Improving your Home

What’s the deal?

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.

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;
• 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 a survey of your home to establish what work is required and provide you with a copy;
• Ask you if you have any specific needs that we need to take account of when we do the work;
• Keep you updated whilst the works are underway and deal with any problems you may have;
• 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; and
• Check for any problems within the first 12 months after the work has been completed.   
• 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.

What we expect in return

Your responsibilities:

• To contact the Council’s Disability Services Team 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; and
• Move any furniture or personal items prior to us starting the work to ensure rooms are accessible.

Measuring success

We will know if we are getting things right by

• Monitoring and reporting our performance against our agreed performance measures; and
• Asking you how happy you are with the service we have provided.

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.