Repairs: CIH charter for housing

Introduction

For so long the ‘Cinderella’ service, repairs and maintenance is experiencing a new dawn. CIH has been helping to drive this new emphasis on the service, which is consistently rated by tenants as the most important landlord service they receive, through the development of our repairs charter.

Developed in partnership with Mears Group, the charter will help you to ensure that the right strategies, tools and practical approaches are in place to maximise your ability to provide an efficient and effective repairs service. In this way, your tenants and customers can benefit from homes, estates and neighbourhoods that are well maintained and that benefit from services that are high quality yet cost effective.

Why do we need a repairs charter?

• What tenants want: a good repairs service is one of the most important services provided by a landlord. Not only is it the service that affects the greatest proportion of a landlords' tenants, it is also the service that is most highly valued and relied on by tenants
• Value for money services: repairs is the biggest area of spend for any landlord; this challenges landlords to drive value for money through both the procurement and delivery of repairs services and to maximise opportunities to enhance local sustainability
• Maintaining assets: maintaining existing housing stock in a good condition is critical to maintaining long term asset value and viability and to improving environmental sustainability
• Light touch regulation: lighter touch on regulation brings greater responsibility on the sector to drive our own improvement
• Localism and scrutiny: providing a repairs service that responds to local priorities and is accountable and scrutinised by tenants has never been more important

The charter

• Download the charter
• Sign up to the charter
• List of current signatories to the charter
• Frequently asked questions
• Repairs and maintenance charter network - if you would like to sign up to the network please email us

Supporting you to deliver the charter

Many housing organisations have used CIH charters to improve their services. Read about what they have done and how your organisation can make best use of the charters in the new CIH publication How to improve your services with CIH charters.

CIH has published several briefings which can help you to deliver against the charter. For more information please click below:

• How to... use technology to improve responsive repairs
• How to... carry out repairs on time, first time
• How to... build skills and capacity in repairs services
• How to... deliver value for money repairs services