Cross Keys Homes comes out top for satisfaction

January 26, 2010

PETERBOROUGH’s largest housing association has beaten more than 190 social landlords and local authorities to be the country’s top performer for overall customer satisfaction. Cross Keys Homes which took over the city council’s 10,000-strong housing stock in October 2004 has been ranked number one out of all the major landlords who participate in the HouseMark benchmarking club.

Commenting on achieving the number one spot with 93 per cent, which is more than 10 per cent above the national average, Cross Keys Homes’ chief executive, Mick Leggett, said: “Ensuring our customers are delighted with our services is so important to us and so deeply embedded in our culture that it is a fantastic recognition for our staff. To achieve this result they have given their all to respond to our customers’ needs and aspirations.”

He added: “It has taken us five-years of creating a culture of excellence to reach this milestone. To get where we are today we have supported and developed our longer serving people, recruited new staff who share our values and embraced working with our customers as partners.

“The achievement is all the more significant in a city where 10 per cent of our tenants live in areas with the highest levels of deprivation nationally.”

The housing association is so committed to listening and learning from customer feedback that it asks its customers annually for their comments even though registered social landlords are only required to every three years.

Cross Keys Homes’ chair, Dr Angus Kennedy, added: “I have been enormously impressed with the dedication of the staff team and the commitment of so many residents to work for the benefit of Cross Keys to help ensure we provide the best possible services for our customers.”

Throughout the housing association’s five-year existence customer satisfaction has improved year-on-year thanks to what it has achieved and the range of new services that have been introduced.

One of the key promises to tenants at transfer was to set up a dedicated anti-social behaviour team to work closely with a number of agencies, including the police, to deal with the difficult people who can make their neighbours lives a misery.

Last year Cross Keys Homes commenced a five-year programme of £1m to work with others in the community to reduce the deprivation on some of its estates. This is already delivering a number of innovative projects to improve health, promote employment opportunities and motivate young people.

In addition, Cross Keys Homes has transformed the lives of its tenants and their communities with the delivery of a five-year £100m home improvement programme which completes in March, eighteen-months ahead of schedule.

The organisation has also invested nearly £5m on environmental works such as increased car parking, extra street lighting and creating open spaces.

As well as improving existing homes Cross Keys Homes has developed 400 new homes providing 284 properties for those on the housing waiting list and 116 for the shared ownership scheme which allows people to part buy, part rent.

Director of operations, Claire Higgins said: “Cross Keys Homes considers itself as more than just a landlord. We are committed to changing lives and helping people to build and improve their communities.

“While our survey results are great news we want to do much more to improve the quality of the lives of our tenants and the neighbourhoods they live in.”

The housing association is so committed to listening and learning from its customers that it has tenants and residents involved at all levels. They are on the board of directors, they are members of interviewing panels for recruiting new staff, they assist in the selection of most contractors and they sit in judgement on complaints’ panels to name just a few.

Tenant and board member Christine Cunningham added: “Since Cross Keys Homes took over the housing stock I have seen so many improvements.

“Cross Keys Homes’ customer service is second to none and I cannot thank them enough for all they have done.”

As a key community player the organisation is represented on a number of decision-making and delivery bodies such as the Safer Peterborough Partnership and the Greater Peterborough Partnership.

Cross Keys Homes also sponsors a large number of community and voluntary groups through a variety of sponsorships.

For further information on Cross Keys Homes, visit: www.crosskeyshomes.co.uk

ENDS

Press contact: Katie Taylor, communications and marketing manager, Cross Keys Homes, 01733 385116