Housing report 2023

This year saw the introduction of Tenant Satisfaction Measures by the Regulator of Social Housing. These measures are designed to help tenants scrutinise how their landlord is performing so that you can hold us to account. They also provide insight for landlords to help identify areas for improvement.

These indicators include 12 satisfaction questions measured by a tenant survey and 10 indicators that are measured directly from landlord information. They cover a range of key areas including how well landlords are doing at keeping properties in good repair, maintaining building safety, respectful and helpful engagement, effective handling of complaints and responsible neighbourhood management.

In 2023/24 we carried out the survey by telephone and received feedback from over 1,150 tenants. Thank you to everyone who took part your honest and open feedback helps us to understand how we are performing and what you want us to focus on improving.

Key areas you have told us to focus on include:  

• reducing the time taken to complete repairs
• improving the quality of repairs
• improving how we handle customer contact
• keeping customers updated when they request a service
• tackling damp and mould in your home
• responding to neighbourhood problems including anti-social behaviour

Find out more about the 22 tenant satisfaction measures, as well as the full results of our most recent tenant satisfaction survey.

We have a strong commitment to listening and responding to the resident voice. Throughout 2023/24 we provided a wide range of opportunities for tenants and residents to engage, feedback, and inform improvement to housing services.

Tenants and residents were involved in a wide range of engagement activities including:

• Tenant Scrutiny Review of Stage 1 complaint responses
• review of our Repairs Policy
• redesign of the housing application process
• redesign of the homeless appeals process
• self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
• review of multi-storey services
• Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy
• Gateshead Housing Standard for Ageing Well
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy
• community engagement events
• redesign of the digital enquiries and complaints form

To test that our approach to tenant and resident engagement complies with the new Transparency Influence and Accountability Standard (opens new window), we have applied for landlord accreditation (opens new window) with TPAS. They offer a nationally recognised accreditation scheme, which helps us to develop a strong culture of involvement and drive business improvements with your involvement.

In your neighbourhood

We provide a wide range of tenancy and estate management services to council tenants across Gateshead through our Neighbourhood Services team. Dedicated neighbourhood housing officers are aligned a geographically defined number of properties, and are responsible for all tenancy and estate management related matters.

Over the year the team has achieved:

• 533 Home Welcome Visits
• 718 Tenancy Audits
• 382 visits to low and medium rise blocks
• 64 investigations of suspected abandonments
• 640 home Improvement requests approved
• 1,487 tenancy terminations processed
• 217 tenancy changes approved
• 31 mutual exchanges approved
• 54 households supported into temporary accommodation
• 98 visits to 'Gas Capped' homes.

In 2023/24 the team opened 992 new anti-social behaviour cases, and 823 (83%) were acknowledged and investigations began within timescale (one day for high priority cases and three days routine cases).

The team also handled 30,000 telephone calls, 4,797 enquiries at the reception desk in the Civic Centre, and 997 face-to-face contacts across other council buildings.

In 2025 we will continue to work with tenants and residents to improve the way we deliver services. Find out how you can find out more about the different opportunities to engage with us. 

The rent that we charge and collect from tenants pays for the housing services that we provide. In April 2023 we increased rents by 7%, which meant that there was an extra £5,100,000 collected. Rent arrears owed by current tenants increased from £5,983,791 to £6,394,998 during the year. This was an increase of £411,207 or 6.87%. 

Our Rent and Income team's focus is to ensure that rent and other service charges are collected. They also help tenants maximise their income and by doing so helps tenants to sustain their tenancies. During the year the team secured financial gains of £3,000,000 pounds for tenants. This was achieved through a range of support and help with:

• Benefit entitlement MOT's
• Northumbria Water discounts
• Council tax support
• Fuel Bank vouchers
• Food bank vouchers

If you would like to help and support with income maximisation, please email adviceandsupport@gateshead.gov.uk

How we spent your money

The money we spend on council homes comes from the rent and service charges you pay. We don't receive any additional funding from the rest of the council or central government. We can only spend this money on Gateshead Council owned homes and related services.

We have continued to focus on improving the repairs and maintenance service during this year, including reviewing the way we deal with damp and mould problems in your home.

We have worked with a focus group of tenants to review our Repairs and Maintenance Policy. This sets out the service you can expect from our repairs and maintenance service, including the responsibilities of us and our customers. Thank you to everyone who took part in the focus groups or completed the online survey. 

Did You Know in 2023/24:  

• we completed over 56,000 routine repairs
• we received 9,458 responses to our repairs survey - 84% of those tenants who replied were satisfied with their most recent repair
• we kept 93% of the repair appointments made
• 89% of repairs were completed right first time
• 78% of damp and mould reports were successfully resolved

Tenants can report repairs in a variety of different ways, and in 2023/24 we carried out improvements to My Housing Account, to make it simpler to report repairs. Between June 2023 and 31 March 2024, 4,510 works orders were raised from repairs logged on My Housing Account (opens new window).

This year we will continue to focus on improving the time it takes to complete a repair and dealing with damp and mould problems.

The number of applicants for council homes in Gateshead continued to grow in 2023/24, and reached a total of 14,465 by the end of March 2024. This is an increase from 13,774 in the previous year.

In 2023/24 we focussed on getting more empty homes repaired and ready to be offered to new tenants. By 31 March 2024 there were 618 vacant properties compared with 571 at end of 2022/23. Of these, 229 were available for letting - a higher number than in 2022/23.

A total of 1,230 council homes were let, with 1,150 of these available for applicants on the Gateshead Home Choice. The remaining 80 were let to agencies or were temporary lets to other council services, such as the repair service or investment team.

During 2023/24 we worked with tenants to review and improve the housing application form to make it more straightforward to complete. This year we will continue to work with you to improve the lettings process to make sure that it is simpler to access, and you have the information you need when applying for housing, and bidding for a new home.  We will also continue to work on speeding up the process so that empty homes are repaired quicker and new tenants can move into their home quicker. 

In 2023/24 we received and responded to 429 stage 1 complaints, and 56 stage 2 complaints. We also received 73 compliments. The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code sets clear timescales for landlords responding to stage 1 and 2 complaints, and we:

• responded to stage 1 within timescale (10 days) - 29%
• responded to stage 2 within timescale (20 days) - 71%

Our Tenant Satisfaction score for complaint handling was 26%.

Improving our approach to complaint handling is clearly an area we need to focus on. In response, our Resident Influence Panel commissioned a tenant scrutiny review of stage 1 complaints. Their recommendations were fully endorsed, and we are currently working to establish a new specialist Housing Complaint's team to deliver an enhanced service.  We will keep you updated with progress.

Main themes from complaints received included:

• time taken to complete a repair
• condition of estates and communal areas
• our approach to dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour
• boundary maintenance
• keeping customers updated about progress with their service request
• unsatisfactory response to a service request.

Tenants who are dissatisfied with our approach to resolving a complaint can refer the matter direct to the Housing Ombudsman Service. During 2023/24 we received a total of 4 Housing Ombudsman determinations. The key themes from these determinations included our response to:

• complaint handling
• reports of damp and mould
• record keeping

You can read more in our Annual Housing Complaints report 2023/24.

Gateshead Council employs over 7,000 people across a broad range of services intended to help local residents thrive. Whether you are taking your first step on the job ladder, or looking to move up to a more senior role, why not take a look at the careers available with us.

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