Craven’s housing services rated ‘fair’ (From Craven Herald)

Craven’s housing services rated ‘fair’

11:40am Saturday 4th July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Craven District Council’s strategic housing services have been rated “fair”.

The Audit Commission report gives the council’s service a second-from-bottom rating with “uncertain” prospects for improvement.

Inspectors from the independent watchdog concluded the council was performing well in some areas – including affordable housing and returning empty houses back into use.

But there were significant other areas where improvement was needed to ensure fair and equal access to all and value for money in service delivery.

The report said that although the council’s housing service had a proven track record for delivering improvements, in this case there were “uncertain” prospects for the future.

This was due to concern over the future capacity of the council to continue to support the necessary rate of improvement and to meet future increases for demand in the service.

Yvonne Davies, the Audit Commission’s head of housing and regeneration for the North, said: “Craven has demonstrated in recent years its commitment to improving the approach to strategic housing by responding well to previous inspection recommendations.

“The council is focused on increasing affordable housing provision and improving standards of housing.

“However, further work is needed to ensure the service meets the needs of the whole community while also delivering value for money.”

Strengths identified in Craven’s housing service were:

* Craven people have good access to services across homelessness, housing options and strategic housing.

* Close working with partners to improve the way services are delivered and to help meet targets, including homelessness prevention, provision of affordable homes, bringing empty homes back into use and improving energy efficiency of homes of some vulnerable people.

Weaknesses were:

* The council’s approach to equality and diversity is under-developed and the service cannot demonstrate it is treating everyone fairly. There are gaps in the knowledge of housing needs for some particular groups.

* The council cannot demonstrate services are providing value for money and limited action has been taken to improve value for money.

Inspectors’ recommendations to improve the service are:

* Improving the approach to equalities and diversity, such as better use of translation straplines on information and identifying and removing barriers to accessing services.

* Strengthening focus on access to services and customer care, including reviewing the complaints procedure and ensuring learning from complaints and improving access to disabled facilities grants.

* Improving the quality of the strategic housing approach by filling gaps in the housing need and stock condition information and considering options to resolve temporary accommodation issues.

Copies of the report are available from Craven Council or from the Audit Commission website at audit-commission.gov.uk

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)