Council on Track to Meet Housing Improvements Deadline

Wrexham’s Council houses are set to achieve the Welsh Government’s Welsh Housing Quality Standard by the 2020 deadline.

This is according to figures which were recently released by Wrexham County Borough Council.

The figures show how much of the work has been completed over the last six months.

The Welsh Housing Quality Standard is a set of minimum criteria, set by the Welsh Government, for the quality and condition of social housing. All local authorities in Wales are required to achieve this standard by the 2020 deadline.

All 11,300 of Wrexham Council’s housing will receive the necessary improvement work to achieve the standard over the next few years. This includes installing new kitchens and bathrooms in properties, where required, along with other internal and external improvements such as electrical rewiring, central heating, external insulation and roofing.

The current figures show that, over the last six months:

• 1,452 kitchens were completed
• 1,527 bathrooms were completed
• 382 properties received central heating improvement work
• 863 properties received electrical rewiring improvement work
• 357 properties received roofing improvement work
• 289 properties received external improvement work

Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Ian Roberts, commented, “We are making a big investment to ensure that all our properties achieve the standard by 2020. Improvement work on this scale presents many challenges, but it is encouraging to see that we are still well on track to meet the deadline.”

The Council is investing over £40m on housing improvement work in 2015/16. This includes a £7.5m ‘Major Repairs Allowance’ grant from the Welsh Government which is awarded to local authorities to support the achievement of the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

Local community projects and job opportunities have also received a boost from this investment, thanks to ‘Community Benefit’ schemes set up by contractors carrying out on the Council’s housing properties.

All major contracts now require firms to contribute something extra back to the local community.

This can include taking on local labour and apprentices, funding community projects, refurbishing community buildings and purchasing supplies from local businesses.

Latest figures released by the Housing Service show that in the last 12 months –

• at least 61 modern apprentices have been take on,
• 14 weeks of work experience have been provided
•  36 employees have been provided with short term employment
•  34 employees have been given long term employment
• £63,197 has been donated as cash or in-kind to organisations or projects within Wales

A timetable to show when work is due to be carried out in each area of Wrexham can now be viewed on the Housing Service website: www.wrexham.gov.uk/whqs