HOUSING DEPARTMENT SUCCESS

12.00.00am GMT Tue 10th Dec 2002

Cllr Serge Lourie, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition on Richmond Council has welcomed the "good" two star rating achieved by the Council's housing service awarded by the Housing Inspectorate in a report published this week.

Currently, only 30% of London boroughs have achieved a 2-star rating for their housing service.

The inspection took place over a week in July this year and largely reflects the work undertaken up to May when the Liberal Democrats controlled the Council.

Speaking after publication of the report, Cllr Lourie said:"I should like to congratulate our staff on their excellent performance."

"Housing is a difficult business, and as a professional who has been involved in housing professionally for many years, I have always regarded this as an impressive department."

"The decision to transfer the housing stock to Richmond Housing Partnership means that they can now concentrate on dealing with the problems of people in housing need".

Amongst the generally favourable comments, the report said that short term leased properties used by the council were 'found to be of a high standard' where 'users we met were unanimous in their approval of the user focused approach'.

Additionally, housing staff were found to show 'a strong level of commitment to service users' with service users having 'very positive opinions of the Service as a whole'.