Falkirk Council's Housing Improvement Programme is set to meet all its targets, it was reported to the Housing and Social Care Committee.

The programme, covering a range of issues, was drawn up following the 2008 inspection of the housing service by the national Scottish Housing Regulator (formerly Communities Scotland).

The inspectors return next month for a follow-up inspection when they will be shown that 93 out of 99 key actions in the programme - covering the whole service including housing management, property maintenance and homelessness - have been successfully addressed.

Only six, which require co-ordination with other agencies, have not yet been fully concluded.

As well as reducing the number of homeless people being accommodated in B&B, the successful introduction of the Council's new choice-based Allocations Policy at the beginning of this year ensures that 50% of all lets are available to homeless households.


A housing stock survey is also underway which will provide detailed information on repairs and maintenance issues and enable the Council to create a capital programme to meet the Scottish Quality Housing Standard by 2015.

The Council is achieving 100% performance in gas safety checks which have to be carried out within 12 months of the previous one.

Tenants are also informed of their Right to Repair which means they can appoint another contractor if the Council fails to carry out the work within a set timescale.

Other achievements include:

* progress on reaching and beating targets on issues like responding the complaints and inquiries within a set timescale

* using information from service-users, to improve services

* introducing quality assurance processes to ensure consistency in assessments and decision-making in housing allocations

* improving information on housing and homelessness to the public and

* setting up a duty officer system at the Accommodation Resource Centre ensuring that homeless applicants can be interviewed on the same day

"Housing Services have consistently met and beaten the targets we set in the Improvement Programme following the Scottish Housing Regulator's initial inspection in 2008," said Councillor Jim Blackwood, Convener of Housing and Social Care.

"We have now met virtually all the key actions and I am confident that the inspectors will agree that we are creating the best quality service to the people of the Falkirk Council area."

(GK)