Members only

This year’s Estate Services Hub annual conference focused on addressing three key challenges:

• The rising cost of service delivery and what this means for resident’s staff and business plans
• The need to implement long-term sustainable, green practices against a backdrop of climate change
• Changing expectations of residents and how we can better engage with communities to keep estates looking beautiful.

Thanks to our Chair, Chris Collins from Garden Organic, all the expert speakers and delegates.

HQN CEO, Alistair McIntosh, kicked the day off by setting out the important role estate services teams play on the frontline as the regulatory regime approaches. Teams need to be alive to pressures around tenant satisfaction and inspections at a time when costs are rising.

He said estates teams can expect the Regulator of Social Housing to be focusing in on estates services with inspections. We can expect scrutiny on:

• How landlords use data
• Meaningful engagement with tenants
• Listening to operatives
• Procurement
• Accurate billing

The importance of having your data right and meaningful engagement with tenants were themes that continued throughout the day.

Mica Joseph, Estates Services and Open Spaces Manager at L&Q, gave a great session on involving tenants in re-procuring services across 1,700 estates.

Her team had championed a significant investment in GIS as a means to gain accurate data, which enabled them to answer tenant question on service charges and value for money.

Qamar Khan, Estate Services Manager at LiveWest, shared details of their 156 strong Estate Services Champions project which has been created a valuable feedback mechanism for customers specifically on estate services and has positively impacted tenant satisfaction.

Greg Birch, Head of Property Management and Estate Services from Orbit, joined Mica and Qamar for a panel discussion on tenant engagement, that brought out the need to:

• Have a commitment to learning and continuously improving no matter how long you have worked in estate services
• Finding a variety of ways to involve tenants that suit them from activity days to online surveys
• Improve communications. If tenants report something, listen and act on it promptly and keep people in the loop
• Have a voice at a senior management level – Estates Services is the shop window of the sector
• Think about how to improve services now ahead of Tenant Satisfaction Measures coming in

HQN Associates, Jackie Dicken and Emma Towler, gave a session on service charges and tenancy engagement — reinforcing that transparent communication is key.

They flagged that officers need to be empowered to feed back up to senior managers to ensure tenants get what they are promised.

Issues around dealing with third party managing agents were discussed and the extortionate fees some charge. Emma asked if this could become the next leasehold charges scandal – with there being no other route than the county court tribunal to challenge the costs. She argued it needs to be part of the government’s leasehold reform agenda.

Martin Watson, Home Budgets Manager at PA Housing, leads the Home Budgets Team which has been specifically set up to bridge the gap between the finance team and customers to explain service charges. He explained how PA is working to break down barriers and stigma in mixed tenure estates.

The importance of good data held in a central system was again emphasised.

Martin highlighted the Housing Ombudsman Spotlight Report on Managing Agents and explained PA Housing is setting up a team focused on dealing with managing agents issues because customers want and need this.

Chris Collins, Head of Organic Horticulture and David Garrett, Head of Knowledge Transfer from Garden Organic talked passionately about creating sustainable places and communities. Chris shared some top tips on increasing biodiversity from hedgehog highways to planting native hedges instead of putting up a fence to create a boundary.

He and David championed community gardening as a great way to promote the wellbeing and pride of tenants in their neighbourhoods and give them ownership of a space around their homes.

Mark Lowe, Director of Sustainability at ForHousing, argued that biodiversity doesn’t have the same prominence as climate change and reducing CO2 – and that needs to change. He says the housing sector has an important role to play and that it’s the right thing to do.

For example, landlords manage innumerable green spaces which can be rewilded and dramatically reduce grounds maintenance costs.

He discussed the positive work ForHousing is doing to successfully educate people of all ages around these issues. From carbon literacy training for staff, tenants and stakeholders to positive engagement with children and young people with an educational computer game.

What’s next?

Delegates agreed this was an important conversation and there was scope to continue this as a group. The next Estate Services Hub best practice group takes place on 22 November and will focus on contracting in versus contracting out at a time when rising costs are putting pressure on service delivery.

Book your place here to join this open discussion where you can share and learn from the best practice of others.