Investing in people

Talk is cheap, as social landlords know. For this reason, efficiency-obsessed housing associations have still been able to wax lyrical about how they will deal with the government’s enforced 1% a year rent cut for social tenants.

Housing management, like other business areas, is being squeezed. Landlords are looking at everything from staff cutbacks to scaling down the service offer.

Shaking things up

One Midlands landlord, however, is taking what sounds like a counter-intuitive approach to working in a tougher operating environment. Bromford is certainly overhauling its approach to housing management. But rather than slashing overheads, its approach involves cutting down patch sizes for frontline staff, encouraging them to get to know tenants better, and in the process creating up to 60 new jobs.

These are the kind of headline changes that sound like they risk a mob of regulators descending on Bromford’s head office brandishing pitchforks and screaming about value for money.

“Most of the interactions were because something negative had happened.”

Emma O’Sullivan, locality manager, Bromford

But could Bromford have hit upon an idea that might dramatically change many other housing associations’ approaches to management costs?

Inside Housing is in Birmingham to find out more about the change and speak to some of those in charge of implementing it. Locality manager Emma O’Sullivan meets us in a community hub in Northfield. She’s worked for Bromford for more than 16 years and was a housing manager with a patch of about 450 homes in Northfield for a decade.

“Generally the role was quite reactive,” she remembers. “A lot of the time it was firefighting. I would see people if the rent hadn’t been paid or the gas needed servicing. Most of the interactions were because something negative had happened. It is not uncommon for [housing managers] to have 600 to 700 customers.”

She describes this way of operating as “much more of an enforcer role because it was just mitigating what was going wrong”.

Employee rebrand

Bromford’s new approach turns this on its head. Patch sizes are being reduced to around 175 to 200 homes, with housing managers rebranded as “neighbourhood coaches”.

Rather than turning up when things go wrong, their brief is to be seen as “warm, friendly people in the community who listen, challenge, ask questions, coach and build relationships with customers where they live”.

Of course, moving to smaller patch sizes comes with a cost. Bromford is investing £3m in its localities project and thinks the move to smaller patches will create up to 60 new jobs - with up to 140 neighbourhood coaches in total replacing the 80 current housing managers.

The extra spend is designed to also have a positive impact on the organisation’s bottom line. The idea is for the teams to be more proactive, identifying potential problems and stepping in before they can escalate.

In theory, this reduces things like anti-social behaviour, rent arrears and the level of repairs reported - helping create savings elsewhere and improve the lives of residents (Bromford’s briefing about the scheme stresses a central aim is “strengthening our social purpose”).

At a pilot project in Lichfield, the cost of day-to-day repairs fell by 27%, average former tenant arrears fell from £261 to £152, and household income increased for one in five customers.

Among other things, the coaches are trained to provide money advice. The idea is for them to work with tenants so they develop their own solutions to problems, rather than the previous, more paternalistic approach.

Better communication

Amanda Jordan is one of the new neighbourhood coaches and was involved in one of last year’s pilot schemes. Her patch has shrunk from 500 to 600 homes to 175 homes.

She says she is now doing things, when previously she would think “God, if I had more time I would do this”. The extra time could mean popping in to see “the older gentleman who lives on his own and may be lonely” or spending time developing solutions with people involved in committing anti-social behaviour.

After meeting Ms Jordan, we travel to the meticulously maintained flat of one of Bromford’s tenants, Clare Wilks - who is also on Ms Jordan’s patch.

Bromford had previously struggled to gain access to Ms Wilks’ flat to carry out maintenance work. “One of [the workers] said I could get into trouble because it was against my tenancy,” she says. “He was a bit rude to me and he said I refused point blank [to let him in].”

“If I haven’t seen her for a week or two she will message me and say ‘how are things?’”

Clare Wilks, Bromford tenant

By spending time with Ms Wilks, Ms Jordan learned that she had anxiety and was reluctant to let new people into her home. The immediate issue was dealt with by Ms Jordan committing to give more notice of forthcoming works and introducing Ms Wilks to the people who would be carrying it out.

But the new role also meant Ms Jordan had more time to talk to Ms Wilks about some of her other goals. Because of her anxiety, a work environment would be difficult for her, but Ms Wilks nonetheless wants to get off benefits. Ms Jordan spoke to her about her ambitions and together they identified a nail technician course that Ms Wilks could take part in, and a grant that would cover the cost.

“I said that [the course] was something that I would like to do,” Ms Wilks says. “She said ‘I could get you a grant for that’.”

Ms Wilks describes the new way of working as “a lot more personal”.

“If I haven’t seen her for a week or two she will message me and say ‘how are things?’,” she adds.

Based on Ms Wilks’ opinion, the new way of working, which will be fully rolled out this year, seems to be a hit among residents. The next 12 months will prove if it is also a success for Bromford as a business.