Repairs
Between 1st April 2014 and 31st March 2015:

84% of repairs were right first time, so we were able to complete them during the initial visit

Ian Williams delivered our repairs service up until August 2014. Following the feedback we received about issues and poor performance, we worked to select an interim contractor in Kier (supported by other contractors from our SME network) as we worked to appoint a new contractor who we will have in place from July 2015. Volunteers selected this new partner to deliver an improved repairs service
Repairs can be reported in the following ways:


Click to view infographics











We achieved 100% compliance with gas servicing, asbestos management, water treatment, fire management, door entry systems, stair lift maintenance, emergency lighting, fire alarms and electrical inspections

Spent an average of £95 per repair against a national average of £111 (calculated by the Housing Quality Network)

Customers (who are also volunteers) carried out phone surveys with fellow customers who have had a repair, to better understand the experiences you have and to learn from them

Repairs and maintenance is the busiest area of our business and one of the most important ones for you that we need to get right. We will:
  • Improve the performance and quality of our repairs service overall
  • Continue to monitor performance with volunteers who sit on our contract review groups (major works, repairs and empty homes and compliance)
  • Continue to work with our contractors to add value to our local economy by appointing apprentices
  • Our Asset Management Core Group made up of senior staff, the Chair of our Board, and tenant volunteers held its first meeting in May 2014 to look at our housing stock and assets as a business. Over the next few months the group will be receiving training so that they have the skills and the knowledge to make informed decisions about the future. Their main focus at the moment is around the Sheltered Housing review and the Castlefield regeneration project but they will be involved in key decisions about strategies and priorities for the future


The online repairs tool helps our team to diagnose your repair more quickly, meaning that we can deal with it more efficiently, saving time and money

Volunteers carry out a range of phone satisfaction surveys to test whether or not our contractors are providing the excellent services we have promised, helping us to check if you are getting value for money

We constantly look at quality as well as price, so that we can be sure that the work being carried out is right first time

Dorothy Coomer


“Having served on the Repairs and Empty Homes Group for the past two years, I have been part of an ongoing process to ensure that promises and values have been implemented to a high standard at all times.

I am also a member of the Core Procurement Group which chooses the best contractors to carry out work to meet our needs and expectations. During this time, I have learnt so much about things like repairs procedures, how we ensure quality and maintenance of homes to a high standard and how the special requirements and needs of customers are taken into account. We (Red Kite staff, our contractors, subcontractors, customers etc) all need to work together to achieve the best results for everyone and the Repairs and Empty Homes group has made this possible.

When homes become empty for whatever reason, they need to be surveyed and work carried out to make sure they are in a lettable standard so that new tenants can move into them in the shortest possible time. As a team, we have been involved in the process with things like choosing fittings and fixtures such as garden gates, colour schemes, kitchen work surfaces etc. We keep a check on what’s going on by going out and about to look for ourselves at standards of work. To view a home where we have had an input in the final result is very satisfying. It is good to know that we can actually have an influence on the living standards and daily lives of people, who are, like us volunteers, all customers of Red Kite Community Housing.

I find all of this an extremely interesting challenge, one where the reward of knowing that I am helping to improve and maintain customers' comfortable and safe living standard is a reward in itself”.

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