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Shaun HoldcroftThe social housing sector must do better on customer service
Research suggests that social housing tenants are nearly three times more likely than average to experience problems accessing services. Shaun Holdcroft of new entrant Legal & General Affordable Homes has some suggestions for improving the situation
Last year’s Chartered Institute of Housing report, Rethinking social housing, highlighted a range of interesting facts and opinions about the people who live in social housing.
The overarching narrative of the report echoed that of the government’s Social Housing Green Paper: social housing residents are active, contributing members of society who value the opportunities they have through social housing and want to see the stigma removed from the tenure in which they live.
Many who work in social housing will say that this is simply a common-sense reflection on the distorted discourse about the role of social housing and low-income households in today’s society.
“Improving service levels should be a key priority for all landlords which will not only help their residents but could improve the perception of the sector more widely”
Yet what concerns me is that while some customers enjoy a really positive interaction with their housing providers, too often service levels compare poorly to the services they experience in other areas of their lives.
Improving service levels should be a key priority for all landlords, which will not only help their residents but could improve the perception of the sector more widely.
Analysis by the Institute of Customer Services that I have seen points to the areas where the sector needs to improve. The organisation’s survey of UK customers across the board highlights that over the past three months, around one in eight report a problem when trying to access a service.
When social housing residents are asked the same question, one in three have said that they experience problems accessing simple services such as ordering a repair, making a change to their tenancy or enquiring about an issue in their neighbourhood.
In other words, social housing residents are nearly three times more likely to experience a problem compared with the average customer. We must do better.
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Later this year, Legal & General Affordable Homes will deliver its first new homes, a selection of social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership units. Alongside helping to tackle the chronic undersupply of affordable housing nationally, we intend to use our position as a new entrant to progress the quality of our residents’ experience.
Our insight suggests that residents in social housing value four things most:
- The affordability of the home they live in
- The quality of that home
- The ease with which they can get things done through their landlord
- The quality of the relationship they have with their landlord
These desires are, in reality, what any of us would expect as standard. Not hitting these often enough risks jeopardising residents’ trust in their landlords.
Through working with a network of selected providers and housing associations that value great customer experience, we are dedicated to changing this.
We recognise that organisations across the country are doing amazing work, week in week out, to deliver services that make a real difference to people’s lives.
But at the same time, when about 70% of a typical landlord’s service demand comes from responsive repairs, we recognise that these core services have to work better to improve the experience for residents.
In the coming weeks, Legal & General Affordable Homes will be launching a UK-wide tender for partners that are dedicated to meeting these core requirements, to work in partnership to offer a best-in-class service to our residents.
From the outset we want to place the things our residents value at the heart of our business – so we will let homes at a standard that includes decoration so that they can move in to a completed property and relax.
Building on the resources that Legal & General has available, we are designing technology that, over the next couple of years, will make services as convenient as possible, bringing in learning from other housing sectors we are involved in.
“At Legal & General, we are lucky to be starting with a blank page and we don’t intend to waste that opportunity”
We recognise that when things go wrong it is people and their relationships that put them right. For that reason, we will be partnering with providers that have a strong focus on engagement with their staff and their relationship with their suppliers.
For our first 1,000 residents, we will start by delivering services that put a great relationship at the centre of our approach.
Over the next few years, we want to see operators in this sector exert their energy, alongside Legal & General, to connect employees and supply chains, using our collective capability to revolutionise the experience of being a social housing resident while working together to push social housing up the trust and satisfaction indexes.
This doesn’t require the sector to start from scratch. There are already plenty of examples from other service sectors that can and are being drawn into the social housing sector to start making this a reality.
At Legal & General, we are lucky to be starting with a blank page and we don’t intend to waste that opportunity.
Shaun Holdcroft, director of operations, Legal & General Affordable Homes
