Major Welsh landlord cuts housing officer patch size in half

Duncan Forbes, chief executive of Trivallis, said the service was a “game-changer” for the landlord.

“We’ve listened carefully to tenants and staff, and recognised that our previous service model, with large patch sizes of 600 to 700 homes per housing officer, made it difficult to provide personalised, proactive support,” he said.

“It often felt reactive and transactional, limiting our ability to truly empower tenants. It was clear we needed to change to better meet the needs of our tenants and communities.”

Trivallis is also increasing staff numbers and creating collaborative local area teams across housing, safeguarding, lettings and well-being, as well as partnerships with health, education and local services.

It said it will aim to address issues like anti-social behaviour early on and has introduced a new staff portal with the aim of improving communication and resolving tenant issues more quickly.

“Our new ‘team around the tenant’ model has been inspired by some exciting work done in the social care sector, which the housing sector hasn’t really explored,” said Mr Forbes.

“It has required a major restructure and expansion of our teams, and a big investment in our frontline services, but we are confident that it will make a positive difference to our tenant services and improve outcomes for tenants and local communities.”

Last year, Mr Forbes told Inside Housing how the landlord had addressed its governance issues after being placed under review by the Welsh regulator in April 2022.

Patch sizes have come under scrutiny in recent years. Last year, London-based landlord A2Dominion made changes to its patch sizes after severe maladministration findings were revealed in an ombudsman report in October 2023.

A2Dominion later found that “large property management patch sizes limited our ability to own the relationship with residents and resolve their issues quickly enough”.