Wrexham Council Tenants Praise Improvement Works Carried Out to Modernise Their Properties

Council tenants in a Wrexham village have praised recent improvement works carried out to help modernise their properties.

Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Ian Roberts and Local Member for Johnstown, Cllr David Bithell visited Heol Offa in Johnstown last week to meet tenants and discuss the improvement works recently carried out to their properties.

The work is part of a comprehensive improvements project being carried out across the County Borough to ensure every Council property meets the Welsh Government’s Welsh Housing Quality Standard by the 2020 deadline.

Johnstown is home to a number of Council owned ‘non-traditional properties’, including steel-framed houses and bungalows. These types of homes are typically less fuel efficient and harder to heat than traditional brick houses.

Over the last 12 months, 47 of these properties in Johnstown have had External Wall Insulation fitted to their outside walls. The work is designed to help the properties hold in heat and reduce fuel bills. The work has also modernised the external appearance of the properties, many of which are several decades old.

Council tenant, Lynette Roberts, lives in one of Johnstown’s steel bungalows. Her father John Breeze also lives in a similar property on the same street. She said they have already felt some of the benefits of the new insulation: “The place has felt a lot warmer since we’ve had the insulation, especially over the winter. We haven’t had to have the heating on quite as much as we have in the past so we’re hoping this will help us save on our fuel bills in the long run.

“My father lives in one of the other Council bungalows just across the road and he’s had the work done too so it’s helped us both to know that our homes have been looked after and will be fit for us to stay here for the future. We’ve also had our roofs done so they look a lot nicer from the outside now too.”

Over £40m has been invested on improvement work to the Council’s housing over the last year. The project received a further boost last week when the Council’s Executive Board approved a record £54m investment for work to continue over the next 12 months.

As well as the insulation work, the improvements being carried out include installing brand new kitchens and bathrooms in every Council property where they do not currently meet the standard, as well as electrical rewires, new central heating systems and other external improvements such as fencing, paths, roofing and insulation. All properties are due to receive the necessary work to achieve the standard by 2020.

Work due to be carried out over the next 12 months will include:

• 2,500 properties offered new kitchens and bathrooms
• 600 properties being offered new heating systems
• Around 900 properties being rewired
• Over 750 properties being reroofed
• 187 properties having External Insulation fitted

Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Ian Roberts, commented, “It’s great to see how streets like this one are being transformed by the work. The external insulation programme is helping us tackle fuel poverty in some of our coldest homes but we also want to go the extra mile with the design and the quality of the work, as we’ve done here, and in making these areas attractive, modern and desirable places to live for the future.”

Local Member for Johnstown, Cllr David Bithell said: “This is the largest capital programme this council has supported and I am pleased that homes in Johnstown have been refurbished. This is long overdue making them warmer but also completely renovating the exterior and enhancing the appearance. This goes a long way to bring homes up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.”

Part of the project will include installing External Wall Insulation on all the Council’s non-traditional properties, such as those in Johnstown. This amounts to more than 1,500 homes altogether. The work has already been completed on around 190 properties over the last 12 months, including those in Johnstown and Cefn.

The local economy is also set to benefit from the investment. Community Benefits clauses are now included in all contracts, requiring contractors to commit to schemes such as local spending, taking on apprentices, local labour and sponsoring local groups and community projects. To date, over 60 apprentices in total have been employed by contractors carrying out housing improvement work and over £63,000 has been donated has been donated as cash or in-kind to organizations or projects within Wales.

Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Ian Roberts, added: “It’s great to see how streets like this one are being transformed by the work. The external insulation programme is helping us tackle fuel poverty in some of our coldest homes but we also want to go the extra mile with the design and the quality of the work, as we’ve done here, and in making these areas attractive, modern and desirable places to live for the future.”

More information on the improvements, including a timetable detailing when work is due to be carried out in each area of the County can be found on the Council website – www.wrexham.gov.uk/whqs