On this page:
- Welcome
- The Safety and Quality Standard
- Transparency, Influence and Accountability
- Neighbourhood and Community Standard
- Tenancy Standard
- Value for Money
- Tenant Satisfaction Measures
Welcome
We are pleased to share with you this review of the year and how we have performed as your landlord against the Consumer Standards set out by the Regulator of Social Housing.
This report covers the 12 months between the beginning of April 2024 and the end of March 2025 and includes your views on our performance through the Tenant Satisfaction Measures and your involvement in scrutinising our services. However, the results also highlight areas where we can improve and develop services. We will continue to move forward and use tenant feedback to influence improvements to services that we provide to tenants.
There have been many highlights to celebrate over the last year, which appear over the following pages. But we are especially proud to have won the ‘Neighbourhood Transformation’ category at the AICO Community Awards, which gave national recognition for our work modernising our independent living schemes at Larwood House and Westmoreland House, with more work to follow.
With that in mind, we hope you find our Annual Report informative and that it gives you a greater insight into the work that we do for the benefit of all our tenants, as well as giving you an opportunity to have your voice heard and be involved.
If you have any further questions about the information that is included in our Annual Report, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0800 590 542 or email us at customer.services@bassetlaw.gov.uk
Cllr Jonathan Slater – Cabinet Member for Housing and Estates
Alison Craig – Head of Housing
The Safety and Quality Standard
The Safety and Quality Standard includes all the elements of how we maintain your home, from everyday repairs to major improvements, and ensures that your homes are safe and working efficiently.
We own and manage 6,546 properties and over the last 12 months, we have:
Maintaining your home
- Carried out a total of 17,613 repairs.
- Completed 99.35% of all repairs within our timescales.
- Tackled damp and mould through targeted surveys in high-risk homes, provided tenants with more information on how to reduce the causes of damp and mould, and provided our staff with comprehensive information to support tenants and identify issues quickly.
- Launched a new Repairs Portal so that tenants can report a repair, make an appointment, and follow the progress of the repair on their mobile phone, laptop, or tablet.
Major home improvements
To ensure that properties continue to meet the Decent Homes Standard we have invested over £9million in your homes during 2024/25. We continue to carry out Stock Condition Surveys to understand what future improvements are required. Over this 12-month period we have:
- Replaced 27 roofs
- Installed 71 new bathrooms
- Replaced 157 kitchens
- Improved 101 properties with new windows
- Replaced 183 external entrance doors
- Completed the first phase of major estate improvements in Carlton in Lindrick
- Continued the major refurbishment of our Independent Living Centres, with the completion of Westmoreland House in Harworth and Bircotes, as well as starting the refurbishment of Conway Gardens in Retford.
- Estate improvements to Hannah Park view including new doors and windows
- Fire safety compliance improvements to the flats at Osberton View
Over the next 12 months, we will:
- Use enhanced data to help us make decisions about our existing homes and communities and where we make new homes available across the district.
- Invest a further £5million to ensure that our homes meet the current Decent Homes Standard.
- Reduce our overall impact on the environment, by making more homes energy efficient, and invest £1.5million to improve our poorest energy performing properties.
- Continue to roll out our Independent Living Refurbishment Programme, investing a further £1.5million in Swallow Court.
- Review our Repairs Policy and the Rechargeable Repairs Policy including reviewing timescales to improve the repairs service.
- Create a new team in readiness for the introduction of Awaab’s Law and the new legal requirements around damp and mould.
- Build on the relationships we have developed with our involved tenants, who help to shape our delivery outputs, continue to improve our ‘Social Value’ and ensure value for money across our developments.
Transparency, Influence and Accountability
The Council puts tenants at the heart of the Housing Service and this year we have increased the opportunities for tenants to work with us to improve the services we deliver for the benefit of all tenants. A total of 49 events or groups took place during the year and reached 173 new tenants.
Tenants and residents can choose how they want to engage with our Housing Service, and we provide a full list of opportunities and roles on the Tenant Engagement page of our website, www.bassetlaw.gov.uk
Throughout 2024/25 there were:
- More than 117,000 views of the housing pages of our website
- More than 6,500 properties received our ‘In Touch’ magazine
- We have 1,334 followers on Facebook with a total reach of 21,844
- 7,146 people subscribe to our Digital Housing Newsletter.
Over the last 12 months, we have:
- Supported tenants to access more digital services by offering bitesize training sessions with Inspire.
- Set up new engagement groups and drop-ins at the Family Hubs in Hallcroft, Harworth and Bircotes, and Manton.
- Carried out a Tenant Recruitment Roadshow to introduce a range of new roles across all services for tenants to get involved with.
- Engaged with tenants on estate improvements at Hannah Park, Ashford Court, and Conway Gardens as part of our improvement plan.
Over the next 12 months, we will:
- Expand our digital offer using Comuspace and digital options.
- Continue to develop new engagement groups across the district, especially in our more rural communities.
- Set up a Young Tenants’ Panel to better engage with our younger customers so they can help to design future housing services.
- Develop our scrutiny opportunities so that more tenants can be involved in shaping the services we provide.
If you’d like to contribute to the future of Bassetlaw Housing and have your say, or if you have a question or idea you would like to share with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us at:
- Email: Tenant.engagement@bassetlaw.gov.uk
- Call: 01909 533 263
Neighbourhood and Community Standard
As well as ensuring that your homes are a safe and comfortable place to live, we work hard to improve the appearance and functionality of your neighbourhoods and communities.
As part of this work to improve our estates, we have committed a total of £13.8million over the next five years to maintain estates and neighbourhoods with programmes that include improving roads, footpaths, parking, fences, and garages.
Over the last 12 months, we have:
- Continued with major regeneration work on the Carlton Wimpey Estate to tackle anti-social behaviour and create more security for residents. This was achieved by changing the layout of the estate and installing a comprehensive CCTV network.
- Provided new recycling containers for flats in the Sandy Lane area of Worksop.
- Upgraded and replaced the door entry systems for communal areas in blocks of flats.
- Implemented a revised garden assistance service to support tenants based on their age, ability, income and support from friends and relatives.
- Increased the number of occupancy visits to 80%. These visits help to identify any issues that tenant’s may be experiencing early and ensure that appropriate advice and support can be provided.
- Consulted with residents at The Mews, Worksop to identify improvements to the area and installed better lighting to increase safety and security.
- Introduced new software to assist with the recording of ASB incidents and support-related issues.
- Extended our partnership with Life & Progress, a Freephone service (0330 094 8845) to assist more of our tenants with a range of issues, including financial advice, health and wellbeing, mental health issues, counselling, and legal matters.
Over the next 12 months, we will:
- Develop a Community Hub on the Carlton Wimpey Estate for residents to access key services.
- Continue to carry out Healthy Neighbourhood Inspections throughout the district, with 58 planned for 2025.
- Work with our partners to re-instate broken brickwork in The Mews area so that we can improve shrubbed and planting areas.
- Continue to work with residents and local organisations to identify and implement improvements to the environment in Harworth and Bircotes.
- Develop an Estates Team to increase inspections of communal blocks of flats and surrounding areas to ensure any issues are quickly identified and dealt with.
- Introduce a new Building Cleaning Contractor to ensure communal blocks of flats, Independent Living Schemes, and Community Centres are cleaned to a high specification.
- Introduce a revised service for our older tenants, where Independent Living Officers will work with tenants to identify gaps in their needs and assist them with applications and referrals for additional support or benefits.
- Start to upgrade the 24/7 Warden-Call alarm system for vulnerable and older people, to ensure the system meets our customer needs and is ready for the digital switchover in 2027.
Tenancy Standard
This standard looks at how we allocate our properties and support our tenants. As well as week-to-week turn-around of properties, it includes our Supported Housing Service and our work to help some of our more vulnerable tenants.
The demand for housing in Bassetlaw is extremely high, and we have more than 5,000 active applicants on our waiting list. From a total housing stock of 6,546, this year we let 415 properties and supported three mutual exchanges to take place.
There were 26 Right to Buy applications completed during the year.
However, we were able to purchase three new properties and make one property conversion.
We also completed repair work on 397 empty properties this year, enabling them to be re-let.
As well as finding homes for new tenants, our Adaptations Team helps to improve the lives of our tenants and enable them to live in their homes safely and independently. Through this work we have completed:
- 58 Self-Referred adaptations, which include grab rails to prevent falls.
- 323 Minor Adaptations such as half steps, handrails, and drop-down rails.
- 161 Major Adaptations such as level access showers, bedroom and bathroom extension or reconfigurations, adapted kitchens, hoists, stair lifts, or specialist equipment.
We also converted 32 council bungalows to make them accessible for all, using
£232,000 from the Better Care Fund.
Over the last 12 months, we have:
- Recruited more people to our Housing Solutions Team, reviewed the way we work and made improvements to provide a better service to our tenants.
- Supported more than 171 extremely vulnerable tenants to remain in their homes, enjoy better health outcomes and improve their overall standard of living. This has included intensive support to help them maintain their tenancies, provide access to benefits and other financial support.
Over the next 12 months, we will:
- Build new partnerships with external housing providers and support agencies to ensure a variety of housing options are available to customers and adequate support is in place from the start of new tenancies.
- Conduct a review of our voids process and use tenant experiences to improve the time it takes to re-let properties.
- Upgrade our IT systems to improve the housing application and bidding experience for customers.
- Review and improve the way in which mutual exchanges are promoted and advertised, and how tenants are supported through this process to move home.
Value for Money
Every penny that we receive from tenants’ rent is used to fund our Housing Service. The
Value for Money Standard looks at how we spend the rent we receive from you, plus funding from other areas.
The Housing Service’s budget for 2024/25 was £31.5 million.
During 2024/25 we collected just over £31.7million in rent, which is 99.5% of the rent and arrears due to be paid to Bassetlaw District Council.
Our Rent Arrears for this year were £343,942. The council continues to be among the best performing local authorities in the country in managing rent accounts, working with statutory and voluntary agencies to assist tenants to overcome financial difficulties in a sensitive and effective way.
To illustrate how we spend your rent money, we have broken down how each pound in rent that you pay is distributed across the Housing Service.
| Service | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Maintaining your home of which |
45p | 53p |
| Major Works | 17p | 17p |
| Responsive Repairs | 28p | 36p |
| Housing and Tenancy Management |
18p | 21p |
| Supported Housing and Caretakers |
7p | 7p |
| Interest Charges on loans | 13p | 14p |
| Contribution to future capital investment / housing services | 14p | 2p |
| Other management costs including IT and bad debts |
3p | 3p |
| Total | £1 | £1 |
Over the next 12 months we will:
- Continue to identify areas where we can work more efficiently and reduce costs, that we will reinvest in our services.
- Continue to review external contracts with a view to bringing work back in house where possible to ensure greater value for money.
- Continue to modernise services, using technology that will deliver improved services, resulting in better value for money.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
The Regulator of Social Housing has asked us to collect and publish the data on 22 Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM), covering five main themes. Landlords, like the council, will measure 10 of these directly, and 12 are measured by landlords carrying out tenant perception surveys.
Thank you again to all tenants who took part in our survey. Your feedback helps us to identify what we are doing well, or where we need to make improvements. We have analysed all of the comments you provided and will feed them into our action plan for improving services.
The headline results below are taken from ‘IFF Research,’ who conduct the monthly TSM survey on behalf of Bassetlaw District Council. You can read the full report by going to the Council Housing section of our website.
The Tenant Perception Measures
| Satisfaction Measure | 2024/25 TSM Outcome (%) |
|---|---|
| Overall Satisfaction with Landlord | 76.8% |
| Satisfaction that Home is safe and Secure | 83.6% |
| Satisfaction with quality of home | 77.5% |
| Satisfaction with the overall repairs service | 81.1% |
| Satisfaction with how Council deals with Complaints | 46.8% |
| Satisfaction with how the Council makes a positive contribution to your neighbourhood. | 69.6% |
| Satisfaction with approach to handling ASB | 65.4% |
| Satisfaction with Communal Areas | 70.6% |
Complaints
During 2024/25 we received 127 compliments about how we provide our services. We also received 237 formal complaints, which was an increase on the previous year. A total of 41 complaints were resolved at Stage 2 of the Council’s Formal Complaints Process, with one complaint referred to the Housing Ombudsman, which was not upheld.
Over the next 12 months, we will:
- Introduce additional resources to manage the increase in complaints.
- Add additional questions to the Government’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures about complaint handling so we can further improve the service.
- The Complaint Improvement Group will consider the entire complaint handling process and will quality check complaint responses, helping us to identify further learning.
- Streamline the analysis of data gathered through tenant feedback and trends to allow us to continue to improve our services to customers.
Last Updated on Tuesday, May 5, 2026