Bro Myrddin Housing Association providing poor quality services
20/11/2008
Carmarthenshire Association ‘needs considerable improvement’, says Auditor General
Bro Myrddin Housing Association has ‘scope for considerable improvement’ in seven out of eight key service areas, according to a report published today by the Auditor General for Wales. The Association, which provides homes in Carmarthenshire, was judged as providing a ‘satisfactory’ service only in its work with local authorities in providing housing.
The ‘scope for considerable improvement’ rating applies to the Association’s arrangements for its relationship with residents, equal opportunities, rents, lettings, managing housing, maintaining housing and housing for people with support needs. The report also found that the Association ‘failed to demonstrate capability’ and it was unlikely to make significant improvements in the future due to limitations in its capacity and weaknesses in its approach to strategic planning, management of performance and organisational support.
The report includes a large number of recommendations to promote improvement, including:
- Develop effective strategies for tenant participation with clear outcome focussed improvement targets;
- Ensure vulnerable people have access to services;
- Meeting the requirements of the CRE Code of Practice for rented Housing in the monitoring of access to services; and
- Develop a debt prevention strategy with clear monitoring arrangements and annual targets.
Jeremy Colman, Auditor General for Wales, said today:
“The services provided by Bro Myrddin Housing Association are consistently below the standard tenants are entitled to receive. The Association clearly needs to implement major changes in nearly all areas of its operations. The recommendations in this report will support the Association to set a clearer strategic direction, improve its planning and monitoring and become more resident-focused.”
Notes to Editors:
- The inspection of Bro Myrddin Housing Association took place in December 2007. At the time of inspection the Association managed 714 properties - mostly in Carmarthenshire, with three in Pembrokeshire.
- The Association was established in 1979 and is the only general needs housing association located in Carmarthenshire. Its main office is in Carmarthen Town and, at the time of inspection, there were 17 members of staff and nine Special Needs Care Workers.
- 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/
regulatorycodehas;jsessionid=9B45EEEB797A798A2F70307FCF99609A.www1?lang=en
- Judgements in Wales Audit Office inspection reports are those of the Wales Audit Office alone. Nevertheless, in accordance with our usual practice, we went to considerable efforts to agree the contents of the report with Bro Myrddin. Although the Association has not fully accepted this report, the Wales Audit Office remains satisfied that the judgements presented in the report are fair and reasonable.
- 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.