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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL RE-INSPECTION OF HOUSING MANAGEMENT SERVICE INSPECTION REPORT

The Scottish Housing Regulator today published its re-inspection report on West Dunbartonshire Council’s housing management service. It awarded the Council a ‘fair’ rating.

The purpose of re-inspection is to provide an independent external assessment of the effectiveness and progress of housing service delivery, following the award of a “poor” rating at a previous inspection, and make recommendations to help improvement.

West Dunbartonshire Council is situated in west central Scotland to the northwest of Glasgow between Loch Lomond and the River Clyde. West Dunbartonshire has a population of 91,000 and covers an area of 68 square miles.

Lesley Kerr, Acting Head of Inspection at The Scottish Housing Regulator, said:

“We found the Council has made good progress with developing a culture of improvement within the housing service since our interim inspection in November 2008 and now has a high level of self-awareness of its strengths and weaknesses.

“Our inspectors found that West Dunbartonshire Council has some strengths. It is improving the time it takes to process applications, its neighbourhoods are generally in good condition and it works well to sustain tenancies.

The Council has improved its performance both in managing suspensions and bypassing and in the management of rent lost due to arrears and empty houses and has plans in place to further improve its performance. The Council is aware that it has weaknesses in its approach to communicating with tenants on anti social behaviour cases, tenant consultation and complaints. However it is committed to improving the service it provides and we are confident that that it is capable of addressing the weaknesses we have identified.”

Elaine Melrose, Director for Housing, Environmental & Economic Development, said: “I am very pleased with the numerous positive comments within the Scottish Housing Regulator’s re-inspection report. The report shows that the Council’s Housing Management Service is moving firmly in the right direction, and suggests that the vast majority of tenants are satisfied with the service they receive from their area housing office.

“However we recognise that there is always room for improvement and we will continue to work towards providing an even better service in years to come. Where weaknesses were identified in the report, such as management of rent arrears, there are already plans in place as to how we will improve these areas of the Service.”

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

1. Inspectors gave the following grades:

2. Full details of the West Dunbartonshire Council re-inspection report can be found on the Scottish Housing Regulator website here

3. The Scottish Housing Regulator came into operation on 1 April 2008. It operates the powers and duties of the regulation of social housing which are set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. The Scottish Housing Regulator is an arm’s length executive agency of the Scottish Government. It has operational independence, while being accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament for the standard of its work.