Improving your Home

What can you expect from us?

This guide sets out the service you can expect to receive from us when we carryout improvements to your home. It describes what we do, the standards of service you can expect and how we will check we are meeting them.  It also sets out the things we expect you to do to help ensure things go as smoothly as possible whilst the work is undertaken.

We have an ongoing programme of improvements works to ensure your home continues to meet the Decent Homes Standard. Examples of the improvements we carryout include fitting new kitchens and bathrooms, replacing window and doors, installing new heating systems and reroofing work. We have also developed an Asset Management Strategy that includes the three-year investment plan for the housing stock. Details on our current capital programme can be found here.

Our responsibilities

We will:

• Publish our improvement programme on our website.
• Give you plenty of notice if we plan to carryout improvements in your home and ask you ask you if you have any specific needs that we need to take account of when we do the work.
• Tell you what we are going to do, how we will do it and how long it will take. We will also tell you about any disruption that may be caused and where appropriate, ask you to make colour and material choices. 
• Carryout condition surveys of your home to establish what work is required.
• Provide a dedicated Tenant Liaison Officer on all major projects who will be your contact point before, during and after the works are completed.
• Carry out inspections of your home when you report any damp or condensation problems in your home as well as arranging any remedial works required.
• Making sure your home remains a safe place to live through regular inspection and checks including gas and electrical inspections.
• Undertake checks for fire safety and asbestos within communal areas and Sheltered Housing schemes.
• Undertake checks of water hygiene and legionella.
• Keep you updated whilst the works are underway and deal with any problems you may have.
• Provide home energy audits upon request and provide energy saving advice.
• Treat you and your home with respect and ensure we clear up after the work is completed.
• Complete any disabled adaptations you have been assessed for and which have been approved by the Council.
• Carry out a satisfaction survey on completion of the works.
• Identify opportunities to make your home more energy efficient as part of the investment programme works and through bespoke domestic retrofit projects including improved insulation and energy/carbon saving measures.
• Provide mains powered smoke, heat and Carbon Monoxide (CO) detectors as part of the investment programme refurbishment works.

What we expect in return

Your responsibilities:

• To contact the Council if you require an assessment for a disabled adaptation in your home.    
• Look after your home and improvements we carry out.
• Co-operate with us before and during works. This includes providing access to your home at agreed times to carry out the improvements, which can be over a period of time and not just one visit.
• Let us know if you have any concerns about the planned improvement works.
• Ensure your home is safe and smoke free for us to work in. Pets should be kept safe and children under 18 should not be left alone in the house.
• Move any furniture or personal items prior to us starting the work to ensure rooms are accessible.
• Let us know if your home requires any repairs and maintenance works carrying out including damp and condensation.
• Let us know if you don’t have a working smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector in your home.
• Test your smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) detectors regularly and report any not working.

​Measuring success

We will know if we are getting things right by

• Monitoring and reporting our performance against our agreed performance measures.
• Asking you how happy you are with the service we have provided.
• Carrying out satisfaction surveys after we have completed work in your home.

We will report our performance against these standards in our annual report to tenants. Regular updates will also be provided to our Customer Review Group, who are responsible for reviewing how well we are doing and offering constructive challenge.