Consultation to extend housing office opening hours

Published by Hywel LLoyd for Merlin Housing Society in Housing

Merlin Housing Society has launched a month-long consultation with residents on their preferred opening hours.

Since it was founded in 2007 Merlin’s housing offices have just been open in normal office hours. Now the society is considering opening outside of these times to allow more residents to get in touch. But before it makes any changes, it wants to find out exactly what residents would prefer.

All residents who contact their housing office during January, as well as those who attend any meetings with the society are being asked their views.

Karin Ellis, Customer Service Manager, said: “Every week hundreds of residents contact us to discuss issues with their tenancy. And although we have an out-of-hours phone service for residents to report tenancy issues, we aren’t able to respond there and then.

“For residents who work our current opening hours might not be convenient, especially if they want to talk with a housing officer, either on the phone, by coming into one of our offices, or by making an appointment for their officer to visit them in their home. So, during January we’re asking residents to let us know when they would most like to contact us. This could be on a Saturday or in early evening as well as during regular office hours.

“We’ll then analyse the results to work out whether residents want us to change our opening hours.”

To have your say on Merlin’s office hours, visit www.merlinhs.co.uk and follow the link on the home page. The consultation runs until the end of January.