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EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL HOUSING INSPECTION REPORT

East Ayrshire Council has been awarded a ‘good’ rating for its housing management and asset management and repairs and a ‘fair’ rating for services to homeless people.

This follows an inspection in November 2007 by inspectors from Communities Scotland, now the Scottish Housing Regulator.

The purpose of inspection is to provide an independent external assessment of the effectiveness of housing service delivery, and make recommendations to help improvement.

East Ayrshire Council is situated in west central Scotland, with a population of 120,000 people. It owns over 13,500 properties.

Michael Cameron, acting head of inspection at the Scottish Housing Regulator, said:

“Our inspectors found that East Ayrshire Council understands its strengths and weaknesses and is committed to improving services for tenants.

“It has demonstrated strengths in a number of areas. It houses a large number of people in housing need, is good at dealing with anti-social behaviour and has made good progress in gathering reliable information on its assets and the level of investment needed.

“The council is aware that it needs to improve its approach to cancelling and suspending housing applications and its assessment procedures for those presenting as homeless.

“We are confident that the council will address its weaknesses through both an improvement plan, which it will send to the Scottish Housing Regulator, and its own process of continuous improvement.”

Councillor Douglas Reid, leader of East Ayrshire Council, added:

“This most recent confirmation of the council’s good performance over its housing management business demonstrates the council’s standing as one of the top performing Scottish housing authorities inspected by the regulator.”

NOTE TO NEWS EDITORS
1. Inspectors gave the following grade:

2. Full details of the East Ayrshire Council inspection report can be found on The Scottish Housing Regulator website at www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk

3. The Scottish Housing Regulator came into operation on 1 April 2008. It is the successor to Communities Scotland’s Regulation & Inspection Division. As a government agency the Scottish Housing Regulator will have complete operational independence, but will remain accountable to Scottish Ministers, and through them to the Scottish Parliament for the standard of its work. The agency sits within the Justice and Communities Directorate of the Scottish Government and will work within the government’s overall purpose and contribute to its strategic objectives.