Case Studies
Bayswater
Background
In April 2001, CityWest Homes awarded Pinnacle PSG a contract to provide housing management services in Bayswater village, Westminster. The contract’s main focus was the Hallfield Estate and included estate cleaning and grounds maintenance. The quality of the service we provided was evident in 2006 when we retained the contract. Key to the contract’s success has been the close partnership working with CityWest Homes.
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. Key features of our work include dealing with housing arrears, empty properties, complaints and repairs. The dedicated staff, based in offices on the estate, meet with residents on a daily basis to identify and resolve any problems as quickly as possible.
Being very close to Queensway and within easy walking distance to Hyde Park, the Bayswater village is an extremely popular place to live. The estate boasts plenty of green open spaces with areas for children and families alike, making for a pleasant living environment.
Working with the community
Pinnacle PSG places great importance on its relationships with local residents ensuring our staff always listen to what they have to say. Such feedback is invaluable in designing an effective, accountable and reactive service. The Pinnacle PSG team working in partnership with CityWest Homes believe residents need to be consulted and involved in the decision-making process as much as possible. They use their local knowledge to go directly to those who will benefit from decisions or feel the effects most. Over the last eight years we have established good relationships with the residents on the estate and hold regular meetings to discuss their priorities for improving the neighbourhood and life for everyone who lives there.
A grounds maintenance group meets monthly on the estate. It was set up to help identify areas of concern for residents, but also works with them to choose plant species for new schemes and to come up with ideas for gardening projects such as installing bat and bird boxes to encourage wildlife.
Pinnacle PSG works closely with youth workers from Westminster Council as part of its Youth Forum initiative. The estate team secures funding for long-term group activities for young people, such as football tournaments during school holidays. In 2009 activities included the Bayswater Funday, which included a talent show and fairground rides attracting over 200 residents.
By working in close partnership with a number of different organisations such as the Catholic Housing Aid Society (CHAS), Westminster Works, 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
Pinnacle PSG and CityWest Homes jointly prepare an annual action plan in consultation with residents known as the Residents’ Community Compact. This acts as a contract with the residents, setting out targets with specific times by which they are to be met. This is linked to a percentage our fee, so if the targets are not met, we do not get paid.
Residents agree their priorities for improvement with the estate manager each year. If they are satisfied with the improvement it can be taken out of the compact and replaced with another issue that needs attention. In 2008 the Bayswater team came top out of the 18 areas delivering the compacts, with 100% of the targets hit and 91% of the resident involvement targets hit.
Measuring Pinnacle PSG’s success
In the 2009 Housing Management ‘Status’ survey undertaken by Mori, Bayswater came first out of 19 offices for having the most residents satisfied with the local estate office with a score of 91%. Also, Pinnacle PSG was number one with ‘views taken into account’, achieving 80%, and 85% for ‘being kept informed’. We were well above the Westminster average for cleaning (75%) scoring 86%, and grounds maintenance (79%) scoring 86%. We always strive to raise our levels of performance and set strictly monitored year-on-year improvement targets for our staff.
Our estate services officers have led on void management for over a decade now and have consistently achieved the lowest void turnaround out of all the providers in Westminster achieving a re-let time of 19 days against the citywide target of 26 days. Reducing rent arrears has been one of the main performance indicators and from 2003-2010 rent arrears for the village as a whole has reduced from £51,000 to £9000. This represents an average rent arrear per household of £21.
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. This is largely due to working with Westminster Council’s Recycling Team on making it easier for residents to recycle by assigning specific refuse chutes for recyclable materials.
