Basics – Repairs

As October progresses and we start to look ahead to the Christmas period, it’s that point in the year when you realise how much still has to be done! One thing that can never be overlooked are the basic services and products that we are responsible for and this includes the repairs. Mike Corfield, Assistant Director of Customers and Properties, has rounded up where we are with this vital topic.
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If you do something 30,000 times a year, it’s pretty important that you do it well! Our responsive repairs service carries out this number of repairs each year across the full range of our housing stock. Repairs can range from leaking taps to replacing windows; from faulty electrical sockets to patch plastering. Our tenants report this diverse range of works each and every day we are open for business.

When you are undertaking this level of work, you quickly begin to see the priorities that our customers have. Two things that are of paramount importance are that we respond quickly and, where possible, by appointment, so that you are not waiting around all day for us to arrive. I also know that it is important to our tenants that the job is completed with the minimum of fuss and in one visit where at all possible.

For this reason we have invested a great deal in our repairs’ service. This investment can be seen in the form of new technology, a modern van fleet and convenient stores facilities to provide our repairs operatives with the materials they need to carry out the work. But most importantly we have invested in our people, in the shape of customer care training, diversity awareness sessions and multi-skill and dual trades workers to ensure we can provide a flexible service. These improvements to the service we provide have been done working alongside our Repairs’ Focus Group (email us if you'd like to get involved with this group) and I am proud of what we have achieved together.

Repairs are not one of the so-called ‘sexy’ services and are often an inconvenience when you need one, but getting them right is such an important part of the landlord's offer to customers that I think it is important that we constantly review how we carry out our repairs. It was feedback from the Focus Group that led to the repairs service being made available outside of normal business hours. The take-up of evening and Saturday morning appointments has been strong and I hope that this extension of our operating hours will continue to be a valued feature of our service.

Perhaps controversially I have been wondering if the service is too good! Whether the things we do and the costs we incur are what our tenants want and whether in some circumstances our approach spends tenants rent money unwisely.

Increasingly I think that great basics in relation to repairs does not mean that we should respond unthinkingly to every report we receive. It should mean that if tenants abuse their homes they should not just be free to have the damage repaired without question. That does not represent value for money for the vast majority of tenants who cause no damage to their own homes.

It is for this reason that we have introduced a system where the tenant is expected to pay up front for non-emergency re-charges and why we are looking at those tenants who appear to report a disproportionate amount of repair work each year. We want to understand the reasons behind these problems and support our tenants accordingly, but think it is only fair that they meet their own obligations not to damage or neglect the properties they rent from us.

It's fair to say we retain a gentle skepticism about the Housing Ministers' plans to reward tenants for undertaking their own DIY and repairs. We are fully behind imparting skills to tenants (such as the DIY courses we ran aimed at residents as part of the Big Day In...), and we are always looking at sensible ways of saving money. But Shapps' idea brings with it the danger that you incentivise people who possibly aren't the best people for the job to "give it a go". It raises the prospect of patched-up, bodge jobs, which at best will not work and at worst will endanger the current tenants - or those who rent the property afterwards. We know that the quality of repairs is of paramount importance to our tenants and at the moment we aren't seeing much interest from them in a DIY approach - although, as ever, we remain open to new ideas.

We believe our repairs team offers a quality, responsive service to our tenants when they need a repair, but one that will not hesitate to charge for work where we believe the repair is not the result of fair wear and tear. I do not think such an approach is inconsistent with great basics, indeed in my view, to do otherwise would be to undermine any claim we had of offering great basics in this important service area.