Transparency, influence and accountability housing service standards

What you can expect from us - proposed standards.

We will:

• Write to residents on completion of a major works contract inviting their views on the project.
• Provide a range of payment options for leaseholders to pay for major works, including extended repayment periods for resident leaseholders.
• Send out clear, transparent, and accessible service charge statements by 1 October each year including a summary of costs and a breakdown of the estimated costs for the current year.
• Respond to requests for information from leaseholders, prospective purchasers or their solicitor within 21 calendar days of receipt once the relevant fee is paid.
• State the budget position for the Housing Revenue Account and set out what we have spent our resources on in the Annual Report to Residents.
• Aim to deliver high quality value for money services.
• Deal with our customers with honesty and integrity telling you what we can and cannot do.
• Be clear about what your responsibilities are.
• Seek your views on our services such as repairs, safety and anti-social behaviour through the annual resident satisfaction survey.
• Provide an Annual Report to Residents, developed with resident representatives, to show our progress against service standards and targets.
• Learn from complaints and publish our performance on complaints through the Annual Report to Residents and through our Resident Engagement structures.
• Annually review the performance indicators we report and the targets we set so they remain relevant, challenging, but achievable.
• Offer support, assistance or accessible formats when providing important information to you.
• Support the development of accredited Resident Associations (RA) and seek to increase the number of residents with access to an RA
• Publish and deliver Homelife to all Council properties four times a year and promote the online version. This gives us the opportunity to tell residents what work the Department and community groups are doing.
• Provide a variety of ways for you to tell us what you think about our services.
• Provide support and funding for recognised Housing Community Champions who work for the benefit of their local community.
• Work closely with residents on estates identified for improvement and regeneration to develop preferred options for the future of their homes and estates.
• Comply with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints code of conduct and work closely with the Housing Ombudsman where issues arise.
• Let you know who will deal with your issue and when you can expect a response if you report a problem to us.
• Regularly review the Resident Engagement Strategy setting out ways in which you can get involved at a level of your choosing.
• Offer options for residents to review our services, which may include mystery shopping.
• Develop accessible housing and make available occupational therapists to ensure residents with additional needs continue to live independently in their homes.
• Consider the impact to residents with protected characteristics when making major changes to our policies and strategies by completing Equalities, Impact and Needs Assessments.
• Train our staff and offer support to ensure that professional standards are maintained and that staff understand the different needs of our residents.