Making our grounds maintenance service better
We know how important clean, tidy and well maintained neighbourhoods and shared spaces are to you.
From keeping the grass neat, picking up litter or making sure your communal spaces are clean and tidy, we want to make sure everything runs smoothly across our estates.
We’ve been working hard to review and refresh our grounds maintenance and cleaning services, which we talked more about in our previous edition of Here to Help. We shared more about what’s changed (and why) and what we’ve been doing this year to help improve our grounds maintenance service. Read more here.
What’s new?
Over the summer, we ran workshops open to customers in areas where we are planning to change our grounds maintenance contractors. This gave customers the chance to share their thoughts, feedback and expectations about our grounds maintenance service directly with our team. Thank you to everyone who took part. Your feedback is extremely valuable - it shows us where we need to improve and what’s working well.
We’ve listened to what you told us, and your priorities around quality, expertise, commitment and better communication will be built into our service review and the appointment of new contractors in some areas.
During the workshops, we:
- Explained how our contractors work, especially when covering large areas.
- Talked through how we monitor and manage their performance, including monthly meetings where we review complaints, queries and service standards.
- Showed how our Neighbourhood Partners carry out regular estate inspections, use a grading system and provide feedback on service quality.
This joined-up approach helps us keep track of standards and continue improving, so we can deliver consistently high-quality services for you.
What’s next?
Based on your feedback - and our commitment to making sure you receive the level of service you expect - we'll be changing the contractors who provide grounds maintenance in some areas.
We’re focusing on:
- Attracting local, smaller contractors with strong knowledge of the area.
- Using customer feedback, complaints and satisfaction data to guide our decisions.
- Updating our service specifications to raise standards and give clearer information to customers.
- Strengthening contract management with better evidence and performance monitoring.
- Improving service quality, customer satisfaction and value for money.
We also invited customers to get involved in the procurement stages. Your input is really important in helping us choose the right contractors and making sure we make informed decisions. Thank you to everyone who took part!
Work to keep improving our grounds maintenance service will continue into next year. We’ll keep you updated here and over on the customer hubb.
Our handy reporting tool allows you to easily tell us if something’s not right – like missed visits or overgrown grass. It's quick, easy and available anytime, you’ll get updates on what’s being done and issues go straight to our teams and contractors so they can act fast.
Our self-service schedule tool is also available so you can check when we’re due to visit your area, just by entering your postcode or address.
Reporting an issue
How you report issues hasn't changed. You can let us know about estate services issues through our handy tool on our website.
Help to shape where you live by becoming a Community Champion!
It’s a great way to help us monitor our services, stay informed, share feedback and help us make your estate the best it can be. Find out more and see how you can get involved.