People and communities
Report highlights progress in resident access and housing support
Published on
A report reviewing progress and setting out plans to improve resident access to council services and housing support across the borough is to be presented by Councillor Amandeep Garcha at a council meeting on Monday 7 April 2025 at 6pm.
“ This report highlights the steps we have taken over the last year to make our services more inclusive, efficient, and responsive to the needs of our residents.
“We want to do things right, first time, every time, and make our services accessible, to help reduce inequalities and maximise potential. The number of residents contacting the council continues to grow and we are committed to strengthening community-based support and investing in modernising our digital infrastructure and improving our online services for residents.
“A pivotal factor in our success has been effective collaboration between the council and our community, voluntary sector, housing and statutory partners. Together, we have listened to our residents, and leveraged our collective expertise and resources, to deliver new and innovative solutions, to meet the needs of our diverse community.
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Significant progress has been made in all areas.
The Walsall Connected network has expanded beyond the initial 21 voluntary and community sector sites, and the council’s seven libraries and now includes an additional 23 Link Centres. This has resulted in improved digital access with over 13,800 residents receiving support and 92% fully assisted at the first point of contact.
The council’s Customer Experience Centre has introduced enhanced service offerings and increased the number of services it supports including enquiries related to planning, elections, revenues and disabled facility grants. Resident satisfaction rates are high, with customer satisfaction surveys over the last three full months averaging 83%
WALIS, the council’s chatbot, now offers answers to frequently asked questions across 39 council service areas, and Live Chat conversations can now be translated into one of 100 different languages.
Following a review and public consultation, a new Housing Allocation Policy was approved on 12 February 2025. This will ensure housing is allocated according to priority.
The council provided social support by using data to help identify individuals eligible for additional welfare benefits but not claiming. The council made contact with these households to invite them to claim Pension Credit. Qualifying for this benefit could also bring entitlement for help with rent, Council Tax, a free TV licence for those over 75, NHS costs and retention of the annual Winter Fuel Payment. The council also utilising its Household Support Fund for another 705 low-income pensioner households, offering payments of equivalent value as the Winter Fuel Payment.
Work commenced to develop a network of voluntary and community sector community shops. These community shops provide affordable food and essential items and act as an alternative to food banks. The first community shop, Bloxwich Community Pantry, opened in January 2025. More are planned to include one by the Old Hall People’s Partnership in Bentley (March 2025) and Darlaston All Active (Summer 2025). Moving forward, the council intends to have a Walsall Community Shop network which covers the whole of the borough.
To build on these successes, the council has outlined several priority areas for the year ahead.
A new financial inclusion strategy to improve the financial wellbeing of residents, expand the network of community shops to support more low-income households, and to maximise use of the Household Support Fund to support children and other households living in deprivation.
Plans are in place to modernise library services and to work with community partners to create a sustainable ‘community hub’ model.
The Walsall Connected Centre network will be expanded further with the development of digital home hubs to support adoption of assistive technology, an increased number of digital self-serve options, and targeted engagement with harder-to-reach groups with the aim of reducing inequalities.
There will be increasing support for homeless, elderly and disabled residents to access suitable accommodation or adapt their existing homes. This will be through additional investment in delivering Housing First and Disabled Facilities grants and implementation of the council’s new allocations policy.
To read the papers for the council meeting, please visit:
To view the Cabinet meeting online, please visit:
