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Rhondda Housing Association is providing ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ services to its tenants in seven out of eight key areas. The latest housing association inspection report, published today by the Auditor General for Wales, found that the Association’s relationship with residents, its housing management service and arrangements for providing housing were ‘excellent’. ‘Good’ arrangements were in place for ensuring equality of opportunity, rents and lettings and for people with support needs. The maintenance service was found to be ‘satisfactory’ and showing signs of improvement.
Today’s report also includes examples of good practice at the Association, which can be applied across the Welsh housing sector. These include the Association's support for the Rhondda Housing Association Disability Advisory Group which plays a key role in representing tenants with disabilities. The Association has also worked in close partnership with the Local Authority and other local housing associations to establish a housing register for people with physical disabilities. And it has developed The Bolder Project, in partnership with organisations such as Cwmni (Communities First Partnership in Treherbert) and Age Concern, to provide financial advice to those over the age of 65 and encourage them to receive unclaimed benefits.
The report also includes recommendations designed to promote further improvement, including calls to.
- Strengthen arrangements for registering complaints; and
- Work with partners on the Common Housing Register to improve methods for collecting data about who has been registered for housing and waiting times.
Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales, said today:
“Rhondda Housing Association has a strong track record and is providing mainly ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ services to tenants. It is also committed to improving some areas further - particularly its maintenance service, which I have rated as ‘satisfactory’. The recommendations in my report are designed to support further improvement. I hope other Associations take note of the examples of good practice that Rhondda has demonstrated and which are mentioned in my report.”
Notes to Editors:
- The inspection of the Rhondda Housing Association took place in November 2006. The Association manages over 1,400 properties in the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff.
- The Association was formed in 1979 and is a charitable community based housing association, managed by a board of 15. Its head office is based in Tonypandy.
- 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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- Services are rated using five different categories: ‘excellent’, ‘good’, satisfactory’, ‘scope for considerable improvement’ or ‘fails to comply with the regulatory code.’ A full description of each of the above categories is detailed in Appendix 2 of our inspection reports.
- 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.
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