Arches Housing - Repairs and Maintenance service

We were appointed by Arches Housing to support the organisation with the delivery and improvement of its repairs and maintenance service. The review included an assessment of the day to day responsive repairs, major works, voids and electrical works, with the aim to produce a detailed options appraisal of the most suitable delivery mechanisms for the future provision of the repairs and maintenance service.

The Challenge

Since the repairs and maintenance service is one of the largest cost areas for any landlord, and the service element that the majority of customers consider more than any other when assessing their landlord’s value for money and service standards, it was vital to understand the wider implications of each option for the future repairs service. In addition, the new repairs service had to meet the requirements of the regulatory standards, such as the newly introduced value for money standard, whilst simultaneously providing a high quality service for all of its customers, and being fully compliant with the public procurement regulations.

What We Did

We developed a number of options to be considered through the option appraisal process, based on our experience of models used by other social landlords. It was important to firstly gain an understanding of the present service and the challenges that it faced, and then to appraise the various options available to take the repairs service forward. Workshops and consultation sessions were held with customers, staff from across the organisation and Board members. Each option was appraised in terms of its relative advantages and disadvantages as well as how each option would help to deliver value for money. Arches staff were then consulted upon to decide which option would provide its customers with the best service, as well as meet the organisations strategic objectives.

Our Achievements