Wigan and Leigh Housing Information Bulletin — Issue No. 25, September 2005
Simply (one of) the Best
We have recently been advised that our ‘state of the art’ contact centre has achieved ‘best practice’ standard – one of just five local authority call centres nationally to qualify for the Call Centre Association’s (CCA) prestigious award.
The CCA standard is awarded only to those contact centres that conform to a rigorous set of criteria and achieve consistently high levels of customer satisfaction.
Since its launch last year, our contact centre has performed impressively with 80% of calls answered within 60 seconds and 95% within 90 seconds. In addition, every mobile text enquiry and e-mail has been answered within one working day and fewer than one in twenty callers has hung up before receiving an answer.
The Leigh-based centre serves our 23,750 council tenants, and other customers using the housing service. Staff now deal with over 15,000 calls every month and a recent poll of 1,800 customers resulted in a satisfaction rating of nearly 99%.
Contact centre staff are given NVQ training in call handling and many have already progressed to NVQ Level 2.
Tom Frost, joint chair of the Wigan and Leigh Housing Board, is pictured presenting Jason Brown and Laura Clee with their NVQ Level 2 certificates.
CCA’s Standard Framework is broken down into a number of sections which include culture, service performance, organisational efficiency, people and communication. Each area is assessed to determine the overall effectiveness and efficiency for delivering good customer service.
No compromise on gas safety
Wigan and Leigh Housing has taken tough action to force tenants to allow important gas safety work to be carried out at their homes.
The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 require landlords to ensure that gas fittings and flues are maintained in good order and are checked for safety every 12 months. Tenants can arrange the annual service and safety check at a convenient date and time. The company’s gas heating contractor carries out the service, free of charge. Wigan and Leigh Housing staff contact the tenant if the contractor has failed to gain access and give ample opportunity for the tenant to make arrangements for the work. When all efforts fail court action must be taken.
In a recent judgement at Wigan Magistrates Court, District Judge Donnelly issued injunction proceedings against six Wigan Council tenants who failed to allow our gas maintenance contractor access to carry out a gas safety inspection and service to the gas appliances fitted in their homes.
The legal proceedings involved Sandra Mather of Hutton Street, Standish, Barry Trezise of Linney Square, Scholes, Denise Hunt of Canberra Road, Marsh Green, Stacey Parr of Linney Square, Scholes, Kenneth Fletcher of Albion Drive, New Springs and Brian Draper of Ascroft Avenue, Beech Hill.
District Judge Donnelly ordered the six defendants to allow access to their homes on a date fixed by the Court and pay £135 costs or face the possibility of a term of imprisonment and further costs.
Providing furnished homes
The Furnished Tenancy Service has been in operation since January 2003 when we had just 4 furnished properties. We now have over 170 furnished units ranging from partially furnished one-bedroom flats to fully furnished 3 bed houses. And we have a dedicated team of 3 staff to run the service.
Customers can choose from a range of furniture, carpets, curtains and smaller household items.
Rents are calculated on the amount
of furniture and fittings that are chosen by the customer and charges range from £4 to £30 per week on top of the rent. Customers who are entitled to housing benefit can get assistance towards the furniture charge.
The 7 supply contracts were recently re-tendered and 4 were awarded to local suppliers. The contracts are for 5 years, subject to the suppliers maintaining the quality of goods and service. The following companies now supply goods to the service:
- G & B Bedding, Astley, Tyldesley – 2 contracts
- The Carpet Place, Pemberton, Wigan
- The Furniture Service, Manchester
- Furniture Resource Centre, Liverpool – 2 contracts
- Wallpaper Supplies, Wigan
The service is primarily targeted at vulnerable people who cannot get a Community Care Grant or Crisis Loan from the Department of Works & Pensions. 93% of current tenants of furnished accommodation are vulnerable people who have been referred to the service through our Housing Link and Housing Aid Teams, Age Concern, Social Services or via our Area Housing Offices and Property Shops. Only 5 furnished tenancies came empty during 2004-05. This low turnover rate is proof that the service is providing stable homes for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.
Customer satisfaction with the service has been consistently at or near 100%. Customers’ suggestions have been used to improve the furniture package on offer and to change the specification for goods that have not come up to customers’ expectations.
Wyn’s on the scheme
Wyn’s Discount Wallpapers on Market Street, Leigh has become the latest supplier to join our decorating voucher scheme. The small local wallpaper outlet is conveniently situated next to Leigh Property Shop and close to Leigh Area Housing Office at Leigh Town Hall.
New council tenants receive a decoration allowance for the rooms that need decorating in their new home. The allowance is usually given in decorating vouchers that can be redeemed at outlets of approved suppliers appointed on the scheme.
The voucher scheme has proved popular with tenants since its introduction in September 2002. Prior to the introduction of the scheme tenants were given a decoration allowance that they could claim once they had purchased decorating products and carried out decorations. This proved difficult for tenants with limited financial resources so the Wigan and Leigh Housing Board decided to introduce the voucher scheme.
There are currently seven suppliers on the voucher scheme including large DIY retailers such as B & Q and Focus DIY as well as several smaller local outlets. Suppliers are required to ensure that tenants use the decorating vouchers on a specified range of decorating products. At the end of each year suppliers pay Wigan and Leigh Housing a discount based on the level of business they have achieved over the year.
Results from regular satisfaction surveys indicate that new tenants find the voucher scheme easy to use and suppliers and staff report that the scheme is working well.
Community Involvement Fund is making a difference
The Community Involvement Fund was set up last year to increase community capacity, engage with hard to reach groups and contribute towards sustainable communities.
The fund is managed by a panel of staff and customers. They check that applications adhere to the funding criteria and ensure fair distribution of resources. Applicants can claim up to £300 in each year for one project or a number of projects that target hard to reach groups whilst particularly benefiting council tenants.
During the first year the fund processed 11 applications with a total value of £4,620 that benefited communities in Atherton, Westleigh, Leigh, Higher Folds, Bickershaw, Hindley, Ashton, Scholes, Worsley Mesnes, Pemberton and Norley Hall.
A variety of projects were funded including:
- Hot pot lunch
- Christmas parties
- Community play
- Mother and toddler group
- Theatre trip for young people
- Family fun day
- Trips out
- Environmental project
Young and older people, disabled, young teenage mums and people of all ages in local areas were able to benefit from the projects.
The projects were also able to take advantage of match funding from other sources to the value of £6,493.
The Wigan and Leigh Housing Boards are delighted with the success of the Community Involvement Fund and will continue to support new applications in the coming year.
BHE training centre opens
BHE Services has been carrying out maintenance and servicing of gas heating appliances in Council housing in the borough for many years. Over 20,000 homes have a gas heating appliance and there is a vast range of gas fires and heating boilers installed in our properties.
BHE has recently been awarded a new partnership contract to continue to maintain our gas heating appliances and has decided that the time is right to establish a training centre for gas operatives.
The modern training centre at Rose Bridge Way, Ince is equipped with many of the different appliances that are fitted in homes across the borough. Gas operatives can be trained how to identify and repair problems on different appliances and can be kept up to date with changes in the law relating to gas safety.
BHE also provides training to Wigan and Leigh Housing staff to enable them to understand the problems that can occur on gas appliances to help them to be able to report faults more accurately.