Kier partners with council for pioneering housing maintenance trial

More than 6,000 council properties in the Stoke-on-Trent area are set to benefit from a pioneering trial of a new service for home improvements.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s housing maintenance provider, Kier Stoke, has welcomed seven council contact centre workers into its offices for the pilot – a groundbreaking partnership which will see a more rapid, comprehensive response pledged to tenants in the central part of the city.

The city’s 19,300 council houses trigger around 101,000 housing maintenance enquiries a year – over 300 reports a day. It means that on average, each property generates around five calls a year. In reality, however, one in five properties do not generate enquiries, with a further 20 per cent generating around 10-12 calls per annum.

The new service, initially being piloted to properties in the heart of the city, will aim to answer tenant queries from a single point of contact.

Kier Stoke operations director, Jane Spellacy, said: “We’ve looked at how we can work much more closely to integrate our service and improve response rates to tenants and are excited by the enhanced support we can now deliver.

“Our electricians, plumbers and carpenters, as well as residents, have actually helped to design the new contact centre system and their views have played an integral part in making the pilot happen. We have conducted a mini trial of this work involving 300 properties, and the feedback we have had has been extremely positive.”

Councillor Brian Ward, Stoke-on-Trent City Council cabinet member for housing, planning and transportation, said: “We have always worked closely with Kier to resolve housing maintenance issues across the 19,300 houses that the council owns.

“But that work has become a lot more focused in recent months. We have been looking at the way the partnership with Kier is working as one of many transformational changes that is taking place across the council in order to drive through efficiencies and improve services for customers.

“The work is initially being piloted in the central part of the city because this area has a number of large housing estates, so that we can reach a good cross section of tenants. It is also more central to dispatch stores meaning we can get replacement parts out more quickly for customers. With it being a pilot scheme, we are looking at the central area first – residents in the north and south of the city will have their enquiries addressed in the same way as before.”