We’re making some changes to how our housing management team is structured

Last year, we published our new five-year strategy, which set out our commitment to focus on improving services for existing residents and delivering much-needed investment in their homes. As part of this work, we realised that our housing management structures are confusing, for residents and our people.

We know we need to build trust with residents and rebuild trust that has been lost with others. We know that our colleagues have been trying to spread themselves too thinly and that we haven’t always met residents’ expectations or responded as quickly as we should. We understand the impact our service has on your life so we want to put this right.

Our new structure will be local, and patch-based, meaning that our housing team have a smaller number of homes to manage, so you’ll see more of us. We will make it easy for you to get in touch with us, and we’ll listen and act when you do.

When there are issues, we will own them and work with you to reach the best solution.



Our new team

Several new roles in our new structure have been filled by existing colleagues. We’re currently recruiting for the rest and hope to have the new structure fully resourced by late spring.
When the new structure is in place, Neighbourhood Housing Leads will replace our existing Property Manager and Tenancy Management Officer roles. Neighbourhood Housing Leads will take a local approach by delivering services to a patch size of around 550 homes each, visiting their patch frequently and advocating for residents.

We’ll also have specialists in place who will help our frontline colleagues to deal with complex anti-social behaviour, to support vulnerable residents, and to improve grounds maintenance and cleaning. We added these new expert roles, to make sure that residents receive great quality service.

We’ll have four Heads of Housing, and a number of Area Housing Managers, who will manage the Neighbourhood Housing Leads, and Housing Assistants. There’ll also be a Strategic Housing Manager and Senior Housing Leads, as well as other more specialist roles to support both you and our teams.

Leading this change, is Sharon Burns, our new Director of Housing Management.



What this means for residents

We’re pleased to say that residents have been closely involved in the restructure – and it has had full backing from the Resident Services Board. Residents are also helping us with the recruitment of many of our frontline colleagues.

Once we know which colleagues will be working in each patch, your Neighbourhood Housing Lead will write to you to introduce themselves as your new point of contact. They will tell you the types of help they can provide, when they should be out and about in your area, and how to get in touch.

The Neighbourhood Housing Leads will be the main relationship holder with residents on their patch, but should they not be contactable, Housing Assistants will be available for you to talk to.