Council tenants told to make ready for the Big Listen

A full tenant survey – The Big Listen – is about to ask council tenants and leaseholders in South Kesteven what they think of the service and what the future priorities should be to deliver housing that meets the needs of all residents.

It follows more than a year of dedicated work by South Kesteven District Council staff to put in place improved systems and processes to drive-up standards after SKDC referred itself to the Social Housing Regulator.

A meeting on Thursday will highlight the good progress made across the housing service, including the latest information on safety inspections, showing all properties fully compliant on asbestos, legionella and lift inspections. Also:

• Electricity – 72.03% of dwellings have a current electrical certificate
• Fire Risk – All “higher risk” communal blocks inspected; corrective action being completed
• Gas – 99.42% of properties have an up-to-date gas certificate

A spokesperson for SKDC said: “The safety and wellbeing of all SKDC tenants remains our number one priority so these regular inspections and maintenance are vital.

“We have made excellent progress so far but there is still more to do to drive up standards. A new programme of work is under way and we have taken immediate and appropriate action to ensure the safety of tenants while the programme is being delivered.

“The Big Listen is the next step in this process. It will seek answers on the current experience of our customers in terms of the services the council offers as a landlord, and what our tenants would like to see prioritised.

“This is an opportunity for our customers to tell us how we are doing as their landlord by answering questions on the work we have done. The questions cover all aspects of the housing service, including repairs, and asks how satisfied they are.

“We will be sending questionnaires to all our tenants with the option of completing a paper copy or completing online. All the information received will help plan our future offer: we will tell them what was said and what we are going to do about it.”

Regular reports on compliance with the regulatory standard are presented to the Council’s Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee where members can ask questions on the progress. The reports, improvement plan and performance figures are all available to members of the public on the SKDC website.