Case Study: Bristol City Council

Posted on 31st May at 11:45 AM

Bristol City Council is running a three-and-a-half-year project to upgrade 10,800 installations across 75 tower blocks.

The project management team has focused on extensive communications with residents throughout the works. Consultation carried out with tenant representatives at the planning stage included presentations by a number of service providers to establish the type of system to be installed, the level of installation, and future servicing and maintenance requirements.

Roadshows are held in each area prior to work starting and tenants are given early notice of access requirements, the timetable of works, receivable services and where to go if they have a problem. A dedicated tenant liaison helpline has been established for anyone experiencing installation problems. With the vast majority of installations already complete, there have been very few complaints.

Resident liaison

For sizeable projects there are clear advantages in having a single, well advertised point of contact for all residents. For large landlords, there may be merit in having a nominated person with responsibility for coordinating all residents’ issues, such as developing communications, arranging access to pro p e rties for installation staff, dealing with queries, fault reporting etc.

When the work is complete, the installation company may deal with residents directly, through its own service centre. In this case, the role of the nominated person, eg a tenant manager, can be to deal with escalation if the maintenance processes are unsatisfactory, and to monitor the level of maintenance calls being made.