Building a better future for Lewisham homes

22 January 2008

Lewisham Homes celebrated its first birthday on 22nd January. To mark the occasion we are reflecting on what has been achieved and how progress is tracking to meet our goal to become a two star organisation and secure £145 million to deliver Decent Homes to our residents.

Where we were:
In summer 2006 Lewisham Council commissioned an Audit Commission report of its housing service which revealed estates were poorly maintained. It was particularly critical of the repairs and maintenance service.
After a successful test of opinion, Lewisham Homes was created as an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) on 22 January 2007. An ALMO is a company set up by a local authority to manage and improve all or part of its housing stock.

Where we are:
Lewisham quickly attracted a wealth of experience to top level management, including Chief executive Andrew Potter who offers almost 20 years experience having worked for Housing Associations, Tenant Management Organisations and ALMOs.

“Lewisham is one of London’s most challenging areas. We are changing the way the organisation looks, feels and thinks. We are changing the culture of the business. It is a big job and it’s about being realistic, most importantly it is about getting residents involved with us and delivering what we agreed,” Mr Potter said.

Our first year has been dominated by recruiting staff, installing IT systems, establishing branding, and refurbishing our offices giving staff and customers a great environment. We have also finalised Governance of Lewisham Homes having appointed a vibrant Board.

Some highlights of our first year follow:

• Lewisham Homes has reduced the average time taken to complete non-urgent repairs by almost three days. For the year ending April 2007 the average was 9.52 days – our year to date figures this is now 6.73 days which is in the top quartile for performance.
• We’ve reduced the average time to re-let properties from 45.2 days for 2006/07 to 31.43 in December. It is our aim to continue to better this over the coming year.
• Lewisham Homes is proud to have a good knowledge of our customers and their needs through a robust tenant profile system.
• We introduced a single telephone number for reporting repairs in order to streamline our service and tailor it to the needs of our customers. Our goal is to answer 90 per cent of calls within 15 seconds.
• We have established a range of methods for consulting residents including a resident sounding board, working parties and area panels. We’ve also appointed a dedicated Community Involvement Team.
• Branding established and launched website and residents magazine.
• On February 1 we will launch a dedicated team of staff responsible for tackling antisocial behaviour. This will allow us to make a proactive contribution to the Lewisham borough.
• We are taking a tough stance on unauthorised occupants and collecting rent arrears.
• More than 400 residents attended our first Lewisham Homes Open Day in November.
• 50 notice boards are about to be installed on our estates so we can communicate better with our residents.
• In September 2007 every Lewisham Homes staff member was challenged to survey three residents face to face. As a result we spoke to 330 residents on 27 estates about caretaking, repairs and antisocial behaviour. We used the results as the basis for a company-wide analysis of where we should be heading.
• We are currently procuring a new contract to undertake gas servicing across the borough.
• We are in consultation with residents to update the Tenancy Agreement.
• We have opened a new South Area Housing Office at Catford providing a central headquarters for customers, we’ve refurbished the Pepys Housing Office to serve the North Area. Works are currently underway at Home Park Housing Office and our final project will be Honor Oak Housing Office.

Where we’re going:
Lewisham Homes is now looking forward to 2008 when we will be targeting service delivery and performance in line with our residents key priorities – repairs, caretaking and antisocial behaviour.

If Lewisham Homes is successful in achieving two stars in 2009, this will unlock £145 million Government money in order to deliver Decent Homes. This will be a challenging journey, but one we are fully dedicated to achieving.

As a testament to the changes Chief May Agbakoba – who has been a Lewisham resident for 33 years and is now a Lewisham Homes Board member said: “With Lewisham Homes we have a new start and a new way of doing things, this is showing us that things are changing – improving and things are going to get better for us.”

 

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