West Lancashire Borough Council is providing a 'poor' housing management service which has 'uncertain' prospects for improvement, according to a report released today by the independent Audit Commission.
On a scale from zero to three stars, the Audit Commission inspection team gave the service a 'poor', zero-star rating. The inspection covered areas of the services including repair and improvement of homes; rent collection; dealing with anti-social behaviour; tenant involvement; dealing with empty homes; value for money and sheltered housing.
Yvonne Davies, the Audit Commission's Head of Housing and Economic Development for the North, said:
'West Lancashire Borough Council is not providing a good enough service to its tenants. Repairs take too long, as do adaptations to disabled people's homes. The Council doesn't fully understand or involve its tenants and therefore does not focus its services on what local people really need. The Council is having to make budget cuts, this means that working closely with tenants and learning from other housing providers, is more important than ever. Some housing services are improving and the Council needs to ensure that this is maintained and applied consistently across all services.'
The inspectors found the following weaknesses:
- Landlord services are not sufficiently customer focused, with few service standards and little learning from tenant feedback.
- The Council does not have a complete understanding of its tenants and their needs. It is therefore unable to tailor its services to meet those needs.
- It takes too long to complete repairs to tenants' homes and appointments are not offered to tenants when they contact the Council.
- Repairs to empty properties take too long, standards are low and there is inadequate monitoring of costs.
- Adaptations for disabled people take too long to complete and there is little information about the service available for tenants.
- Tenants are not involved in developing and monitoring the services.
- The Council cannot be sure that it is getting the best value for money from the services.
Strengths include:
- A positive approach to collecting rent by skilled and experienced staff who work with tenants.
- Work with partners, including the police, to tackle anti-social behaviour.
- Effective allocation of Council homes thanks to a clear, widely advertised, lettings policy and help for vulnerable people applying for housing.
To help the service improve inspectors made a number of recommendations, including:
- Develop and implement service standards with tenants so that they know what to expect.
- Involve customers in the planning, delivery and monitoring of services.
- Tackle the speed and quality of repairs to empty homes and how it makes aids and adaptations available to tenants.
- Measure whether it is providing value for money services, including comparisons with other housing providers, and report back to tenants.
- Improve performance management and learning from customer feedback.
- Work in genuine partnership with tenants and other local organisations to improve services.
Copies of the report are available from The Audit Commission website: www.audit-commission.gov.uk or from West Lancashire Council.
Notes to editors
- West Lancashire Borough Council (WLBC) is situated in the southwest of the county of Lancashire between the outskirts of Merseyside to the south and the River Ribble to the north. The Council's housing stock consists of 6,279 properties, including 1,227 homes for older people (19.5 per cent of the stock) with a disproportionate concentration of council housing in the former new town of Skelmersdale. In 2009/10 housing revenue account income was £19,406,575 while expenditure was £19,732,246.00. In 2009/10 the Council paid £4,824,419 in subsidy from the HRA to the government leaving £13,308,032 available for the Council to spend on its housing management services.
- 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.
For more details about the role of the Audit Commission visit www.audit-commission.gov.uk
For a copy of the full report or for further information please contact: David Rose, Regional Communications Manager - Northern on 0844 798 6654 or d-rose@audit-commission.gov.uk