News in Brief

Statistics released by Communities Scotland for the last four years revealed that:

In the last four years, the percentage of properties re-let within two weeks has dropped from 36% to just 25%. Nearly 50% of all re-lets now take more than four weeks.
The percentage of routine repairs completed on time decreased from 95% to 93% in the last year. In the same period, there was no improvement in the performance of emergency repairs.

Birmingham Council responded to its poor Audit Commission inspection ratings by appointing MITIE Group to take over the contract for its repairs service in the south of the city. MITIE will start the new contract from March 2006.
Speaking at a recent conference, Peter Fenn - Head of the Antisocial Behaviour and Housing Management team at the ODPM - confirmed that housing officers who successfully apply for Parenting Orders will be able to pass the responsibility for tracking them to other organisations. Those who could take over such responsibilities include Social Services and the Probation Service.

Reporting on February 2006