Overall service
We have approximately 20,000 homes across the city, making us the sixth biggest landlord in Scotland.
Around 26,300 households are currently registered with EdIndex (Edinburgh’s common housing register for the Council and 18 social housing landlords) and an average of 222 households bid for every Council home that was available for let in 2023/24.
In our most recent ARC return, 76.3% of tenants who participated in our tenant survey said they were satisfied with the overall service provided by the Council. This was a decrease from 80.8% from the previous year’s result and is below the current local authority average of 80.3%, which has also gone down from 83.2% in 2022/23.
Our 2021 survey found that 99.0% of tenants were satisfied with the opportunities they had to take part in the Council’s decision-making processes, which is above the 2023/24 local authority average of 80.4%.
Examples of decision-making processes include the rent consultation we carried out in 2023/24, to inform the 2024/25 housing budget. Tenants were invited to take part in the consultation in a number of ways, including a booklet which was sent out to all Council tenants with the Tenants’ Courier. Email reminders were used for the first time to encourage tenants to take part in the rent consultation. A record high of 1,159 postal and online consultation responses were received, a 160% increase from the previous high of 445 received for the 2022/23 budget.
In 2023/24 we improved our complaint handling. 95.8% of Stage 1 complaints were dealt with on time, up from 93.8% the previous year, and 88.5% of Stage 2 complaints were dealt with on time, up from 86.1% the previous year.
Response times also got faster. Stage 1 complaints were resolved in an average of 11.3 days, which was down from 16.4 days previously, and Stage 2 complaints were resolved in 17.2 days, down from 40.1 days previously.
How we are improving
We are continuing to deliver on tenant priorities to build more homes, improve existing homes and neighbourhoods and deliver new and improved services.
Simplifying access to housing is one of the key priorities in the Housing Emergency Action Plan. Earlier this year work was completed to improve the accessibility information on the adverts for ground floor properties allowing applicants with mobility issues to make more informed choices when bidding.
We are nearing completion of the Online Housing Options Tool and Online application form which will allow applicants to apply for housing online and also complete a housing options review of what is available to them. We will also be introducing automated bidding which will be aimed at digitally excluded applicants who are unable to place bids online.
A review of the lettings policy for Council homes is underway in conjunction with partner RSLs to ensure the policy continues to enable fair access to housing.
Data and partnership is another priority in the HEAP. It includes actions to improve data analysis and insight across homelessness and housing services, to help improving our services.