Latest news with #DecentHomesStandard
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Improvement needed over housing complaint backlog
A council has been told improvement is needed to deal with a backlog of housing repairs and complaints from tenants. A watchdog found "some weaknesses" in the social housing services provided by Gateshead Council following an inspection in April. The inspectors said the council had plans in place to ensure all of its properties meet the Decent Homes Standard by 2027, but it had a "backlog of repairs and there are issues with the timeliness of the repair and maintenance of empty homes". The authority said it "fully agreed with the regulator's feedback on areas where we can and must do better", but added the result was "clear evidence we are on the right path". The C2 grading awarded to the council by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) was one level higher than that given to Newcastle City Council earlier this year, where "serious failings" were identified. In the services provided by Gateshead Council, which owns about 18,000 homes, the RSH found that "some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed". Overall, the report found the council was meeting its legal health and safety requirements, as well as establishing a "more proactive" approach to dealing with damp and mould cases. The RSH criticised "poor" responses to complaints made by tenants and said there were often "significant backlogs", but added the council had taken steps to address it with improvement plans. Meanwhile the report praised the council's response to dealing with and deterring anti-social behaviour. The council said it had installed a new complaints handling team to provide faster responses to tenants, would provide better monitoring of damp and mould cases, and promised investment to produce quicker repairs and a faster turnaround of empty homes. Labour councillor Chris Buckley said he was "pleased with the judgement". "We also fully agree with the regulator's feedback on areas where we can and must do better." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Delay on clearing mouldy council homes backlog New housing estates planned near town centre Regulator of Social Housing
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Gateshead Council housing complaint backlog 'must improve'
A council has been told improvement is needed to deal with a backlog of housing repairs and complaints from tenants.A watchdog found "some weaknesses" in the social housing services provided by Gateshead Council following an inspection in inspectors said the council had plans in place to ensure all of its properties meet the Decent Homes Standard by 2027, but it had a "backlog of repairs and there are issues with the timeliness of the repair and maintenance of empty homes". The authority said it "fully agreed with the regulator's feedback on areas where we can and must do better", but added the result was "clear evidence we are on the right path". The C2 grading awarded to the council by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) was one level higher than that given to Newcastle City Council earlier this year, where "serious failings" were the services provided by Gateshead Council, which owns about 18,000 homes, the RSH found that "some weaknesses in the landlord delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and improvement is needed". Overall, the report found the council was meeting its legal health and safety requirements, as well as establishing a "more proactive" approach to dealing with damp and mould cases. New complaints team The RSH criticised "poor" responses to complaints made by tenants and said there were often "significant backlogs", but added the council had taken steps to address it with improvement the report praised the council's response to dealing with and deterring anti-social council said it had installed a new complaints handling team to provide faster responses to tenants, would provide better monitoring of damp and mould cases, and promised investment to produce quicker repairs and a faster turnaround of empty councillor Chris Buckley said he was "pleased with the judgement"."We also fully agree with the regulator's feedback on areas where we can and must do better." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
10-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Newcastle City Council delay on clearing mouldy homes backlog
Hundreds of households are still waiting for work to address mould and damp, despite a council's pledge to deal with the City Council inherited more than 1,800 damp and mould reports from management organisation Your Homes Newcastle, which was abolished last had pledged to deal with the backlog by this month, but despite appointing extra contractors, 491 reports are still outstanding, the authority confirmed.A spokesman for the council said all affected tenants would be contacted by the end of April to arrange repairs, but added it had been experiencing problems with residents not responding to allow access to their property. The authority, which took over control of about 25,000 properties from Your Homes Newcastle, had pledged to deal with the backlog at a rate of 50 homes per build-up of problems was among the issues cited by the Regulator of Social Housing as it warned of "serious failings" in the city council's housing stock in a judgement earlier this year and ordered the council to make improvements. New rules planned The Labour-run council's cabinet would be asked to sign off a new repairs policy next week, the Local Democracy Reporting Service includes a pledge to respond to emergency housing hazards, including those related to damp and mould, within 24 hours.A Newcastle City Council spokesman said the changes would help "to better meet the needs of our vulnerable residents" and adopt a "more flexible approach".They added: "We've also commissioned an external contractor to complete a stock condition survey to be sure that all of our properties meet the Decent Homes Standard and ensure that we have up to date information about their condition." Follow BBC Newcastle on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
13-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Swindon Borough Council to spend £250m on improving housing
A council is set to spend £250m on improving its housing - despite just 1% of that being needed to bring its homes up to standard. Swindon Borough Council has set out its intention to spend the sum over the next five years in order to meet the government's Decent Homes Standard across 10,000 bedsits, houses and flats. But the same strategy document that said £250m was needed for wide ranging improvements also said that "over £2.56m" was required to repair all failing homes. Cabinet member for housing Janine Howarth said that bringing homes up to government standards was the "minimum" tenants should expect. "We want tenants in our 10,383 homes, 31 sheltered housing schemes and four supported housing schemes to live in high-quality housing," she said."That is why we are planning to invest £250m over the next five years in the maintenance and refurbishment of our stock."At a cabinet meeting she also explained that the funding would come "at no cost to services funded through council tax", and would instead be funded by rents paid to the council by tenants. Meanwhile, a possible first step towards hundreds of homes being built on a Swindon park has been set out, with housing social enterprise Places for People asking council planners if it would need to provide an environmental impact assessment for a prospective project. While a formal proposal has not yet been submitted, the query was an indication that the company was considering putting in a planning application for 300 houses on Marlborough Park. An earlier application in 2015 allowed up to 313 houses as well at 91 other flats or houses and 74 age-restricted housing units on the site and land to the for People already has planning permission to build 80 affordable homes – which is defined as available for rent at 80% of the market rate – to the north east of Marlborough Park, on a plot of land between Lowry way and Broome Manor well as the proposal for 313 houses on the site approved in outline in 2015, a scheme for more than 600 houses was approved in 2005, but has lapsed.
The Independent
04-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Seven in ten healthcare workers see patients unable to pay energy bills, survey suggests
Seven in ten healthcare workers regularly see patients who can't afford their energy bills, with high costs driving preventable respiratory problems, a survey suggests. New research from health campaign group MedAct shows how the high cost of energy is causing people to live in cold, damp, mouldy homes. Doctors have warned that poor living conditions are causing an 'entirely preventable public health crisis'. Of the 70 per cent of healthcare workers who reported seeing patients forced to go without energy, three in 10 said they were seeing this weekly while one in ten said they saw patients unable to pay their bills every day. Over two-thirds of health workers - 68 per cent - said that high energy bills were contributing to avoidable hospital admissions, and 45 per cent said that they had sent patients home knowing that their housing situation would make them ill again. Dr LJ Smith, a respiratory consultant working in London, told researchers: 'Every single day I treat patients whose lung conditions are entirely preventable, but they tell me their homes are cold, mouldy and damp, and they just cannot afford to keep the heating on. 'As a healthcare worker I shouldn't need a detailed knowledge of energy tariffs and benefits - I just want to get back to the job that I was trained to do, working with my patients to help them thrive despite their lung condition. This is a public health crisis that is entirely preventable.' Dr Amaran, a paediatric doctor working in Sheffield, said: 'I and other children's health workers are increasingly concerned by having to send children home with inhalers and medicines, knowing full well that for the many living in unsafe and unhealthy homes, it will be a matter of days and weeks before they're sick again, with serious implications for their life chances.' In 2022-23, 3.5 million households in England lived in a home that failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard, the minimum standard for liveable housing. One million households lived in a home with damp, data from the English Housing Survey found. Damp was most likely to impact private renters, with 441,000 homes affected in 2022-23. More than 26,000 babies and toddlers were admitted to hospital last year with lung conditions probably linked to exposure to damp and mould, BBC analysis of NHS data found. A new energy price cap of £1,849 starts from April, marking a third straight increase. Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said that the UK's 'reliance on international gas markets' was continuing to drive up bills, adding: 'It's more important than ever that we're driving forward investment in a cleaner homegrown system.' He also warned that energy debts, which began during the 2021 energy crisis, have reached record levels and would continue to grow without intervention. Caroline Simpson, from campaign group Warm This Winter who commissioned the survey, said renewable energy and insulation programmes were the answer to high energy bills. 'Only by doing that will we free bill-payers from the high cost of energy so they can get the homes they deserve,' she said. Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:'It is infuriating to think that so many people who otherwise would be healthy and able to live their lives to the fullest are in pain and forced to endure an NHS that is already at breaking point as they can't heat their homes properly. 'The government urgently needs to change course to protect people's bills and ultimately keep them out of hospital.' Some 2,128 healthcare workers were polled as part of the research. A spokesperson for the Department of Energy Security said: 'Everyone deserves to live in a warm, comfortable home. We have set out proposals to help almost three million more households, including almost one million with children, with support to pay their energy bills next winter. 'Our Warm Homes Plan will make homes cheaper and cleaner to run, rolling out upgrades from new insulation to solar and heat pumps - with up to 300,000 homes to benefit from upgrades later this year. "Up to half a million households could also be lifted out of fuel poverty by 2030 in major boost to standards in the private rental sector."
