Industry News
What an excellent repairs and maintenance service looks like
W
ith so much focus on how we deliver more new homes, it is worth reminding ourselves that only a tiny percentage
of the population gets to move into a new home. Improving the quality of our existing housing stock has a far bigger impact on the quality of life for the vast majority of us. It is partly for this reason that so much
attention is being paid by the Housing Ombudsman on complaints and the lessons to be drawn from them, and why the sector is preparing itself for an updated Decent Homes Standard to be implemented within the next year. Te new Government has said this will apply to both the social and private rented sectors. Over the past year a joint initiative of the CIH
and NHF, ‘Te Rethinking Repairs and Maintenance project’ (RERAM) has been beavering away to agree a set of standards and recommendations. One of their aims is to support the social housing sector to improve the standard of repairs and maintenance services delivered to social housing residents. Based on its research with residents, social
landlords and wider stakeholders, the project developed good practice guidance, case studies and a set of principles for how social landlords should work with their residents and colleagues to improve their repairs and maintenance services. In the course of their work it was identified that the minimum standards that residents expect from their landlords are: • Being treated with respect, and being believed, by housing providers and their contractors.
• Making repairs easy to report through multiple means (e.g. by phone, website, and apps).
• Receiving clear, timely communication at every stage of the repairs process, especially when appointments are made or changed, and from operatives.
• Having clear and realistic timescales and expectations, as well as appointments that are kept to.
• Being honest about delays and problems, and working with residents to fix them as quickly as possible.
• Knowing and adapting to the variegated and oſten complex needs of different residents.
• Enabling operatives to complete their work well, by giving them clear instructions for each job and ensuring they are properly qualified for the work they are undertaking.
• A good quality of work, with homes leſt clean and tidy when it is completed.
• Monitoring and oversight by the landlord, especially checking the condition and quality of work done to homes.
HAs need £54bn to deliver social housing targets in London Plan
Te G15 group of large housing associations operating in the capital has urged the Government to help it leverage more private finance through a 10-year rent settlement and access to the Building Safety Fund. Te G15 has said HAs need £54bn to
build the number of social homes outlined in the London Plan over the next five years. At the same time Fiona Fletcher-Smith, chair of the G15 and chief executive of L&Q has warned the Government not to lose sight of affordable and social housing in its housebuilding plans. Te lobbying group has drawn on
The project developed good practice guidance, case studies and a set of principles for how social landlords should work with their residents and colleagues to improve their repairs and maintenance services
• Publishing data on outcomes and performance, and doing so in a way that residents can understand and use to scrutinise performance.
• Clear, simple complaints procedures, for when things go wrong.
But we also know that excellence might mean different things for different landlords. Residents may attach different levels of importance to the above standards, or have additional standards that matter more to them and their communities. Tis is why the definition of ‘excellence’ is not the same everywhere and for all time. Committing to delivering an excellent repairs and
maintenance is both a promise to do the basics well, but also to work with residents on an ongoing basis to understand their priorities and where they want to see improvements made. Te meaning of excellence is neither imposed
from the top-down nor built entirely anew from the bottom-up, but an ongoing process that is defined and redefined in partnership with residents, staff, and contractors. In the months ahead, service providers would be well advised to keep these issues in the forefront of their minds and to use them when drawing up plans and work programmes.
figures from the Greater London Authority and Savills to calculate that an affordable home in London costs £450,000 to build. Terefore, HAs will need to raise £54bn to deliver 120,000 social homes by 2027/28. Te G15 has also published a report
titled, ‘Increasing London’s Affordable Homes,’ in which they urge the Government to provide financial certainty for HAs through a 10-year index-linked rent settlement, allowing them to raise the loans necessary to deliver the affordable homes by 2029. It has also called on the Government
to address “the unfair disparities” in rent levels between new and existing tenants through rent convergence policies and to give HAs access to the underused Building Safety Fund. Te research highlighted that due to
financial challenges in the social housing sector, G15 members saw a 78% decrease in housing starts in London, dropping from 10,255 in 2022/23 to just 2,222 last year. Including all tenures and areas outside of London, G15 landlords have cut their development pipelines from 14,658 house starts in 2022/23 to 6,387 last year, which marks a 56% decrease. Grant rates contribute just 12% to scheme costs today, compared to about 75% in the 1990s. Te G15 has also called on the
Government to work with the London mayor and set up development corporations to build on strategically defined areas of green or grey belt land, compensating for any loss of nature. In addition, the G15 has said that the Government should create an Affordable Housing Commission, to scrutinise housebuilding targets and hold the Government accountable for delivering them.
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMOctober/November 2024 | 5
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