星空传媒

When troubleshooter david hucker joined Birmingham council last September, he had to tackle a repairs backlog of 57,297 jobs. The Audit Commission had just put the council under supervision after giving its maintenance service a no-stars inspection rating for the second time in two years and handed Hucker, who鈥檇 just started as one of two interim general managers, a deadline of 31 March to clear the massive backlog.

鈥淚t was the toughest job I鈥檝e taken on,鈥� says Hucker, former chief executive of Orbit Housing Group. 鈥淭he size of the task was quite daunting but there was only one way we could go, and that was up.鈥�

By the time the March deadline arrived, just 1400 jobs were still outstanding. The remaining repairs were cleared this month.

Hucker鈥檚 first task was to sort out the finances. After the council鈥檚 failed bid for stock transfer in 2002, its management team decided it could only afford urgent repairs. Non-urgent repairs were therefore being 鈥減arked鈥�, rather than done within its 60-day target and, says Hucker, some tenants had been waiting up to two years. So Hucker had to find more money for non-urgent repairs.

He raised cash by raiding the council鈥檚 decent homes pot and using money left over from its stock clearance programme, which was running behind (see 鈥淭he bottom line鈥�, below). He also squeezed a saving of 拢2.3m from the council鈥檚 contractors. These measures more than doubled his repairs budget for the year to 拢25.9m.

Meanwhile, he did a fresh audit of all existing jobs and wrote to tenants asking them to confirm what still needed doing. This cleared 8326 jobs from the total , taking it to 48,791 (see 鈥淕oing, going, gone 鈥︹��, below).

The next task was to repair the council鈥檚 relationship with its contractors, Birmingham Accord and AWG Facilities Services (now renamed Morrison Facility Services).

鈥淭he relationship had broken down. There was very little mutual trust,鈥� says Hucker.

There were squabbles between the parties over the charges for every single job. A 鈥渙ne job, one price鈥� policy solved this in the short term and consultant Deloitte & Touche was brought in to resolve outstanding disputed charges and look at simplifying processes.

The two contractors put together teams dedicated to the extra repairs, while regular staff continued to do urgent and new jobs.

Tradespeople worked into the evenings and weekends, and made efforts to keep tenants updated of their progress. They also worked in one ward at a time, saving time and money. Alan Watt, Accord鈥檚 managing director, says: 鈥淲e had 23,840 jobs to clear, so we broke it down estate by estate.鈥� These measures, plus the fixed pricing, helped to save the 拢2.3m demanded by Hucker.

Meanwhile, as the jobs were done, it emerged that 12,180 tasks on the list had already been completed.

Keeping tenants informed meant complaints about repairs began to reduce. Monthly meetings were held between a steering group of the contractors and the council 鈥� on which tenants鈥� group the City Housing Liaison Board was represented 鈥� to report and check on targets.

鈥淭here was an incredible willingness to get things done,鈥� Hucker says of his staff. 鈥淭he nearer it came to 31 March, the more it dominated our thoughts every waking hour.鈥�

Many of the changes are here to stay 鈥� the targets for the contractors, who have to answer phone calls within a certain amount of time, for instance. Accord and Morrison also plan to bring in new software this September, which relies on pictures rather than the call operator鈥檚 knowledge of repairs. The number of job categories will be reduced, and prices set by job rather than broken down into the components and labour required.

The council has created a performance improvement plan with targets that tie in with the Audit Commission鈥檚 recommendations. These must be met by the time the commission returns for a reinspection next March or the council will face intervention.

Hucker, who has been part-time since March and will move on at the end of August, hopes the successes so far will reinvigorate the whole housing department.

鈥淎 lot of good work was being done but the only publicity was around the repairs service,鈥� he says. 鈥淐learing this backlog was hugely symbolic, as well as being of large benefit to tenants.鈥� HT