National Housing Maintenance Forum

Customer focus - the best way to do well in a Short Notice Inspection

To achieve three star rating and do wel in short notice inspections, housing associations must put their residents at the heart of their service. Benchmarking allows organisations to look at themselves objectively and target areas requiring improvement.
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Chris Blackbeard (M3 Consultancy)

Open book partnering debate: For

Delivering long term savings via open book partnerships
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Mike Turner (Ian Williams Ltd)

Open book partnering debate: Against

EU procurement regulations state that a new procurement has to be undertaken at the end of a contract term. This weakens the argument for open book threefold: checking the open book account truly reflects the actual costs, the power of the incentive to pr
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Retrofitting for the future

One of the challenges facing asset managers is to retrofit social housing properties as part of thir ongoing asset management responsibilities. Planned and routine maintenance, voids and capital programmes present the opportunity to improve energy perform
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Andrew Percival (Kinetics Group)

Relish: Involving the community in reducing energy consumption

The 'Residents 4 Low Impact Sustainable Homes' (Relish) pilot was set up to prove how a pragmatic and cost effective approach to retrofitting can meet the decent home standard and contribute to the government's sustainability and fuel poverty agendas. The project's success was based on the successful collaboration of the landlord, residents, surveyors and contractors.
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Jeff Henton (Rydon Property Maintenance)

Fire risk: preventing disproportionate fire damage

Apartment residents are reliant on the elements of construction that are present between their flat and their neighbour's to separate them from the others in the event of a fire. Legally, all walls and floors should be able to resist fire for a sufficient period to allow the fire services to extinguish the adjacent fire or enable evacuation. This article examines the two unfortunate vulnerable openings that may permit the fire to breach these enclosures.
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Peter Jackman (International Fire Consultants Group)