Liberal Democrat Council to Speed up Improvements to the Housing Service

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 12th Jun 2005

Major improvements to the Council's housing service are expected with the appointment of a company which has already helped staff to slash waiting times for people claiming housing benefit.

The Liberal Democrat Council and partners HBS have appointed business specialists Vanguard to work with staff, who are committed to taking the improvements that have already been achieved in the housing service to the next level.

Housing has already seen a number of important improvements, the most significant being reducing rent arrears to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The use of the "Vanguard method" will enable staff to make the service even more customer-focused and user-friendly, starting out with a root and branch review.

Staff in the Council's revenue and benefits service have already used the Vanguard method to bring in major improvements, including slashing waiting times for new benefit claims by more than half within a year.

Liberal Democrat cabinet member Irene Henderson said: "In June 2004 it took - on average - 58 days to process a new benefits claim. Following a review of the service by Vanguard, staff reduced that figure to 26 days by March of this year. The number of claims processed and paid in less than 14 days also rocketed from 68% to over 90%. The service has been transformed.

"A similar transformation is what we are now looking for in the housing service. We have already done a lot to improve it and it is in a healthier state now than it has been for years. What Vanguard will do is to speed up the improvement and make the service more efficient and responsive to the needs of tenants. It's an exciting prospect."