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RIVER CLYDE HOMES INSPECTION REPORT

The Scottish Housing Regulator today published its inspection report on River Clyde Homes. The purpose of the inspection was to provide an independent external assessment on the effectiveness of its housing services.

The Regulator has awarded the River Clyde Homes a ‘fair’ rating for its overall performance.

Lesley Kerr, Head of Inspection at The Scottish Housing Regulator, said:

“Our inspectors found that River Clyde Homes has some strengths but also some areas where improvement is needed.

“River Clyde Homes acquired its housing stock from Inverclyde Council following a ballot of tenants in December 2007. Our inspectors found that River Clyde Homes has a clear focus on delivering the promises it made to tenants prior to the housing stock transfer. It demonstrated strengths in a number of areas, particularly in building new affordable housing and improving the quality of its own housing stock.

“It also has some weaknesses, particularly in relation to the delivery of its response repairs service, the management of its housing list and its approach to tenant participation. However, our inspectors found it had a good awareness of these and had plans in place to improve its services to tenants.”

Roy Steel is the Chair of the River Clyde Homes’ Board. He said:

“The Board welcomes this report and views it as a fair assessment of where we are two-and-a-half years down the line. No one can pretend that at the point of transfer, there was anything other than a significant journey to be made to turn around housing conditions in Inverclyde. At that time we made a number of commitments to tenants and it is reassuring that the Regulator has recognised the significant progress we have made to meet these.”

He added: “There is still work to be done in a number of areas but this report gives us a focus to continue improving our services to customers”.

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

1. Inspectors gave the following grade after the inspection:

2. Full details of River Clyde Homes inspection report can be found on The Scottish Housing Regulator website at www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk.

3. The Scottish Housing Regulator came into operation on 1 April 2008. It is the successor to Communities Scotland’s Regulation & Inspection Division. It operates the powers and duties of the regulation of social housing which are set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. The Scottish Housing Regulator is an arm’s length executive agency of the Scottish Government. It has operational independence, while being accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament for the standard of its work.