Observations & Responses

Letter to residents from Southern Housing in response to our estate maintenance and management concerns (particularly regards their contractors).

Ensure accountability of the contractor.
A responsible person will manage the contract and report performance to a leadership panel and our Executive.

What if the contractor does not perform well?
There is an escalation process for unsatisfactory performance. There is a requirement to have a plan to improve. There is active monitoring of key and performance targets. We can instruct other contractors to carry out work and recover the charges for specific jobs. We can control what workstreams can be used, and ultimately terminate the contract.

Staff members with knowledge of the estate should be involved.
The new proposals will have southern housing acting as the first point of contact (not the contractor as now). Staff will deal with residents directly. Technical staff will assess quality of the repairs.

Residents should not have to chase repairs and performance of communal repairs must be monitored.
We are investing in training and improving processes for staff. We use feedback from residents to drive improvements. The new contract has a new category for communal repairs and that can be reported on specifically.

Complex repairs should be led by Southern and not residents.
The proposal is primarily concerned with responsive repairs. Other specialist work will be sub contracted and tendered/quoted for. These complex repairs will be developed as a separate project. Some simple repairs may need several trades to complete them, and we are developing how the bidder will organise this in the contract.

Clear communications for emergency repairs to be escalated.
There will be clear contract management responsibilities and we are also investing in systems and processes to enable us to monitor and fix incomplete repairs.

How will the performance by reviewed during its length?
There are a key performance measures that will be used in monthly and quarterly progress meetings. The leadership and executive team report monthly to the Board.

How will communal repairs be measured?
There will be a new defined category of communal repairs with a five-day target. This will be measured for completion in time scales and first-time fix. There will be alternative contractors for specialised work such as door entry and pest control.

How will residents be involved in monitoring performance?
We have created Regional Residents Panels to oversee and scrutinise local services. These meet on a quarterly basis.

They help to shape the services for residents, scrutinise performance, be consulted on changes to significant changes and contribute to continuous improvement

Can improvements be made in how repairs are reported and dealt with?
Under the new proposal a new team will be created within southern housing who will receive your call and instruct the contractor.

There are no estimates of the costs included in the Notice.
The costs to leaseholders will be limited to communal repairs. These will appear as now in the service charge accounts.

Will there be guarantees on when repairs are carried out? Customer service has been poor.
Repairs to communal areas can be raised on the repair's portal. The tenders for the new contract will include how they can meet our repairs standard.

There have been long delays and repeated chasing up of communal repairs. Door entry repairs are a problem.
Door entry repairs are not included in the scope of works.

We will be procuring a separate door entry specialist under a new proposal. We do know that door entry issues are a particular problem, and we believe a specialist contractor can improve on performance in this area.

Residents are not happy about the time it takes to chase up repairs. Repeated visits have not led to repairs being finished. There is little confidence in the existing system.
The proposed contract will establish clear measurements which we hope will address the failings reported by residents. The tender evaluation is tipped in favour of service delivery.

Do we have to consider the existing contractors? We do not want our contractor to be considered.
We need to comply with the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and must ensure impartiality in assessing the bidder's response to the tender. Our goal is to ensure that the future contracts meet our performance standards

Ensure the contractor is competent and completes the repairs first on a visit.
The contract stipulates the response time for each category of work. There are targets set for measuring performance.