• Peterborough Homes
• Peterborough Estate Agents

Audit Commission Inspection Report (April 2004)

Strategic Housing Services

Recommendations

12. To rise to the challenge of continuous improvement, councils need inspection reports that offer practical pointers for improvement. In this context, the inspection team makes the following recommendations:

    Access to Services and Customer Care

    • Ensure that comprehensive customer service standards for all parts of strategic housing are developed and published without delay.

      Equality and Diversity

    • Undertake a thorough review of all published literature to ensure it meets the needs of the community.
    • Improve the range and format of literature available to meet the needs of BME communities and those with sensory impairment or other disabilities.

      Housing Strategy and Enabling

    • Ensure that the new corporate section 106 strategy, currently being developed for the delivery of affordable homes on new housing developments, is confirmed and implemented as a matter of urgency. The new strategy should reduce the existing trigger thresholds of more than 25 dwellings in urban areas and 15 or more dwellings in rural areas. The council should review best practice for delivering affordable homes in other council districts within the Sustainable Communities' Plan 'growth areas.'
    • Agree and publish new targets for the provision of affordable homes by April 2004.
    • Review Housing's representation at the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

      Supporting People (SP)

    • Review all current relevant strategies to ensure that the links to the Supporting People programme are explicit within them.
    • Ensure greater focus in the Supporting People programme through the consultations in the drafting of the five-year strategy.

      Housing Needs, Homelessness and Housing Advice

    • Undertake an urgent review to assess the adequacy of the current level of provision of housing advice.
    • Consider, through the homelessness strategy review group, the need for accommodation for vulnerable people whose behaviour does not meet social norms and who are currently excluded from direct access accommodation.
    • Ensure adequate provision of non-hostel temporary accommodation for homeless families. Work to ensure adequate provision of direct access accommodation for single young people who are currently being turned away from existing hostels because of a lack of capacity.
    • Review the 2003 to 2008 homelessness strategy action plan and ensure that its targets are measurable and each target is the responsibility of an individual.

      Private Sector Housing

    • Undertake annually a review of housing conditions to identify unfitness, disrepair, multi-occupation, and opportunities for area renewal (Statutory duty of housing authorities - Section 605 Housing Act 1985).
    • As part of the developing city centre masterplan, consider the use of a neighbourhood renewal assessment (NRA) (Neighbourhood Renewal Assessment - Section 89 Local Government and Housing Act 1989 & ODPM Circular 05/2003 Housing Renewal) to determine appropriate regeneration projects for housing close to the centre.
    • Identify vulnerable people living in non-decent private sector homes and in consultation with regional housing board agree an action plan for meeting targets set in the Sustainable Communities Plan (Sustainable Communities Plan - Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - February 2003).
    • Consider the potential for extending the use of schedules of rates (SORs) for Peterborough Care and Repair's work as an alternative to tendering.
    • As part of the current Kaizen project working practices in private sector housing, ensure that that the current duplication of tasks is avoided.
    • Improve the control over the capital programme. Ensure 100 per cent expenditure of the budget and maintain a level expenditure profile throughout the year.

      Performance Management

    • Ensure that the new contract for housing advice has added emphasis on qualitative assessment of outcomes.

      General

    • Ensure that the findings and recommendations contained in this report are reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Best Value Policy Overview Committee, the Peterborough Housing Partnership and to other relevant forums.
    • Produce an action plan to respond to all the weaknesses identified in this report and submit this to the relevant council committees and to the Audit Commission.
       
13. We would like to thank the members and staff of Peterborough City Council, who made us welcome and who met our requests efficiently and courteously.
    
    

Peter Archer - Affiliate Housing Inspector
Mandy Day - Housing Inspector
Elizabeth Leonard - Tenant Inspection Advisor
Deborah Good - Assistant Lead Housing Inspector

Dates of inspection: 19-23 January 2004

Email:
p-archer@audit-commission.gov.uk
m-day@audit-commission.gov.uk
d-good@audit-commission.gov.uk

For more information please contact:
Audit Commission
Central Region
1st Floor, Bridge Business Park,
Bridge Park Road
Thurmaston
Leicester LE4 8BL
www.audit-commission.gov.uk
0116 250 4100

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