Repairs, debt prevention and customer service on the up
SHEFFIELD Homes has released its latest performance figures which show big achievements in repairs, debt prevention and customer service.
The statistics are collated over a period from 1 April to 30 June and measured against targets that have been benchmarked and compared with other Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs).
Trial changes to the repairs service, which now offers customers two-hour appointment slots, seem to be paying dividends. Performance on all indicators is above target, with over 98% of repairs completed on time and 97% of appointments kept.
Work to develop financial inclusion and debt prevention measures has also paid off. The number of tenants evicted or facing eviction as a result of rent arrears has fallen and is now well below target. Ensuring customers maximise their income and receive benefit entitlements due to them has resulted in almost a £1million income to customers last year.
Satisfaction with complaints handling has risen to 72.6% - this compares well with the same period last year when the satisfaction level was 45%. When corresponding with Sheffield Homes, 96% of customers receive a response within the target time.
Other highlights include:
- the percentage of rent collected has increased to 99.08%
- the number of empty properties has fallen from 960 to 929
- we have met challenging targets for removing graffiti and flytipping. In June alone there were over 4,500 incidents of flytipping
- there was an increase in satisfaction with the final outcome of an anti-social behaviour case to 73%
There are areas for improvement. Performance in closing complaints within 21 days is slightly below target.
Although we have increased the percentage of rent collected in this quarter, performance on reducing rent arrears has fallen. This is partly due to the way that Direct Debits are calculated and should even out during the course of the year.
“We measure ourselves against challenging targets every quarter and so it’s heartening to see that we’re doing so well,” said Peter Morton, Chief Executive of Sheffield Homes.
“There are always areas for improvement and we will focus on these over the coming months, as well as maintaining the high standards we are already achieving in most areas of our business.”