A new council panel focused on “one of the biggest challenges” facing Southampton is due to hold its first meeting.

The city council is launching a sub-committee dedicated to scrutinising the subject of housing.

The panel will explore existing local authority strategies, the private rented sector, asset management, housing regeneration, and homelessness and rough sleeping across six public meetings over the next nine months.

Each session will also dissect the latest housing performance data.

Labour councillor for Freemantle and former Lord Mayor Dave Shields has been appointed chair of the panel.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the meetings, starting on Thursday, would be covering a “crucial” issue.

“Housing is a massively important area that needs a root and branch review of all of our policies and strategies,” Cllr Shields said.

“We’ve had very good quality scrutiny of other services like adult care and children’s, and housing really deserves to be having the same level of focus so we can get to grips with one of the biggest challenges facing the city at the moment.”

Members of the overview and scrutiny management committee backed the creation of the panel in light of the “key strategic risk” presented by the council’s current housing performance, the critical findings from an inspection of the local authority’s housing landlord service and the significant transformation work taking place to support the housing improvement programme.

In November last year, a report published by the Regulator of Social Housing said serious failings in the city council’s service as a landlord was having a “significant impact” on outcomes for tenants.

The report said the grade three judgement, the second lowest, was based on the “scale and breadth” of issues found.

The first meeting is set to discuss the draft housing improvement strategy 2026-2031, receive an update on the housing improvement programme and explore the first report on the service’s performance.

Expanding on the sub-committee’s role, Cllr Shields said: “We need to be focused not just on the housing stock that we have responsibility for, but also for the aspirations of people who are desperately seeking housing.

“In my ward there is not that much council housing, but there is an awful lot of places we go in the private sector that aren’t ideal, especially not for people trying to raise a family.

“We do need to make sure we are focused on all sectors, not just the sector that we have direct responsibility for but for the others as well.

“Also make sure tenants are being supported because sadly there are examples of very poor housing, of exploitation and we want to make sure that isn’t something that we have in Southampton and we will bear down on them.

“The third area that is important is the social housing sector. Again, people who are housed by housing associations, we need to make sure they are all meeting the high standards that we would expect.”

The housing scrutiny panel is initially scheduled to be in place for the 2025/26 municipal year, with an annual scrutiny inquiry being shelved to facilitate this.