Providing Quality Sustainable Homes

We aim to ensure our tenants are living in warm, safe, high quality, sustainable homes in a place they are proud to live.

Here’s how we are doing…

Performance

Tenant Satisfaction Measure

87.89%

Satisfaction with overall repairs service (TP02)

85.80%

Satisfaction with time taken to complete most recent repair (TP03)

86.74%

Satisfaction that the home is well-maintained (TP04)

89.07%

Satisfaction that the home is safe (TP05)

0

Homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard (RP01)

98.9%

Emergency repairs completed within target timescale (RP02)

79.3%

Non-emergency repairs completed within target timescale (RP02)

99.98%

Gas safety checks (BS01)

100%

Fire safety checks (BS02)

100%

Asbestos safety checks (BS03)

N/A

Water safety checks (BS04)

N/A

Lift safety checks (BS05)

Key stats

Local offer

We are committed to providing you with safe, warm, high-quality and energy-efficient homes. To meet this commitment, 1,260 homes have received energy efficiency improvements during 2023/24.

The year in review

Demand for our repairs service continued to increase from the previous year with 37,262 responsive repairs completed in total to homes. Despite this increase in demand, our commitment to providing you with convenient and reliable services has meant that 97.24% of repairs were completed right first time and 94.70% of emergencies were attended to within four hours and completed within 24 hours.

You, our tenants, have engaged with us regularly to provide feedback on the repairs service via satisfaction surveys. We know that most of you are happy with the service provided and we have used feedback received from you to improve. We have also worked with our InsightXchange to scrutinise the service, taking your feedback into consideration. This work resulted in us introducing new service standards and a revised repairs and maintenance policy in June 2024.

We have continued our proactive work to identify damp and mould in homes through our damp and mould campaign. A new damp and mould policy was approved by our Board during the year. This set a service standard to inspect and carry out mould treatments to all homes within 33 days of damp or mould being identified.

Gas servicing and other safety checks help to keep you safe in your home. At the end of 2023/24, 99.42% of all our homes had received all the required checks such as gas safety tests and electrical wiring inspections. We completed all fire safety inspections in our residential blocks of flats ahead of target, making sure that any issues were identified and addressed to maintain the safety of customers living in those homes.

During the year we continued to invest in reducing our carbon footprint with 86% of our homes now performing above energy rating C, ensuring new homes are built to be highly energy efficient. We invested energy improvement works to 1,260 homes, improving the thermal efficiency and making them cheaper to run.

Works are progressing on installing solar PV and smart air bricks to 199 homes to provide increased energy efficiency and thermal comfort, as well as savings on energy bills. This innovative method of reducing the energy required to heat homes and the generation of free electricity is partially funded by the government social housing decarbonisation fund but will see us investing over £1.65m.

We listened (Complaints)

You told us that we needed to improve the way we manage complex and multi-trade repairs.

We acted

We introduced new internal processes to monitor complex repairs while these are in progress and introduced trackable repairs within the My Livin App to allow customers to be kept informed about ongoing repairs and reduce the need to chase up appointments.

Repairs communication

We listened (Scrutiny review)

The InsightXchange conducted a review of the Repairs and Maintenance policy. They were provided with all relevant data on complaints, satisfaction levels, and regulatory requirements. The group told us that we needed to improve communication about appointments and where there may be delays and that we needed to improve the quality of works.

We acted

We revised our Repairs and Maintenance Policy to include a range of service standards agreed with the group which focus on providing flexible appointments outside of our normal timescales, regular updates to customers where repairs are delayed, a commitment to tailoring the service and contacts about the service to meet the needs of our vulnerable tenants, and understanding and addressing the root cause of repairs not being completed to the expected quality standard.

We listened (Customer voice - Amplified survey)

Tenants and leaseholders living in flat blocks with a communal area were asked how frequently they would like the communal areas to be cleaned. 60% responded fortnightly would be their preference.

We acted

We have awarded a cleaning contract, which means that we will clean communal areas fortnightly rather than monthly.

Have you read our summarised policies?

We have summarised our customer policies to make them accessible and easy to read.

Summarised Customer Policies

Jump to another section

Transforming Customer Experience and Digital Services

Planet A

Supporting sustainable places

Supporting sustainable tenancies

Providing quality sustainable homes

Building and acquiring sustainable homes

Finance

How do I apply for a Livin home or bungalow?

We advertise all of our available homes on our Find A Home page, simply visit this page for more information.

Before you can place a bid on one of our homes, you must first have an active account with the relevant Choice Based Lettings Scheme. Almost all our homes are located in County Durham and therefore are allocated through the Durham Key Options scheme. Durham Key Options (DKO) is a partnership between Durham County Council and landlords across County Durham.

We have a small number of homes which are located outside Durham, these are all advertised through Tees Valley HomeFinder, Hartlepool HomeSearch and Darlington HomeSearch; They are similar to Durham Key Options but we do not process applications registered for these schemes. If you wish to register an application for homes advertised in this area, please apply directly.

Once your application is approved, you will then be able to bid on homes that meet your needs. You can access the application form directly by visiting the relevant Choice Based Lettings system.

How long will it take for my application to be processed?

We aim to start processing your application within 10 working days. If we require any further information after this point, we will contact you to ask for this. Once we have received all the required information we will notify you of our decision within 20 days, and if accepted we will activate your account. You can also check your application status online by logging into the DKO portal.

How can I get involved with Livin and help to shape services?

To find out more about the different ways you can get involved, please visit our getting involved section.

Can I apply to buy my home under Right to Buy?

Tenants who have been with Livin since before the transfer from Sedgefield Council in 2009 may have the “Preserved Right to Buy” their property. Full details of the scheme are available on the Government Right to Buy website. If you are thinking of applying, please contact us.

Can I apply to buy my home under Right to Acquire?

If you have been a tenant for 3 or more years you may have the right to buy your property under the Right to Acquire scheme. Full details of the scheme are available on the Government Right to Acquire website. If you are thinking of applying, please contact us.