Maintaining Council Housing
Important update
Level 4 information about our housing repairs and housing improvement programme
The Scottish Government has announced mainland Scotland will enter Level 4 on the 26th December. The Housing Service will review and update our position in line with the latest Scottish Government updates.
Our routine repairs service will be suspended and we will carry out emergency repairs only from 26 December 2020. We will review the repairs service once further Scottish Government advice is received on 11 January 2021.
All house upgrade works have been suspended and remain stopped until further notice, except for any emergency repairs or other essential works. Contractors will start arranging appointments for upgrades to commence once further Scottish Government advice is received on 11 January 2021.
As always, we would ask for your co-operation to allow us to work in your home and for your patience and understanding at this very difficult and challenging time.
We take the maintenance of our housing stock very seriously, and invest millions of pounds every year into making sure our houses provide good quality, energy efficient homes. We do this through our void letting standard, by making sure that homes continue to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and by improving energy efficiency in order to meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH).
During 2020/21 we will spend over £11 million on the upkeep and improvement of our homes. This will include expenditure under our major cyclical and planned maintenance programmes as shown in the tables below.
Cyclical maintenance
This budget is mainly spent on the servicing of gas, coal, oil and air source heat pump installations, and a regular six-yearly programme of pre-paintwork repairs and external paintwork to properties. During 2020/21 we will also be carrying out a major House Condition Survey to improve the level and quality of information that we hold on our properties and allow us to forward plan future work programmes.
| Cyclical maintenance | 2020/21 budget (£'000) |
| Gas servicing | 298 |
| Solid fuel servicing | 21 |
| Air source heat pump servicing | 45 |
| Pre-paintwork repairs and external paintwork | 260 |
| Other servicing | 50 |
| Inspections and house surveys | 45 |
| Total | 719 |
Planned maintenance
This budget covers capital improvements and planned maintenance of our housing stock, including our current Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) programme which we must meet by December 2020. A new standard, EESSH2 will be introduced from 2020 to 2030 and in order to meet this a programme of renewable heating systems is also being considered for 2020/21.
The table below shows our overall planned maintenance budget for 2020/21.
| Planned maintenance/capital improvements | Revenue budget 2020/21 (£'000) |
Capital budget 2020/21 (£'000) |
| Roof and fabric repairs | 200 | - |
| Rain water goods | 200 | - |
| Central heating upgrades | - | 2,600 |
| Insulation | 200 | - |
| EESSH/EESSH2 | - | 2,600 |
| Kitchen and bathroom replacements | - | 1,420 |
| Plumbing upgrades | 100 | - |
| Electrical upgrades | 372 | - |
| Window and door replacements | - | 88 |
| Safety and security | 20 | - |
| Common stair upgrades | 20 | - |
| Shower installation programme | 50 | - |
| Sheltered housing upgrades | 10 | - |
| Smoke Alarm/CO2 Upgrades | - | 2,200 |
| Garage upgrades | 25 | - |
| Asbestos | 260 | - |
| Estate upgrades | 225 | - |
| Landscape maintenance | 35 | |
| Miscellaneous | 75 | - |
| Disabled adaptations | - | 360 |
| TOTAL | 1,792 | 9,268 |
We need to make sure that all our homes continue to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS). This is achieved by homes being compliant with the tolerable standard, free from serious disrepair, energy efficient, supplied with modern facilities and services and being healthy, safe and secure.
We must meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) by December 2020. We have prepared a strategy to enable our stock, as far as practicable, to meet the requirements of this standard and have revised our budget to provide funding for increased energy efficiency and other related improvements.