Servite Houses has 'more weaknesses than strengths' - Audit Commission

Servite Houses 'has more weaknesses than strengths', according to a report published today by the Audit Commission.

Audit Commission inspectors reached their conclusions following a short-notice inspection of how the London based housing association is responding to tenants’ complaints; re-letting empty homes; and recovering rent owed by former tenants.

This is because tenants’ complaints are not being responded to quickly or to a high standard and former tenants are not being actively pursued to recover the rent they owe. However, new tenants receive good information and support, and homes are generally let in a good condition.

Hugh Boatswain, Audit Commission Lead Housing Inspector, said: "Servite Houses is not yet consistently delivering a customer-orientated approach or meeting the diverse needs of all of their tenants.

"This is reflected in the speed and quality of many responses to customers’ complaints, which do not demonstrate high levels of customer care.

"Servite Houses is not making enough effort to recover rent owed from tenants who have quit their tenancies or who have been evicted, which reduces income available for improving services to tenants. However, in general, housing is being re-let quickly and new tenants are satisfied with the condition of their new home.’

Weaknesses include:

• Customer service is not meeting a high standard, and customers do not always receive a polite and professional response;
• The diverse needs of Servite’s tenants are not fully understood;
• Customer complaints are not always responded to quickly or to a high standard;
• Rent owed by former tenants is not effectively pursued and recovered; and
• Empty homes in supported and sheltered housing take a long time to re-let.

Strengths include:

• Recent performance for letting empty general needs homes is within 25 days, which compares well with other landlords;
• The costs of repair works to empty homes is comparatively low; and
• There is effective information and support for new tenants.

Recommendations include:

• Improving customer service and care by training staff;
• Improving customer satisfaction with complaints, with a focus on quality of response and identifying lessons learnt;
• Undertaking a review of how former tenants’ arrears are recovered;
• Increasing the level and use of diversity data held about tenants’ needs; and
• Reviewing service standards in liaison with customers, to ensure they are comprehensive and clear.

Copies of the report are available from Servite Houses Housing Association or from the Audit Commission website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk/reports

The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) is the affordable housing regulator in England and works with the Audit Commission on the inspection of housing associations. The TSA commissions the Audit Commission to carry out inspections and the results are used by the TSA in its overall assessment of housing association performance.

In a statement issued today, Servite Houses, said: "Servite Houses has now received the report from our recent Short Notice Inspection. The inspection took an in-depth look at complaints, former tenancy arrears, re-lets and void management and the cross cutting areas including access and customer care, diversity and value for money.

"We welcome the feedback from SNI as it has given us an important, independent view as to where we are on our turnaround journey.

"We are engaged on a multi-year turnaround at Servite.

"We began the process by launching our change programme, Transform Servite, which contained three key objectives; Efficiency, Excellence and Focus. 

"Of necessity, we concentrated initially on Efficiency and on re-establishing our financial strength. That we have now largely achieved and we are now concentrating on delivering Excellence and a step-change in service quality.

"We are very much where we expected to be at this stage in the journey and we were already aware of, and working on, almost all of the recommendations made by the Audit Commission.

"In its report the Audit Commission acknowledges that we have made some good progress over the last year, particularly in the way we let empty properties but also recently in how we handle complaints."

Matthew Fox, Servite chief executive, said: “The Audit Commission concluded that our service was “mixed” – there are some things we do well but many where we need to improve.

"All of us at Servite are totally committed to achieving that improvement and confident that we can deliver it over the coming months.

"We’ll be working closely with our National Residents Forum to develop an action plan that includes the views of as many residents as possible and helps us to deliver a great service.”