The Home Standard

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• Annual Report for Tenants and Leaseholders Oct 2011
• The Home Standard

When the last annual report was written the prospect for making any substantial improvements to the condition of the Council’s housing stock looked very remote. The Government was still taking 31p in every pound we collected in rent and the prospects were that this situation would get worse rather than better.

Since that report was written the Government has announced that the old way of funding Council Housing is going to change. This means that from April 2012 the Council will be able to keep all the money it collects in rent, which is positive news. However part of the deal requires us to take on a large amount of debt which we will have to repay. The important thing is that the amount of money we need to spend paying off the loan will be less than what we currently pay to the Government - this means the Council will have more money to invest in its homes in the future.

The Council has also been promised £11.6m of extra funding for the three years from 2011 so that it can ensure that all its properties reach the Decent Homes Standard. For the first time in a long time the Council can plan how it will invest in its homes. We won’t receive this funding until April 2012, so until then we will be restricted in the amount of money we are able to spend on the repairs and maintenance of homes in the borough.

Our Local Offer says the Council will -

• Ensure that all of its homes meet the Government's Decent Homes Standard by 2016
• Involve residents in any decisions to appoint new main contractors or extend existing contracts.
• Work with residents to get their feedback on the quality of works done to their homes and to monitor repairs performance.
• Agree Service Standards with residents and publish them so that performance against them can be properly measured.
• Involve residents in the design, prioritisation and delivery of a housing improvement and investment programme, agree delivery targets and monitor the Council’s performance against them.

The Home Standard falls into two areas; the quality of our homes and the way in which the repairs service is delivered.

How are we doing?

• We continue to keep our homes in line with current health and safety requirements.
• Key parts of our buildings such as roofs are kept in a good state of repair.
• We invest to make sure that the heating systems in homes are as efficient as possible.
• When a property becomes empty we bring it up to a standard where we are able to re-let it.
• We try to find different sources of funding to bring our properties up to standard, including property sales, external grant and funding and by looking at the wider regeneration of some areas to deliver new homes.
• We have completed Fire Risk Assessments on all our property and we have either spent or will spend the necessary money to ensure all our properties are safe.
• We have completed an asbestos survey of the common parts of all of our buildings.
• We have inspected all of our communal water tanks and where necessary replaced them.
• We have started to plan for the extensive capital expenditure that we will undertake over the next four years and to involve residents so they can make real choices about the way that money will be spent.

Looking Forward

The Council will:

• In partnership with residents continue to plan the Capital programme that will allow us to meet the Decent Homes Standard in 2016.
• Involve residents at a local level in making choices that directly affect their homes.
• Plan a programme of works to improve the quality of the environment on our estates, including security, the condition of roads and pavements and lighting.
• Carry out an asbestos survey of the inside of our tenant’s homes so that we can minimise any risk to our tenants from exposure to asbestos.
• Continue to review our Fire Risk Assessments and ensure that all works required are completed.
• Keep the inside and outside of our property in line with health and safety requirements.

Ensure that where we do carry out improvements that the work will contribute to making the property meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Conclusion For the first time in years we can look forward to improving the quality of our homes. The Council is working with its tenants and leaseholders in planning how we can deliver those improvements. In the meantime we are maintaining our housing stock to ensure that it meets health and safety and other legal requirements.

The Council operates two main repairs and maintenance contracts – these are with Mears and Smith & Byford. Both contracts are due to end in March 2013 with an option to extend the contracts by up to five years.

The changes in the way Council housing is financed will not only improve the Council’s ability to invest in its homes, but this will also enable us to increase the quality and quantity of the repairs we carry out.

How are we doing?

• The contracts are kept under constant review and are monitored through a rigorous programme of post inspection and tenant satisfaction surveys including a measurement of ‘right first time’.
• The Council also makes sure that all its empty properties are brought back into management as quickly as possible (26 days on average in 2010/11) and are brought up to a minimum lettable standard.
• Performance is monitored against the existing published Service Standard
• We keep the costs of maintenance contracts under constant review and the Council has already achieved substantial savings against items such as the cost of new kitchens and bathrooms, heating systems and the cost of disposing of bulk waste from our property.
• 99.98% of all gas installations were serviced.
• Most of the people affected by the Madingley fire have returned to their homes and everyone will be re-homed by the end of 2011.
• We post inspect at least 10% of repairs costing more than £100.
• We carry out regular health and safety inspections of all our properties.

Looking Forward

The Council will:

• Assess the future of the existing contracts and involve residents in any decisions about them.
• Review the existing repairs service standard in the light of the ability of the Council to improve the quality of its repairs service.
• Plan an external decorations programme for our properties.
• Improve the ways in which customers can let us have their views on the repairs service and their satisfaction with it, including the use of resident inspectors to carry out telephone surveys of people who have had repairs made to their properties.
• Continue to look at the existing repairs contracts to ensure that we get best value for money.

Conclusion The Council has continued to invest money in its repairs and maintenance service and continues to achieve high overall satisfaction ratings.  We will strive to improve the service even further and all standards that we set for ourselves will be agreed to by our residents.