The following are brief summaries of local authority inspection reports issued by the Audit Commission during April.
Arun District Council
Strategic Housing Services: One-star fair service with promising prospects for improvement.
Inspectors noted positive aspects of the service, including using good quality information to develop housing strategy, effective regulation of housing conditions in the private rented sector and a greater number of affordable homes.
However, the work to prevent homelessness and develop housing strategies for the area were seen as requiring improvement.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
Christchurch Borough Council
Strategic Housing Service: Zero-star poor service with uncertain prospects for improvement.
Kieran Colgan, the Audit Commission's Lead Housing Inspector for the South West, said:
"Christchurch, like many smaller councils, is struggling to deliver a high-quality strategic housing service. At this time it lacks several key 'building blocks' to support its improvement. But it has taken some big strides in the last year with positive improvements in key areas such as planning, the delivery of affordable housing and homelessness.
"The Council knows what it needs to do and if it can maintain this momentum then local people should quickly see a better service."
The Christchurch strategic housing service comprises housing advice, the delivery of new homes, the regulation of the private sector, the provision of grants, loans, aids and adaptations and the production of plans to guide this work.
The inspectors found a number of weaknesses in the service, including:
Northumberland County Council
Supporting People: Zero-star poor service with uncertain prospects for improvement.
Yvonne Davies Head of Housing, North at the Audit Commission, said:
"The Council has failed to significantly improve services since the previous inspection and is not delivering support to all the vulnerable people in the County who need help to maintain a tenancy and live independently in their own homes.
The cost of some services remains high when compared to other local authorities.
However, partners, including elected members and service users, are now involved and have shown a clear commitment to making improvements and supporting the service."
Inspectors found a number of weaknesses in the service:
Norwich City Council
Housing Services: Zero-star poor service with uncertain prospects for improvement.
The inspection report shows that the Council does not provide an effective housing service for its tenants. The Council does not know who is accessing its service and what barriers to access might exist. Residents have not been fully involved in setting housing priorities and services are not tailored to needs.
Recommendations made by inspectors include:
Waveney District Council
Housing Service: One-star fair service with promising prospects for improvement.
Strengths identified include:
Areas noted as needing attention include:
Recommendations made in the report include:
Registered social landlord inspection reports issued by the Audit Commission during April included those summarised below.
Aldwyck Housing Association
Repair Services (Short-notice Inspection): These are beginning to show more strengths than weaknesses.
The report shows that most of the basic requirements for an effective service are in place, but Aldwyck has yet to reach the levels achieved by the best performing associations. Repairs are usually completed on the first visit, but are not always carried out promptly. Empty homes are repaired very quickly, but not always to the standards the Association sets out to achieve.
Ann Bennett, Audit Commission Lead Housing Inspector, said:
"Getting the basic repair service into shape has been a big challenge for Aldwyck, but after a long period of under-performance the benefits are beginning to show. For example, it has worked closely with its own contractor to provide an effective appointments system and to complete most repairs in one visit.
"Additionally, it has gone from being one of the worst performers in reletting empty homes, to one of the best.
"It recognises it is still some way from providing excellent services, but it now has strong foundations on which to build."
The inspectors made five key recommendations, relating to:
Aldwyck Housing Association has around 8,600 homes, principally in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. It is the majority shareholder of Connect Property Services, set up to carry out most of its improvements and repairs.
The Audit Commission introduced short-notice inspections for housing associations to give inspectors a clearer and more realistic view of the services that tenants receive. Associations are given just five days notice of the inspection before their services are rated on a four point scale - from strengths significantly outweigh weaknesses down to weaknesses outweigh strengths.
Within two months of the publication of this report, Aldwyck HA will provide the Audit Commission with a plan showing how it will implement the report's recommendations. The Commission will then assess and publish the Association's prospects for improvement.
Clapham Park Homes
Landlords Service: One-star fair service with uncertain prospects for improvement.
Inspectors found that the service is easy to access and information is useful and comprehensive and the Association is improving and rebuilding homes to a high standard. However, overall tenant satisfaction is low, gas servicing is poor and services are not tailored to the needs of vulnerable tenants.
Hugh Boatswain, Lead Housing Inspector for the West of London said:
"Rent arrears have been reducing recently, vulnerable tenants are getting some support and some efficiency gains have been made.
However, responsive repairs and void turnaround are slow, the income maximisation service is basic and the eviction rate is high.
The organisation is slowly improving but it is held back by a lack of self awareness, weakness in partnership working and the lack of clarity and consultation of its plans."
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations, including:
Clapham Park Homes was established in 2006 to take transfer of the 1,945 homes in the Clapham Park estate from the London Borough of Lambeth.
Drum Housing Association
Housing Management Services: One-star fair service with promising prospects for improvement.
Inspectors found that some areas of the service are delivered very well. For example, there are effective approaches to maintaining homes and tackling anti-social behaviour. However, there remains scope to strengthen the approach to diversity and embed a stronger culture of customer care across all areas of the Association's business.
Areas identified for improvement included:
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations, including:
Drum Housing Association (Drum) was formed in October 2002 when two parts of the former Drum Housing Group - East Hampshire Housing Association and Hangras Housing Association - were consolidated into a single entity. In December 2006 Drum became part of the Radian Group.
Family Housing Association
Repair Services (Short-notice Inspection): The inspection report finds that the Association's repair services show more weaknesses than strengths.
Designed to identify strengths and weaknesses in the repairs and maintenance service, the inspection found that the Association is performing well on home improvements, but needs to do more around accessibility, complaints and value for money.
Deborah Good, Audit Commission Senior Manager, said:
"Although the Association is making good quality improvements to its homes, it is performing less well on ordinary repairs.
We have asked Family to consult with its customers and to prepare an action plan to improve the service. We will then publish our assessment of the Association's prospects for improvement."
Recommendations made by inspectors include:
Freebridge Community Housing
Housing Management Services: One-star fair service with promising prospects for improvement.
The inspection report concludes that the Association provides a customer-focused service and performance in most key areas is improving.
Strengths identified include:
Recommendations made in the report include:
Freebridge Community Housing was set up in April 2006 to take over the housing stock of King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council.
Magna Housing Association
Housing Management Services (Short-notice Inspection): The inspection report finds that the Association's services show a balance of strengths and weaknesses.
Audit Commission inspectors reached this conclusion following a short-notice inspection of how the Dorset-based housing association is progressing towards achieving the Government's Decent Homes standard and how Magna manages antisocial behaviour.
The inspection found that the Association is on course to bring all its homes up to Decent Homes standard by 2010 and that tenant satisfaction is relatively high.
It also concluded that the Association manages antisocial behaviour well. However, planned work is not well publicised in advance and tenants are not involved in a meaningful way in the design and delivery of the service.
Recommendations made include:
Magna Housing Association operates in Dorset, Devon, South Gloucestershire and Somerset.
Trident Housing Association
Housing Management Services (Short-notice Inspection): The inspection report finds that the Association's services show a balance of strengths and weaknesses.
The report follows a short-notice inspection of how well the Birmingham-based organisation is repairing empty homes, managing rent arrears and involving tenants.
Inspectors found that the Association repairs its empty homes quickly and to a good standard, although information given to customers is not always consistent. It performs well on rent collection but many customers are dissatisfied with the opportunities available to become involved in the work of the Association.
Strengths identified include:
Weaknesses pereceived include:
Trident Housing Association provides homes and services to some 6,000 people across the Midlands.