Housing Transformation: progress on re-lets and service improvement
The Housing Transformation Board met on Wednesday 25 February 2026 to review performance across Housing services and Building Maintenance and agree priorities for the months ahead.
In place for a year, the Board provides oversight of improvement activity, helping to coordinate change and ensure it is aligned with wider council objectives.
Re-letting homes: progress, with more to do
Re-let times remain a key measure of performance. Turnaround times currently range from 47 to 85 days, depending on the property. This represents Falkirk’s strongest position in five years.
While the service remains in the bottom quartile nationally, the gap is narrowing. The longer-term ambition is to move closer to 30 days, recognising this will require sustained coordination rather than short-term fixes.
One key change has been to look at the property process as a whole, from inspection and repairs through to allocation and sign-up. Delay often sits between stages, in waiting time rather than the work itself, and reducing these gaps is now a focus.
Asbestos management is also under consideration, drawing experience from other councils as authorities that addressed this earlier report fewer interruptions when properties become vacant.
Around 40% of void work is delivered in-house, with the remainder carried out externally. Treating this as a single, joined-up process is expected to help sustain improvement.
Clearer systems and information
Alongside operational change, a clear focus has been placed on strengthening the systems that support delivery.
A Housing Transformation webpage is being developed to bring updates and priorities into one place for staff. Rent letters to 17,000 tenants have been rewritten in plain language, and the ten most-used housing webpages are being refreshed. Internal procedures are also being simplified to support clearer and more consistent interpretation.
A key improvement has been the introduction of a superuser group to strengthen knowledge and support around the NEC housing system, alongside a review of governance arrangements. New Power BI dashboards are also being developed to improve visibility of re-let times, repairs and other key measures, supported by ongoing work to improve data accuracy.
Repairs, maintenance and next steps
Building Maintenance continues to play a central role in delivering improvement activity.
Recruitment is progressing to strengthen technical and supervisory capacity. Emergency repairs account for around 39% of all jobs, while complaints remain low. Electrical safety checks are continuing under a new framework, with work underway to reduce the EICR backlog.
A clear next step is preparing for Awaab’s Law, with further discussion planned at the next Board meeting to ensure consistent responses to damp and mould. Work is also ongoing to improve how repairs are categorised and prioritised.
Tenancy officer workloads are being reviewed, service roles clarified, and performance reporting streamlined. A smaller set of core indicators will track re-let times, repairs completion, rent lost through empty homes and quality checks, helping teams identify issues earlier.
Karen Algie, Director of Transformation, Communities & Corporate Services and Chair, said:
Progress has really gathered pace over the past year, particularly in re-let performance. The Board’s role is to provide clear oversight and keep priorities focused on delivery, making sure improvements are coordinated and supported by stronger systems and information.
The focus now is on sustaining progress and embedding these changes, so improvement becomes part of the day-to-day practice across Housing and Building Maintenance.
The Board’s next meeting takes place on Tuesday 28 April 2026.