Doncaster tenants check out Sheffield services

A group of Doncaster tenants have been checking out Sheffield Homes’ services as part of a national benchmarking exercise.

 

Four tenants from St Ledger Homes toured some of the city’s estates and gave their views on how clean and green they were.  Their comments will be fed back to HouseMark, a national organisation dedicated to improving housing standards by sharing good practice and promoting performance improvement amongst the sector.

 

Estates in Netherthorpe, Upperthorpe, Gleadless Valley and Meadowhead went under the spotlight as the Doncaster visitors looked at all aspects of estate services, from grounds maintenance to block cleaning.

 

“This exercise brings us lots of benefits,” said Ian Slater, Estate Services Assistant Manager at Sheffield Homes.

“Our tenants get to see how other housing management organisations deliver estate services and we get an independent view of our services and where we can improve. It also ties in with our desire to get customers more involved in designing and monitoring our services.”

 

The visit followed a similar exercise in Doncaster on 18th September where a group of Sheffield Homes tenants rated St Ledger’s estate services.

 

Deborah Byrne, of Longley Farm Tenants and Residents Association, took part. She said: “I really enjoyed visiting St.Leger Homes - it was interesting to see how different structures within the same kind of organisation can work.  Sheffield Homes’ Estate Services put a lot of time and effort into involving tenants. If the opportunity is offered, it is worth getting involved to have your say in how the service is being run and could be further developed.”

 

Sheffield Homes is looking to introduce Tenant Inspectors in helping to improve the appearance of estates.

The HouseMark exercise takes this one step further by getting an independent appraisal of the quality of services by tenants from another housing organisation.