Renfrewshire Council: the Audit of Best Value and ... - Audit Scotland

143. The report set out ’practice that could be improved’ in relation to the standard of reports to court and
the parole board; staff understanding of risk assessment practice; contact with offenders; increased
sharing of resources; and the need to rethink through care services. Issues relating to community
service will be dealt with through an ongoing joint best value review of this service (due to report in
August 2006), and the partnership has produced an action plan to address the other issues.
Housing and property services
The housing service is making good progress with its housing renewal programme and the
preparatory stages of the community ownership programme. Housing performance is generally
improving, but the service still faces a number of challenges, for instance in meeting its
challenging targets for accommodating homeless people and reducing tenant rent arrears. Building
services performs well and has a culture focused on improvement.
144. The council is Renfrewshire’s largest social landlord with a stock of 15,367 dwellings and a budget of
around £56 million. The housing and property services department includes housing landlord
functions, area renewal, homelessness and the building maintenance service. The council’s
community plan includes housing, neighbourhoods and community safety as a key theme. Housing
stock transfer and housing area renewal are identified as key corporate initiatives.
145. The problems of severe deprivation and social exclusion are often exacerbated by poor housing
conditions. The council estimates that over £300 million is required to bring its housing stock up to the
Scottish Housing Quality Standards target for 2015. In May 2004 the council decided that housing
stock transfer under the Scottish Executive’s community ownership scheme offers the best way to
fund improvements required to the housing stock while keeping rents at an affordable level. A shadow
housing association has been established comprising councillors, independent and tenant
representatives. A tenants’ ballot on a potential stock transfer to a community housing association is
scheduled for autumn 2006. A shadow housing association has been set up.
146. The housing service has developed a balanced scorecard of performance indicators. These include
SPIs, tenant satisfaction indicators derived from the annual Public Services Panel, and new indicators
for anti-social behaviour. This is a positive development for the service; however, it is not yet possible
to analyse performance trends as there is only one year of complete data.
147. The housing service performs reasonably well in terms of the statutory performance indicators: 98 per
cent of emergency housing repairs were carried out within 24 hours compared to the Scottish average
of 93.5 per cent; rent lost due to empty or un-let properties is in line with the Scottish average at 2.5
per cent; and 90 per cent of the 489 council houses sold during 2004/05 were completed within 26
weeks, ranking the council third amongst Scottish councils.
148. The council has improved the time it takes to re-let council houses, with an average time of 59 days
compared to a Scottish average of 79 days. Examples of improvements include simple but effective
45