Major Works programme updates

We’re approaching the end of the 2023/24 year of the Major Works Investment Programme, and some fantastic progress has been made.

So far, our partners have carried out work to 1,075 kitchens, 879 bathrooms, and 1,136 windows and we expect to have completed 545 new roofs by the end of the financial year.

Behind these numbers are the stories of residents who have been pleased with the improvements that have been made to their homes.

We started carrying out satisfaction surveys in October, and as of December 76.4% of residents were pleased with the works which had been completed in their homes.

We want to go further though, and are aiming to achieve a minimum of an 85% satisfaction rate over the next year.

Among the satisfied residents, are Gloria and her daughter Amy, who had a specially adapted wet room fitted by Axis Europe. You can read their story in our media centre.

Partnership board

In December, we held the first Major Works Investment Programme Partnership Board. We were joined by two Resident Services Board members, Dave Bedford and Faith Smith, alongside our Major Works delivery partners and representatives from across L&Q.

The meeting, chaired by David Lewis, Executive Group Director for Property Services, covered the partnership’s journey so far and its core principles.

We were also joined by Group Chief Executive, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, while we discussed why the partnership was so important for residents.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Since October, residents who have had work done as part of the programme have been receiving SMS satisfaction surveys.

By filling out this survey, £100 is up for grabs, per region (West, South, East), per month.

The results of this survey will directly feed into one of the Major Works Investment Programme’s Balanced Scorecard KPIs. There are six overall KPIs to measure our delivery partners’ performance.

The survey also allows us to see where any potential improvements can be made.

As we enter the third quarter, we’re making some excellent progress on the Major Works Investment Programme.

Our partners have now carried out work to 527 kitchens, 511 bathrooms, 174 windows and 545 roofs.

Some brilliant work has also been carried out in the communities, as part of our Social Value promise.

You can read about a football academy that was held in Haggerston alongside one of our partners, Morgan Sindall Property Services, in our media centre.

Earlier this month, representatives from our ten partners met with those working on the project at L&Q for a set of workshops facilitated by 4i Solutions – who are working closely with us on the programme.

These sessions, held in Essex, Kent and Slough, involved some team-building exercises, some planning activities and discussion around important elements of the programme, such as resident satisfaction, asset management, and budget visibility.

Bradley Green, Head of Delivery (South) at L&Q, said:

"It was really brilliant to meet with our Major Works partners to discuss how the programme is going so far. It's clear that a lot of great work is being done already.

"It was great to hear feedback from everyone, and to have representation from a number of teams, both at L&Q and from our partners."

The first year of the programme is now underway, with many partners onsite and 458 homes already improved.

This includes 313 new kitchens, 246 new bathrooms, 97 windows, and work to 264 roofs or soffits:

Many residents have been very happy with the work so far, including Annamaria, who has been “cooking up a storm” since she had her kitchen replaced by Morgan Sindall Property Services.

You can read more about this story in our media centre.

Governance

We’ve now established most of the working and strategic groups that we set out in our governance framework – including a Regional Delivery Group, Communications and Engagement Group, Strategic and Regional Commercial Core Groups and Programme Delivery Group.

Most of these groups have been meeting regularly to make sure the programme is being delivered as planned, and residents are well informed.

A MWIP Partnership Board is currently being set up as well, with the first meeting due in December.

Customer Relation Officers

We're hiring three new Customer Relation Officers who will work with residents in the programme and the partners to make sure that residents are well informed about any work to their homes.

Residents were involved in the recruitment process, by reviewing and scoring the candidates' responses to a customer complaint. They were looking at tone of voice, empathy, care for the resident and were focused on the demonstration of L&Q's values.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

We’re making steady progress on developing the six KPIs that were set out in the MWIP contract to measure the success of the partnership.

Standard reporting templates are being developed and introduced to support the new Governance Framework – so each partner’s KPI information is shared in the same way.

Satisfaction surveys

We’re currently in the process of discussing with partners how best to measure customer satisfaction.

We're reviewing the feedback we’ve gathered and have proposed a method that provides a consistent approach.

We are exploring how best to ensure that any surveys are accessible to all residents.

Last week, L&Q hosted a job fair at our West Ham Lane office.

More than 400 people came through the doors for our first in-person Employment and Skills Job Fair since the pandemic, hosted by our Employment Support team.

The ground floor conference room was a bustling hive of activity, with residents and members of the local community there to meet the 20 employers attending.

People had the opportunity to meet and learn more from each employer, who offered attendees up to 600 live job vacancies. From admin to construction, logistics to customer services, there was an opportunity for everyone.

Among the employers, a number of our Major Works Investment Programme Partners were in attendance, including Durkan, United Living, Morgan Sindall Property Services, Wates, Axis Europe and Equans, as part of their continued commitment to providing local jobs for local people.

Find out more about the Job Fair in our media centre.

An aspiring Mitcham doctor is set for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study medicine in Cairo, Egypt, after receiving funding from one of our Major Works Investment Programme partners, Axis Europe.

In 2017, Ingrid Bekono, an L&Q resident living in South West London, was awarded one of the L&Q Foundation’s Turlogh O’Brien scholarships – a programme that gives young people living in financially excluded households an accessible route into higher education.

Alongside regular contact from us, Ingrid received three annual £5,000 contributions towards her degree, a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Upon entering her final year, she had an opportunity to take part in an international placement abroad. Axis Europe agreed to pay £2,000 to cover the whole trip and support Ingrid fulfill the last leg of her medical journey.

Read the full story.

We're delighted to announce that ten partners have joined our Major Works Investment Programme (MWIP) to help us improve the safety, comfort and environmental performance of our homes over the next 15 years.

The contracts were awarded to companies of varying sizes and locations, including Amber Construction Services, Breyer Group, Axis Europe, Durkan, Equans UK & Ireland, Foster Property Maintenance Ltd, Kier Places, Morgan Sindall Property Services, United Living Group and Wates Group.

Beyond improving homes, the contracts include social value commitments, such as supporting community projects and charitable initiatives as well as creating employment opportunities.

The Residents Services Board, a formal part of our governance arrangements, oversees the planning and monitoring of the programme and advises on the selection of contractors.

Find out more about this MWIP update in our media centre.

In December last year, we sent stage two consultation letters to all variable service charge paying customers informing you of our proposals to enter into an agreement with current and new contractors. This legal process is commonly referred to as a Section 20 Consultation.

The Section 20 Consultation followed several contractors submitting tenders in the spring of 2022 expressing an interest in the programme and in providing their services to customers for the next 15 years.

We're now progressing with selecting contractors and will be able to let you know which companies have been awarded the contractor by spring 2023. All contractors have participated in a robust process of selection.

We're unable to tell you exactly when your home will be maintained as we're currently agreeing on the prioritising criteria for work and timescales. However, rest assured that we’ll get in touch with you as soon as we have more information to share.

In the meantime, we wanted to tell you a bit more about the programme, and how we’ve been working with residents to plan ahead. In this update, we’ll share how we’ll make sure the programme focuses on delivering quality, resident experience and making a positive impact on the neighbourhoods we serve.

First kitchen installed for Mrs Pillai

We have already begun improving some of our resident's homes. Mrs Pillai recently had a new kitchen installed by our partner United Living.

We’re delighted to have completed a new kitchen for Mrs Pillai, who has been living at her two-bedroom south London property for more than 16 years.

The L&Q Portfolio Manager said:

"This represents one of the first kitchens to be completed through our Major Works Investment Programme. This is seeing us make significant investments over the next 15 years to ensure every resident has a safe, decent and energy-efficient home to live in.

"We worked collaboratively with United Living to improve Mrs Pillai’s home and we are delighted with the results.

"This is one of the first kitchen renewals which United Living will be delivering as part of a programme that will see more than £200 million invested each year into improving homes for our residents.

"We'll be upgrading our homes by providing around 48,000 new kitchens and 42,000 new bathrooms over the next 15 years."

Welcome to the first update on our Major Works Investment Programme.

We committed to sharing news and updates with you at least every three months, as well as offering the opportunity to join webinars throughout the year.

As you may know, we sent our pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) out to tender last month. This means that contractors can now express an interest in the programme, and we will begin to select some to take part in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) process, before choosing those who will carry out work to your home over the next 15 years.

The programme will cover all our rented homes and communal areas in buildings with leasehold and shared ownership homes. We’re sorry, but we can’t tell you exactly when this will impact you at the moment because we’re currently agreeing on the prioritising criteria for work. However, rest assured that we’ll get in touch with you as soon as we have more information to share.

In the meantime, we wanted to tell you a bit more about the programme, and how we’ve been working with residents to plan ahead. In this update, we’ll share how we’ll make sure the programme focuses on delivering quality, resident experience and making a positive impact on the neighbourhoods we serve.

The programme

The main focus of the investment programme is making sure all our homes are maintained at the Decent Homes Standard – a technical standard set by the government for public housing.

As part of this, we’ll be carrying out mechanical and engineering works, estate and environmental works, cyclical decorations, fire safety works, and works for specialist L&Q Living (LQL) homes, and we’ll be working towards Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C status across all homes.

This will include all our homes, including new builds and street properties, and is in addition to what we’ll spend to maintain Trafford Housing Trust homes at the Decent Homes Standard too.

This year (April 2022 to March 2023), we’ll be carrying out the following works:

• External works to 2,100 homes and internal works to 5,200 homes
• Cyclical decorations for 12,400 homes
• Work to several repair hotspots with disproportionate repair demands (the rest to be addressed in 2023/24)
• 3,200 upgrades to residents’ heating systems
• Improvements to 300 LQL homes
• Replacement of some of the oldest and worst-performing passenger lifts

When you’ll hear from us or the contractors

Our Central Programme team or our contractors will write to you once we’ve finished validating contractors, which is currently still ongoing.

Once contracts have been agreed upon, you’ll receive a letter followed by another letter once the profile of the works has been agreed upon, but please bear in mind that this is just a guide.

If your home is included in this first year, we’ll write to you to let you know what to expect and when. As we develop the coming year’s programme, we’ll continue to update you through webinars, online updates and letters if the works will impact you. We’re sorry that this information isn’t available yet as we are finalising the plans for this year.

When we spoke to residents at the Resident Conference in March, they highlighted the importance of local information sharing, accountability and transparency. We’re delighted that when our new ‘patch-based’ Neighbourhood Housing Leads are in place, they’ll be sharing a lot of this information and capturing your feedback.

How are these works being funded?

The works are being funded from the income we receive from rent and service charges, which we set aside and recycle to carry out improvement works.

For energy efficiency, net zero carbon and building safety works, we may also get some funding from government grants or from developers who are responsible for cladding improvements.

What is included in the programme?

All areas of work where we need to replace the following are included in the programme:

• Internal components, like kitchens, bathrooms, electrics, heating, doors
• External components, like windows, roofs and works in communal areas
• Mechanical and electrical items, like lifts, door entry and fire systems

How is this linked to the building and fire safety programme?

The contractors we appoint will carry out most (if not all) building and fire safety works in future years for us. Where those works are extremely specialist in nature, we’ve reserved the right to seek additional specialist contractors.