Home Improvement and Adaptations

Private Sector Housing provides a range of services to help improve and adapt your home. Their specialist Home Improvement Agency team can provide support and guidance for all home improvements and adaptations.

Herefordshire Council Home Improvement Agency (You at Home)

The Herefordshire Council Home Improvement Agency (You at Home) have considerable experience helping homeowners and private tenants arrange home repairs, adaptations or improvements that have enabled them to remain warm, safe, independent and secure in their home. The Agency has been awarded the Foundations National HIA Quality Mark demonstrating a quality service in the following areas:

• Handyperson service
• Funding for Repairs and Adaptations
• Support for Choice
• Connecting with Health
• Major Adaptations

Customers can be assured that the Home Improvement Agency will offer them help and guidance every step of the way.

Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG)

If you or someone you live with is disabled, a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) may help pay for an adaptation. DFGs are given for adaptations which help people access the main living areas of their home, and for adaptations which improve comfort, safety and independence. Contact the Home Improvement Agency for more information.

Handyperson Service

If you do not have the resources necessary to make small repairs and improvements to your home the Handyperson team may be able to help. The team can also help with small adaptations such as ramps, half steps, hand rails, home safety and security work, and a wide range of small repairs to help you remaining independent or to ensure you can return home from hospital.

The Handyperson service has been Trust Mark accredited. Trust Mark is an initiative between government, consumer groups and industry designed to protect consumers from rogue tradespersons and help people find reputable firms to do repair, maintenance and improvement work inside and outside the home. Even if the Handyperson team cannot help directly, they may be able to refer you to someone who can offer assistance.

Home Repairs and Maintenance 

Herefordshire Council has had a long history of providing grants to local people to improve their homes.  With fewer resources however, it has become increasingly difficult to fund the amount of improvements necessary to really help people in the way the Council would like to. The discretionary major repair grants will no longer be available from the end of March 2009 and financial assistance will only be available for small scale emergency repairs.

Herefordshire Council joined 'The West Midlands Kick Start Partnership' in 2009.  The aim of the partnership was to support low income and vulnerable homeowners by offering them a range of quality and customer focused housing assistance solutions, including a variety of loans, to help with home repairs and improvements. Unfortunately, Government funding for Kick Start loans has been withdrawn and we are therefore unable to process any more Kick Start application.