A COUNCIL is anticipating a follow-up to a damning inspection of its housing department.

In September last year inspectors from the Audit Commission heavily criticised Chester-le-Street District Council's housing department. They described the department as providing a 'poor' no star service which was 'unlikely to improve.'

They also said it had wasted an estimated £480,000 through what inspectors described as 'poor management.'

They set a string of targets to improve the running of the department and vital progress on these goals will be assessed by inspectors this month.

The findings will be made public in September, but an in-house survey conducted by the department shows while many targets have been reached, a number have yet to be attained.

While targets have been met for issues such as improving the handling of complaints and the way requests for repairs are handled, in other areas the council has failed to achieve standards set by inspectors.

The backlog of houses needing adaptations for disabled residents is unlikely to be met, which the council attributes to a lack of funding, and a survey of the condition of housing is unlikely to be carried out in time.

Housing service manager Brian O'Doherty, who took over the department about ten months ago, said: "There's more targets been met than not met and it's taken a great deal of time and effort from the housing team to do that. The team has made a lot of positive changes such as the tenant's panel.

"We're upbeat about it. As far as we're concerned we've made significant progress with the resources we have at our disposal."

Inspectors will seek the views of residents during their assessment and give the department the opportunity to respond to findings.