Sunderland Housing ‘will meet decent homes by Christmas’

Sunderland Housing Group expects to become the first social landlord to meet the decent homes standard, six years before the 2010 deadline.

All its 32,478 flats and houses will meet the standard, which covers factors such as the age of kitchen units, before Christmas this year.

Peter Walls, chief executive of SHG, said: “Subject to us completing the contracts, we will be there. We are 97.7% compliant. We will be there by December if the contractors execute their work.”

The group received 36,356 homes in a transfer from Sunderland council in 2001.

Dave Piggett, group director of design and build at SHG and responsible for the decency programme, said an audit earlier this year showed the association only had 800 homes below par. He said: “Our board has now allowed us to accelerate the programme and give it priority. This is a huge achievement on a national scale.”

SHG claims it will meet the target so early because of the success of its procurement programme, which is now three years ahead of schedule.

Rather than the traditional tendering process, it set up a long-term partnering forum with seven builders.

Piggett said: “We didn’t want to put all our eggs in one basket, because then if you have a problem it becomes a bottleneck for the whole programme.

“The way we’ve done it has reduced labour costs and time in properties while increasing customer satisfaction.”

John Moralee, chief executive of the Northern Housing Consortium, said: “This is excellent news and we are extremely pleased that one of our North-east members is leading the way in making such a difference.

“I’m sure with their future plans already announced Sunderland will not stop here.”

SHG has committed to bringing its homes to a standard beyond decent homes as part of a £480m investment in the city’s housing.

An ODPM spokeswoman confirmed that no councils or housing associations had yet verifiably reached the decency target.