[KF] The Homes and Communities Awards 2010 are now open for entries. Individuals, partnerships and organisations are invited to promote their excellence in creating and managing places.
This year's awards promise to be bigger and better than ever - the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has joined forces with Haymarket Media, the company behind the Regeneration & Renewal Awards, to create a unified awards scheme for the housing and regeneration sector.
The Awards celebrate successful developments and community-based projects. The categories for the 2010 scheme target priority areas in the delivery of better places:
Peer Reviews Helps Set Standards
The deadline for award entries is 30 April 2010. The winners will be announced at a dinner event at the Roundhouse in London on 23 September.
For details about entering the Homes and Communities Awards visit www.hcaawards.co.uk
The following are summaries of selected local authority inspection reports issued by the Audit Commission during February.
Medway Council
Strategic Housing Service: Two-star good service with promising prospects for improvement.
Services covered by the inspection included homelessness and housing advice, private sector housing and work to create new affordable homes.
The inspectors found that the Council and its partner organisations are successfully reducing homelessness and providing a high number of good-quality affordable homes.
Effective use is made of the private rented sector and housing associations to find accommodation, and steps are being taken to tackle poor housing conditions.
But the Council needs to do more to improve people's access to services and to ensure value for money.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
As a designated growth area, Medway Council and its partners are involved in a major programme of regeneration. Over the next 20 years the Council expects around £160 million of Government funding, plus private sector partnership leverage of an additional £1 billion, to transform the area and support population growth of around 50,000 people. There are around 107,000 homes in the district.
The Council's strategic housing service was inspected in February 2008 and judged to be a zero-star service with poor prospects for improvement. This triggered changes in management arrangements and the development of plans to implement the recommendations contained within the inspection report.
Registered social landlord inspection reports issued by the Audit Commission during February included:
Bromsgrove District Housing Trust
Housing Management Service: Two-star good service with excellent prospects for improvement.
Strengths identified in the report include:
Bromsgrove District Housing Trust was formed in March 2004 to accept the transfer of 3,116 homes and 130 leasehold flats from Bromsgrove District Council.
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Gateway Housing Association
The Association is not working well in providing responsive repair services. Audit Commission inspectors reached this conclusion following a short-notice inspection of how the London-based housing association deals with routine repairs to tenants' homes, income management and the servicing of gas appliances. Inspectors found a balance of strengths and weaknesses in gas servicing and income management.
Hugh Boatswain, Audit Commission Lead Housing Inspector, said:
"Gateway Housing Association has not made adequate progress in improving services that are important to tenants, such as repairs. Residents are not satisfied with the speed and quality of contact, and performance in responsive repairs has not improved to meet tenants' aspirations.
"Further improvements are also needed to make services responsive to the needs of the all residents, and the organisation needs to improve its value for money culture."
The report makes a number of recommendations, including:
Gateway Housing Association was created through the merger of Bethnal Green and Victoria Park Housing Association and LABO Housing Association in March 2008.
It owns and manages 2,782 properties - mainly in Tower Hamlets, with a small number of properties in Newham and Hackney. Most of its homes are for general needs, but it also has shared ownership and leasehold properties.
The Council has transferred its sheltered housing to the Association, and it is now the largest provider of sheltered housing in the Borough.
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Great Places Housing Group
A short-notice inspection of the Great Places Housing Group found that services inspected had 'more strengths than weaknesses'.
Inspectors considered how well the Housing Group is collecting rent and other income, repairing empty homes before customers move in, and servicing gas appliances. They found that a high proportion of rent is collected, empty properties are repaired and re-let promptly and that gas servicing is up to date.
Inspectors made a number of recommendations for improvements, including:
On 1 November 2009 the three subsidiaries of Great Places Housing Group - Manchester Methodists Housing Association, Ashiana Housing Association and Space New Living Housing Association - merged into one single landlord services organisation.
The Group manages around 15,000 properties, including 10,515 general needs properties and 1,373 supported housing units. Stock is distributed widely, mainly across the North West, covering 30 local authority areas.
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Hyde Housing Association
A short-notice inspection was carried out of access and customer care and diversity at the Hyde South East part of Hyde Housing Association. Both areas were assessed as weak.
The inspectors looked at how good access and diversity were addressed when tenants ordered a responsive repair or had problems with antisocial behaviour. Inspectors found that the standard of the service is not consistent between different areas and between different staff and Hyde lacks information on residents' needs and profile.
Weaknesses identified include:
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations, including:
Hyde South East manages 9,200 general needs units in London.
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Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA)
Strengths outweigh weaknesses in the way that ISHA involves residents in shaping its services and in its approach to repairs and gas safety.
Satisfaction with services is high and they are accessible to tenants. However services are not tailored to meet tenants' needs and don't always represent value for money.
These were the conclusion reached after a short-notice inspection of how well the London-based housing association involves residents, responds to repairs requests and undertakes gas safety checks.
The report shows that:
However, it also identified some weaknesses in the way that ISHA tailors services to the needs of some individual tenants and the amount of information it collects to be certain that it is providing value for money in the services we inspected.
Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association was founded in 1934 and owns or manages 1,567 homes, mainly in Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest but also in Camden.
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Notting Hill Housing Trust
The Trust 'has more strengths than weaknesses' in the areas inspected according to an inspection report.
Inspectors reached this conclusion following a short-notice inspection of how the London-based housing association is performing in the areas of repairs that tenan's report, the servicing of gas appliances and preparing empty homes to be re-let. This was because:
However, although there has been some recent improvement, gas servicing on average over the last year has been weak and inconsistent with sometimes large numbers of properties not meeting legal timescales for gas safety certificates.
The Notting Hill Housing Trust was set up in 1963 to provide good quality social housing in West London.
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Villages Housing Association
A short-notice inspection revealed a mixed performance in how the Liverpool-based Association delivers day-to-day repairs, gas servicing, income and asset management.
The inspectors found that 'strengths outweighed weaknesses' in repairs, gas and income management, but found that services were not always accessible to all local people, and that Villages is not necessarily delivering good value for money.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
Villages Housing Association was established in 1983 to take the transfer of the Stockbridge Village estate from Knowsley Borough Council. The stock consists of 1,688 properties and includes a mixture of multi-storey and low-rise flats, traditional houses and bungalows. It also manages a 15 unit local shopping centre.
In March 2004 VHA acquired 1,220 homes following the transfer from the Council of the ownership and management of the Fitton Hill Estate in Oldham.
