A year and a half ago I described our merger as a two-stage process. Stage one would be about bringing together people, IT systems and ways of working to become one housing association. And stage two would be about improving services for residents.
Well, I’m pleased to say stage one is now largely complete. We now look and feel like a single housing association. We have a single telephone number, contact email address and live chat, making it easier to resolve your queries right first time. And colleagues now have information about you and your home at their fingertips making it much easier to deliver a great service.
Getting to this stage has been a complex and occasionally frustrating process during which you won’t always have experienced us at our best. Colleagues have had to contend with unfamiliar processes, systems that don’t speak to each other and – in many cases – uncertainty over their jobs. I apologise if we’ve let you down. The board and its resident board members are well aware of the challenges and are sorry for the disappointing service some of you may have received.
Focused on repairs
With the first stage of merger almost complete, we’re now solely focused on improving services for residents. Most of our energies are going into improving repairs as we know this is your number one priority. We’re looking to improve every aspect of our repairs process from how easy it is to report a repair to the quality of works and how we keep you up to date. We’ve also taken several steps to make sure we comply with the requirements of Awaab’s Law. This introduced strict deadlines for investigating damp and mould hazards and responding to emergency repairs at the end of October. You can read more about this, here.
While we’ve got a long way to go, we have already made some significant improvements. You’ve consistently told us repairs take too long, and our communication is lacking. So we’ve taken positive action. For example, our new online account now lets you book your own repair appointment at a time that suits you, and track progress without chasing us. We’ll also talk to you about any particular needs for your household.
Our journey to 2030
Your feedback has also been instrumental in the development of our new strategic plan to take us up to 2030. Subject to Board approval early in 2026, this will see us adopt three goals, to:
- Fix our repairs service
- Provide professional services as evidenced by getting top marks against the Housing Regulator’s consumer standards by 2028 (a ‘C1’ grading’, up from our current C2). These are the standards we must follow to make sure residents live in safe, good-quality homes and are treated fairly.
- Restore our financial strength (as measured through our cash interest cover) by 2029.
Five thousand of you responded to our survey on how we should go about achieving these goals. And 50 involved residents attended online workshops. Thank you to every single one of you who gave up your time. We’ve reviewed and prioritised these with our leadership team and are using them to form an action plan towards the three strategic goals above.
Improving our customer services
How we do things is just as important as what we do. So, we’re also putting all colleagues through a customer service refresher programme called ‘Southern Service’. This covers all aspects of customer service from how we first respond to your queries to how teams collaborate to come up with solutions. Colleagues will be familiar with the principles. But a refresher course will bring everyone up to speed and ensure we’re all demonstrating the same resident-friendly behaviours and delivering excellent customer service.
Thank you for bearing with us while we’ve worked on the tricky behind the scenes work of becoming one housing association. I think we’re now at a turning point. And I’m optimistic our new strategic plan and transformation programme will see us delivering a consistently better standard of service up to the end of the decade and beyond.
We’re always happy to hear your feedback if you’d like to share any comments, you can do this here.
If you’d like to get involved in shaping our services and holding us to account, find out more, here.
Get in touch
- Call 0300 303 1066
- Email hello@southernhousing.org.uk.
