Decent Homes

In the year 2000, in its Decent Homes initiative, the government made a commitment to bring all public sector homes up to a decent standard by 2010. This places a responsibility on councils to set a timetable for eliminating backlog repairs in their stock, carrying out ongoing maintenance and taking the necessary actions to ensure these targets are met.

This initiative will have a massive impact on the environment that people live in, it can play a major role in the regeneration of communities and raise the standards of social housing to a level befitting a prosperous society. Decent Homes is therefore a positive project to be involved in and Morrison is a pro-active supporter of the initiatives objectives.

The scale of this task is however immense with all those involved working to very tight timetables.  Our Decent Homes Programme Managers have developed fast track approaches to construction management that mean that we have reduced the time to refurbish a typical three bedroomed house to a minimum. This means that we can reach high rates of completion and minimise the disruption to the residents involved.

But not only do we concentrate on speed, we also play very close attention to the needs of the residents. From the earliest stages of the planning process to the period in which house refurbishment actually takes place, our Resident Liaison Managers make sure that the residents are fully informed as to the plans and can contribute to the planning process. In many aspects of scheme design residents are able to be offered a range of choices that helps personalise their homes; for example in the colour of the kitchen or bathroom units that are to be fitted. Furthermore our Resident Liaison Managers are also able to take note when residents demonstrate special design requirements that will help them manage a physical impairment.

Because most Decent Homes refurbishments take place whilst the residents are in their homes, our Resident Liaison team make daily visits to all residents during the construction phase. This ensures that any issues that arise during construction are quickly identified and resolved. In this way we are able to demonstrate very high rates of resident satisfaction in all of our Decent Homes activities.

Not only do we deliver the capital works themselves but in partnering arrangements with our clients we can also play a key role in the planning of the refurbishment programme. We will undertake a full programme of house surveys and will define the scope of the refurbishment works that are required to be undertaken. This means that our client can allow us concentrate on the detailed planning whilst it focuses on the strategic management of the programme.