The housing management and maintenance service provided by arms length management organisation (ALMO) East North East Homes Leeds Ltd is 'good' and has 'promising prospects for improvement', according to an independent report released today by the Audit Commission.
On a scale from zero to three stars, the Audit Commission inspection team gave the service a 'good' two star rating. This was because its estates are well managed and significant improvements are being made to thousands of homes to bring them up to modern standards.
Domini Gunn-Peim, the Audit Commission's Lead Housing Inspector for Yorkshire and Humberside, said:
'East North East Leeds has done a lot in the last year to improve the service from one to two stars. Its governing body, managers and staff demonstrate a strong commitment to service improvement and customers can have confidence that services will continue to get better.'
Strengths include:
- Customers are involved in decision making.
- The ALMO has demolished unpopular homes and it will bring the rest up to the government's decent homes standard by December 2010.
- Most services are effective and the ALMO is working hard to deal with anti-social behaviour and address financial exclusion.
- The ALMO has done well in delivering value for money savings.
Weaknesses include:
- Customer satisfaction remains relatively low.
- Re-letting of vacant homes is slow.
- Rent arrears are high.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
- Improvements in access to services.
- Improvements in planning and performance management.
Notes to editors
- East North East Homes Leeds Ltd arms length management organisation (ALMO) was set up by Leeds City Council in 2007 to manage a third of its housing estates. The ALMO is paid almost £27 million per year by the Council to manage 19,000 homes. It has almost completed its improvement programme and should achieve the government's Decent Homes Standard by 2010. The ALMO is led by a Board made up of four residents, four council nominees and four independents. It employs 415 staff.
- The Audit Commission is an independent watchdog, driving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in local public services to deliver better outcomes for everyone.
- Our work across local government, health, housing, community safety and fire and rescue services means that we have a unique perspective. We promote value for money for taxpayers, auditing the £200 billion spent by 11,000 local public bodies.
- As a force for improvement, we work in partnership to assess local public services and make practical recommendations for promoting a better quality of life for local people.
For further information, please contact David Rose, Regional Communications Manager (Northern), Tel: 0844 798 6654, Email: d-rose@audit-commission.gov.uk.