HOMELIFE

October 2023

We’re making great progress on our improvement journey, so you receive a reliable, repeatable and consistent service from us. Here’s the latest update on how we’re doing.

We’ve been on an improvement journey since the launch of our five-year strategy, Future Shape (PDF), in 2021, which places you at the heart of everything we do by making sure that we’re prioritising your homes and services.

A recent Housing Ombudsman report on our complaints handling between March 2019 and October 2022 highlighted a number of cases where residents didn’t receive the quality of service they deserved. This has given us a greater focus on what we need to do to put things right and build on our existing improvement plans.

Here’s a summary of some of the progress we’ve made so far and the changes you should see under the improvement areas highlighted by the Ombudsman:


Complaint handling

All complaint handling colleagues have completed new complaint handling training, so they can better support you  by understanding, and resolving issues you may have

We’ve updated the way we manage compensation, so if we get something wrong, you’re compensated fairly based on how you’ve been impacted.


Vulnerable residents

We’ve updated the way we manage our service offer for vulnerable residents to make sure it considers all aspects of  vulnerability, so we can recognise where you may need extra support more quickly

We’re continuing to carry out visits to vulnerable residents to make sure we understand their needs in full and can better meet these.


Repairs

We’re investing £3 billion over the next 15 years to improve residents’ home or building through our Major Works Programme. In 2022/23 alone we installed more than 1,500 new bathrooms, 1,400 new kitchens, 260 new roofs, and almost 2,800 new windows.

We’ve made 20,000 home visits and fitted around 14,000 humidity sensors to prevent and tackle damp and mould through our Healthy Homes Project.


Antisocial behaviour

We’re training colleagues to deal with antisocial behaviour, like spotting early signs of issues, so that they can support you by tackling them as soon as possible.

We’re putting measures in place to better support residents who suffer from domestic abuse, so we can work with them to understand the issues they’re facing and make sure they’re receiving the right type of support.


Staff learning and development

We’ve introduced compulsory tone of voice training for all colleagues to make sure we speak and write to you with empathy.

We’re looking to build on the success of involving residents in some of our recruitment processes for resident-facing roles to make sure we only take on people who are passionate about doing the best for you. Find out more about opportunities to get involved with us.


Communication and record keeping

We're making major investments in new housing management systems and technologies that will improve how we manage information and communicate with you

We’ve improved complaints information on our website, so it’s clearer what options you have when you feel we’ve got something wrong.


We know we have a long way to go on our improvement journey, but we remain committed to getting there, so we can be better for you.

In November’s Homelife, we’ll be sharing a new ‘Putting things right’ page on our website. Here, you’ll find the latest update on our complaints handling improvement journey, including more details on the specific activities we’re delivering, and more importantly, the improvements you can expect to see.