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Home \ Tenants \ Living In Your Home \ Repairing, improving, adapting and decorating your home \ Improving your home

Improving your home - Meeting the Decent Homes Standard

Gloucester City Homes has now modernised over 3000 properties in its Investment Programme to meet the Government's Decent Homes Standard. GCH has made 92% of the properties decent as of 30th June 2011.

In 2007/08 Gloucester City Homes made 3746 improvements to our tenants' homes. This has been followed up in 2008/09 with over 4653 improvements done and in 2009/10 3214 improvements by 31 March 2010. Here is a breakdown of our improvement since we started the programme in 2007/08.

Improvements	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11*

Kitchen Refurbishments	951	1,209	539	235
Bathroom Refurbishments	774	1,000	479	144
Electrical Rewires	1,096	1,466	658	177
Central Heating Systems	571	633	529	222
Window and Door replacement	200	166	889	317
Major Medical Adaptations	154	179	120	198

*as of 31st August 2010

Gloucester City Homes is delivering the Decent Homes Programme in partnership with Lovell. To find out more about Lovell please select this link - Lovell |.

This is what our tenants have told us about how satisfied they are with the delivery of the programme in 2010/11

Tenant satisfaction is measured against two main indicators (with the standard of the improvements carried out [finished works] and the quality of the overall service) with the partners having to achieve 95%. As can be seen from the following table this target has been met:

Key Performance Indicator	Target	April 2010

Overall level of customer satisfaction with the finished works	95.00%	97%

Overall level of customer satisfaction with the service received from the partner	95.00%	97%

Decent Homes Standard

In 2000, the Government brought in new rules about the quality of homes tenants rent from councils or housing associations.

Since 2010, all councils must meet the Standard, which says:

A decent home will be warm, weatherproof and have reasonably modern facilities.

These are the main things taken into account when deciding if a home meets the Decent Homes Standard.

A decent home must:

meet current legal housing standards
be in a reasonable state of repair
have reasonably modern facilities and services. This means at least 4 of the following:
- a kitchen that is no more than 20 years old
- a kitchen with adequate space and layout
- a bathroom that is no more than 30 years old
- a suitably located bathroom and toilet
- adequate noise insulation
- adequate space and layout in common areas of flats
be efficiently heated and effectively insulated.

For further detailed information on the decent home standard itself please contact us or visit the Government’s Decent Homes website at http://www.communities.gov.uk/| and search on decent homes.

Select this link to our latest Tenant Times| to find out the latest about our improvement programme including our planned improvement programme for 2011/12.

Gloucester Housing Standard

Working with our tenants we have developed a Gloucester Housing Standard. This is better than the Government’s Decent Homes Standard.

So eventually, we want all our homes to have:

high-quality PVC double-glazed windows with secure locking handles
no all-metal windows
modern fitted kitchen units with vinyl flooring, tiling, and extractor fan
a fire installed in living/dining rooms and a full central heating system
a modern fitted bathroom suite with shower connector, thermostatically controlled taps and extractor fan, with vinyl flooring, tiling and redecoration
high-quality, secure front and back doors with a choice of brass fittings
loft insulation, cavity-wall insulation and external rendering as required
a modern watertight roof
modern wiring including smoke detectors, and electricity meters in an outdoor cabinet where possible
gardens that have been cleared and left tidy where required
good access, where possible, to external doors, and staircase/doorway handrails where needed
footpaths and boundary fencing to front and rear gardens and gates as required
off-street parking with paved access and a refuse/green bin storage area where possible.

We will offer tenants will the opportunity to have security alarms, external entrance lights, CCTV and other security measures where appropriate, such as higher walls.

Whether we can do all of the above items will depend on there being enough money available at the time we do the work.

Planning maintenance and improvements

One of our key aims is to bring and keep all our homes up to the Government’s Decent Homes Standard and, wherever possible, to our Gloucester Housing Standard.

Our service standards

Our staff and those working for our home improvement partners will:

train tenant representatives on looking after property to help them to make informed decisions
develop 5-year improvements plans in partnership with tenant representatives
review the menu of improvement choices every year
publish an annual programme every April, showing the work, how much it will cost and which streets are included

If we are planning to improve your home, we will:

invite you to a local open day to discuss our plans for your area
invite you to join a project team, to oversee and monitor progress
arrange for a Resident Liaison Officer to visit you about your home-improvement choices, including any adaptations you need
contact you again around 6 weeks and again 8 days before the work starts
give you a choice of colours or fittings including:

- heating type
- layout and colour of kitchen units
- colour of outside doors, rendering and cladding
- colour and layout of bathroom suite
- outside door type
- colour schemes for communal stairways
- optional extras.

When improving your home we will:

give you a single daytime and out-of-hours contact phone number
provide proof of identity before entering your home
wear uniforms that display our name
drive vehicles that clearly show the home-improvement partner’s name and that they are working in partnership with us
help you to move heavy furniture if you can't do it
help you to lift carpets if you can't do it
keep you warm and comfortable while we do the work
do the work to a good standard
use good-quality materials
do the work while you stay in your home
give you extra help if you have special needs
ensure you are not left overnight without electricity and essential facilities
leave your home clean and tidy
decorate your kitchen and bathroom
pay an allowance towards the cost of redecoration of other parts of your home we disturb
do a survey whe we've finished to ensure work is of a good standard and you're happy with our service

More service standards are set out in more detail in our ‘Major Works Compact’. Please contact us| for a copy.

For further information about what to expect when your home is being improved, please download our information leaflets.|

Or view a film about what happens when we do improvements in your home|

Repairs after improvements

If we modernise or improve your home, our improvement partners will do any repairs in the first 6 months. Please report any problems to us in the normal way and we will arrange the repairs. We will do a final inspection with our improvement partner after 6 months to make sure that everything has been completed satisfactorily. The final inspection may be 12 months after work is complete in some cases, such as for central heating installation. We will let you know which one applies.

Help during improvements

If we are doing major work to your home, we may be able to help you if you incur costs because of the work we do.

Our service standards

If you have to move out of your home temporarily because of major work, we will:

arrange and pay for your removals and disconnection/reconnection of appliances (cookers, gas fires, washing machines, dishwashers, TV aerials, and satellite dishes)
pay for disconnection and reconnection of cable and telephone services
pay an inconvenience allowance to meet small expenses
help with the cost of new carpets if appropriate.

If you have to move permanently because your home is being demolished, we will:

help you with the items listed above, and you may also qualify for a home loss payment. The amount will depend on the length of your tenancy.

If we do major internal work to your home, but you do not have to move, we will:

pay an inconvenience payment to cover small expenses.

This usually applies if the work we are doing takes more than 7 calendar days, such as putting in new kitchens or damp proofing.

We will credit any inconvenience payment to your rent account if you have rent arrears.

If you need advice about getting help when major work is done to your home, please contact us.|

Applying to carry out your own alteration or improvement

Remember that you should always ask us for permission before you do any improvements to your home.

This allows us to check whether the work you are planning may:

affect your health and safety
need planning or building regulation approval.

We will give you advice on what you need to do before you start.

Don’t start any work until we have written to give you the go-ahead.

We will come to look at the completed work. This is to make you do it to a reasonable standard.

If you don't do the work to a reasonable standard or within a reasonable time we may either complete the improvement or re-instate the original, and recharge you for our costs.

Your Right to Compensation for improvements

If you improve your home and move, you may be able to claim compensation for the work you have done if it started after 1 April 1994.

To claim, you must ask us in writing when you end your tenancy. After the end of your tenancy, you only have 14 days to make your claim.

If you have done work that you want to claim for and you do not already have permission, ask for permission when you make your compensation claim.

When we work out how much you can claim we will take into account the cost of the work, the age and condition of the improvement and any grant you may have received.

You may get a total of £3,000 for any one improvement, but you will not get any compensation if the amount is below £50.

The Right to Compensation does not apply if you are buying your home.

The type of improvements you can claim for are: