In 2000, Government in England and Wales made a commitment to bring all council housing up to a decent standard within a decade. English housing has a further target: one-third of non-decent homes should be brought up to standard by 2004. To assist this, capital available for improvements to council homes in England has increased significantly in the last two years. Local authorities need to take action to deliver the Government's housing decency targets and ensure that new money is spent effectively, for the benefit of current and future tenants.
Services currently delivered to residents - both tenants and leaseholders - are highly variable: there are often differences in performance between different parts of the service within one authority. As a result, of 34 inspections of repairs and maintenance services carried out by the Housing Inspectorate so far, less than 1 in 6 has been rated by inspectors as 'good'.
Although highlighting areas of difficulty for repairs and maintenance services, this report shows how some authorities have achieved change, for example, in delivering well-managed capital programmes, or in increasing the efficiency of their responsive repairs services. It should therefore help all authorities to improve their service, particularly through their best value reviews.