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General

• If you telephone us we will aim to answer within 10 seconds
• If you write to us we will aim to reply to you within 10 working days by telephone, fax, letter or email.
• When you make contact with us we will:
  • Be welcoming and courteous
  • Be fair and responsive
  • Provide good quality information suited to your needs
  • Communicate clearly

Tenant Involvement and Empowerment

Through our tenant/resident and leaseholder involvement activities we aim to:

• Make involvement an integral part of Housing Services by ensuring we listen and respond to residents’, tenants’ and leaseholders’ views.
• Consult with tenants, residents and leaseholders on proposals affecting their homes and communities and offer the opportunity to become involved in the decision-making process
• Provide clear information to all residents, tenants and leaseholders about any matter that affects them and their homes
• Housing Services will seek feedback from residents, tenants and leaseholders about services including delivery, quality and customers services and take action where necessary;
• South Derbyshire District Council will support the Performance and Scrutiny Panel to effectively scrutinise the performance and major decisions of Housing Services;
• Continue supporting and working in partnership with South Derbyshire Tenants’ and Residents’ Forum;
• Consult with residents, tenants and leaseholders in redevelopment and modernisation schemes;
• Involve tenants in the selection and choices of materials and components for their homes;
• Offer tenants, residents and leaseholders training to allow them to become further involved, informed and empowered to participate effectively;
• Continue to provide a dedicated budget for the development and support of resident involvement activities and consultation;
• Support the broader community development projects where appropriate, according to the needs and aspiration of residents, tenants and leaseholders;
• Develop involvement methods in response to tenants’, residents’ and leaseholders’ needs and wishes;
• Welcome complaints and compliments and use them to influence future service delivery;

Home Standard

We will:

• carry out emergency repairs within 24 hours
• carry out urgent repairs within 72 Hours
• carry out non urgent repairs within 20 working days
• offer appointments for all internal works
• contact you as soon as possible if we need to rearrange an appointment
• ensure all new lettings conform to a standard agreed with tenants
• aim to complete the repairs on the first visit. Where this is not possible by the relevant contractor, we will let you how many additional visits are required and when you can expect the repair to be done.
• provide an out of hours emergency repairs service
• ask for feedback to make sure residents are happy with the quality and responsiveness of the repairs service. Satisfaction levels will be reported to residents through our annual report and also in our newsletter
• personally contact every complainant
• aim to maintain the Decent Homes Standard
• notify you in writing of the proposed improvements to your property
• give you at least 14 days notice before commencing major improvement works to your property
• visit you prior to, during and after major improvements works to your property to ensure you are satisfied with the work carried out
• ensure our contractors are courteous and polite at all times

Tenancy Standard

We will:

• assist you to complete your housing register application form and gather supporting evidence
• aim to register your fully completed application form within 10 working days of receipt
• carry out a full inspection of SDDC properties involved in the mutual exchange and provide a full inventory of faults and repairs required, which are the responsibility of the incoming tenant
• review our advertising strategy annually and ensure properties are advertised in the most appropriate places based on the needs of the housing register
• review Emergency Band Applications every 8 weeks
• review A and B band applications annually
• make monthly checks on the software to ensure it is fully operational
• publish information on allocations each quarter. This information will include number of properties let, in which Band, type of property and number of applications received that quarter

Total number of applications received from 1 January to 31 March 2012 - 252 completed applications

Neighbourhood & Community

When you report anti-social behaviour we will:

• complete the initial assessment of your case within 24 hours
• contact you again and agree an action plan to resolve your case within a further 2 working days from our initial contact
• complete all investigations required within 10 working days. Where this is not possible we will agree an extended timescale with you
• update you on the progress of your case and action plan each week
• where appropriate we will aim to resolve your ASB case within 2 months of the initial report
• use record sheets for a short focused period only which will be agreed with the complainant
• produce a handy summary guide to ASB as well as the detailed policy
• create an ASB web page and publish the policy, summary guide and quarterly statistics

We will: 

• aim to visit you within 4 weeks of your new tenancy commencing to check how you are getting on and offer any additional support
• aim to provide specialist debt advice to you when you need it
• aim to carry out estate inspections with tenants, residents, Councillors and related agencies and follow up any actions identified.