How we're prioritising repairs post-lockdown
With the lockdown easing, most of our frontline services are returning to normal. However, Covid-19 is having a lasting impact on our ability to carry out repairs and maintenance work as usual.
The safety of our community is always our priority. To protect you and our colleagues from Covid-19, we have adapted the way we work, but this means that some areas of our repairs and maintenance service are operating more slowly than usual.
All our colleagues are working hard to accelerate our service, by adapting processes and introducing new, efficient ways of working. Where there are limited resources we find new suppliers, and when we receive an urgent request, our team resolves it as soon as possible. If our supplies are limited for certain types of repairs, we are asking specialised contractors to carry out the work for us. This is the case for our fence repairs, which will be completed by new contractors from October onwards.
To run our repairs service effectively while keeping you safe, we are prioritising work based on how urgent it is and whether we have enough resources to carry it out.
These five factors are helping us decide which repairs to prioritise:
1. The repair’s urgency
Some repairs are also more urgent than others, as they pose a health and safety risk.
Therefore, we are prioritising these emergency repairs:
- No heating or hot water
- A blocked toilet (if it is the only toilet in your home) (this may be re-chargeable)
- An uncontainable leak (including roofing or serious gutter leaks)
- A broken shower, including wet rooms (if this is the only washing facility in your home)
- Full power failure
- An insecure property (such as smashed windows or a broken front door lock)
To book an emergency repair appointment, please call us on 01344 382 800.
2. The booking date
A large number of the repairs that were requested in the spring had to be cancelled due to the lockdown.
We are currently rebooking all these repairs requests and resolving them in turn. As soon as these are done we will start to book in new requests.
3. Covid-19 guidance
Our frontline colleagues are getting daily checks, in line with the government’s guidance, to ensure that they are healthy enough to go to work. This is helping us to protect our community from Covid-19.
However, it does mean that if one of our colleagues has any symptoms of the disease, such as a raised temperature or a cough, they are unable to go to work – which in turn leads to us having fewer available repairs and maintenance colleagues than usual.
4. Supply availability
While our supply chain has largely returned to normal, there are still some materials and tools that are in short supply.
We have a strong network of providers, but as they are still impacted by Covid-19, we receive fewer materials more slowly than usual. This is delaying some of the repairs which we could usually do quickly.
5. Contractor availability
A number of contractors help us carry out specialised repair and maintenance work in and around our homes, including roofing, boilers, asbestos surveys, kitchens and bathrooms.
Each of our contractors is following a different set of Covid-19 guidance, to protect the communities in which they work. This means that some contractors are not yet ready to fully resume their services safely, so some types of repairs are being delayed.
Contact us
Thank you so much for your patience during this challenging period. We are doing everything we can to resume our normal repairs and maintenance services as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.