Planned maintenance and improvement projects

Planned Works are large repair, or improvement works that the council plans in advance to maintain our housing stock and keep it in a good condition. Planned works are carried out to ensure that homes are safe and secure for our tenants, to comply with legal standards and maintain the long-term value of Council properties. These works are not quick fixes like a broken tap, broken lock or leaking pipe, those are repairs and can be repaired quickly by the Axis repairs team. Planned works refers to larger scale refurbishment and improvement projects.

Planned works are not typically completed on just one property at a time, they are carried out as part of programmes which means we target multiple homes in the same area or that have the same issue.

Examples of planned works include:

• replacing old external doors
• refurbishment of a kitchen or bathroom
• installing a new heating system
• putting on a new roof
• upgrading fire safety, such as fitting new fire doors

While your home might be included in a programme, it will typically happen alongside work on other properties as part of a project that is spread throughout one or multiple financial years. For external projects, we aim to take a street-by-street approach, meaning we will target all Council homes on a street where works are needed.

If your home is included in a planned works programme, we will let you know what’s happening, when it will happen, and how it might affect you.

If you have any repairs or issues within your home, you should not wait for your home to be added to a planned works programme before reporting these. All repairs and issues should be reported to Axis Repairs day-to-day team to ensure the property is maintained and issues are resolved quickly. To find out how, visit report a repair.

What we're working on this financial year 2024/2025

• External Refurbishment Project (Houses) – We are currently working through a programme, completing external repainting and replacement of roofline components such as fascia’s, soffits, gutters. Streets we are targeting this financial year include: Cherry Avenue, Cornwall Road, Hawthorn Avenue, Lime Avenue, Orchard Avenue, Rowan Green East, Rowan Green West, The Limes, Wainwright Avenue
• Fire safety upgrades and external refurbishment to 5 blocks located in Mayfield Gardens, Copperfield Gardens and Whittington Road
• External Door Replacement Project – upgrading external doors with composite doors. Streets we're targeting this financial year include: Essex Way, Rowan Green East, Rowan Green West, Cherry Avenue, Orchard Avenue, Hawthorn Avenue, Stocks Lane, Magdalen Gardens, Mandeville Walk, Costead Manor Road, Ardleigh Gardens, Kelvedon Close, Lambourne Drive, Fairview Avenue, Wainwright Avenue and Cornwall Road. Replacement will always be subject to a pre-condition survey per property, if a door is of a satisfactory condition, we won't replace it
• Lift Modernisation Project - We aim to complete a refurbishment of both lifts in Gibraltar House (High Rise Block).
• Retrofit Project - We aim to target a small number of priority properties, with modern upgrades to make the homes better insulated and more energy-efficient

Projects already completed in 2024/2025

• Fire safety upgrades completed to three blocks: St Georges Court, Elizabeth House, Victoria Court
• Communal Door Entry Project – Door entry systems and tenant-controlled access doors upgraded in 9 of our blocks
• Flat entrance fire door installation programme - 107 new flat entrance third-party accredited fire doors installed across 8 blocks
• Installed sprinkler systems to two of our blocks - Drake House and Chichester House
• CCTV Project – Installation of new CCTV systems across 26 estates
• Finlock Guttering Conversion Project – Converted the Finlock guttering system to traditional eaves (uPVC) gutters to 66 properties in the Hutton area and upgraded loft insulation where required.

In 2025 - 2026, we aim to complete the following projects:

• Fire safety upgrades to Chichester House
• Installation of a new communal heating system to Chichester House
• Communal Door Entry Project - Door entry systems and tenant-controlled access doors to be upgraded to a number of our blocks
• Flat Entrance Fire Door Installation Project - New flat entrance third-party accredited fire doors to be installed to 7 blocks
• External Door Replacement Project – upgrading external doors with composite doors. The Council are taking a street-by-street approach. 17 streets will be targeted. *Replacement will always be subject to a pre-condition survey per property, if a door is of a satisfactory condition, we will not replace it
• Roofing & External Decorations Project (Houses) – We aim to target 4 streets, replacing roofs where required, completing loft insulation and external decorations such as painting, replacement of fascia's, soffits and gutters
• Lift Modernisation Project - We aim to complete a refurbishment of the lifts located in one high rise block and one independent living scheme
• Retrofit Project - We aim to target a small number of priority properties, with modern upgrades to make the homes better insulated and more energy-efficient.

We will update the website as the next financial year approaches. We will let you know if your home is included in any of these projects. If you don't hear from us, this means your home is not included, your home may be included in a future project.

In recent years, we have been very active concentrating on the health and safety of our buildings and completing works to improve this. Works have included fire safety related work as well as communal heating upgrades, replacement of domestic boilers, water hygiene and electrical compliance. Our priority is to ensure the safety of our tenants, buildings and estates.  

We carry out stock condition surveys to assess the current state of our properties. This is like a health check for our buildings, the surveyor will look at each element of the home to assess the condition. These surveys help us identify what work may be needed over the coming years.

Surveys include checks on:

• the condition of walls, roofs, doors and windows
• the state of heating and plumbing systems
• compliance with safety regulations, such as fire safety standards

We have appointed Savills who are carrying out stock condition surveys across the borough at the moment to ensure we have accurate data on all of our housing stock.

It’s important to note that works will not take place immediately after a survey, unless highlighted as urgent. Instead, the data gathered is used to help us prioritise and plan future improvement projects over the coming years, across the borough.

We will prioritise planned work projects and which properties are targeted first, based on this data and the budget for each year.

Savills will highlight to us, any properties that need urgent health and safety works or homes that don't meet the decent homes criteria.

Decent Homes Standard

As your landlord, we have a duty to keep your home in good repair and ensure that your home meets the Decent Homes Standard. We will prioritise works where needed to make sure your home meets the standard.

The Decent Homes Standard stipulates that a decent home meets the following criteria:

1. It meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing
2. It's in a reasonable state of repair
3. It has reasonably modern facilities and services
4. It provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort

Find out more about GOV.UK: Decent Homes Standard.

Urgent referrals

We also receive referrals from our Repairs team and will prioritise works to properties based on this information.

Sometimes we need to adjust our planned programmes to respond to urgent referrals or unexpected situations, such as incidents or repairs that need immediate attention. This ensures the most pressing issues are addressed first, even if it means rescheduling less urgent works.

The Planned Works team must balance the needs of the housing stock and the wants of tenants to have improvements in their homes, to make sure resources are used efficiently and fairly.

We understand that tenants often prefer updates to rooms like kitchens and bathrooms because they are heavily used and central to daily life, however, we must prioritise works based on stock condition data, the decent homes standard, urgent requirements and available budgets.

If there is no planned works programme for kitchen or bathroom refurbishments in a particular financial year, these upgrades will not be carried out unless we determine that they are urgently needed due to health and safety concerns.

We also receive many requests for external door replacements. External door replacement projects will span multiple years, only a limited number of homes can be included each financial year. If you have not been informed that your home is scheduled for an external door replacement, we encourage you to report any concerns about your doors to Axis Repairs, who will assess and address the issues and make sure doors are secure and fit for purpose in the meantime.

Why don’t works happen straight away after stock condition surveys?

Planned works are big jobs that cost a lot of money and take time to organise. We have a budget and we need to make sure we spend it fairly and prioritise works. This means we have to plan carefully and spread works over several years.

If the stock condition surveyor notices anything urgent is needed, this will be referred to us for review to make sure it's prioritised.

How we pay for Planned Works

The money for planned works comes from the rent you and other tenants pay.

We try to make sure we get the best value for money, so we can do as much work as possible within the available budget.

The government sometimes announces a grant or funding scheme, for which we may be eligible to apply for financial support to carry out specific improvement projects that meet the scheme criteria. If the bid is successful and we get the funding, the money is often restricted to specific purposes so it can only be spent on the projects outlined in the application.

You can contact the planned works team by emailing plannedworks@brentwood.gov.uk.