Service commitments & performance

Here are the standards of service that you can expect from us. They have been written with the help of residents and covers the parts of the service that you told us matter most to you. We are committed to achieving these standards and will measure our performance against them.

In our Annual Report we will tell you how we have performed in meeting these standards. We will regularly review them with you to make sure they still reflect what matters most to you.

Resident involvement, customer service and complaints

We will:

  • Aim to resolve all phone call enquiries the first time you call us
  • Aim to answer phone calls within 20 seconds
  • Answer your letters and emails within 10 working days
  • Issue a full response to your formal complaint within 10 working days and let you know if we need more time to resolve your complaint
  • Publish information about our performance and services, including improvements and upcoming consultation events, in our quarterly residents’ newsletter Spotlight and on our website
  • Offer a range of ways that you can get involved in shaping our services
  • Provide feedback to residents who have given us their views
  • Consult with you about any major changes to services or to the tenancy agreement
  • Publish information to show how we are responding to residents’ needs in the way we provide services

Your Home

We will:

  • Ensure your home receives a gas safety check and service every year
  • Aim to complete routine repairs in one fix
  • Offer you an appointment time when you report a repair between 8am and 6pm
  • Make safe all emergency repairs within 24 hours and agree any follow-on work
  • Carry out a stock condition survey of your home every 5 years to plan our future maintenance programmes
  • Ensure your home meets the Government’s Decent Homes Standard
  • Inform you about planned maintenance works one month prior to the work starting
  • Consult leaseholders about planned maintenance work that will cost more than £250
  • Let you know what is happening at all stages when you apply for adaptations to your home

Your Tenancy

We will:

  • Provide information, advice and support about housing options if you wish to move
  • Ensure that all empty homes meet our agreed lettings standard when they are offered to new tenants
  • Ensure that housing applicants are accompanied by a member of our staff when viewing a property
  • Explain your tenancy agreement and your rights and responsibilities when you sign up to a new tenancy
  • Visit new tenants within 6 weeks of moving in to check they have settled in
  • Give you a decision about mutual exchange applications within 42 calendar days
  • Provide services that will help you to maintain your tenancy
  • Provide and publicise schemes to help and support you to move if your home is too large and you want to move
  • Aim to keep the time that properties are empty between each letting to a minimum

Your Neighbourhood and Community

We will:

  • Carry out a formal inspection of our estates and communal areas, including grassed areas, at least four times a year and give you the chance to attend the inspections to ensure areas are clean and well maintained
  • Remove fly-tipped or dumped rubbish from areas we are responsible for within 5 working days of it coming to our attention
  • Remove offensive graffiti from properties we own or manage within 24 hours and remove all other graffiti within 5 working days of it coming to our attention
  • Respond to cases of serious anti-social behaviour including hate crime, domestic violence and physical assault within 1 working day and other less threatening anti-social behaviour within 10 working days
  • Provide support and keep you informed of progress in resolving anti-social behaviour cases that we can take responsibility for or inform you of the appropriate organisation you need to contact
  • Produce Neighbourhood Plans showing how we will improve estates

Your Rent

We will:

  • Offer you a range of ways for you to pay your rent including by direct debit, at a Post Office, online, over the phone or at a PayPoint
  • Keep our rents within the government’s guidelines for social housing providers
  • Send you an annual letter setting out your rent and service charges and send you a rent statement four times a year and at any time upon request
  • Offer you the opportunity to receive advice about welfare benefits and managing your money
  • Let you know within 2 weeks if your rent account is in arrears
  • Offer you support and try to reach a repayment agreement if you fall behind with your rent

Value for money

We will:

  • Publish an annual report on how we are achieving value for money and make this available to all residents
  • Compare our costs and performance with similar organisations so that we know whether we are providing you with good value for money
  • Achieve better value for money by spending at least 70% of our maintenance budgets on planned work, which is more cost effective
  • Develop a range of indicators that will tell you how well we are doing in delivering a value for money service

How we manage the business

We will:

  • Provide clear information to the Residents Consultative Forum and other residents’ groups so they can independently monitor our performance
  • Meet a recognised code of practice for housing providers that shows we are following the highest standards in the way we run our business
  • Identify and monitor risks to make sure we can meet all our financial responsibilities
  • Pay all invoices within 28 days of receiving them