L&Q upgrades £60m repairs service amid £3.7m investment in customer service team

L&Q is also launching what it describes as “one of its biggest recruitment drives in recent years”, investing £3.7m in creating 87 new roles in its customer service teams.

Vicki Sanderson, director of maintenance services at L&Q, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Totalmobile on this major upgrade.

“Our focus is on ensuring residents enjoy safe, comfortable and well-maintained homes. By investing in our systems, processes and people, we’re building a future-ready repairs service, delivering faster responses, more first-time fixes and better communication every step of the way.”

David Webb, managing director of property and facilities management at Totalmobile, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with L&Q on this latest phase of their transformation.

“By utilising technology to remove operational silos, they are creating a foundation for faster delivery, better communication and more efficient use of resources, all of which will have a real and positive impact for residents and their operatives.”

The landlord believes the new customer service posts will create a more visible housing management presence in neighbourhoods, while supporting improvements in the way service charges, complaints and customer enquiries are handled.  

This move builds on a 2022 reorganisation of L&Q’s housing management services, which introduced a patch-based approach. Patch sizes will now be cut from 550 to 400 homes per person.

The landlord is also creating 21 new specialist roles within its anti-social behaviour team, including dedicated managers and officers, alongside wraparound support and signposting for residents affected by domestic abuse.

Fourteen new colleagues will join L&Q’s service charge team, to help improve how charges are communicated to residents.

L&Q’s contact centre will grow by nine posts to reduce call waiting times, and its complaints team is expanding to ensure an improved approach to learning from complaints.

Matt Foreman, executive group director of customer services at L&Q, said: “We’re delighted to announce these new roles, which will help us to be more visible and responsive to residents, and provide additional support or signposting to other services. We look forward to welcoming our new recruits later this year.”

Recruitment for the new roles is already underway, with the new colleagues expected to be in place before the end of the year.