Housing Charter Performance
Housing Charter performance report 2024-25
Stephen Gibson - Executive Director of Housing and Technical Resources
As the Director of Housing and Technical Resources, I am pleased to be able to present the annual performance report to you. This report reflects our performance during the past year, and I am pleased to report that despite ongoing challenges we have continued to deliver high-quality services to our communities across South Lanarkshire.
As rising costs continue to impact tenants, the council has also had to manage the impact this has had on delivering the front-line services it provides. Although difficult, we continue to uphold our commitment to providing vital support where needed most. These challenges have demanded tough decisions, but thanks to the dedication of our Housing and Technical Resources employees, we have remained focused on delivering the services our customers deserve.
Our annual performance report shows that not only have we been able to continue to deliver essential services throughout these difficult times, but we have also maintained and, in some instances, improved on performance in relation to the already high-quality services that are delivered to and expected by customers across South Lanarkshire. There is always room for improvement, and we will continue to work hard to make positive changes to ensure more effective service delivery.
You can read further details on how we are performing across the wide range of services in the pages that follow, however I am particularly proud to highlight to you a number of key achievements during 2024-25, including:
- continued to allocate council housing to those who needed it most, such as homeless households and other priority groups
- continued to relet our homes in just over 19.31 days, which is well below the Scottish average
- continued to be one of the most affordable landlords in Scotland with the eighth lowest average weekly rent of £84.44
- completed 30,580 reactive repairs during the year, with 99.74% carried out right first time
- continued to make progress towards ensuring all council homes meet Scottish Housing Quality Standards and Energy Efficiency Standards for Social Housing
As the challenges caused by the current economic uncertainty continue, we will endeavour to improve our performance in all service areas and deliver high-quality services that represent good value for money for all of our customers.
I hope that you find the annual performance report to be interesting and helpful. Your valuable feedback helps us to understand your experience of our services and shows us where we can improve, and I would welcome any views or observations you may have on the report or on specific areas of our performance.
Please email your views and comments to StratSupAdm@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
South Lanarkshire Council at a glance
South Lanarkshire is the fifth largest local authority area in Scotland with a population of 322,00 and around 149,500 households. We are also the fourth largest council provider of rented housing in Scotland – managing nearly 26,000 homes for tenants. As the population continues to rise year on year, this places demand on housing services.
Our stock provides a range of house types and sizes to meet most of the requirements of our tenants alongside specialist housing provision, including amenity and sheltered housing, for older people and tenants with mobility issues.
- 4 in a block 4,697
- Highrise 1,353
- Houses 12,236
- Tenement 5,544
- Other flats/maisonettes 2,093
Understanding the information and how we compare to others
This report is based on the Scottish Social Housing Charter. The Charter applies to all social housing landlords in Scotland. It provides a basis for the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) to assess and report on how well landlords are performing and identify areas that might require further regulatory involvement.
This report and information, which is available through the SHR’s website www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk helps us to compare our performance with other landlords and enables you to see where we are performing well and where we need to improve.
Equalities
We gather information about our tenants so that we can get a better understanding of their needs. For example, we know that 11.47% of tenants consider themselves to have a disability. This information helps to ensure that housing services are both accessible and delivered in a way that meets the needs of our customers.
| Ethnicity | White | Mixed or multiple ethnic backgrounds | Asian | Black | Other ethnic background | Unknown | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Council households (%) |
18,630 (75.0%) |
23 (0.1%) |
87 (0.3%) |
76 (0.3%) |
275 (1.1%) |
5,759 (23.2%) |
24,850 (100%) |
Age profile of tenants
- 16-24 years - 4%
- 25-44 years - 31%
- 45-64 years - 37%
- 65 years plus - 26%
- Not known - 2%
Customer/Landlord relationship
Every three years, we carry out a customer satisfaction survey to obtain views on a wide range of our services. The feedback we receive helps to ensure that we deliver services which are ‘fit for purpose’ and meet the needs and demands of customers. The last customer satisfaction survey was carried out in 2022/23 and received 1,607 responses. The survey showed an increase in satisfaction across all areas, with more than 5% improvement in some areas. Here are the key highlights from this survey, together with a comparison of the local authority average (LAA) and the Scottish average (SA).
| Performance measure | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keeping people informed | 96% | 83% | 90% | Doing well |
| Quality of your home | 91% | 81% | 85% | Doing well |
| Overall satisfaction with housing service | 92% | 82% | 87% | Doing well |
| Opportunities to participate | 97% | 80% | 86% | Doing well |
Your opportunity to tell us what you think about our services
Understanding what tenants think about the broad range of services we provide is extremely important to us. If you are contacted about any services you have recently used, please take the time to tell us how we did.
All feedback is completely confidential and helps us to identify areas for improvement and development.
Neighbourhood and community
We also carry out other routine customer satisfaction surveys throughout the year.
Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is an issue that can affect individuals and communities across the country. Working with our partners, we aim to resolve anti-social behaviour complaints quickly and effectively to minimise the impact it can have on communities.
| Performance measure | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of cases reported in the last year that were resolved | 1,084 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| % of cases resolved on time | 96.8% | 90% | 94% | Doing well |
Our Anti-social Behaviour Policy continues to focus on reducing and preventing anti-social behaviour and the impact this has on our communities. By working together with our partner agencies, including Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, we aim to resolve anti-social behaviour quickly and effectively, ensuring victims of anti-social behaviour are always provided with the right kind of support.
| Performance measure | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Management of neighbourhoods | 90% | 80% | 84% | Doing well |
Other customers
Gypsy/traveller community 100% - All tenants in this category said they were satisfied with the management of their site
| Performance measure | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Satisfied with the management of their site |
100% | 80% | 77% | Doing well |
We continue to work in close collaboration with residents at Shawlands Crescent and Springbank Park, our two dedicated Gypsy/Traveller sites. These partnerships are central to ensuring that site developments reflect and support the cultural traditions and needs of the Gypsy/Traveller community.
Housing quality and maintenance
Meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS)
We remain committed to ensuring our housing stock meets all legislative requirements, including full compliance with SHQS.
At year end 2024/25:
- 22,992 (88.69%) of council homes now meet all five SHQS elements.
- 2,931 homes (11.31% of our total stock) are not yet compliant.
This marks an improvement from the previous year, primarily driven by increased compliance with the Fire Tolerable Standard and Fixed Electrical Testing regulations.
However, several challenges persist. Rising material costs continue to impact our ability to deliver all scheduled improvement works and access refusals from some tenants prevent necessary inspections and upgrades. We will continue to engage with these tenants to facilitate access and complete essential works as soon as possible.
Energy Efficiency and Net Zero Targets
The Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH1) remains embedded within SHQS. The EESSH2 guidance was temporarily put on hold, as its 2032 milestone did not align with Scotland’s net zero heating targets. To meet the national net zero target by 2045, all homes must significantly reduce energy consumption and transition to zero direct emissions heating systems.
A new framework, the Social Housing Net Zero Standard (SHNZS), will replace EESSH2. Under this proposed standard:
- Social landlords must improve fabric efficiency by 2033.
- Clean heating systems must be installed across the housing stock by 2045, where technically feasible and cost-effective.
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How did they do? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SHQS | 79.7% | 83.6% | 88.7% | 83.2% | 87.4% | Doing well |
Gas safety checks were carried out in 22,065 homes
Each year, we aim to achieve 100% gas safety checks. The council’s approach to gas servicing continues to take account of tenants who may feel anxious about anyone entering their home. This meant that we were unable to complete gas safety checks within normal timescales in 6 (0.03%) of our properties over the course of the last year, however we had no properties out of service at year end. We continue to monitor performance at a senior management level and take appropriate action to address issues as they arise.
About our repairs service
You have told us that the repairs service is one of the most important services we provide.
This section sets out the volume and type of repairs carried out each year and how we have performed over the last three years.
Our repair performance during 2024/25 reflects the hard work of the repairs service in reducing the average time to deal with emergency and non-emergency repairs while managing the impact of the severe weather we experienced at the start of the year. This
The information below shows a decrease in both our emergency and non-emergency repairs. However, despite this setback, we still managed to improve our average time to complete non-emergency repairs.
We carried out almost 48,200 emergency repairs well within our target.
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average time to complete emergency repairs – target 24 hours | 5.4 hrs | 6.6 hrs | 4.57 hrs | 3.8 hrs | 3.9 hrs | Doing well |
A wide range of work is carried out on a non-emergency or routine basis, and last year we completed 32,500 repairs.
- Repairs by appointment – 21,198
- Routine repairs – 4,269
- Planned maintenance – 5,113
- Other works – 1,672
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average number of days to complete non-emergency repairs - target time 30 days |
11.6 |
14.5 |
13.04 |
10.1 |
9.1 |
Doing OK |
32,252 non-emergency repairs completed
While our performance is higher than the LAA or SA average, we are well within the 30-day target we agreed with tenants. We focus on completing our repairs ‘right first time’, reducing the need for follow-up visits and further disruption to our tenants.
Repairs right first time
We know that when work is required, it is important to tenants that it’s carried out quickly and to a high standard. Last year, we were able to plan a high proportion of our reactive repairs (30,580), resulting in 99.74% of these carried out ‘right first time’.
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repairs completed right first time | 30,627 | 27,041 | 30,502 | N/A | N/A | Doing well |
| % completed right first time | 99.6% | 99.7% | 99.74% | 89.25% | 86.74% | Doing well |
Repairs satisfaction
Of the 885 tenants who responded to our survey 88.1% said they were satisfied overall with the repairs service. This compares well with the landlord and Scottish average.
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % satisfied overall with repairs service | 88.9% | 89.1% | 88.1% | 85.6% | 86.7% | Doing well |
Access to housing and support
We are committed to making it as simple as possible for customers to access our services. Working in partnership with a number of housing associations, we operate HomeFinder, the South Lanarkshire Common Housing Register. Before applying for housing, applicants must complete the HomeOptions self-assessment tool on the council’s website. The tool provides a range of information and advice to help applicants consider the housing options which best suit their circumstances. Applicants can then complete an online HomeFinder housing application form to apply for housing with any of the HomeFinder landlords.
At the end of March 2024, there were 12,952 applicants on the housing register, wishing to be housed within South Lanarkshire. The housing needs of these applicants are assessed in line with the HomeFinder assessment of housing need and placed on the appropriate list.
…just under 13,000 people on the housing register
- Waiting list – 8,445
- Transfer list – 2,750
- Urgent housing need – 1,757
Homes let
We continue to be committed to letting homes to those in most housing need, including homeless households and other priority groups, e.g., H.M Forces and Urgent Medical need, ensuring that we respond to local needs and make best use of our available housing stock.
Last year, we let 1,964 homes. 1,805 of these homes were ‘general needs’, while the remaining 159 were sheltered homes.
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of homes let | 1,854 | 1,992 | 1,964 | N/A | N/A | Doing well |
| Average number of days to let a home | 27.8 | 22.2 | 19.31 | 77.9 | 60.6 | Doing well |
| % of lets to homeless households | 58.1% | 62.9% | 62.5% | N/A | N/A | Doing well |
| % of new tenants who remained in their home for more than 12 months | 92% | 92.2% | 91.9% | 91.3% | 91.6% | Doing well |
Last year, we managed to let our homes more quickly than the majority of other landlords.
Rent loss from empty homes
Even when we perform very well in turning around empty homes, there will always be an element of rent loss. At the end of March, we had 102 homes which were empty while we carried out essential repairs and found the next tenant. The total rent loss during the year for homes available to let was £454,126.66
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of rent loss | 0.62% | 0.51% | 0.40% | 1.7% | 1.3% | Doing well |
Stephen Gibson - Executive Director “We remain committed to supporting the most vulnerable members of our communities and those with the greatest housing needs. Once again, our performance has been better than the local authority and Scottish averages in turning around empty homes, minimising rent loss and sustaining tenancies. These achievements are made possible by the ongoing dedication of our Housing and Technical Resources team."
Getting good value from rents and service charges
We continue to be one of the most affordable landlords in Scotland, with the eighth lowest average weekly rent.
The rent a tenant is required to pay depends on the type and size of their home. The table below shows the average rental charge for a council home over the last three years and provides a comparison against the local authority and Scottish average last year.
| No of bedrooms | No of properties | SLC average 2022/23 | SLC average 2023/24 | SLC average 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedsit | 94 | £64.67 | £67.12 | £71.53 | £72.15 | £87.12 |
| 1 | 6,542 | £68.63 | £70.97 | £75.56 | £82.78 | £93.27 |
| 2 | 12,912 | £76.01 | £78.61 | £83.70 | £88.62 | £96.00 |
| 3 | 5,547 | £85.81 | £88.78 | £94.56 | £95.99 | £104.51 |
| 4+ | 828 | £90.64 | £93.75 | £99.90 | £103.85 | £115.58 |
Rent increase
Every effort is made to keep rent increases to a minimum and to keep rents affordable, while at the same time ensuring a high standard of service delivery and investment. This allows us to continue to build new affordable homes, improve existing homes and meet quality and energy efficiency standards.
As part of the annual rent setting process, we consult widely with tenants across all areas of South Lanarkshire. For 2024-25, tenants were asked to consider a multi-year approach, which would mean setting rent levels for the next three years. This would allow both tenants and the council to better plan their budget for the coming years. Tenants were supportive of this approach, and rent levels were set at 6.5%.
|
Performance measure |
2022/23 |
2023/24 |
2024/25 |
Local Authority average |
Scottish average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent increase | 2.2% | 3.5% | 6.5% | 6.25% | 4.68% |
The total amount of rental income (and service charges) we were due to collect during 2024-25 was £112,642,092 and we successfully collected 100.21% (£112,883,306). This amount also includes income that was due in previous years.
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average | How are we doing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of rent collected | 99.10% | 99.51% | 100.21% | 100.37% | 100.23% | Doing well |
| Performance measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Local Authority average | Scottish average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross rent arrears | £8,727,749 | £8,394,720 | £8,034,695 | N/A | N/A |
| % of rent arrears | 8.66% | 8% | 7.10% | 8.59% | 6.14% |
Sharon Egan - Head of Housing Services - "The 6.5% rent increase for 2024–25 reflects the ongoing economic challenges affecting both the council and our tenants, as well as our dedication to improving and maintaining our current housing stock. We recognise that many tenants continue to be affected by the difficult financial climate, which is why we remain committed to being one of Scotland’s most affordable landlords. If you're facing financial hardship, please contact your local housing team for assistance and advice.
Satisfaction - good value for money"
|
Performance measure |
2023/24 |
2024/25 |
LAA |
SA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good value for money | 94.8% | 94.8% | 80.6% | 81.7% |
We work hard to ensure that our housing services provide good value for money. As part of our tenant survey, 94.8% of our tenants told us that they felt our services represented good value for money.
The information below provides a breakdown of the key areas of expenditure within the Housing Revenue Account (which is the total of the rent and other income received) during 2023-24 and how this was used for the benefit of our tenants.
2024/25 - £128m total spend
| Performance measure | 2024/25 |
| Housing repairs including adaptations | £0.34p |
| Staffing and management costs | £0.25p |
| Capital investment | £0.26p |
| Debt repayment costs | £0.10p |
| Grounds and garden maintenance | £0.03p |
| Rent loss from empty properties | £0.02p |