Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation on Accent Housing from Rob Mills, Director of Customer Experience; Claire Stone, Executive Director; and David Crampton, Operations Director at Axis Europe.

Since their last presentation to the Committee during November 2019, Accent was receiving circa 330 maintenance orders per week and Axis Europe was the main contractor for the Housing Association.

Accent’s new ‘Rant and Rave’ satisfaction scheme allowed for quantitative and qualitative analysis of their maintenance service. As well as a rating out of 5, Rant and Rave allowed for daily quick-glance analysis of scores and encouraged customer comments. Unlike other Housing Associations’ feedback software, ‘Rant and Rave’ picked out keywords in order to present an overall picture of satisfaction in a word-cloud and also provided a qualitative insight list.

Joint Accent and Axis resident events would take place during spring 2020 in order to acquire feedback and have direct contact with residents. In response to Members’ feedback from the last Committee Meeting events would take place in every Council ward where Accent had properties.

Axis was continuing to fulfil the legacy contract which carried out the outstanding maintenance orders from the previous contractor CHS. Whilst there were issues in respect of the data on the outstanding work left by CHS, an increase in maintenance orders year on year meant Axis would have to recruit more staff. In addition it was acknowledged that there was room for improvement in respect of communication on missed appointments. 

Arising from Members questions and subsequent discussions the following points were noted:

·         Completed maintenance orders were followed up via the following methods:

¾    The resident would receive a telephone call from Accent’s contact centre to check satisfaction with the completed repair/maintenance.

¾    Once the Axis member of staff had logged completion of an order an automated text message was sent to the customer to check satisfaction with the service. Dissatisfaction would be immediately followed up in order to allow the Axis Member of Staff to go directly back to the property.

¾    The newly appointed Resident Liaison Officers also acted as a direct point of contact for residents in respect of maintenance issues.    

·         Emergency maintenance issues aimed to be fixed within 4 hours; and routine maintenance issues fixed within 8 days with a maximum window of 15 days for work to be completed. It was acknowledged that on occasions maintenance was completed outside of these timescales as Axis aimed to fit round residents’ schedules if requested. In addition some orders required multiple visits to a property.

·         Members had received significantly less complaints in respect of maintenance issues from residents since Accent last presented to the Committee. In addition there had also been a perceived reduction in complaints about Accent on Social Media. Moreover, Members had significant positive feedback in respect of better communication with residents particularly via the Resident Liaison Officer.

·         Despite this there had been continued access issues in respect of disability friendly properties. It was underlined that stairlifts could be a solution to these problems and that the properties were unsuitable in emergencies. A particular case was outlined, where an elderly resident had to climb on their kitchen drainer in order to open or close their window. This was taken away for addressing by Accent’s representatives.

·         Quarterly group meetings took place on site with older residents in sheltered housing in respect of residents’ happiness. It was envisaged that Axis would also attend these meetings in the future. 

·         There was a potential need to review Accent and Surrey Heath’s Joint allocation policies and a need for Accent and Council Officers to liaise in respect of a wider conversation about access to affordable housing.

Members thanked Rob Mills, Claire Stone and David Crampton for their presentation and were positive about the improvements which had been made since November.