New repairs contractors for London and East of England

Since 1 April, we’ve started new partnerships with United Living and Gilmartins, to deliver our responsive repairs service in London and the East of England, after we selected them as our main contractors following our successful procurement exercise for the London and East repairs contract. As our two main repairs providers, they have supported us to improve our overall repairs service delivery and provide you with the level of service, that as a customer, you expect to receive from us.  

We’ve already completed reviews on our current service delivery which has helped us amend and develop processes and implement service improvements that support our commitments to you, our customers. This includes completing repairs within target time, attending scheduled repair appointments on time, and keeping customers informed at every stage of the repairs service. 

In the last two years (between 2023 and 2024), we’ve seen an increase in London and East of England repairs requests. We’re confident that going back to having two contractors covering different areas will help us to deliver the service and respond to the increase in demand.  We’re using Gilmartins to deliver our repairs in Central, North West and West London, and United Living for most of our repairs in the East of England, focusing on the North and East of London, and Hertfordshire.  

Current service delivery 

Providing a high-quality repairs service within all our homes is important to us. We realise the inconvenience caused when something breaks inside your home and we’re always keen to find ways to improve our service. Gilmartins and United Living share our vision and were eager to start working with us once we announced we selected them. We brought both onboard to start delivering repair works prior to the official contract start date of 1 April.  

This soft launch really helped the onboarding process and create a working relationship with our contractors. Both contractors were able to book and complete repairs during the soft launch, and we have started to receive compliments from customers regarding their professionalism, efficiency and workmanship. Now they have fully taken over, both contractors are completing the majority of our responsive repairs, including emergencies, and so far, the service has been to a high standard. For a short period of time, we will continue to use other established contractors to ensure that repairs are completed as quickly as possible, allowing our new contractors to finish bringing together their resources and fill any outstanding vacancies. 

We’re aware that with the introduction of new contractors, there are always issues that can arise. During this period of change in contractors, some customers experienced a delay in our service delivery. It has taken longer than planned, and we have faced some challenges with linking our IT systems with our contractors. This has affected how quickly we’re able to share information with our contractors about repairs requests, as well as our ability to view available timeslots for repairs. However, we’re pleased to confirm that both contractors have offered a temporary solution to this and have provided extra staff to solely focus on booking appointments in.  

Changes to come 

We’ve had proactive conversations with our contractors regarding new ways of doing things, with a view to improving the service delivered to you.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll be completing the work needed to integrate our systems to ensure our contractors have the access and repairs information they need, and we have access to appointment timetables without the use of work arounds. This will allow you to book an appointment when you raise a repair request, which was previously available as part of our service. It will also improve how quickly we’re able to respond to your repair request.  

Once we’ve completed the changes, you will see further improvements in our service.  Until then, whilst we aim to keep any disruptions to the service to a minimum, we will continue to respond to your repair requests within the Service Level Agreement. 

We look forward to continuing to transform our repairs service with our new partnerships and will keep you updated if anything else changes. To find out more information about our repairs service and how long your repair will take, visit the London and East repairs section.