A new housing management service

A big thank you to all tenants and leaseholders who took the time to take part in this consultation. Your responses will help BCP Council's Cabinet to make a decision about the future of housing management services in Bournemouth and Poole. If a decision is made to create a new service, your views will help shape housing services over the next 12 - 18 months.

We asked

We asked you to give us your views on the proposal ‘to create a new single service across both areas which will be run within BCP Council’. This would mean that Poole Housing Partnership (PHP) and the Bournemouth in-house service would no longer exist in their current forms, and a new combined service would be formed to create the ‘best of both worlds’. The proposal included the creation of an Advisory Board that would provide oversight, expertise, and informed advice. We also asked a number of other questions about current levels of satisfaction with housing management service, what services within housing management service are most important to you and your thoughts and ideas on our 14 draft objectives for the new housing management service.

You said

All of your feedback has been analysed and you can see the final reports here.

• 1886 tenants and leaseholders responded to the survey
• 51% agreed with the councils preferred option and 14% disagreed. Residents currently living in Bournemouth are more likely to agree with the proposal compared to Poole residents (56% agree compared to 46% agree).
• When asked if they had any concerns or comments some respondents mentioned the following concerns: organisations becoming less effective as they grow larger, service being slower to respond due to the increase in homes/queries, changes would result in cost cutting, whether enough staff be employed within the service, whether there would be increased costs.
• Other respondents said the service was fine as it is whereas others felt it was a good idea to combine the service, happy for it to be managed by the council, make sure local offices were retained.
• Another theme that was highlighted in the comments included communication being key to the new combined service and that the advisory board should be representative of residents.
• Respondents were asked to comment on the 14 draft objectives for the new housing management service. There was a general consensus that the objectives looked good and covered everything. Some respondents questioned whether the council had the resource to ensure that they were achievable.
• The five most important services within the housing management service included access to a repairs service, keeping the neighbourhood clean and tidy, improvements to the home, managing the behaviour of other tenants and residents and communal cleaning in shared areas.
  

We did

The results of the consultation are currently being considered and BCP Council's Cabinet will soon make a decision about the future of Housing Management Service at their April Cabinet meeting. We will update this page again once a formal decision has been made.