Delivering on our promises

At the end of March 2011, the Council transferred its housing stock to Bolton at Home. The transfer will see around £124m being invested in homes and estates over the next five years.  This includes:

• External refurbishment to help protect homes e.g. work to roofs, brickwork, rainwater goods and external doors.
• Installation of modern energy efficient heating and insulation systems which could help tenants benefit from lower fuel bills.
• Electrical rewires (including extra sockets) or upgrades, where needed.
• Further door replacement schemes to offer added security.
• Where needed and appropriate, security measures such as CCTV, door entry systems and security lighting will be provided as well as essential equipment for the antisocial behaviour team.
• Improvements to estates and areas, including new fencing, and improved pathways to properties.

Some of the promises that we have already delivered on are:

• Texting or voice mailing appointment reminders to customers
• We promised to appoint more repairs. Prior to transfer 72% of repairs were appointed.  By December 2011 we were appointing 91%.
• We improved our response time for emergencies from 24hrs to 12hrs and we are completing 92% within the new target
• We promised to introduce a new category of emergency job with a 2hr response time for extremely severe situations and we are completing 74% within target and aim to get better.
• We consulted with customers on the need for a new evening and Saturday service for non- urgent repairs. We started the new service in November 2011 and it is proving very popular with customers who are generally out during the day.
• The governance review has been completed. The Customer Committee has been meeting since 2011 and they will carry out service reviews in 2012.
• Joint working between our housing and regeneration teams has established a process which will ensure annual garden inspections