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Watchdog gets ‘balanced’ picture from North London-based landlord
Stadium Housing Association’s services are mainly ‘a balance of strengths and weaknesses’ according to a report released today by the independent Audit Commission.
Audit Commission inspectors reached this conclusion following a short-notice inspection of the North London-based housing association which manages homes across 34 local authority areas including 25 London boroughs. Inspectors examined how well Stadium repairs homes, carries out annual gas safety checks and manages rent arrears.
The report shows that most repairs are done on time and residents have a say in how the service is provided. Stadium is also working hard to tackle rent arrears and tries to avoid evicting residents from their homes. However, compared to other landlords, customers are much less satisfied with Stadium’s services and too many homes have not had an annual gas safety check.
Ann Bennett, Audit Commission Lead Housing Inspector, said:
'Overall, the quality of services we looked at was mixed. Stadium is working hard to provide good services to its customers although this is not reflected in customer satisfaction levels which are very low compared to other landlords. However, the association understands which areas need to improve and is now preparing an improvement plan to address the weaknesses we found’.
Strengths include:
• staff who are keen to provide a good service to customers with most telephone calls answered quickly;
• residents are influencing the way the repairs service is provided; and
• an annual visit to check if repairs are needed is a helpful service which residents are very happy with.
Weaknesses include:
• not enough customer calls are dealt with at the first point of contact;
• too many homes have not had an annual gas safety check; and
• Stadium is not doing enough to check that it is providing services fairly and equally to all its customers.
To help Stadium improve its services inspectors made a number of recommendations.
These include:
• making sure that all homes with a gas supply have an annual safety check;
• carrying out checks to make sure that all customers are treated fairly and equally; and
• understanding why customers are unhappy with the repairs service and taking action to improve it.
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) is the affordable housing regulator in England and works with the Audit Commission on the inspection of housing associations. The TSA commissions the Audit Commission to carry out inspections and the results are used by the TSA in its overall assessment of housing association performance. Copies of the report are available from Stadium Housing Association or from the Audit Commission website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk
