Report outlines sustained improvements in West Dunbartonshire Council’s housing service

Report outlines sustained improvements in West Dunbartonshire Council’s housing service

A report assessing West Dunbartonshire Council’s housing service has highlighted a number of positive improvements in the past year.

The Scottish Social Housing Charter report shows the service continues to perform well in areas including homelessness, re-letting empty properties and compliance with the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

It also highlighted an increase in satisfaction levels of tenants who feel that they are kept well informed about services and decisions, as well as given opportunities to participate in the decision making processes.

The number of council properties meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard has risen from 91.9% to 95.6%, while 100% of properties had a gas safety check completed by the anniversary date.

All homeless households who required temporary accommodation were made an offer of accommodation, and the report showed that satisfaction with the quality of accommodation provided increased.

The report also showed an improvement in the percentage of reactive repairs completed right first time, up from 90.5% to 92.9% and a reduction in the average time taken to carry-out non-emergency repairs.

A comprehensive assessment of the 2019/20 performance has already been carried out and has informed a Charter Improvement Plan.

This is being implemented across all areas of the housing service with the objective of continuing to improve services for tenants and residents.

Priority areas to drive improvements include rent collection, satisfaction with the repairs service, quicker response times to tenant complaints and further work to reduce medical adaptation timescales.

Councillor Diane Docherty, convener of the housing and communities committee, said: “I am pleased to see that we continue to make improvements in a number of areas. This report outlines encouraging results and we are happy the most measures are moving in the right direction.

“Our aim is to keep improving to deliver the best possible service to our residents and will continue to take action in those areas where we can get better.” 

Councillor Caroline McAllister, vice convener of housing & communities, added: “We are committed to providing a service that tenants are happy with and the increase in a number of satisfaction levels this year shows that we are moving in the right direction with this.

“I am especially happy to see that tenants feel that they are given opportunities to be involved in the decision making process, because they are at the heart of everything we do, and their opinions are extremely important.”

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