach to the role of privately rented housing in
the City and a number of specific strategic objectives, as outlined above.
The Lead Member for Housing is authorised under the Council’s Constitution
to authorise the use of public resources outside of the scope of the
Assistance Policy where grounds exist for making exceptions to that policy.
7.0 Conclusion
I am satisfied that the proposed programme represents an appropriate use of the
LPSA 1 Target 8 Reward Grant and is consistent with the strategic priorities of the
City Council.
Additionally, I am satisfied that, based on the specific nature of the resources to be
used to fund the proposed programme and the strategic benefits that will be
achieved, the approval of these proposals as an exemption to the City Council’s
published Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy is appropriate.
I am further satisfied that proposed arrangements for the delivery and monitoring of
the programme ensure that the maximum benefit is derived from the available funds
for the residents of Salford.