Habinteg Housing Association
- North of England
The Brief
Habinteg Housing Association is a registered social housing provider with 50 years’ experience building and promoting accessible homes and communities. They own and manage more than 3,300 homes and operate in 86 local authorities across England and Wales.
Before they selected RFM, they were overspending on their budget year-on-year. They had to manage a large number of contractors across their network, with no performance management in place. They needed to reduce spend on maintenance and repairs in-line with their budget.
Habinteg also wanted a change in culture to manage tenants in a different way, finding a partner who understands their organisation and challenges.
Industry
Social Housing
Sector
Residential
Project Value
Estimated in excess of £10m
Project Timescale
10 Years
Our Approach
RFM Group assembled a bid team of social housing and property experts. We assessed Habinteg’s requirements and identified a solution different to the norm of social housing contractors. Our proposal utilised cutting-edge technology to provide a fully transparent management process, enabling Habinteg to revolutionise their service offering to their tenants and maintain their portfolio within budget.
We deployed a team of plumbers, electricians and multi-skilled tradespeople, with sub-contractor support, schedulers, administrators, contracts managers and project managers.
They are supported with continuation and involvement from Mark Flanagan, RFM Client Services Director, who has overseen the entire process from contract award to mobilisation and contract delivery. This ownership has ensured a smooth mobilisation.
Key success factors included:
- We worked closely with the head of asset management, surveyors and customer services to understand the current stock and challenges on tenant management and productivity on repairs and maintenance
- We identified a unique approach to engaging with tenants and the customer liaison officers by holding coffee mornings and forums in areas.
- We invested in local recruitment and the community
- Technology investment in a market-leading job management system
RFM Group were already a partner of Habinteg, delivering FM services for 10 years to the Bradford HQ. RFM also built their £1m new modern office space which they moved into during 2016 – we understood their culture and values and they mirrored our own, treating clients’ properties as if they were our own.
Outcome
RFM Group carried out over 5,000 repairs in year one of the contract. RFM and Habinteg worked together to define KPIs, which are reviewed every quarter. We worked with Habinteg to define KPI measures across all key areas. These include Resident Satisfaction (Target is 90% and is consistently met) and Repairs in Target (Target is 95% and averages 97%).
RFM Group have gained additional planned works due to strong performance on Repairs and Maintenance works.
Overall, this process has allowed Habinteg to have single visibility of performance and cost management in the areas RFM Group operate in. The technology systems used gives the client the ability to get real-time reporting.
Covid 19 Update
The global COVID-19 pandemic has required RFM Group to refine our operations. We showed flexibility and changed the way we carry out repairs for the client, to both accommodate their needs and implement extra safety measures to keep tenants and engineers safe.
Another new challenge of lockdown was a backlog of repair orders caused by a period of 3 months where carrying out repairs to their housing stock was not possible.
RFM systematically arranged repairs and resource requirements and then successfully implemented scheme days to reduce travel and contact. This resulted in a more structured and efficient repairs service, giving greater value and benefit to both the client and tenants.
“We picked RFM because they offered something totally different to everything else in the marketplace, and to date, they have performed well on the contract.”
