HomeSwapper announced that thanks to partnerships with more than 180 landlords, its service now enables over half a million households to find a mutual exchange free of charge.
Launched by Scout Solutions earlier this year to fill the gap left by the CLG's closure of Homeswap, HomeSwapper aspired to being able to offer tenants a mutual exchange service that really worked; a service that would facilitate social housing tenants finding a new home quicker and more easily by swapping.
Under the corporate ethos of making a difference in people's lives by blending social and commercial strategies, HomeSwapper also had the vision of making the service as accessible to tenants as possible.
John Carthew, Managing Director of HomeSwapper explains:
"Tenants needs were at the forefront of our plans when we launched HomeSwapper. Consequently, we designed HomeSwapper to not only be an online mutual exchange community which any tenant can become a member of, we also made sure it was a highly useful shared mobility service landlords can use to improve service levels and even access cost savings".
"Since the HomeSwapper landlord functionality went live in May we've been inundated with requests from landlords to partner. Within a few days they're up and running and consequently, the service is free to their tenants. We are thrilled that HomeSwapper has become even more accessible for the 500,000 tenants of those partnering landlords."
Having seen more than 65,000 tenants register since launch, HomeSwapper has fast become the UK's leading mutual exchange service. Hundreds of tenants are reporting successful swaps each month and with the ability for tenants to be automatically matched and alerted to potential swaps within 24 hours of joining.
The repairs team at Amber Valley Housing has gone hi-tech with each member of the workforce now equipped with the latest PDAs or handheld, mobile devices. It means that, when a tenant reports an emergency repair, a member of the team can be contacted immediately by the office and receive all the information needed to complete the job.
The new technology is cutting down on the time taken to carry out repairs. It is also greener, as it reduces trips back to head office and removes paperwork.
All housing associations are judged according to how well they meet their repairs targets. Amber Valley Housing is hitting all targets. In the last year, it completed 98.5% of all emergency repairs within the one-day target, 97.3% of all urgent repairs within the seven-day target, and 97.2% of all routine repairs within the one-month target.