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MIDLOTHIAN COUNCIL HOUSING INSPECTION REPORT

Midlothian Council has been awarded a ‘good’ rating for its asset management and repairs and a ‘poor’ rating for both housing management and for services to homeless people.

This follows an inspection in January and February 2008 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.

Midlothian Council is situated in east central Scotland immediately to the south of Edinburgh, with a population of 80,000 people. It owns over 6,000 houses.

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

“Our inspectors found that Midlothian Council is now setting out to improve the services it provides to tenants.

“Its strengths include its asset management particularly in investment planning in its existing houses and its programme of new build homes.

“We found weaknesses in its housing management and homeless services where significant improvement is needed. The council is aware that it needs to improve its approach in a number of areas including permanently housing homeless people and its assessment procedures for those presenting as homeless.

“Our report identified where services can get better and we will ask the council to address its weaknesses through an improvement plan which it will send to the Scottish Housing Regulator.”

Councillor Milligan, leader of Midlothian Council, added:

“I welcome the inspectors’ recognition of the good performance by Midlothian Council in building new homes and investing in current housing stock. We have put a lot of effort into our new build programme, the first council in Scotland, as well as other initiatives to provide houses for our homeless such as the private sector leasing scheme, buying homes on the open market, shared equity schemes and partnership working with housing associations that has brought in record levels of investment into Midlothian.

“We recognise that some of our practices and procedures have been neglected as a result of this effort but we will work hard to develop and implement an improvement plan to address the issues raised by the inspectors.”

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

1. Inspectors gave the following grade:

2. Full details of the Midlothian 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.