Gov't inspectors find marked improvement at H&F Homes
The management organisation that looks after Council-owned properties in the borough has been awarded a two-star rating by the Audit Commission, signalling a marked improvement on its earlier performance.
Hammersmith & Fulham Homes was awarded just one star and only 'promising' prospects for improvement in June last year. But this year, the government agency's inspection team gave the service a 'good' two-star rating, on a scale from zero to three stars, with ‘excellent’ prospects for improvement.
H&F Homes is the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) that manages 12,951 tenanted and 4,430 leasehold properties on behalf of the Council.
Hugh Boatswain, the Audit Commission's Lead Housing Inspector for London said: “An effective focus on customers is improving satisfaction with services. Residents are offered a wide selection of ways to be involved and resident satisfaction with neighbourhoods is high. H&F Homes has a clear focus on value for money issues with a robust invest-to-save strategy. However, costs are still relatively expensive, arrears and eviction levels are high and time taken to relet empty properties is worse than average.”
In a 68-page report, the Audit Commission outlined where H&F Homes was performing well and where there was room for improvement. The team said the organisation had won its two stars because:
*Residents have access to good written information and a comprehensive range of well-consulted service standards
*Rent collection rates are high, help with finances and work opportunities is effective and joint working with Housing Benefit and the courts is strong
*Repairs are easy to report, most performance indicators are above average and improving and satisfaction with the repair service is reasonable
*Staff are customer-focused. The mystery shopping exercise finds 93 per cent courteous and 79 per cent quick and efficient
*H&F Homes starts off tenancies well, plans tenancy audit work properly and monitors its response to anti-social behaviour effectively
*H&F Homes' back office and overhead costs are lower than average. Lower back office and overhead costs allows more money to be spent on frontline services
However, the report also lists several areas where improvement is needed:
*Overall costs are higher than they were in the past and higher than other comparable organisations
*Satisfaction with the repair service is mixed but showing signs of improvement
*Customer satisfaction with the decent homes programme is relatively low and inconsistent. Various tenants that we spoke to were not happy with the works due to short notice of the start date, lack of choice of colours, and inability to keep existing baths or flooring. Tenants cannot rely on consistent high quality decent homes work
*Void re-let time is worse than average and the properties do not consistently meet the published standard. Tenant satisfaction with voids is not high
*Arrears and eviction levels are high. In 2007/08 H&F Homes evicted 0.30 per cent of tenants for arrears which was better than the London borough average of 0.36 per cent. However for 2008/09 the ALMO evicted 0.41 per cent which is worse than average
*The repairs service is high cost and elements of it are not efficient. The cost per property was £115 in 2007/08 which was the fourth highest of ten London ALMOs
*The performance in dealing with communal repairs has not been consistent
*H&F Homes has conducted ten disciplinaries in six months which is 14 times the public
sector average. This indicates that there are far more staffing problems in H&F Homes
compared with other parts of the public sector.
Despite the deficiencies, the Audit Commission says prospects for improvement are “excellent”. “Services have improved in areas that residents will notice and resident satisfaction is up. Communication and involvement with residents is better and many performance indicators show improvement,” the report says.
Following last year’s poor report, H&F Homes recruited a new chief executive, Nick Johnson, and new Chair of the Board, Harry Audley.
Audley said: “We have moved ahead with many significant changes since the previous inspection. The Audit Commission's second judgment of "excellent prospects" echoes our own belief that more and more residents will benefit from the enormous effort staff have already made and from the improvements we will continue to make in the future.”
18 September 2009
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