Bournemouth council is so confident of meeting the decent homes standard by 2010 that it has set itself a higher target.
The authority, which owns about 5300 homes, is consulting with residents and leaseholders to produce what it is calling the Bournemouth Standard.

It goes further than the government target by including factors such as lighting, security, off-road parking and boundary walls.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's target, introduced in a 2000 green paper, requires all social housing to be in a reasonable state of repair with reasonably modern facilities, services and heating.

This was in response to an estimated backlog of £19bn in social housing repairs in 1997.

Gary Josey, construction services manager at Bournemouth council, said three maintenance surveys had been carried out by the authority since 1986, which had resulted in the stock being well maintained.

He said: "We've always invested in a planned way, rather than chasing our tail as you tend to do with responsive work."

The Bournemouth Standard should be agreed by the end of this year, and will then be costed.

Bournemouth is one of just 146 councils that have told the ODPM they will be able to meet the decent homes standard on time.

Source

Housing Today