ALMO sees delivered repairs increase by nearly 40,000
The number of repairs Newcastle City Council’s ALMO is carrying out per year has increased by nearly 40,000.
According to a council document, Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) completed 123,795 repairs in 2022-23, compared to 85,000 in 2019-20, with repairs rising exponentially each year.
The 46% increase emerged in a repairs and maintenance service update going before the council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday.
It cites significant pressures on the service and outlines improvement actions YHN is taking.
Repairs and construction services were transferred from the council to YHN in 2018; staff are still employed by NCC, but YHN manages the service.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the ALMO might be coming back under the direct control of the council.
Following a review of its housing services delivery, officers concluded that closing YHN was the preferred option out of the three put forward to respond to regulatory changes and growing financial pressures the council is under.
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According to the council report, YHN is working with the council to undertake a review of the level of funding for the repairs service “as volumes of repairs have significantly increased due to the age of the stock and we’ve also been impacted by external factors resulting in cost pressures”.
The council carried out a pilot to collect tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) between October and December last year.
The results for the repairs service are included in the report; overall satisfaction with the repairs service was 64.3%, while satisfaction with the time taken to carry out repairs was 59.1%
Overall satisfaction from when the council used transactional surveys for the repairs service was 82% last year.
“It should be noted that Housemark reported in January that perception surveys typically produce results that are around 15 percentage points lower than when the same question is asked in a transactional survey,” the report stated.
The report cites several factors that have put pressure on the repair service, including the COVID-19 pandemic, recruitment problems, fire safety requirements, and damp and mould issues.
It states: “In November 2022 YHN created a dedicated damp and mould team led by an assistant director to respond to customers’ concerns and ensure that all requests were co-ordinated by a specialist team.
“Since the team was created YHN has encountered unprecedented demand from customers. Initially YHN attempted to inspect and remediate all properties utilising in-house resources but was unable to meet demand or cope with this added pressure on the fixed price.”
According to the report, delivering this work through the funding we get for its day-to-day repairs “meant we had less money to be able to respond to the routine repairs reported”.
It is now working with external organisations to complete inspections and external contractors to deliver the work required.
“Capacity to deliver some of the specialist damp-proofing work continues to provide a challenge,” according to the report.
The report includes several actions YHN is taking to improve the repair service, including piloting a new approach within one of its housing offices that will see its frontline housing services, support services and repairs staff working from the same location and operating as one team.
It is also looking at rolling out a bespoke repairs service that is currently being piloted in older persons’ accommodation, as well as carrying out work to assess the number and reasons for not getting access to homes.
“An early assessment has identified the higher-volume links with sub-contractors who deliver work on our behalf. This is being addressed through contract management,” according to the report.
It is also considering creating an app for residents to report repairs and increasing staff training.
Jen Vinton, group housing services director at YHN, told Inside Housing that the repairs and maintenance service has seen a “significant increase in the number of repairs reported year on year”.
“This increase has been due to a number of factors, including a backlog of delayed reports following the easing of COVID restrictions, fencing and roof damage caused by a series of storms during 2021-22, extreme cold temperatures causing pipework and boiler problems in December 2022 and our proactive response to the growing focus on tackling damp and mould that has made it easier for customers to report these issues to us,” she said.
Ms Vinton said the ALMO wants residents to be “at the heart” of its repairs service.
“So we are developing our repairs offer to ensure we can respond to external factors that put pressure on our service while still meeting the demands of managing an ageing stock portfolio.
“We have already implemented a number of changes, including introducing dynamic resource scheduling, launching a bespoke repairs service for vulnerable customer groups and making improvements to staff training and internal processes while also moving forward with ambitious plans to develop our digital offer for customers, improve our response timescales and ensure the efficient delivery of contractor works,” Ms Vinton said.
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