Our Annual Report 2023/24
Repairs and maintenance
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Safety and Quality Standard says it expects us to provide you with a good quality home, ensure your health and safety and provide an effective, efficient and timely repairs and maintenance service.
How are we doing?
Spent £8.3 million on work to improve your homes, including:
- 116 kitchens
- 314 external doors
- 144 bathrooms
- 24 roofs
- 92 boilers
- 56 major disabled adaptations
- 271 minor disabled adaptations
- 133 windows and doors
| Improvement of homes | Our target | Our result | Change from last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day-to-day repairs completed on time | 90% | 94.19% |
–2% |
| Day-to-day repair appointments kept | 95% | 94.98% | –2% |
| Heating repairs completed on time | 98% | 95.99% |
–2% |
| Heating repair appointments kept | 98% | 98.98% |
+1% |
| Properties with a valid Landlord Gas Safety Record | 100% | 100% | +1% |
| Properties with a valid Electrical Certificate | 100% | 99.5% | +4% |
| Properties which are asbestos compliant | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| Lift services completed on communal lifts | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| Blocks with a valid fire risk assessment | 100% | 100% | +2% |
| Blocks with a valid water safety risk assessment | 100% | 100% | 0% |
Where we need to improve
Keeping you safe in your homes is important to us and we are very pleased to report that we met nearly all our targets in this area – only narrowly missing our goal for day-to-day repair appointments kept, one of our key indicators.
At the end of March, there were 17 properties without a valid Electrical Certificate. This was partly due to problems accessing these properties and we are working with these tenants to get the checks completed as a priority. When we contact you to say that your gas or electrical safety check is due, please help us to keep you safe by allowing us access to your home.
Tenancy
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenancy Standard says it expects us to let our homes fairly
and transparently, and support residents to maintain their tenancy.
This year, we have:
- Reduced the current tenant rent arrears owed to the council by more than £108,000 between September 2023 and March 2024.
169 homes re-let
| Description | Our target | Our result |
Change from last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average re-let time | 25 days | 25.31 days | –1 day |
| Rent collected as a percentage of rent owed | 98% | 99.54% | +1% |
| Current tenant rent arrears | 3% | 2.04% | 0% |
Where we need to improve
We met our targets for rent collection. We were close to meeting our objective for re-letting empty homes, but just missed this as the time taken to re-let properties increased towards the end of the year.
We now have a dedicated neighbourhood surveyor who looks after all empty properties, which should ensure properties are let more quickly in future. This is important because there is a huge number of people waiting for a council home, and we also need to minimise the amount of rent the council loses while homes are empty. If you are moving out of your home, please help us by making sure it is in a good state of repair before you move and giving us notice before you leave.
Neighbourhood and Community
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Neighbourhood and Community Standard says it expects us to ensure communal areas are kept safe, and to work with partners to promote wellbeing and tackle anti-social behaviour on estates that the council manages.
This year, we have:
- Completed 590 wellbeing plans with tenants in our independent living (sheltered housing) schemes
- Investigated 85 anti-social behaviour cases
| Description | Our target | Our result |
Change from last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction with anti-social behaviour handling | n/a | 54% | +3 days |
Where we need to improve
Although we didn’t set a target for satisfaction with how we handle anti-social behaviour, this is an important area for us to tackle. We were aiming to improve on the result from last year’s tenant satisfaction survey and are pleased to report a 3% increase.
The Tenant Scrutiny Panel has recently been reviewing our approach to anti-social behaviour and we will report their findings in a future issue of the newsletter. We have also recently consulted tenants on our new anti-social behaviour policy.
Tenant Involvement and Complaints
The Regulator of Social Housing’s Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard says it expects us to take your views into account in our decision-making, ensure you understand what you can expect from us, allow tenants to hold us to account, and deal with complaints fairly and promptly.
This year, we have:
- Held six Strategic Tenant Advisory Panel meetings
- Held four Independent Living Forum meetings
- Started two Tenant Scrutiny Panel reviews
- Sent out two newsletters and one bulletin
- Dealt with 82 complaints
| Description | Our target | Our result |
Change from last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall satisfaction with the housing service | n/a | 71% | +3% |
| Residents satisfied the council listens to and acts on their views | n/a | 55% | +6% |
| Complaints responded to on time | 95% | 96.55% | 0% |
| Average time to respond to complaints | 10 days | 6.54 days | -1 day |
Where we need to improve
Although we didn’t set a target for satisfaction with how we handle anti-social behaviour, this is an important area for us to tackle. We were aiming to improve on the result from last year’s tenant satisfaction survey and are pleased to report a 3% increase.
The Tenant Scrutiny Panel has recently been reviewing our approach to anti-social behaviour and we will report their findings in a future issue of the newsletter. We have also recently consulted tenants on our new anti-social behaviour policy.
We don't have a target for satisfaction, but we were aiming to improve on last year’s satisfaction rates and are pleased to report a 3% increase in overall satisfaction and a 6% increase that we listen to and act on your views.
The Regulator of Social Housing expects us to carry out a tenant satisfaction survey every year. We will report the results of this year’s survey, and what we plan to do about what you've told us, in the October tenant bulletin.