The Association had adopted an ‘excellent’ approach in providing housing, and was rated as ‘good’ in four key areas - covering equal opportunities; lettings; housing management and housing people with support needs. ‘Satisfactory’ arrangements were in place in the three other areas under review - the Association’s relationship with residents, rent arrears and maintenance.

The report also highlighted some examples of good practice. These include the engagement of staff and tenants in the development of the Association’s mission statement, and switching from a points-based lettings system to a customer choice-based scheme.

But there are still areas where services could be improved and the report makes several recommendations. These include:

• working with tenants to develop, publish and monitor a comprehensive range of service standards;
• developing a realistic action plan for more tenant involvement;
• analysing and understanding repairs performance and demonstrating value for money;
• setting clear targets for debt prevention and agreeing how these will be achieved; and
• publishing a lettings standard and make it available to all new tenants.

Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales, said today:

“Merthyr Tydfil’s approach to providing housing is of a very high standard. The Association’s recent track record shows that it has the capacity to deliver further improvements, and the report’s recommendations in areas such as information to residents, rent arrears and some aspects of the repairs service should help it to do so.”

Notes to Editors:

• The inspection of Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association took place in November/December 2005. The Association manages over 1,000 properties and is based in Merthyr Tydfil town centre, with a community office in Treharris.
• The Association was established in 1977 and is a community-based Association operating in the Merthyr Tydfil unitary authority.
• Following publication of this report, the Housing Association is required to produce an action plan, within eight weeks, setting out how it will respond to the inspection findings.
• The Welsh Assembly Government has appointed the Wales Audit Office to carry out the inspection of Housing Associations in Wales. Inspection is carried out under the Local Government Act 1998, as amended by the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004
• The specific questions about each aspect the inspection covers are set out in the latest version of the Assembly Regulatory Code for Housing Associations in Wales. This can be found by clicking on the following link: http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/housingandcommunity/housing/publications/
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• The Wales Audit Office is independent of government and is responsible for the annual audit of some £19 billion of annual public expenditure.
• The Wales Audit Office was created in April 2005 through the Public Audit (Wales) Act, 2004, which expanded the functions of the Auditor General for Wales and enabled the transfer of staffs from the Audit Commission in Wales and National Audit Office in Wales to his employment.

Ends

For more information please contact Rachel Moss on 029 2026 2675 or email rachel.moss@wao.gov.uk