Our Housing Management team will be making improvements to our noticeboards based on residents’ feedback

We know that over the years noticeboards in communal areas have been an effective way to share information and community news. However, we know that we can make improvements to the way we use them, so last year we reached out to residents to help us decide how we use them in future.

In December 2021, we reached out to the L&Q and you! online community to gather their feedback on the communal noticeboards in their buildings. To make sure the feedback we got was relevant, we spoke to:

  • residents who would be likely to have a noticeboard in their building
  • residents who live on an estate or development or in a street facing property who have a communal area

We found most blocks of flats where there is a need to have a noticeboard, do have one either internally or externally (80%). Those that don’t currently have a noticeboard said they’d find one useful.

Most residents said their noticeboards are easily visible. For example, they’re not blocked by a large plant or other objects in the hallway. Around 7 in 10 residents also told us the noticeboards are clean and tidy.

Only 30% of residents said the noticeboards were kept up to date, and a similar number of residents said they weren’t sure if they were up to date. This suggests that there may be a lack of engagement with noticeboards.


Contents of noticeboards

Noticeboards can contain a lot of information about the building, local services and Property Managers. Residents told us the most useful bits of information to have are:

  • Property Manager contact details
  • schedule of grounds maintenance
  • schedule of cleaning contractors
  • the estate inspection schedule

The survey feedback suggests these pieces of information are not always filled in and this is something we are looking improve.

We asked if residents knew whether the noticeboard contains health and safety / fire safety information. Most residents were not sure if this information is on the notice boards, which again suggests a lack of engagement with the boards.


Next steps

We’ve had a close look at the opinions residents have shared with us and identified a series of actions to improve the use of noticeboards. These will be taken forward by our Housing Management colleagues. Here are some of the steps we’ll be taking:

  • full inspection of noticeboards on our estates to make sure they comply with our expectations
  • making sure noticeboards are clearly visible, up to date, and clean and tidy
  • where any notice boards do not meet our standards, this will be addressed as soon as possible

For more information on what we’re doing to improve noticeboards, please get in touch with your Neighbourhood Housing Lead (formerly a Property Manager).