Wrekin Housing Trust shortlisted for national award

The Wrekin Housing Trust has been shortlisted as a contractor providing the most innovative maintenance service in The National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) Awards.

The Wrekin Housing Trust’s maintenance solution was developed in 2005, giving mobile hand-held devices to the trade workforce to streamline work efficiency. The system, called ‘Hand-e-Work’ has been further developed over the years and is now marketed to other housing associations and local authorities.

The system allows tenant repair calls to be slotted straight into trade operatives diaries, allowing an appointment date to be given to the tenant, and saving time between jobs allowing more repairs to be completed daily. The operative records the start and finish of each job, which triggers the sending of the next job to the PDA, and allows the call-centre to ring the tenant within a few minutes of the repair to undertake a short satisfaction survey.

The tradesmen carry stocks of materials in the van, and any materials used on a job are recorded using the PDA, which generates an order for replenishment stock that is sent directly to Travis Perkins (the supply chain partner). Each tradesman can elect either to collect his replenishment stock from the branch or to have it delivered to home or site on a particular day.

Tenants had always been very satisfied with the repairs service at The Trust, but at a recent series of focus groups, tenants said they appreciated being able to receive an immediate appointment date when they ring to report a repair.

The annual best practice awards will be decided at the NHMF Maintenance Conference dinner on January 27 2009. The awards are held to seek out and publicise best practice in maintenance that all housing associations can then benefit from.