The housing management services provided to Eastbourne Borough Council's tenants are judged to be ‘good’ with promising prospects for improvement, according to a recent inspection carried out by the Audit Commission's Housing Inspectorate.
The services are provided by Eastbourne Homes Limited (EHL), an arm's length management organisation (ALMO) set up by the council in April 2005. On a scale from zero to three stars, the Audit Commission inspection team gave the service a good, two-star rating. The rating will allow the council to receive an initial sum of £7.52 million from its overall bid of £45.2 million to help it bring all its homes up to the government's Decent Homes Standard.
Positive aspects of the service include a strong focus on customer care and effective approaches to tackling anti-social behaviour, promoting diversity and home improvements. However, there is still scope to strengthen the repairs service and modernise some of its sheltered housing schemes.
Sára Kulay, the Audit Commission's Lead Housing Inspector for South East, said:
'Eastbourne Homes is delivering good quality housing management services for its tenants, leading to increasing levels of customer satisfaction. The company has made good progress since our last inspection in March 2006, particularly in key areas such as carrying out housing maintenance and annual gas safety checks. Although there remains scope to strengthen some aspects of service, future improvement plans focus on the right things and staff morale is high. The strong leadership demonstrated by the ALMO's Board and senior management team also gives us confidence that the positive direction of travel will be sustained.'
The inspectors found a number of positive features of the service, including:
- a commitment to customer care, reflected in good access to services, high quality written information for residents and a focus on acting upon customer feedback;
- homes being improved to a standard above the Decent Homes Standard and there is robust stock information to plan investment in tenants' homes; and
- a wide a range of ways that tenants and others can become involved, leading to better services and improvements in the environment in which people live.
However, there are also some issues that still need to be addressed, including:
- service standards that are not comprehensive, reducing service users' ability to understand the services available and judge performance;
- common areas within blocks of flats are not well managed, leading to health and safety risks for residents; and
- the lack of a full understanding of service costs, limiting opportunities to promote better value for money.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations, including:
- further developing the range of service standards in consultation with tenants;
- agreeing an appropriate programme of external cyclical maintenance with tenants and ensuring that tenants are aware of where their home fits into the programme; and
- offering a more responsive service to vulnerable tenants who need major aids and adaptations.
EHL manages around 3,800 homes for rent on behalf of Eastbourne Borough Council and provides services to a further 577 leaseholders. EHL employs approximately 77 staff and received a management fee of £6.8 million from the council in 2007/08.
The full report of the inspection will be available on 25 October 2007. The final score has been issued in advance of publication to speed up the release of the additional funding.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Audit Commission is an independent body responsible for ensuring that public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively, to achieve high quality local services for the public. Our remit covers around 11,000 bodies in England, which between them spend more than £180 billion of public money each year. Our work covers local government, health, housing, community safety and fire and rescue services.
2. As an independent watchdog, we provide important information on the quality of public services. As a driving force for improvement in those services, we provide practical recommendations and spread best practice. As an independent auditor, we ensure that public services are good value for money and that public money is properly spent.
For further information please contact: Nigel Watts, Regional Communications Manager (South), Tel: 0844 798 2129; Fax: 0845 052 2617; Mob: 07813 315 538, Email: nigel-watts@audit-commission.gov.uk