Renfrewshire Council is in the middle of a five-year, £138million housing improvement plan for the majority of its 13,000 homes.

But a council meeting in March heard that more than 1000 households refused access to contractors on the improvement scheme.

A report said the overall refusal and 'no access' rate was 21% for kitchen, bathroom and rewiring works and 19% for heating work as of January 2012, averaging 20% non-access across the project overall. In total, 1074 properties have been removed from the programme, it said.

Now the council's housing spokesman has announced a task force will support tenants through the project in a bid to make the process go more smoothly.

The council vowed more staff will be available to work with tenants to make sure they get the best service during upgrades.

The Delivering Housing Improvements pro- ject, now in its third year of refurbishing kitchens and bathrooms, and upgrading heating systems and rewiring, will see around 2700 new kitchens and bathrooms installed and 1200 heating systems upgraded over the next 12 months.

Councillor Tommy Williams of the council's housing and community safety policy board, said: "Our priority is to ensure our tenants get the best possible service.

"We've listened to feedback on the work they've received and are taking action to make sure our contractors are delivering the highest standards and that tenants get the support they need when work is being carried out.

"We're refocusing the work of our housing investment team to set up a task force which will mean more staff working closely with tenants and contractors."

The improvement project aims to ensure all council houses meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015.