The Audit Commission has today released the results of a housing inspection in Birmingham that had been subject to a review. It shows that, at the time of the inspection in March 2010, Birmingham City Council tenants received a 'fair' service that had 'promising prospects for improvement'.
The council had asked the Commmission to review its judgements and this process has just been completed.
An Audit Commission spokesperson said:
‘It is unusual for a report to be published 16 months after inspection, but this one was subject to a lengthy and thorough review requested by Birmingham City Council. The Council has said that it has acted on the report’s recommendations. We thought it would benefit tenants to read this report for comparison and context.’
Using a scale from zero to three stars, the Audit Commission inspection team gave the service a 'fair', one-star rating. The report shows that in 2010 the City Council’s 65,000 tenants could encounter a variable quality of service depending on which part of the housing service they came into contact with.
The Council needed to ensure much more consistency in how its services were delivered, the report said. But the inspectors noted its commitment to improving the housing service and to ensuring resources would be in place to do this, so believed its prospects for making the necessary improvements were “promising”.
Copies of the report are available from Birmingham City Council or from the Audit Commission website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk
Notes to editors
- Birmingham City Council owns more than 65,000 rented homes throughout the city, as well as 6,000 leasehold properties, making it one of Europe’s largest social landlords.
- Areas covered by the inspection included: property improvements; repairs to occupied and empty homes; adaptations for vulnerable tenants; rent collection; tackling antisocial behaviour; and estate management as well as tenant involvement in the service. It also looked at how easily tenants can access the
service, how well it meets the needs of everyone in the community and value for money.
- The Audit Commission is a public corporation set up in 1983 to protect the public purse.
- The Commission appoints auditors to councils, NHS bodies (excluding NHS Foundation trusts), police authorities and other local public services in England, and oversees their work. The auditors we appoint are either Audit Commission employees (our in-house Audit Practice) or one of the private audit firms. Our Audit Practice also audits NHS foundation trusts under separate arrangements.
- We also help public bodies manage the financial challenges they face by providing authoritative, unbiased, evidence-based analysis and advice.
- The government has announced plans to disband the Audit Commission and put in place new arrangements for auditing England's local public bodies. It is consulting on proposals for the new regime. It is also considering with us the options for transferring the in-house work to the private sector, including the in-house audit practice becoming an employee-owned company.
- The August 2011 report relates to the ‘landlord service’ provided by Birmingham City Council as inspected on 15 to 19 March 2010, that was awarded a 'fair, one-star' service with promising prospects for improvement. This is different from the judgement in relation to the strategic housing function which was awarded a judgement of a ‘good, two-star’ service with excellent prospects for improvement in January 2009 following on site inspection work the previous year.
For further information please contact Mark Nicholson, Media Relations Manager, Audit Commission, Millbank Tower, London SW1P 4HQ. Direct line 0844 798 2135 / 0207 166 2135. 24hr Press line 0844 798 2128 Mobile 07813 038132. E-mail: m-nicholson@audit-commission.gov.uk