Quality is cheaper

Rebecca Mollart makes the point about considering “quality as part of floating support debate”. I work with a number of local councils, and one of them is “time and motion” bound. The floating wardens are given 8 minutes per week per older tenant – that is how their work load is allocated. Having managed a […]

May 3rd, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Lifetime homes standards

Three cheers - very loud ones - for Bill Randall! In this week’s Inside Housing, his column makes the clear case for lifetimes homes. I would point out that this is not just for home owners - think about the housing management case. How many transfer cases are on your books now because the home […]

April 11th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

A good old fashioned talking to

I read with great interest that, according to a Housemark study, that verbal warnings work better than court action in tackling anti-social behaviour. Apparently 85% of cases were successfully dealt with by talking to the person/people involved. Are we REALLY surprised by that? These statistics are borne out in case studies of Victim-Offender Mediation studies […]

April 6th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Neighbourhood reputation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently researched and published a report called Neighbourhood identity: people, time and place, which looked at three neighbourhoods in Stirling. In essence, it concludes that a neighbourhood’s reputation is set at an early stage and is difficult to change. Is that really surprising? Think of people. Once a reputation is established […]

March 23rd, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Communities - the physical and human

I caught part of a radio 4 programme on housing. The programme was talking about the demolition of the culture of cities by the demolition of its houses. Part of it was about the physical aspect and part was about the human element. A lot of blame went to various city planners in the 1930s, […]

March 14th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Eco-friendly is a hard sell

I’ve been reading with great interest the “Ecobuild” publication in a recent Inside housing. The reason for my interest is a storm of protest has erupted over a proposed eco-town in Leicestershire, the county where I live.
In brief, the proposal is for a 15,000 home development in the countryside area around Stoughton, Oadby and […]

February 24th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

More with nothing?

“Frontline pay cuts loom” is a terrible headline. Clearly supporting people in the community is the aim, but we are turning this into another care in the community debacle. There are stories in the press about the poor provision in some areas - and while the Ministers decry it and claim more will be done, […]

February 3rd, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Management training

“The need for high level skills such as leadership and multi-agency working has become apparent with the changes in the way housing professionals work across the sectors, often in a leading role.”
I read that just before the articles on Ujima. It is these basic skills of leadership and management which are needed to keep any […]

December 30th, 2007 by Beth Peakall

Customer service - the 2008 resolution?

“…at the heart of the landlord/tenant relationship are the services for which the tenant pays rent.” This comes from Inside Housing, 7th December 2007, p. 25
The Housemark steps are those which any business needs to engage in. Housemark is working on structure which will look at:
1. Identify what is important from the tenant’s perspective
2. Identify […]

December 23rd, 2007 by Beth Peakall

The need for information

I read with interest the story “Authorities’ secrecy puts staff in peril”, as this happened to me. We wound up rehousing a good chunk of the drug dealers and ASB cases for a local authority in a new area. Needless to say, this caused mayhem for months. The local authority did admit it had placed […]

December 11th, 2007 by Beth Peakall