Neighbourhood Inspections

In March 2020 the Council took the decision to suspend the housing officer estate inspections due to COVID-19. However, as a housing provider, we needed to continue to carry out certain inspections to ensure compliance with our legal obligations, such as fire safety in communal blocks. We put together a programme of inspections to cover these compliance and safety issues and inspections have continued throughout lockdown.

This has provided us with an opportunity to change the way we work and we have subsequently developed two different types of inspections to communal areas carried out by the housing team:

Block Inspections – these are technical inspections carried out by the maintenance team with a focus on fire safety and communal repairs.

Neighbourhood Inspections – these are non-technical inspections carried out by the housing management team with a focus on the overall management of the estate including antisocial behaviour and ground maintenance with the aim of trying to engage more with our residents.

With regular inspections and checks, we can ensure our neighbourhoods areas are kept to a good standard, free from litter, rubbish and graffiti and any potential issues/problems can be highlighted, raised and resolved. Housing staff can also address matters of concern to local residents, and look at ways of improving the areas and provide a visible presence for residents.

The maintenance team will continue with the block inspections, and from 1st July 2020, the housing officers will recommence their neighbourhood inspections. The date of the housing management neighbourhood inspection are published here on the website but for the time being, we are not able to invite residents due to COVID-19. Once it is safe to do so we will publish times along with the meeting location and welcome involvement from our residents residing in council-owned housing.

Neighbourhood Inspection Timetable 2019-2020 (PDF Document, 372.86 Kb)