Empty Homes
Between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2014:

It has taken more time on average than we would have liked to re-let a home. We need to make sure that each home meets our lettable standard before a new tenant moves in. This is an area which we are giving a high priority and working with our tenants to look at ways of reducing the time taken.


We gave £21,461 worth of decoration vouchers to new tenants moving into general needs homes so that they could decorate them to their own taste instead of us paying a contractor to do it

We started issuing new tenants with a leaflet that sets out how they need to leave their homes when tenancies end – by doing this, we can be sure that there is much less work to do before a new tenant moves in and the process is much quicker

We re-let 307 homes.


Reviewing our empty homes process using a ‘systems thinking’ approach in order to provide you with a better lettings service and reduce the time taken to re-let a home

Looking at other ways of offering support for decorating to reduce the costs, provide you with more choice and have the products delivered directly to your home.


Improving how we market our empty homes so that we have fewer of them (which means more rental income to spend on services)

Making sure that potential tenants get the best possible information on our homes before they bid for them, to make sure they move into a home that is right

We have published and distributed a ‘Returning your home to us’ booklet, that helps to make sure you know how we expect our homes to be returned to us when you move out

Re-letting homes in a quicker timescale so that rent loss is reduced.

Robin Stevens (Leaseholder and Repairs and Maintenance Interest Group)

"For the last year I have been an involved leaseholder and my particular interest has been in the time it takes to re-let an empty home. I have also shown an interest in some homes that, for one reason or another, have been left unoccupied for a long time. A lot of work has already taken place to speed up the time taken to re-let empty homes, and many of the other unoccupied homes have been brought back into use, which of course means more rental income. Rest assured I will spend more of my time on your behalf working with the staff team at Red Kite attending meetings, visiting other organisations and looking at ways that we can cut this time and improve the quality of homes for new tenants. "

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