Housing association L&Q is investing £3.7million and recruiting 87 new staff to create “a more visible housing management presence” in neighbourhoods, while supporting improvements in the way service charges, complaints and customer enquiries are handled.

The announcement builds on a 2022 reorganisation of L&Q’s housing management services, which introduced a patch-based approach. Under this model, Neighbourhood Housing Leads (NHLs) deliver services to around 550 households each. L&Q says it is also transforming how services are delivered, including major investments in new IT systems to ensure residents receive a reliable, repeatable and consistent experience.

Thirty-one new NHLs are being recruited, cutting average patch sizes from 550 homes per Neighbourhood Lead to just over 400 across London and the South.

L&Q is also creating 21 new specialist roles within its ASB team, including dedicated managers and officers, alongside wraparound support and signposting for residents affected by domestic abuse.

A further 14 new colleagues will join L&Q’s service charge team, helping to improve how charges are communicated to residents. They will work alongside a newly established managing agents team, which advocates for residents living in buildings where services are delivered by third party companies. The managing agent team will work with L&Q residents to more effectively hold external companies to account for the quality of the services they deliver.

L&Q’s contact centre will grow by nine posts to reduce call waiting times and improve consistency, while its complaints team is expanding to ensure a strengthened approach to learning from complaints.

Matt Foreman, executive group director of customer services at L&Q, said: “We’re delighted to announce these new roles, which will help us to be more visible and responsive to residents, and provide additional support or signposting to other services. We look forward to welcoming our new recruits later this year.”

Recruitment for the new roles is already under way, with the new colleagues expected to be in place before the end of the year.