West Londoners to benefit from housing transformation

Over 10,000 homes in Hammersmith and Fulham are set to benefit from a new efficiency partnership designed to radically transform the lives of social housing tenants and local leaseholders, and successfully address the needs of the city’s most vulnerable communities.

Hammersmith and Fulham Homes (H&FH) is working alongside Northgate Public Services, a leading provider of innovative services to the public sector and utilities markets, to ensure that local people benefit from the Government’s Decent Homes programme to provide communities with high-quality, sustainable housing.

At a tough economic time for citizens throughout the area, Hammersmith and Fulham Homes is able to radically improve its housing services in areas including refurbishment and repairs of homes, leaseholder management and customer services, whilst delivering sustainable efficiencies.

Through unique public-private partnership arrangements linking fees to performance and prioritising the transfer of skills to employees, the initiative offers an innovative approach to sharing risk with the private sector. Services are expected to be self-financing and the partnership will deliver £4.7 million in efficiencies until 2010.

The partnership encourages greater involvement and empowerment of local tenants and leaseholders, and delivers:

- a proven knowledge and skills transfer process, enabling the organisation to sustain improvements beyond the end of the contract period;

- staff benefits from new programmes of training and empowerment

- hands-on operational management and support, rather than just advice;

- a clearer understanding of the relationship between budgets, available resources and the needs of service users, supporting effective planning for the future.

Nick Johnson, Chief Executive at Hammersmith and Fulham Homes, said: “We are committed to providing citizens throughout Hammersmith and Fulham with the first class housing that they deserve. Our partnership with Northgate will ensure effective and efficient use of resources, realise efficiencies until 2010 and beyond, and actively support and train our staff with strong programmes of involvement and empowerment.”

Joe Bradley, Managing Director of Citizen Services at Northgate Public Services, added: “Northgate is passionate about delivering first-class housing that focuses on the needs of all tenants, including those in the most vulnerable communities. The new partnership will strive to deliver stronger and more cohesive neighbourhoods by ensuring that all citizens can gain full access to housing that they deserve. We are proud to be working alongside Hammersmith and Fulham Homes to transform the lives of social housing tenants across the borough and make a real difference to local communities now and in the future.”