Newlon Housing Trust (NHT) has made progress

27 Nov 2009 11:34 AM

NHT is working well in carrying out gas servicing and dealing with rent arrears, but could improve its repairs service according to a report released yesterday by the independent Audit Commission.

Audit Commission inspectors reached this conclusion following a short-notice inspection of how the north-east London-based housing association is responding to repairs reported by tenants, the servicing of gas appliances and how well it collects rent arrears. The report shows that NHT is concentrating on these areas and has worked to improve its performance.

Hugh Boatswain, Audit Commission Lead Housing Inspector, said:
'I am pleased to see how much progress NHT has made but there is still more work to be done to ensure that it is delivering a consistently high standard of service to its tenants.'

Strengths include:

• Tenants can use a variety of ways to contact NHT, including the use of SMS text messaging.
• Satisfaction with the repairs service is high amongst tenants.
• NHT undertakes additional safety checks to properties when it carries out gas servicing.
• A specialist team is in place to deal with rent arrears which is helping to ensure that tenants are keeping up to date with their rent.

Weaknesses include:

• It is difficult for tenants to report emergency repairs outside of normal office hours.
• NHT has not set a target for repairs to be done in one visit and some tenants have a number of visits before the repair is completed.
• Service standards have not been reviewed recently and these are not all consistently monitored or performance reported to tenants.

To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:

• Strengthen the approach to the management of the responsive repairs and gas safety service by improving performance on responsive repairs to meet the targets times that have been set.
• Strengthen the approach to equality and diversity by increasing the collection of customer profile data and ensuring this is used to tailor service provision appropriately.
• Strengthen the customer experience by ensuring that the approach to customer care is embedded across the organisation and customers receive a consistent high level of service both in contacting NHT and in the response to correspondence and complaints.

Notes to editors

• Newlon Housing Trust (NHT) was established in 1968 when philanthropic members of the New London Synagogue decided to club together to buy properties that could be rented at affordable rates by members of the local community in need of decent homes. Since then, it has expanded considerably and now owns and manages over 6,000 homes spread across eight boroughs in north and east London. The group also comprises Access Homes and two registered charities providing care and support services and community regeneration programmes.
• NHT is governed by a Board of 12 members, two of which are tenant board members. NHT employs 121 staff.
• The Audit Commission introduced short-notice inspections for housing associations to give inspectors a clearer and more realistic view of the services that tenants receive.
• Associations are given just five days notice of the inspection before their services are rated on a four point scale - from 'strengths significantly outweigh weaknesses' down to 'weaknesses outweigh strengths'.
• Within two months of the publication of this report, NHT will provide the Audit Commission with a plan showing how it will implement the report's recommendations. The Commission will then assess and publish NHT's prospects for improvement.
• The Audit Commission is an independent watchdog, driving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in local public services to deliver better outcomes for everyone.
• Our work across local government, health, housing, community safety and fire and rescue services means that we have a unique perspective. We promote value for money for taxpayers, auditing the £200 billion spent by 11,000 local public bodies.
• As a force for improvement, we work in partnership to assess local public services and make practical recommendations for promoting a better quality of life for local people.

For further information, please contact Chloe Morales Oyarce, Regional Communications Manager (London) on 0844 798 2095.