Council tenants in Wrexham are set to see another year of huge investment for improving their homes.
A report will go before the Council’s Executive Board on Tuesday asking Members to approve an investment of £50.3m to be spent on improving homes in 2018/19.
A further £103.3m of investment is being proposed for the following 4 years, 2019 to 2023.
The investment will be used to help us achieve the Welsh Government’s Welsh Housing Quality Standard by 2020.
A higher standard for our homes
The report says that, to achieve the standard, local authorities are required to devise detailed programmes of work which will ensure that people have the opportunity to live in homes that are:
• In a good state of repair
• safe and secure
• adequately heated
• contain up to date kitchens and bathrooms
• well managed
• located in attractive and safe environments
• as far as possible, suit the specific needs of the household (e.g. specific disabilities)
The report will be accompanied by a Business Plan which outlines how we will achieve and maintain the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and how we intend to use our resources most effectively to deliver a good quality housing service for our tenants.
This Business Plan will be submitted to the Welsh Government as part of our delivery of the programme.
‘Positive times’ ahead for social housing
Lead Member for Housing, Cllr David Griffiths, said: “These are very positive times for council housing in Wrexham. We’ve already had three years of record investment in the Welsh Housing Quality Standard programme and this has allowed us to carry out improvement work on thousands of properties, including new kitchens and bathrooms, new central heating systems, electrical rewires, External Wall Insulation, roofing work and other external work.
“We’ve bringing homes up to a higher standard than ever before and this investment will help continue this work and ensure that all our tenants will be able to live in properties they can be really proud of.”
The £50.3m will be funded by Housing Revenue Account contribution, Capital Receipts from the sale of assets and prudential borrowing.
The Welsh Government also contributes to the fund through the Major Repairs Allowance grant. This is awarded to local authorities to help them achieve the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.
Cllr Griffiths continued: “Carrying out work on this scale can present huge challenges, however we are continuing to make every effort to ensure the work we carry out is of the highest standard possible and I am pleased to say that we are currently on track to achieve the standard by the 2020 deadline.”
If you’d like to find out more about the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, visit the council website
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