In the wake of 2017’s Grenfell disaster and the tragic mould-linked death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in December 2020, social landlords have faced increased scrutiny and growing pressure to stay compliant with the Decent Home Standards, which make sure tenants’ homes are safe and warm.
The introduction of Tenant Satisfaction Measurements in 2024 has only increased this responsibility, with landlords now assessed on their ability to protect and reassure residents while taking swifter action to solve issues, carry out urgent repairs, and maintain a property’s safety.
A low score on these satisfaction measures isn’t just about compliance, however. Failing to provide safe, comfortable homes for residents will increase the likelihood of complaints being escalated to the housing ombudsman, and could even negatively affect your housing association’s funding, not to mention its reputation.
For these reasons and more, it’s vital that your housing association has the support it needs to not only exceed shifting standards, but continue to reassure your residents that you have their best interests at heart.
Protect your reputation – and funding – with JLA’s support
At JLA, we’ve spent 50 years working with landlords all over the country to tackle both the day-to-day and more technical challenges of managing social housing. To this end, we now offer everything from laundry equipment to mould disinfection solutions that help our customers make positive, lasting changes while improving their Tenant Satisfaction Measurement scores.
Our commitment to proactive management is fundamental in helping landlords meet Decent Home Standards. But beyond the practical, we also provide advice and guidance on new and shifting regulations, ensuring our customers plan for changes, and stay compliant. It’s expertise that has made us the partner of choice to housing associations all over the UK.
Dependable laundry equipment
We often hear from housing associations grappling with older, unreliable laundry equipment that’s expensive to maintain but prohibitively expensive to replace.
Older machines – which are often less robust domestic models to begin with – can frequently break down, frustrating residents and generating complaints. Worse, quick repairs can be difficult to arrange, or simply too costly.
All of these factors can impact satisfaction scores, and could even distract your staff from other important tasks.
A dedicated laundry room fitted out with JLA’s efficient commercial laundry equipment offers a simple solution to this problem. Our stackable, space-saving machines are designed for purpose, with large capacities and built-in technologies that save water, electricity and time, and create a smoother, hassle-free laundry experience. Even better, they offer residents an alternative to drying wet clothes and other laundry over radiators or maidens in their homes – a leading cause of damp and mould.
Flexible ways to install and maintain equipment
JLA offers a range of flexible packages that enable housing associations to buy and care for these machines on terms that suit them. Total Care is JLA’s unique, all-inclusive equipment and support package, giving landlords access to the latest commercial-standard equipment with nothing to pay upfront, free installation, 24/7 emergency breakdown cover and inclusive servicing and repairs – all for a simple monthly fee.
Along with the peace of mind that comes with round-the-clock support from our network of 450 engineers, Total Care also enables landlords to move from reactive repairs to preventive maintenance – further reducing downtime and ending frustrating delays for residents.
For existing equipment, JLA offers Response, a flexible five- or seven-day breakdown cover package that can include parts and labour, as well as ongoing maintenance. JLA’s engineers have access to more than a million parts at any one time, and carry thousands more on their vans to all but guarantee a first-time fix.
Of course, if your approach to budgeting and planning means you’d prefer to buy outright, that option is always available too.
Innovating in digital to empower landlords
JLA is constantly looking for smarter ways to reduce the admin hassle you simply don’t have time for. MyJLA, our customer portal, lets landlords manage their account – and view all their assets – from one easy-to-use dashboard. It’s the fastest way to see key documents and certification, get service reports, book an engineer, pay bills and even order performance detergents direct. And it’s available around the clock to suit you.
MyJLA can play a big role in helping housing associations stay compliant with the Decent Homes Standard and any other tenant-facing requirements – not least because it offers clear visibility and access to key information needed for audits and regulatory checks.
JLA Connect, meanwhile, enables our experts to remotely monitor and proactively care for all compatible laundry equipment. Essentially, this means we can spot issues before you even know about them, then resolve things quickly – including sending engineers to your site before you need to call.
With real-time energy usage and CO2 emissions estimates, JLA Connect even helps landlords to improve efficiency while reducing costs. It’s a powerful tool to save energy, avoid downtime and assure residents that the laundry equipment they rely on is running at its best.
Effective mould and damp reduction
Awaab’s Law holds social landlords fully accountable for the service their residents receive, asking them to quickly investigate and fix health hazards, including damp and mould, within fixed timescales. To help minimise future claims, we draw on 15 years’ experience in mould and damp compliance solutions to offer a range of dryers and portable room sanitisers that tackle spores and damp and add an extra layer of assurance to your response.
In fact, just by adding a room sanitising stage to mould cleaning programmes, social landlords are achieving better results, improving relations with their residents, and preserving satisfaction scores.
Using our revolutionary OTEX disinfection technology, JLA room sanitisers harness the natural cleaning power of ozone to quickly kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses, effectively removing the airborne or surface spores that cause bad odours and harmful mould, while simultaneously improving air quality by capturing pollutants, allergens and other contaminants.
In recent independent tests, these sanitisers were proven to reduce surface mould spores by 92.4%, which means they offer a proven, cost-effective way to tackle spores and damp in affected properties, and could well help landlords avoid costly and time-consuming legal action brought by tenants.
Supporting inclusive, independent living
It’s our strong belief that providing good housing isn’t only about meeting standards, but enabling tenants to live out full and independent lives in safe, welcoming homes. We know that reliable laundry access, mould-free rooms, and responsive maintenance contribute to a resident’s happiness and sense of wellbeing, which is why we’ve created a range of support packages for landlords that can help residents thrive.
For more insights on staying compliant while improving tenant satisfaction, simply get in touch with our housing experts today.
For more advice and tips on the Housing sector, visit our dedicated page.
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