Repairs – giving us your verdict

HOMELIFE

July 2024

We know that repairs are one of the most important services you receive from us. That’s why our Repairs Change Project worked with residents to review how we deliver repairs in your homes. Here, you can read about our improvements and what else we want to do. 

Although over 70% of residents say that they’re satisfied with their most recent repair*, we’re clear that we have a lot of work to do to make sure that every repair you receive meets your expectations.

Since November 2023, the Resident Involvement team worked with the Business Improvement and Change department to review the journey residents experience when reporting a repair to L&Q. As a result of resident feedback, we’ve been working on changes to improve the speed and quality of our repairs service. So far, we've successfully decreased the average time to complete day-to-day repairs by 12 days.

We’re also now completing 76% of all repairs on the first visit (above our target of 75%) and are already achieving an 83% completion rate for smaller jobs on the first visit.

An important part of these improvements is making sure we have the right information about you and your repair. That’s why we’ve introduced compulsory training for all our staff so that they accurately log your repair request. To date, 99.9% of our team has completed this.

We've also introduced additional training to make sure that staff are communicating with you in a respectful way that is easy to understand and have gathered feedback from residents to better understand your repair experiences. Based on this, we’re changing our repairs process to keep you informed throughout the repair.

Our most recent improvements, made in July, include:

• improving how we decide what works are needed when a repair is requested. This is so that our team has the right tools to help you when they arrive
• creating a new team of specialists to handle more complicated or persistent repairs, meaning we can resolve these more efficiently
• making sure our repairs contracts achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050

Moving forward, we aim to handle and complete most repairs in-house, rather than going out to our contractor. By doing this, we’ll deliver a better and more consistent service to residents and we’ll have more control over the quality of service you receive.

We want to thank our involved residents who attended our Repairs Change Project sessions to make this all happen.

Liz, one of the participants, said:

"As a resident who participated in the Repairs Change Project, I now have a deeper appreciation for the complexities that L&Q faces when dealing with repairs.

"I have come to realise that there is much more involved than simply making a phone call to report a repair.

"It was reassuring to see that L&Q is dedicated to improving the repair process to ensure residents have a more positive and satisfying experience."

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to make improvements.

If you’d like to get involved in any of our resident involvement opportunities, please email us. You can also visit the Resident Involvement and Accountability page for other involvement opportunities.

* Based on the year-round surveys we carry out as soon as a repair is completed.