Deciding how and where to invest in council homes

With 16,000 council properties across the city and an annual budget of over £60 million it is a complex process and one that is managed by our Asset Management team.

Asset Management 

The team carry out stock condition surveys that inform the capital investment programme into council homes. They also manage statutory building compliance ensuring that homes meet required safety standards and planning future improvement works. The Corporate Estates and Asset division also includes regenerating areas to develop new affordable housing such as the current programme in Townhill Park.

The new financial year starting in April 2025 will see the Asset Management budget focus spending on improving the safety, quality and energy efficiency of homes.

Decent Homes standard

One of the main priorities that influences where and how to invest into the housing stock is the ongoing commitment to ensuring all our properties meet the Government’s Decent Homes standard. This is a nationwide standard that social housing homes should be in a reasonable state of repair, with modern facilities and thermal comfort.

By undertaking stock condition surveys, the Asset Management team can see which properties need modernising and where investment is needed to ensure homes are safe, modern, and warm. Currently around 50% (half) of our council homes do not meet the Decent Homes standard and so we are focusing our long term efforts and budget on bringing more homes up to standard.

A new contractor has been procured to increase the delivery of these works, which include installing new kitchens and bathrooms, new roofs, new windows, and boilers in those homes that require improving. We are also investing in new technology to help us better understand and analyse our properties and to help us plan effectively for future investments.  

Building safety legislation

Alongside the need to bring all homes up to Decent Homes standard is the requirement to meet new building safety legislation. As we have reported in recent issues of Tenants’ Link, we have been busy working with tenants to develop a building safety resident engagement strategy to give residents more of a say in decisions about safety matters. We have an ongoing fire safety programme which has seen significant long term investment into fire safety. In recent years this has included installing new front doors to flats and sprinkler systems.

Get involved

If you are interested in working with us to help us improve our service and even get involved in deciding how the budget is spent, there are various groups you can join to have your say. Get involved with the Building Safety Tenants Group to discuss safety issues and challenge us on any building health and safety policies. Help us make improvements to the repairs and maintenance survey by adding your voice to the Repairs Panel or get involved with the Tenant Resource Group to look at how the housing budget is spent.

For more details about any of our tenant engagement opportunities please get in touch.