|
Case Study:
Bayswater
Background
In April 2001, CityWest Homes awarded Pinnacle its contract to provide housing management services in Bayswater. The contract, comprising of the Hallfield Estate at its centre, also includes estate cleaning and grounds maintenance. Due to the success of the provision of these services, CityWest Homes re-awarded Pinnacle the contract in 2006.
Key aspects of Pinnacle’s work in the Bayswater village include dealing with housing arrears, voids, complaints and repairs. The dedicated staff based in offices on the Hallfield Estate itself, meet with residents on a daily basis to identify any problems and to resolve them as quickly as possible.
The Hallfield Estate comprises of 682 properties in 15 blocks with a further 100 or so satellite properties and purpose built blocks in the surrounding streets of the Bayswater village.
With much of the area being bombed during the war, the estate was built on waste land during the 1950s. The architect Sir Denys Lasdun won awards for his innovative design, something which is very much kept in mind during the maintenance and upkeep of the estate.
There are plenty of green open spaces with areas for children and families alike, making for a very pleasant living environment. Within the centre of Hallfield estate some of the green space has been turned into a meadow in order to give the area a countryside feel and to encourage wildlife.
Being very close to Queensway and within easy walking distance to Hyde Park, the Bayswater village is an extremely popular place to live.
Working with the community
In order to provide effective housing management services it is important to have excellent communication with those who are receiving the service - the residents. Pinnacle places great importance on relationships with those they work with so our staff always like to hear what the residents in the local communities have to say. Such feedback is invaluable in designing an effective, accountable and reactive service.
The team at Bayswater believe the residents need to be consulted and involved in the decision-making process as much a possible. The 8 dedicated housing and estate management staff use their local knowledge to go directly to those who will benefit from decisions or feel the effects most. Over the last 7 years Pinnacle has established good relationships with the residents on the estate and hold regular meetings to discuss residents’ priorities for improving the neighbourhood and life for everyone who lives there.
A grounds maintenance sub-committee group was recently set up to help identify areas of concern for residents, choose plant species for new schemes and to come up with ideas for gardening projects. The group meets on a monthly basis for walkabouts and discussions. This year, during the estate’s 3-yearly tree prune, they will be installing bat and bird boxes to further encourage wildlife.
In 2006 Pinnacle worked with CityWest Homes to deliver a new ‘kickabout’ area for young people. Funding was secured through the Marathon Trust with CityWest Homes match-funding the project. The Kickabout has proved to be extremely popular with the young people on our estate.
Pinnacle are working very closely with youth workers from Westminster Council on a new initiative – the Youth Forum. The aim is to secure funding for long-term group activities for young people, such as football tournaments, for when the estate kids have time on their hands during school holidays.
By working in close partnership with a number of different organizations such as the Catholic Housing Aid Society (CHAS), First for Work, Civic Watch and Thames Reach, the estate office also acts as a gateway to a wider range of services for the residents.
Delivering on commitments
In order to deliver on the commitment to improve the local community and the lives of the residents, Pinnacle and CityWest Homes jointly write up an annual action plan known as the Local Service Improvement Pack (LSIC). It essentially acts as a contract with the residents which sets down targets with specific times by which they are to be met.
Residents agree their priorities for improvement with the estate manager in April each year. At the end of the year, if residents are satisfied with the improvement it can be taken out of the compact and replaced with another issue that needs improvement.
For the 2008/09 compact, residents identified 6 local housing issues that they most wanted to be dealt with, these were:
- Increase residents’ knowledge of sublets
- Reduce inappropriate dumping
- Reduce unnecessary callouts for lift repairs
- Improve security
- Improve the environment
- Increase residential involvement.
In order to test whether the compacts actually improve things regular checks need to be carried out. As well as regular resident reviews other techniques such as videos and photographs, diary keeping and interviews with residents at home, in the street or by telephone are used.
Measuring Pinnacle’s success
In the recent survey undertaken by CityWest Homes, Bayswater came 1st out of 19 offices for having the most residents satisfied with Pinnacle’s response to crime and anti-social behaviour on the estate.
In the same survey an impressive 86% of residents were satisfied with the overall landlord service provided by Pinnacle
Prior to setting the targets of the 2008/09 LSIC, residents agreed that the 34 targets of the 2007/08 had been achieved.
There are regular anti-social behaviour surgeries with Block Representatives for each of the 15 blocks, regular newsletters and the estate office opens late one evening per week.
Environmentally, the estate consistently recycles more rubbish than any other estate in Westminster, according to official figures
These results show that we’re making strident progress on improving the standard of homes. We’re proud of this and hope to get even better at delivering this key aspect as the contract matures.
If you would like to find out more about how we can work with your organisation, contact us here
|
Pinnacle psg Podcasts
