LMH shortlisted for two CIH UK Housing Awards

Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH) has been shortlisted for two national housing awards for its work improving communities and responding to tenants’ needs.

LMH’s role in the Intensive Community Payback scheme to reduce anti-social behaviour and rehabilitate offenders in the community is in line to win the CIH UK Housing Awards’ ‘Creating Safer Communities’ title.

LMH has also been earmarked for the ‘Delivering Effective Repairs and Maintenance’ award for its work reviewing and improving the way customers’ views influence the type of services delivered and how.

The Intensive Community Payback scheme; ‘Justice Seen, Justice Done’ has been delivered in partnership with a variety of agencies including the Community Justice Centre, Merseyside Probation Service and the police.

LMH’s tenant representatives also worked tirelessly and their commitment and support was highlighted as a major part in the project’s success that resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in the number of reports of anti-social behaviour in North Liverpool compared to the three months before.

Tenants say they feel safer in their homes and now have a renewed sense of community spirit.

The scheme allows Judge David Fletcher to sentence offenders appearing at the Community Justice Centre with a new Intensive Community Payback order whereby they have to work five days a week until they complete their unpaid hours, with work starting within two days of sentencing.

Offenders are shown the affects of their crimes and, motivated by role models, they are able to gain experience of full-time work, complete their hours and rehabilitate quicker whilst also seeing the results of their actions.  They are also given practical help to turn their experience into paid employment.

The second nomination LMH has been shortlisted for recognises its work with Voluntas Housing and its unique customer satisfaction solution ‘Rated by Residents’, which resulted in customer satisfaction levels for repairs and maintenance services increasing from 68.5% to an average of over 84%.

Normal practice in housing is to conduct independent tenant surveys every one to two years or carry out ongoing in-house surveys, but with LMH spending over £1.5 million a week on homes and services, Rated by Residents was introduced to provide a rolling program of surveying carried out independently by Voluntas, where a representative sample was taken on an ongoing basis, providing an up-to-date customer insight.

The system ensures the money is spent delivering improvements that best suit the diverse needs of tenants across the city and gauge how satisfied customers were in order to improve services.

Rated by Residents extracts statistically representative tenant and service data directly from the LMH database and uses independent researchers to survey those customers by telephone as soon as they have received a service from LMH.

The results are reported instantly onto a secure website where LMH can check how satisfaction levels change daily. At any time, LMH can see which services, contractors and locations are performing well, and which segments of tenants are more satisfied or less satisfied. 

LMH Chief Executive, Steve Coffey, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for two very prestigious national awards given the hundreds of entries received and this reiterates the work we are doing is ground-breaking and of real benefit to our tenants.

“The Intensive Community Payback scheme has made a huge difference to people living in North Liverpool as well as helping rehabilitate offenders and setting them on the right path to better lives.

“The work we have carried out to improve the way we respond to tenants’ needs has been very pleasing and will play a vital part in our future success – listening to our customers is absolutely key in delivering the services they need and want most.”

The winning entries will be announced on the 10^th of November.

Photograph: The Intensive Community Payback scheme has been a huge success.