Barking & Dagenham offers 'fair' allocations service

Allocations and homelessness "fair"

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The Audit Commission said Barking & Dagenham LBC's allocations and homelessness service is "fair" with promising prospects for improvement.

Auditors said the letting system was transparent and accessible to both homeless people and existing tenants, and the council is preventing and reducing homelessness.

However, the commission said customers were not currently receiving a "consistently high standard of service".  It said the council needs to do more to reduce the number of families living in temporary accommodation, and ensure that it has clear plans for the continued prevention and reduction of homelessness in the longer term.

Homelessness strategy 'not clearly developed'

Adrian Brown, Audit Commission lead housing inspector for London, said:
"Services for homeless people are generally good, but the council's future strategic approach to homelessness has not been clearly developed with partners and the council needs to ensure its commitment to high quality customer service is delivered in practice.

David Woods, Barking & Dagenham LBC director of customer services, said the report was welcome news.

"The inspection has also helped us identify our weak points, and given us some clear ideas about how we can make our services better. I look forward now to implementing these changes and making sure that local people continue to get the housing service they deserve."