Questions and answers
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There are 14 articles in this section and 206 articles in total.
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Performance Improvement and Efficiency
Benchmarking homeless prevention
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
We are currently reviewing our homeless prevention strategy and would like to check the value of money of our service.
Has anyone done this in the past or is anyone aware of any toolkits which may assist?
Many thanks
12-08-10
(Sally Faulkner, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, sallyfaulkner@southend.gov.uk, 01702 215492)
Estate grading
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
We're currently developing an estate grading system, and hope to create a system that can be used across the whole of our stock. One thing that could prevent this being applicable everywhere are the blocks of leaseholders that have opted to pay a lesser service charge. As a result, these blocks will not be able to receive the top grading. However, this will appear unfair on caretakers. I would be very interested if anyone has come across this issue before and how your grading system dealt with it?
Many thanks
05-08-10
(Tom Conlon, Affinity Sutton Group, tom.conlon@affinitysutton.com, 0207 3785597)
Review of customer contact by telephone
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
Sandwell Homes are currently reviewing our approach to customer contact by telephone to include the following services:
- General housing enquiries
- Housing repairs
- Gas services/repairs
- All contact out of hours
- Rent enquiries/payments
- Housing options services
- Community alarms
- Emergency homelessness
- CCTV.
The aim is to provide a single customer contact centre to be responsible for all telephone enquiries. Has anybody undertaken a review of customer contact and willing to share any information?
Many thanks
28-07-10
(Sukie Virk, Sandwell Homes, sukhbinder_virk@sandwellhomes.org.uk, 0121 569 6461)
Community centre benchmarking
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
Does anyone have any community centres or facilities they manage?
I would like to benchmark our community facilities against other HAs.
Would anyone be prepared to provide information on users, costing and income?
Many thanks
20-07-10
(Russell Gates, Arena Housing Group, rgates@arena-housing.com, 01744 755 221)
Online Surveys
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
I would be very grateful if anyone could answer a few questions:
·Are any of you effectively getting your customers to engage with you via online surveys?
·Do you offer a reward scheme for their time?
·Would you be willing to share your performance information and cost implications?
(Gemma, Willow Park Housing Trust, gemma.andrew@willow-park.co.uk, 0161 946 7563)
Comparing costs of advertising properties on choice-based lettings schemes
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
I am interested to find out if any Network members have taken part in any benchmarking exercises on the cost and effectiveness of the various ways of advertising property on choice-based schemes? If you have, I would be grateful if you could share your methodology for this and also what the outcomes of the benchmarking were.
Many thanks
16-07-10
(Janice Samuels, Harvest Housing Group, Janice.Samuels@harvesthousing.org.uk, 0161 248 2329)
Vexatious complainants
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
Does anyone exclude vexatious or serial complainants from their complaints stats?
13-07-10
(Jennifer Hay, CityWest Homes, Jhay@cwh.org.uk, 020 7245 2090)
Monitoring service standards
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
We are currently reviewing how we monitor service standards and wondered if anyone had best practice/experience of this that they might be willing to share?
18-06-09
(Hazel Howard, Black Country Housing Group, howardh@bcha.co.uk, 0121 561 1969)
Freephone number impact on performance
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
We are currently looking at introducing a freephone number to our contact centre for housing services.
Can you provide any information or evidence in regards to the impact this has on the performance of the contact centre or your views on the impact this could have?
08-06-09
(Anthony Dix, Rykneld Homes Limited, Anthony.Dix@rykneldhomes.org.uk, 01246 217617)
Equality impact assessments
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
We are impact assessing a range of our housing policies and procedures.
If you have any examples of completed equality impact assessments please could you let me know or forward them to me?
Thanks
30-04-09
(Belinda Ford, Wycombe District Council, belinda_ford@wycombe.gov.uk, 01494 421703)
Mobile home sites
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
I should be grateful to hear from any councils who own or manage non-gypsy mobile home sites where residents own their own mobile homes but rent the plots from the council. In particular I would like to know:
- Do you have a site warden?
- How much are the plot fees?
- Do you charge the full 10% commission following the sale of a mobile home?
Thanks
17-03-09
(Maureen Farnell, Tandridge District Council, MFarnell@tandridge.gov.uk, 01883 732806)
Gas and electric supplies for new tenants
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
I am looking at trying to resolve some issues we have around getting gas and electric supplies connected for new tenants.
We have an agreement with a provider for them to provide gas and electric but the problem we are facing is around pre-payment meters, particularly when there is an existing debt. Often it is taking several days for the provider to send the new tenant a pre-payment card, leaving vulnerable customers without gas/electric for a number of days. We are then faced with the issue of rent accruing on a tenancy that cannot be lived in.
I would like to know if any other landlord has been able to resolve these issues and how?
05-02-09
(Tibha Patel, Bolton at Home, tibha.patel@boltonathome.org.uk, 01204 335411)
Resident census
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
BVT are currently working towards carrying out a full census of their residents, regardless of tenure, in mid 2009 following the Audit Commission's expressed requirement that all 'excellent' HAs should have a substantial customer profile.
I would like to hear from anyone who has gone through this process and if their is any good practice/lessons learnt from the exercise and if there were any data protection problems encountered particularly with reference to the storing and up keep of demographic information?
Thank you very much for your help, in anticipation.
26-01-2009
(Ashleigh Evans, Bournville Village Trust, ashleighevans@bvt.org.uk, 0121 415 6515)
Use of text messaging within HAs
Performance Improvement and Efficiency-
I was wondering if anyone has adopted text message services into any area of business within their own HA.
If so, please can you answer the following questions:
How successful/effective was it?
What did it replace?
Was it expensive to set up and maintain?
Which service provider do you use and what makes them better than others?
Your response would really help us with our research.
08-01-09
(John Obidipe, One Housing Group, jobidipe@onehousinggroup.co.uk, 0207 4285577)
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