A damning Government report has slammed Rochford District Council's housing services as only fair and with "poor prospects for improvements".

The Audit Commission carried out a study of the council's housing operation and awarded it only one star out of a possible three.

While the council was found to be developing some effective partnerships in delivering its homeless services, housing stock was well maintained and the level of rent collection was good, the inspectors also discovered a number of major weaknesses.

They found:

Information to tenants on the performance of the service is poor.

Opportunities for tenant and resident involvement in the service are not promoted. Resident involvement in the management of the service and tenant choice is poor.

The council is unable to demonstrate that investment in the service is being targetted at those properties and locations in most need and has not yet defined its response to the Government's "decent homes" standard.

The reception area at the Rochford offices in South Street is unsuitable in terms of access, privacy and signposting.

A number of key strategic documents are not in place and without these there is a lack of clarity on what the council is trying to achieve.

Martin Palmer, lead housing inspector for the central region, said: "There is enthusiasm to provide a good service to customers and some improvements have been made in homelessness and allocations services.

"However, there is a lack of a strategic approach to service development and delivery and a lack of clear objectives for the Best Value Review of the housing service."

Council leader Peter Webster said: "I think this is a hard and unjustified attack on the council and I believe we had every justification for expecting two stars which would have been fair."

Published Thursday, June 26, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Echo