What the Regulator found
- We do not have up to date stock condition information on the majority of its homes as only around 40% have been surveyed within the last five years
- Stock condition surveys have not all included an assessment of hazards using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System
- Around 20% of homes do not meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard
- Only 67% of non-emergency repairs were completed within target timescales
- 5,400 open repairs, of which 49% were outside of target dates, some of which were from earlier than 2024
- Lack of evidence that the council had been transparent with its tenants about the health and safety issues identified and keeping tenants informed when things go wrong
Our residents have also told us that we need to improve how we respond to reports of damp and mould in our homes, so we are also focusing on that as part of the improvement plan.
What were the problems caused by?
We have looked into why these failings happened and we found that we need to:
- Carry out stock condition surveys on all our homes more frequently including checking for any health and safety issues
- Have a clearer approach to completing outstanding repairs
- Improve how we use data and information on the performance of our repairs service
What we have done so far
- Carried out new stock condition surveys on 11% of homes including checking for any health and safety issues
- Reduced the number of repairs that were outstanding at the time of the inspection to under 300 at the end of March 2025
What we will do next
| What we will do | When we will do it by |
|---|---|
| Improve how we plan for improvements to our homes by using data and information more effectively | May-25 |
| Complete any repairs that were not carried out on time when we were inspected | May-25 |
| Put new contracts in place to carry out stock condition surveys | Sep-25 |
| Improve how we manage damp and mould cases and be ready for Awaab’s Law | Oct-25 |
| Complete any damp and mould cases that were not carried out on time when we were inspected | Oct-25 |
| Improve how we use property data and information so that we can improve how we maintain our homes | Nov-25 |
| Redesign and implement a new delivery model for Property Services | Dec-25 |
| Improve or replace the systems we use for property information including compliance and stock condition | Dec-26 |
| Carry out stock condition surveys including checking for health and safety issues across all our homes | Mar-27 |
| Bring all our homes up to the decent homes standard | Mar-29 |
