Mount Green Housing Association, which owns and manages homes across Surrey and Sussex, has implemented changes to its property and assets team in order to effect significant improvements to its handling of repairs, maintenance, and voids.
The housing provider is currently working alongside its tenants to redesign a new repairs programme, which will also include planned cyclical improvements to its existing homes across Surrey and Sussex.
Leading the project is Andrew Donaldson, the organisation’s newly appointed director of property and assets, who joined the team in February as a property services manager.
Before joining Mount Green, Donaldson worked as the group manager of housing repairs and maintenance for Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames for nearly nine years, supporting the local authority to deliver on projects such as its capital improvement programme.
Alongside Donaldson, Mount Green has created four new roles to bolster the team’s capacity, knowledge, and expertise. This includes employing Gary Dynan as a property services manager, Ian Lines as a planned surveyor, Martin Fox as a repairs and maintenance surveyor, and Samuel Adjei as a mechanical and electrical surveyor.
The new hires have nearly doubled the housing association’s property and assets team from five colleagues to nine.
Commenting on the recruitment drive, Donaldson said: “We recognise that in the past our tenants have felt repeatedly let down by Mount Green and our previous contractor as we’ve made well intentioned promises that we’ve not kept.
“We’ve already made a number of positive changes to how we’re managing repairs, which includes appointing a new interim contractor and increasing the capacity and experience of our team.
“However, moving forward, our core focus as an organisation is ensuring that the voices of our residents are heard.
“We want as many residents as possible to be involved with shaping our new and improved services to ensure it aligns with their needs.
“We’d initially planned to conduct face-to-face workshops within our local communities but due to restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19, we are now hosting these sessions virtually to avoid any delays.”
The finalised programme is expected in April 2022.
Image: solarseven/Shutterstock
Read next: Why we need to support social housing tenants into sustainable employment
Are you a social housing professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.
