Maintaining Council Housing
Important update
Please help us to improve your home and keep you and your family warm and safe
As your landlord our first priority is to keep you and your family safe in your home but we cannot do this without your help. Upgrades to your home may be overdue. We are currently running a number of improvement programmes to improve all our Council houses. Your home may be identified as needing a kitchen, bathroom or heating upgrade, insulation or energy efficiency works. You can see more details for each of our programmes by clicking into the tiles down the left side of this page.
To do this we would really like to work with you to gain access to carry out the work. You have a legal responsibility under your tenancy agreement to give Council employees or contractors access to carry out any necessary work to your home to meet any legal or regulatory standards.
We will always use approved Moray Council contractors to do the work. They will always carry and show you company photo ID. You can find our privacy notice for data sharing with approved contractors on our website at www.moray.gov.uk/privacynotice-repairsandimprovementworks
Electrical Safety Programme - We are currently running an enhanced electrical safety programme to undertake electrical testing and improve the electrics in all our Council properties. This will make sure your home meets the minimum legal electrical safety standards in social housing. Get more information here about this important electrical safety programme.
Fire Safety - Regulations in Scotland have changed. As your landlord, we have a legal duty to upgrade the smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms in your home. This will make sure your property meets the new minimum legal safety standards needed for fire safety in social housing. We can only carry out the work if we get access to your property. Get more information about this important fire safety work.
Repairs Service
All new non-emergency repairs can be reported by phoning our Contact Centre on 0300 123 4566 during office hours, 8.45am - 5pm. Please note our Contact Centre can be very busy between 8:45am and 10am. Where possible we would appreciate if your call can wait until after this time to avoid any unnecessary waiting time for you. All repairs will be prioritised depending on the nature of the repair.
The health and safety of our tenants, their families, our staff and our contractors is our number one priority. You can see our guidelines for visiting your home on our website at www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_133392.html.
Investing in your homes
Our housing investment plan includes what you as tenants have said should be an investment priority as well as all our regulatory priorities.
Our Housing Revenue Account (HRA) ensures we can invest in your home to make sure it meets Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and by improving energy efficiency to meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH), giving you a warmer, more efficient home.
Over the course of 2024-2027 we will spend approximately £16-£20 million pounds per year on the upkeep and improvement of our homes. This will include expenditure under our cyclical and planned maintenance programmes as shown in the tables below.
Cyclical maintenance
The cyclical maintenance budget covers:
- servicing of gas, coal, oil, air source heat pump and smoke alarms.
- a regular six-yearly programme of pre-paint work repairs and external paint work to properties; and
- an area based seven-yearly external decoration and fabric repair programme which started in 2022/2023 and accounts for a large part of the cyclical maintenance budget during 2024 - 27.
| Cyclical Maintenance |
2024/25 £,000 |
2025/26 £,000 |
2026/27 £,000 |
| Gas servicing | 419 | 432 | 445 |
| Solid fuel servicing | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Air source heat pump servicing | 65 | 67 | 69 |
| Smoke alarm servicing | 16 | 16 | 17 |
| External decoration and fabric repairs | 835 | 860 | 886 |
| General servicing | 60 | 62 | 64 |
| Fire Risk Assessment and works | 155 | 160 | 164 |
| Total | £1,555 | £1,602 | £1,650 |
| Please remember all annual servicing is for the safety of your household |
Planned maintenance
This budget covers capital improvements and planned maintenance of our housing stock to meet SHQS AND EESSH standards. We are currently running three accelerated investment programmes in our three housing areas:
- Moray East (Buckie, Fochabers & Lhanbryde and Keith & Cullen)
- Moray Central - (Elgin North & Elgin South)
- Moray West - (Speyside Glenlivet, Heldon & Laich and Forres)
The table below shows our overall planned maintenance budget for 2024 -2027.
| Planned Maintenance and Investment Programmes |
2024/25 £,000 |
2025/26 £,000 |
2026/27 £,000 |
| Roof Replacements | 1,021 | 1,052 | 1,084 |
| Rainwater Goods - gutter/clearance repairs | 290 | 299 | 308 |
| Rainwater Goods - roof moss clearing | 232 | 239 | 246 |
| Insulation | 1,641 | 1,691 | 1,741 |
| Plumbing upgrades | 60 | 62 | 64 |
| Electrical upgrades | 1,114 | 220 | 227 |
| Safety and security | 25 | 26 | 26 |
| Shower installations | 60 | 62 | 64 |
| Sheltered housing upgrades | 12 | 12 | 13 |
| Decoration vouchers | 120 | 124 | 127 |
| Bathroom replacements | 395 | 407 | 419 |
| Kitchen replacements | 1,153 | 1,187 | 1,223 |
| Central heating upgrades | 2,588 | 2,665 | 2,745 |
| EESSH | 1,281 | 3,000 | 3,090 |
| Social Housing Net Zero Fund | 5,631 | 0 | 0 |
| Doors | 120 | 123 | 127 |
| Window replacements | 2,417 | 2,490 | 2,565 |
| Major Works | 694 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL PLANNED | £18,854 | £13,659 | £14,069 |
| Other - Disabled Adaptations | 548 | 565 | 581 |
| Other - Enabling | 50 | 51 | 53 |
| OTHER TOTAL | £598 | £616 | £634 |