New estate inspection process 




We have revamped the estate inspection process and developed a set of sustainability indicators to enable us to take a strategic view of our stock. The sustainability indicators allow us to identify and prioritise areas of low sustainability and monitor these over time.

Sustainability indicators

The sustainability indicators use a ranking system to identify our most and least sustainable estates. There are 17 indicators that focus on four key areas:

  • Demand
  • Community
  • Housing Quality
  • Income and expenditure


The data for the indicators comes from a range of sources. These include:


  • Data from Moat databases eg rent arrears and length of tenure
  • 2007 Residents’ Survey eg neighbourhood satisfaction
  • Housing Quality Indicator location scores
  • Data from Government websites eg deprivation indicators

Each estate is given an overall sustainability score. The higher the score the more sustainable the estate. We will run the indicators at least once a year. This will allow us to monitor whether the estate scores improve over time.

The estate sustainability scores are colour coded to indicate our most and least sustainable estates:


  • The most sustainable are highlighted in green
  • The least sustainable are highlighted in pink
  • All other estates are highlighted in orange


The rank of estates will determine the frequency of inspection:
 

  • The most sustainable estates will be formally inspected once a year
  • The least sustainable estates will be formally inspected four times a year
  • The remaining estates will be formally inspected twice a year


Estates with less than 20 units will not be included in the sustainability indicators. These estates will be formally inspected once a year.

The indicators have been run on general needs and sheltered estates. We will consider how to roll the indicators out to shared ownership properties in the future.

Resident feedback

Housing Officers will send out a newsletter to all residents on the estate three months after the inspection. The newsletter will set out the improvements already made since the inspection and give clear timescales for future improvement works.

The new process focuses on resident feedback about estate services, through increased involvement in estate inspections. Our aim is that residents will notice improvements following estate inspections and will feel encouraged to take part in future inspections and other involvement activities.

Resources

New funding is available for estate improvements. Each housing officer patch will have £2,000 available per year for estate improvements.

In addition housing staff, in conjunction with residents, will be able to bid for additional funding for our least sustainable estates. There is a central fund of £168,000 for bids. Priority will be given to ideas that will improve the quality of life for residents on our least sustainable estates and make lasting improvements. The funding will allow us to tackle the specific issues that are making the estate less sustainable.

We will be able to measure the impact of the additional resources by measuring whether the estate scores improve over time.

If you need any further information call the Customer Service team on 0845 600 1006.