The Neighbourhood and Community Standard

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• Annual Report for Tenants and Leaseholders Oct 2011
• The Neighbourhood and Community Standard

The Council’s housing service provides a management service for all of the communal areas it owns and manages.

This is done in three main ways:

1. Through a directly managed caretaking service. The main duties are:

• Cleaning of communal areas, litter picking, sweeping and mopping, cleaning lifts
• Chute clearance
• Clearing fly tipping
• Removing graffiti – general clearance is undertaken by caretakers but larger volumes by a specialist team. The service standards are three days for general graffiti removal and 24 for racist, sexist, homophobic or other hate crime graffiti  
• Emptying estate litter bins
• Snow clearance and salting
• Deep cleaning using steam cleaners
• Health and safety inspections via contractor. This also includes a visual check of play areas when on site
• Checking estate security
• Reporting repairs.

2. Through contracts that are let to external contractors, but which are overseen by housing staff and include:

• Window cleaning
• Grounds maintenance
  through Quadron
• Waste management and clearance by Veolia.

3. In partnership with others including:

• Other departments of the Council. For example highways where they are responsible for highways maintenance and cleaning of roads on housing estates.
• Working with the police, especially Safer Neighbourhoods Teams to deal with crime and anti- social behaviour.

• The Council published service standards for the caretaking service in 2002. We recognise that these are out of date and we are currently working with a group of tenants to review the way in which the service is delivered and looking at the options for improving the service and delivering better value or money.  One of the key options will be to give our tenants and leaseholders a greater choice in the service that they receive, in terms of the hours of operation and the role that the caretaking team undertake. This will also allow residents to make real choices about how much service charge they should pay for the delivery of the service. All tenants will be consulted about these options.
  
  
• Introduce a comprehensive recycling scheme on all estates which will be designed and introduced in co-operation with its tenants and leaseholders and allow residents to enjoy the same level of service as other residents in the borough.

The Council works with a wide variety of services in order to deliver a comprehensive service to its tenants. This includes working with the health authority, local charities, churches and other faith groups, resident groups, the police, local schools, other council departments and many other organisations.

Set out the roles that the Council has responsibility for on its estates and the ways in which we work with our partners.

• The Council has a published policy on dealing with anti-social behaviour and has a pack of information available to all residents setting out the way in which we deal with anti-social behaviour and the options available to us.
  
• Our tenancy agreement clearly sets out tenants’ responsibilities in relation to anti-social behaviour including the way in which they, their families and visitors should behave.
  
• We work in partnership with many partner bodies, including the police and in particular the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, as well as with professional bodies offering support to vulnerable tenants and their families.
  
• We offer support to our tenants to sustain their tenancy through co-operation with other statutory and non statutory agencies as well as our own specialist support staff.
  
• We use a variety of approaches to deal with anti-social behaviour. In doing so we define anti-social behaviour and seek to categorise it according to its severity. We are therefore able to offer the appropriate solutions through facilitating dialogue between neighbours, offering mediation, using Acceptable Behaviour Agreements and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. We will also, where appropriate and where there is sufficient evidence, take legal action either through seeking an injunction or through seeking a possession order through the Courts.
  
• Make sure that witnesses are given advice and support by their housing officers and kept updated as to progress in relation to the case. We will also make sure of their safety through the use of injunctions or, in extreme situations, a transfer to another property.

• The Council is currently working with tenants to review and update its anti-social behaviour procedures and the leaflets we produce to support it. Once this is complete we will consult with a wider group of tenants for their views.
  
• Make sure that people are better aware of their obligations.
  
• Review our tenancy agreement terms to make sure it is kept up to date.
  
• Review the support that we give to the victims of anti-social behaviour.