Quarter Of A Million Saving For The London Borough Of Havering

Morrison, a leading provider of maintenance services and capital projects to the housing sector, is piloting a scheme for the London Borough of Havering to reduce void times on the properties it manages for private landlords.

The council runs a Private Section Leasing (PSL) scheme managing the renting and maintenance of properties leased from private landlords across the borough. It recently faced concerns relating to turnaround times so it turned to Morrison to work with the council to pilot a scheme to improve ‘key to key’ vacancy time by reducing the time spent preparing properties for the next tenant.

In only four months Morrison has succeeded in nearly halving the time spent preparing vacated properties for the next occupants, saving the borough an estimated £245,000 in lost rental income this year.

Mike Gammack, Partnering Director at Morrison, said: “Morrison has been working in the borough since 2004 and this latest success underpins our commitment to a long-term relationship with Havering Borough Council.

“At Morrison we are always looking for ways to improve our service and this pilot scheme is a great example of how we work with clients to solve their problems. Through the continuous development of our service we are able to strengthen our partnerships with clients and provide savings in terms of cost and time.”

Councillor Mike Armstrong, Cabinet Member for Housing, Public Protection & Regeneration, said: “The joint void turnaround pilot initiative with Morrison has been a huge success generating significant savings for the council at the same time as providing a quicker supply of good quality accommodation to ensure we can keep up with the increasing demand from households facing difficult housing circumstances.”

Morrison currently repairs and maintains property owned by the borough council. It also provides additional specialist support for the repair staff of Homes in Havering, the ‘arms length management organisation’ (ALMO) set up to manage council houses in the London Borough of Havering on behalf of the council.

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Notes to editors:

Morrison is a leading provider of repairs, maintenance and capital projects for councils, housing associations, arms length management organisations (ALMOs) and PFI contracts.

Morrison looks after over 400,000 properties nationwide on behalf of its clients and employs over 3,000 people in 26 locations. www.morrisonfs.co.uk

Havering Borough Council owns approximately 10,000 homes for rent to local people and
there are over 2,200 leaseholders. In total the council owns housing assets valued in
excess of £500 million