This short-notice inspection looked at how the Association delivers response repairs and manages empty properties and lettings. Overall, strengths outweigh weaknesses in these services. We found a strong focus on customer care in the organisation, it was easy for tenants to report repairs and the time taken to complete repairs was improving, although some are still completed too late. Empty homes are being repaired and let to a standard agreed with tenants, although the time taken to let properties is high.
A number of recommendations were made including, monitoring all service standards and providing consistent regular feedback on performance to customers, agreeing timescales for speedy completion of repairs and ensuring they comply with good practice guidelines.
Calico has consulted with its tenants on how to implement the recommendations and produced a robust action plan. Their future prospects for improvement have been assessed as excellent. They have made improvements in a number of areas, have a comprehensive performance management framework in place and are a strong organisation despite facing some significant challenges.