The report, published by the Wales Audit Office, notes the generally good relations between the housing association, its tenants and the local Councils.  Tenants found the service to be ‘friendly’ and the Association had worked with Councils on a range of schemes to help make their communities stronger, such as the appointment of a Rural Housing Enabler. Furthermore, the Association’s system for allocating houses was fair and balanced, with tenants benefiting from the most secure form of tenancy possible. Tai Eryri also worked to keep estates safe and pleasant, helping tenants who had problems with anti social behaviour.

However, the Association was experiencing problems in ensuring the swift occupation of vacant properties, and the time taken to occupy properties was continuing to increase.  Regular maintenance programmes were poorly managed, and arrangements for recovering rent and for helping tenants avoid debt were not effective.  The Association needed to encourage greater involvement of its tenants, but did not have a clear plan for doing so.  The information provided for tenants was limited and some of it was out of date, and the Association was not doing enough to promote equality of opportunity. Although the Association realised that it needed to improve its performance, it did not have robust arrangements in place to ensure that it was able to do so.

Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales, said today:
“The Association must make it a priority to establish robust arrangements for securing improvement generally in its business and most particularly in the areas identified by the Inspectors.”

Notes to Editors:

• The inspection of Cymdeithas Tai Eryri  took place in January 2008. The Association manages almost 1800  properties, mainly in Gwynedd and Anglesey.
• The Association was established in 1978 and has 71 staff in two offices in Penygroes and Llangefni.
• 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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• All Wales Audit Office housing inspection reports are accompanied by a shorter, summary report, which is distributed to the Association’s tenants. This ‘summary of findings’ has been written by a Tenant Inspection Adviser. Tenant Inspection Advisers are tenants, employed by the Wales Audit Office, to provide a service-user perspective and help inform inspection findings.
• 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.

For more information please contact Helen Keatley on 029 2032 0518 or email helen.keatley@wao.gov.uk