Tenants praise works carried out to improve council’s housing stock

Council tenants in a village in Wrexham have praised improvement work recently carried out to their homes.

Properties in Johnstown are currently being reroofed to ensure they achieve the Welsh Government’s Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

The project is the latest in a huge programme of improvements that also includes other work such as replacing kitchens and bathrooms and installing external wall insulation on non-traditional properties.

Welcoming the work, Johnstown council tenant Arthur Harris said: “I’ve had all sorts of improvements carried out including a new kitchen and bathroom and new central heating. They’ve rewired all the electrics and done some work in the garden too.

“You do have to put up with a bit of disruption, there’s no way around that but it’s work that needs to be done if you want your house to be up to standard and it’s worth it once you see how good it looks once it’s done.

“The team doing the work have all been very polite and helpful to be fair. Now that the work is finished, my house looks better than I can ever remember, inside and out!”

Roofing work in Johnstown is being carried out by Paveaways LTD.

Local Member for Johnstown, Cllr David Bithell, said: “There’s been a huge amount of work carried out to modernise hundreds of properties here and more set to come over the next few months.

“Work on this scale can obviously present many challenges but we are working hard to keep the standard high and you can now see the difference it’s now making across the local area.

“Houses have been totally transformed and brought up to a much higher standard so this is great news for our tenants.”

In February 2017 Wrexham Council’s Executive Board recently approved a £50.3m investment for the housing improvement work to continue in 2018/19.

This also includes a contribution from the Welsh Government in the form of a Major Repairs Allowance grant, which is awarded to local authorities to help them achieve the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

Lead Member for Housing, Cllr David Griffiths, said: “There is a bright future ahead for social housing in Wrexham. We’re making a huge investment and carrying out the biggest improvement works programme seen in the county borough for many decades.

“It’s about ensuring that our homes are modern, safe, comfortable, attractive, and fit for the future. Some properties may require more work than others but I think it is very important that we take the chance to do this now and do it right.”