The council has high ambitions for its housing services, which have an important role in helping to raise living standards in our borough.
High quality, well-maintained and safe housing is what we all need. H&F is taking a resident-centred approach to co-producing better housing solutions and outcomes for our tenants and leaseholders.
We are offering services that address the holistic needs of people at risk of losing their home, providing them with advice and guidance across all areas of:
- welfare and benefits
- debt
- employment
- health
- and social care.
We are focussed on meeting the housing needs of residents and delivering effective advice and homelessness prevention, housing allocations, homelessness, and rough sleeping and refugee resettlement.
We believe that the best way to tackle homelessness is to prevent it from occurring in the first place through effective upstream support. But irrespective of where initial contact is made, advice on homelessness will be available to anyone who needs it.
We are also seeking to reduce waiting times and the use of temporary accommodation through an expanded range of alternative housing options.
Residents have told us our maintenance and repairs services need to improve, and that’s why we have made this a top priority.
We are overhauling the service to ensure residents’ needs are built into new repairs contracts, and we are using data to better focus on preventing common issues before they occur.
This is underpinned by an ambitious £729m housing improvement and retrofit programme which will transform our council homes and other buildings to be more energy efficient.
Key is that residents are safe in their homes, can be confident that all checks have been competently done, and that fire detection systems and fire doors work as designed.
Our ambition
Our ambition is to continue to engage with our residents to provide safe and decent social homes, and excellent landlord services for our leaseholders, tenants, and prospective tenants.
Short term
In the short term, we will:
- deliver improvements to our customer engagement and complaint handling through our new Housing Hub
- get a stronger operational grip on housing repairs through our new Repairs Team, effective contract management and future re-procurement
- continue to provide clear information for our leaseholders about their rights, offer eligible leaseholders the chance to buy the freehold, and operate a voluntary lease extension policy
- improve front line housing management from tenancy management, home visits, to engagement with residents in their neighbourhoods
- continuously tackle damp and mould causes and defects through our new dedicated team within the repairs service
- co-produce with residents a new engagement strategy and housing charter that gives real influence and a stronger voice to our tenants
- ensure that the council is ready to comply with the Consumer and Economic standards introduced by the Social Housing Act 2023
- meet residents’ housing needs whether they are seeking access to social housing through the housing register, finding housing solutions for those who are homeless and rough sleeping, or who have housing and support needs such as refugees and asylum seekers, victims of domestic abuse or people with mental health support needs.
Long term
In the long term, we will:
- integrate and better coordinate our approach to stock condition assessment, asset management planning and the delivery of housing improvements and compliance
- develop a refreshed Housing Strategy that addresses the borough’s current and future housing needs such as the supply of new social housing, investment in our existing stock as well as wider requirements in relation to private rented housing and owner occupation
- ensure that our existing homes receive the investment they need, meet decent home requirements, moving to meet the council’s ambitions for net zero carbon and are compliant with fire safety, asbestos, gas, electrical and legionella legislative standards.