HA and manufacturer partnerships do work

Over the last few years Mike Kay, director of asset management at South Somerset Homes, (SSH) has made numerous presentations to other housing associations about the benefits of partnering with manufacturers and plan maintenance contractors. He says: “Unless housing associations are prepared to share examples of best practice it’s impossible to grow. You have to take a leap of faith in the first instance and hope a circle of virtue will develop as other associations share their experience.”

South Somerset Home’s presentations are generic but draw on specific examples. Worcester Bosch, with whom they have operated a working relationship for the last four years, is used to illustrate how important it is to create a secure knowledge chain between the manufacturer producing the heat systems, the installers fitting them and the engineers making the statutory annual service.

Colin James is head of responsive repairs at SSH. He says: “Connaught’s gas technicians have been to the Worcester Bosch training Academy at Worcester to be trained on the systems it will be installing and servicing. At face value this might look like it adds additional preparation time but it’s actually more expedient because it mitigates the possibility of making errors which require repairs at a later date.”

Selecting the right partner

Originally formed in March 1999 by South Somerset District Council as a not-for-profit organisation providing affordable rented accommodation SSH took over the ownership and management of approximately 8,800 homes in an area ranging from Wincanton to Chard and Yeovil to Langport.

As part of an initial five year commitment to affect outstanding repairs SSH began looking for a boiler manufacturer it could work closely with. A rigorous selection panel assessment was made of six manufacturers including Worcester Bosch. The final decision was made by a comparison of the top two boilers with a live test on site using identical properties with identical central heating systems. Then, the boilers were analysed for their performance, their aesthetic value, their noise and their capacity to deliver flow rates and temperature to the required values.

Colin James says: “Worcester Bosch won this assessment hands down. Since then it has proven to be an excellent company to deal with in its post sales information, the actual delivery of boilers, as well as its after sales service. You never have an excuse from Worcester Bosch. It investigates the situation in full before commenting. It combines 21st century partnering values with good old-fashioned standards of individual conduct, a combination rarely found today.”

Growing together

As this five year period of repair work comes to an end SSH is currently moving into a new phase of planned maintenance works to bring all its properties up to the Governments Decent Homes Standard by 2010; as set out in Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future. This means continuing its partnership with Worcester Bosch, as well as entering into a new six-year decent homes partnering contract with Connaught and Rokbuild building contractors. By 2010 all of SSH homes will have new bathrooms, kitchens, heating systems, windows, doors and insulation.

Up to this year the heat system specification called for a Worcester Bosch 28CDi boiler but from April 2004, both the SSH Planned Maintenance and Repairs and Maintenance sections will be fitting Worcester Greenstar HE condensing boilers to comply with the new building regulations due to come into force in April 2005. 250 Greenstar HE boilers will be fitted in the first year.

It is not unlikely that SSH would have become aware of the energy efficiency requirements of the new building regulations but through regular consultation meetings between partner personnel Worcester Bosch was able to bring this to its attention earlier. When knowledge is shared freely best practices are easier to establish ultimately saving time and money.

Indeed, Geoff Bond, Worcester Bosch technical specification manager for the south west region says: “We take the same collaborative approach to solving problems. It doesn’t matter what the cause is by abandoning a culture of blame and one up-manship we can approach the problem as a team and share in the praise once it is successfully solved. We are happy to underline this commitment at Worcester Bosch by signing up to our partners employee’s code of conduct.”