An update on our repairs service
19 January 2023
Regrettably, the repairs service we’re providing continues to fall short of the standards we expect, and our customers deserve.
Our aim, as part of our service level agreement with our customers, is to complete urgent repairs within seven days. However, it’s taking much longer than we’d like for many of these jobs to be completed.
We sincerely apologise for these ongoing problems and the frustration and distress they’re causing and thank our customers for their continued patience.
Why this is happening
We’re continuing to receive an extremely high volume of new repairs and trying to clear a significant backlog of work that has built up for various reasons in the last few years. We remain very much in a recovery position but have a robust plan in place and are focusing our resources on delivering this.
Following all the effort we’ve put into mobilising our new contractors and employing more people to deal with repairs and customer enquiries, we’d hoped that things would be steadily improving by now but, quite simply, the demand we’re receiving is considerably higher than we’d anticipated.
Over half of the repairs being reported are either an emergency or urgent and we continue to prioritise these, while also making sure operatives are available to carry out routine repairs. We assess the highest risk repairs, such as heating failures, damp and mould and other health and safety issues to ensure these are prioritised. You can find out more about how we’re responding to cases of damp and mould here.
How and when things will improve
We’re continuing to work hard to get things back to normal and although it’s taking longer than we’d expected, we hope that the services we provide will significantly improve within the next six months.
To help manage the demand of work, we’re making further investment and working closely with our contractors, who are also looking to recruit additional operatives throughout the busier winter months to help improve how quickly we respond.
Sourcing labour and materials continues to be a challenge for housing associations and contractors across the country, and it’s something we’re doing our best to overcome.
We’re continuing to prioritise emergency repairs and those that have greatest impact on the health and safety of our customers, including properties where damp and mould issues have been reported.
We measure our repairs performance and other key areas and publish this information on our website so that customers can keep track of how we’re performing. This information is available in our performance section.
