The housing management services provided by Homes for Haringey are good with 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 organisation, which manages council housing for the London Borough of Haringey, a 'good' two-star rating. Services covered by the inspection included repairs, tenancy, estate and income management.
Hugh Boatswain, Audit Commission senior manager, said:
'Homes for Haringey continues to provide good, quality services to tenants. It has been proactive in involving residents in the shaping of these services and as a result has managed to focus on improving the things that residents find important. However, Homes for Haringey needs to improve performance in areas such as re-letting empty homes and income collection and some of its overhead costs are high.'
Strengths include:
- Residents are actively involved in shaping services.
- Tenancy and estate management services including dealing with antisocial behaviour and hate crimes are strong.
- Repairs are of good quality and easy to report.
- A successful decent homes programme is being delivered.
Weaknesses include:
- Income collection is variable.
- The speed at which empty properties are re-let.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations, including:
- Working with the Council to improve the time taken to re-let empty homes
- Improving the approach to income collection and arrears management; and
- Improve performance reporting.
Copies of the report are available from Homes for Haringey or on the Audit Commission website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk
Notes to editors
- Homes for Haringey is an Arm's Length Management Organisation (ALMO) set up by Haringey Council on 1 April 2006. Homes for Haringey now manages its total of 21,131 properties. There are 15,230 tenanted general needs properties, 1,001 supported housing properties, and 4,455 leasehold properties. It manages the Council's £59.067 million budget for capital works and in 2010/11 received a management fee of £55.2 million from Haringey Council.
- The ALMO is managed by a board that is made up of six tenants or leaseholders, five council nominees and five independents. The day-to-day running of the company is delegated to a senior management team, headed by a Chief Executive Officer. The ALMO currently employs more than 700 staff including the in-house repairs service.
- 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.
- On 13 August 2010 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced that he plans to disband the Audit Commission. His intention is to have new arrangements in place for auditing England's public bodies by 2012/13.
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