Working with over 3,300 customers, we have created standards in relation to four key areas.

  • Looking after your home.

  • Keeping you informed.

  • Listening and responding to you.

  • Getting in touch and accessing services

Read more about how we're looking after your home; keeping you informed; listening and responding to you and making it easier to get in touch and access our services.

You can also keep track of our progress against them here.

As well as setting our service standard with customers, our work is governed by the Regulator of Social Housing. They are an independent body which also sets a series of standards in relation to customer services and experience that we must adhere to. Their standards include:

  • Repairs.
  • Customer involvement.
  • Lettings.
  • Complaints.
  • Anti-social behaviour.

You can read more about our regulatory standards here.

 

Looking after your home

 

Customers want repairs done quickly, so we aim to:

  • Keep any appointments we make with you.

  • Fix repairs on our first visit.

  • Complete emergency repairs in 24 hours and non-emergency repairs within 60 days.

Customers want information about home improvements, so we:

  • Let customers know when they will get improvements and tell them as soon as possible if there are any changes to this.

To help us deliver for you please...

Provide as much information as possible about what needs fixing when you report a repair.

Keep your home in a good condition and carry out any repairs that you are responsible for.

Be at home when you have an appointment with us.

Contact us if you want to make any home improvements yourself.

Keeping you informed

Customers want to know who does what within our organisation.

So, we will publish the names of colleagues who are responsible for the services you receive on our website.

Customers want to know about activities and services in their neighbourhood, so we:

Customers want clear information about rent and service charges, so we:

To help us deliver for you please...

Report any issues in your neighbourhood and join us on estate inspections.

Notify the DWP of any changes to your circumstances if you receive any welfare benefits.

Share your feedback on our services. We offer lots of ways to do this here.

Listening and responding to you

Customers want complaints resolved quickly

So, we have introduced a new, simpler, two-stage complaints process. We aim to resolve the first stage within 10 working days and the second stage within 20 working days. We will let you know if we need a little longer to do this and agree any new timescales with you.

Customers want us to take ownership of complaints and work with our colleagues to get them resolved quickly

So, we will apologise if we get it wrong and offer compensation where this is necessary. Our dedicated Customer Complaints and Liaison Officer will work with our managers to resolve complaints quickly and professionally.

Customers want us to learn from complaints so that we don’t make the same mistakes again

So, we will create action plans highlighting lessons learned and share these with our colleagues to help us improve.

Customers want us to listen and act on your feedback

So, we will continue to provide ways for you to provide feedback and hold us to account. For more information about this please click here.

Customers want us to be open and honest about our performance

So, we will publish how we are performing here.

Customers want support to get involved

So, we will continue to provide training and support for anyone who wants to get involved in our customer feedback groups.

To help us deliver these things for you please...

Please share your insights and experiences to help us improve. Find out how to get involved are here.

Getting in touch and accessing our services

Customers want to be treated with respect, so we:

  • Will be open and honest and do what we say we will.

  • Treat customers with dignity and respect.

    Listening with empathy and without judgement.

  • Take responsibility and ownership of the queries we receive.

Customers want to be able to get in touch and access services easily and be kept informed about where enquiries are up, so we:

  • Provide a range of ways to get in touch.

    Over the phone and online 8am – 6pm, Monday to Thursday (5pm on a Friday), plus 24 hours a day via our app.

  • Give you a date and time when we will get back to you.

  • Get back to you when we say we will.

  • Leave you a voice message, send you a text or drop you an email if we can’t get hold of you.

To help us deliver these things for you please...

Let us know any changes to your contact details, your next of kin, or anyone living in your home.

Tell us how you prefer to be contacted.

Treat our colleagues with respect.

Respect for our colleagues

We strive to always treat customers with dignity and respect and ask the same in return. 

Sadly, sometimes during their work our colleagues are subject to unacceptable behaviour including threats, abuse and physical violence. 

This behaviour is distressing and can have a serious impact on a person’s health and wellbeing, so we will support our colleagues and act when it happens. 

Our zero-tolerance approach 

We operate a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of any kind towards our colleagues or those working on our behalf, including: 

  • Verbal abuse 
  • Aggression and/or violence
  • Threats of abuse 
  • Inflammatory and false allegations 
  • Harassment 
  • Hate speech 
  • Offensive and derogatory remarks 

This applies during visits, via any direct communication and over social media networks, and covers customers as well as anyone else visiting their home.

Unacceptable behaviour is a breach of a customer's tenancy with us, so if it is reported by a colleague to us, we will contact the customer and issue a tenancy warning. This will explain that they will only receive essential services from us (gas servicing and essential repairs) and will give them a single point of contact for all communication. We will then review and monitor the situation.  

Depending on the nature of the behaviour we may involve our specialist in-house anti-social behaviour team, and in certain cases -such as physical violence, verbal abuse or harassment - we will also involve the police, or take other legal action such as serving an injunction.    

 

Policies

A host of policies and procedures govern our work – ensuring we provide a fair, consistent, safe, and quality service to our customers.

Here are some of the main policies for customers in relation to our homes and services. Further specific policies around how we work to keep you safe in your homes can be found within the individual pages in the Your Safety section.