Improving our local services

Posted on 08 February 2023

We’ve listened to you, and now we’re improving our services and trialling some changes in some of our neighbourhoods.

Liz Oliver, Safer Homes and Neighbourhoods Director said: “Our priority is to make sure our buildings and neighbourhoods are safe and well maintained. So, we’re really excited to be launching this improved way of working to deliver more efficient services.

“The pilot will look at how we can streamline our services and create clearly defined ‘neighbourhoods’ served by multiple teams within Hyde, from neighbourhood managers, to repairs and maintenance, compliance, and social investment such as the Hyde Foundation.

What customers told us

Our customers have said they’d like to have better communication with us and be updated about services in their local areas. They’d like to have more clarity about who’s responsible for carrying out various tasks and resolving issues. They want to see us more in their neighbourhoods and to get better value for money for their service charges. 

What we’re doing

We’re putting more resources into delivering local services and aim to be more responsive and have a greater presence in our neighbourhoods.

We’re reassigning duties and introducing the neighbourhood manager and assistant building safety manager roles. This will improve our engagement with our customers as they’ll have a closer relationship with customers in their local service areas.  

Our Customer Involvement team held consultation activities with our customers over an 18-month period. With this feedback, we were able to select the pilot areas based on tenure types, neighbourhood needs and requirements of the fire safety act.  

Over the next two months we’ll be trialling some changes in our:

  • High-rise buildings in Gosport and Stockwell
  • Sheltered schemes in Northampton and Peterborough
  • Supported schemes in Lewisham
  • Mixed tenure properties in Bromley and Croydon.

The changes in each area will be slightly different to reflect the needs of each property and the feedback we’ve received from our customers.  

We’ll also be carrying out emergency lighting testing in our properties, which is currently carried out by contractors as part of their routine testing. This will ultimately reduce customers’ service charges.

Customer Involvement

We’re engaging with Customer Voice, local support providers, and tenants’ and residents’ associations (TRAs) in the pilot areas.

If you live in one of the pilot areas, we’d like to hear from you. We’ll be hosting local meetings and drop-in sessions to share information and provide updates - where you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and give your feedback.

We’ll also be setting up a steering group to review the progression of these changes and agree recommendations for future services.

The group will meet online, via Zoom. If you’re interested in joining, you can sign up at: www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/NhoodReviewGrp/.

Contact us

We hope we’ve answered your question in our FAQs. If you have any other questions, please email us at [email protected].