Today, the following letter was sent to residents informing them of the Major Improvements to their homes. You can either read the letter below or you can download the original letter by clicking here.

Dear resident,

With some key improvements now agreed in housing, we are writing to you again to update you on our progress with:

– Investing in Camden’s homes – our major improvements programme
– Changes to housing management
– Tenant participation

One difference you may have noticed is that there are now two of us, Councillor James King and Councillor Chris Naylor, signing off this letter. The Executive Member for Housing role has now been split, giving more councillor time to focus on improving the service.

We’re pleased to start this letter with the good news that we’ll soon be starting work on our investing in Camden’s homes programme.

Investing in Camden’s homes

You may already know that the Council has committed to investing £413 million in Camden’s homes over the next few years, bringing all your homes up to the government’s Decent Homes standard.

The programme focuses on improvements to wiring, windows, and heating systems as well as updating tenants’ kitchens and bathrooms – introducing energy efficient and environmentally friendly solutions wherever possible. With the involvement of tenants and leaseholders, we have appointed two experienced contractors – Apollo and Lakehouse – to carry out the improvements.

They will start work in September 2008 and almost 2,400 homes will benefit from improvements in the first year. If your home is in need of Decent Homes work we will contact you, but if you want to find out if you are scheduled to be one of the first households to receive work visit camden.gov.uk/decenthomes.

Most of the improvements will be internal, however where there is external work we will naturally consult with leaseholders as required.

We will also be setting up new monitoring panels so that tenants and leaseholders are involved in checking the quality of the work done.

For further information about the investing in Camden’s homes programme, please visit camden.gov.uk/decenthomes or call 020 7974 6191.

Improving your housing management service

As you know, we have been looking for some time at how to improve the service you receive from the district housing offices.

We’re now working on implementing changes which will result in a ward-based approach to delivering local services. This will bring housing into line with all the other council services that use wards to define their service areas, making it easier for us to work together and giving you greater access to local decision making.

There’ll also be changes to the caretaking service to make sure our estates are kept clean and tidy. We’ll keep you informed of our progress, and you can find further information at camden.gov.uk/housingmanagement.

Tenant participation – getting involved and shaping decisions about your home

Many residents will be aware that we have been reviewing how best to involve you in commenting on policies and decisions. We are committed to helping more tenants and leaseholders influence decisions affecting your homes.

We have recently agreed plans which set out ways to strengthen existing tenant and leaseholder involvement. It’s very important to us that we ensure all our residents benefit, including those from under represented or marginalised communities.

The compact monitoring board, an independent borough-wide tenant group, has agreed to help monitor how well we achieve these plans on behalf of our tenants and leaseholders. A summary of our plans, including further information about the compact monitoring board and their meetings, is available at camden.gov.uk/tenantparticipation. Alternatively if you would like a printed copy please call 020 7974 3901.

Best wishes for an enjoyable summer,

Chris Naylor & James King