Social housing PFI investor and developer, Regenter, has opened new offices in Canning Town.
Regenter has been managing Canning Town's PFI scheme since June 2005. Through the scheme, Regenter has refurbished 1,000 local authority and 200 leaseholder homes to the decent homes standard. It will be managing the housing management, grounds maintenance, call centre and repairs service for the area over the next 30 years.
Steve Bonvini, Manager of the Canning Town PFI project, said:
"Our new office will be a one-stop-shop for the local community to access housing maintenance and estate services as well as a 24/7 help desk. While we are only two years into the PFI contract, we have already made a positive contribution to the improvement of the area, and the response by the residents has been overwhelmingly positive. By moving to this new office, we'll be able to continue offering a truly comprehensive, responsive service for residents."
Housing maintenance and estate management services contractor, Connaught, completed a high rise communal window clean for Solihull Community Housing, in just 17 days - despite bad weather.
Connaught flexed its environmental arm to clean 42 high rise blocks in the Smithswood, Kingshurst and Chelmsley Wood areas of Solihull. Each block ranged from 9 to 15 storeys high. Solihull Community Housing provided a team of Area Caretakers to advise and guide residents safely through cordoned off areas whilst these works were carried out.
Health and safety was of paramount importance to the project, as all the windows were fixed and had to be cleaned externally. Health and Safety Managers from both Connaught and Solihull Community Housing were involved, to assess the individual requirements for each block and ensure a safe and smooth operation.
The Northern Housing Consortium selected allpay.net as its preferred partner for bill payments, after an extensive evaluation of bill payment service providers. The move means new and existing members, including housing associations and local authorities, will no longer have to spend time and money in undertaking individual tenders for such services.
Using allpay.net, members can now take immediate advantage of the industry's broadest range of bill payment solutions, including those based on swipe-cards, the Internet, Direct Debit, IVR and TV. By offering their customers the widest choice of channels for paying rents, Council Tax and other bills, NHC member organisations can focus more fully on core business and delivery of services. They will also benefit from allpay.net's competitive transaction charges, customer service and after-sales care.
Northern Housing Consortium's primary role is to support and represent its members, who are responsible for 86% of social housing in the North. Its Chief Executive, John Moralee, said:
"The Consortium has worked with allpay.net for the past three years and the time was right to refresh our offering to Consortium members. There were several submissions to the tender process. Allpay.net was the ultimate choice, because it was the provider who was able to offer the broadest range of services, delivering far greater choice and flexibility for the end user."
Mr Moralee added: "We are also very impressed with the new solutions allpay.net currently has in development, such as text reminders and Sky TV. We feel that it is this range of services, combined with the significant potential savings involved that will make the solution extremely attractive to users."