The need for housing doesn’t go away during a pandemic, if anything, the need increases. At Wrexham Council we pride ourselves on providing excellent quality, lifetime homes for our tenants, and that is not about to stop because of these unprecedented times.
Housing is a critical service, which means we have had to think on our feet and come up with new and innovative was of working. In just a short space of time we have worked hard to ensure that we continue to offer excellent customer service to our tenants and clients in all aspects of housing, including the completion of empty property renovations to hand back to our estate offices to re-let.
For a while, we were only able to conduct emergency work on properties and these renovations had to be put on hold, as we navigated the pandemic. As things started to change, it meant we could unlock more of our services, including starting work on empty properties once again. Following a stringent series of risk assessments we were able to plan work and bring in resources in sufficient numbers to complete the properties, ensuring social distancing was at the forefront of everything we were doing, keeping our staff and the public safe.
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The gradual unlocking plan took a number of weeks to implement before we started to see the empty properties being completed and returned to the estate offices for re-letting. We have made great progress and have managed to return 291 properties to a standard which exceeds the very comprehensive Welsh Quality Housing Standard since April 2020 and with 6 weeks of this time only focusing on emergency work, this is a fantastic achievement.
We are continuing to work hard to deliver more and more properties and it’s lovely to see that the work we do is greatly appreciated by our tenants, especially during these difficult times…
“I cannot believe it, it’s like a brand new house, I couldn’t ask for better.”
“Thank you so much, it was definitely worth the wait.”
“The kids are going to love it, they finally have a garden they can play in.”
Cllr David Griffiths, Lead Member for Housing said “Fantastic to see our housing department keeping services such as this up and running effectively, ensuring we continue to have quality housing for our tenants. The cooperation and hard work that the Housing Team have displayed during the pandemic has been exemplary. They have continued to work in whatever capacity they have been asked of them and adapted quickly to the new ways of working. Without this, they would not be able to provide the quality housing in which they do.”
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