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RENFREWSHIRE COUNCIL HOUSING INSPECTION REPORT

The Scottish Housing Regulator today published its inspection report on Renfrewshire Council. It awarded the council a ‘good’ rating for its housing management and a “fair” rating for its asset management and repairs and for services to homeless people.

The purpose of inspection is to provide an independent external assessment of the effectiveness of housing service delivery, and make recommendations to help improvement.

Renfrewshire Council is situated in west central Scotland, with a population of 170,000 people. It owns 13,980 properties.

Michael Cameron, Head of Inspection at The Scottish Housing Regulator, said:

“Our inspectors found that Renfrewshire Council has a number of strengths in important service areas: it is excellent at dealing with anti-social behaviour and has made significant progress towards its aim of eliminating use of Bed and Breakfast establishments for homeless people. It has also recently made significant investment in its IT systems to improve service user access and develop its approach to asset management. It has a comprehensive planning and performance management framework and has a well established framework that supports tenants and encourages their participation and feedback.”

“The council needs to improve its performance in collecting tenants’ rents and re-letting its houses. It needs to continue its recent work developing its asset management information and investment strategy.”

“The council has a good awareness of the future challenges it faces. This, together with its evident commitment to improve services contributes to our confidence that the Council can address the areas for improvement we identified.”

“Councillor Brian Lawson, Convener of Renfrewshire Council's Housing and Community Safety Policy Board, said:

"We are encouraged that this independent inspection found significant strengths in Renfrewshire's housing service. That was particularly evident in the excellent assessment given to our integrated approach on prevention and enforcement that is paying dividends in tackling antisocial behaviour.

"We are already working on areas for improvement which the report identified and will bring forward a detailed improvement plan in the next 8 weeks. And there a number of initiatives which are already underway. Those include the forthcoming new base for services to the homeless at Abercorn Street, Paisley, and the progress we are making in our efforts to turn around void homes more quickly - which are addressing some of the issues raised. Overall, we want to improve standards and the services we deliver and are putting in place practical and realistic proposals to achieve that."

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

1. Inspectors gave the following grade:

2. Full details of the Renfrewshire Council 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. As a government agency The Scottish Housing Regulator will have complete operational independence, but will remain accountable to Scottish Ministers, and through them to the Scottish Parliament for the standard of its work. The agency sits within the Justice and Communities Directorate of the Scottish Government and will work within the government’s overall purpose and contribute to its strategic objectives