星空传媒

Jason Wylie joined Newcastle council鈥檚 furniture service in 1994, straight from a spell as an infantry officer in Northern Ireland. 鈥淚t was an enforcement role for the council 鈥� my army background got me into it. When we started, losses were running at 30%. We would go and carry out checks, make sure tenants weren鈥檛 selling on furniture and take them to court if they were. We used to go round second-hand shops to recover it. It was pretty confrontational.鈥�

Ten years on, Wylie is the manager of a very different service, one that has grown enormously in size and sophistication. Tenants can rent everything they need to furnish their homes for a weekly charge on top of their rent, and Wylie鈥檚 11 drivers and four 7.5-tonne lorries make 2200 deliveries a year from a 1000 m2 warehouse.

The service has grown from six to 26 staff, and has a turnover of 拢1.75m, which feeds a surplus into the housing revenue account of Your Homes, Newcastle鈥檚 arm鈥檚-length management organisation. And last month, it became one of the first council furniture providers to win a government Charter Mark for excellence in customer service.

Losses have dropped to just 3% of turnover 鈥� the second-hand shops Wylie used to visit now know to phone when someone turns up hawking council property.

The furniture service was born in 1989 to help tenants aged 16 to 25 after the council鈥檚 research showed a lack of basic necessities was the reason young people鈥檚 tenancies failed. Five years later, it was extended to single parents and, in 1997, to all tenants.

Today, the average age of customers is 35. The team serves 4500 Newcastle council tenants and 360 homes used by the local authority鈥檚 asylum seeker unit 鈥� as well as 535 households nearby through deals with Chester-le-Street, Durham and Derwentside councils, Blythe Valley鈥檚 ALMO and Home Housing Association.

Tenants are introduced to the service through a glossy 20-page brochure with pictures of everything from white goods to cutlery. Wylie admits offering such a range of items still carries risks. 鈥淲ashers, cookers and fridge freezers have a high value on the second-hand market. We鈥檝e got six officers to manage that,鈥� he says.

Points mean choices

The range of goods on offer has broadened considerably since September, when Wylie devised a novel points system to give customers more choice. 鈥淲e鈥檝e gone from having set packs, with only certain items available, to a system where they can have anything they want and we add up the points value of each item,鈥� he explains.

So what impressed the Charter Mark judges? Wylie believes it was the customer care ethos that runs right through the organisation. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 come to work and deliver furniture; we deliver a service and the furniture is part of that,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f our drivers go on a delivery and the customer needs something else moving, they鈥檒l do that for them.鈥�

We don鈥檛 give people furniture, we furnish a home 

Jason Wylie, Newcastle Council

Wylie鈥檚 team offers deliveries until 8pm on Tuesdays for tenants who work during the day, and its catalogue includes pledges to repair or replace faulty or worn-out electrical items within two days and other items within five. Wylie introduced customer satisfaction surveys in August, but says the sample size is still too small to show any clear trends.

He points not only to the financial success of the service, but also to the way it has helped people to sustain their tenancies.

In 1989, the average length of an unfurnished tenancy for the under-25s was six weeks. In September this year, the average tenancy (for all customers) lasted 163 weeks.

鈥淚t makes you appreciate what you鈥檙e doing. I go out one day a month and speak to customers. It鈥檚 a way of reality checking.鈥�

Here, sustainability doesn鈥檛 only apply to keeping tenancies going: the service recycles 60 tonnes of packaging and waste a week. 鈥淲e鈥檙e quite a green machine,鈥� says Wylie. Some of the furniture is also reused. Beds are stripped down and the components remade by a local company that hires people on low incomes. This saves the service 拢43 per item.

In the service鈥檚 infancy, it bought second-hand pieces but it now spends more than 拢1m a year on new goods. Items are chosen by the 13 members of the steering group, who meet every three months. They have just finished poring over catalogues and samples to select six new suppliers. The stock isn鈥檛 chosen on price alone, but also on quality, durability and appearance. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 just give people furniture; we furnish a home,鈥� says Wylie.

The success has also meant it can fund 80% of a 拢50,000 child safety equipment scheme, which Charter Mark intends to promote as best practice. It began as a partnership between the local health authority and the council four years ago to cut the number of children hurt in household accidents. Every low-income family in the city is entitled to a free pack worth 拢39, including stair gates, fireguards, smoke alarms, doorstoppers and cupboard locks, installed when children are six months old. The service fits 1300 a year, and research in the east end of the city has shown an 80% fall in accidents. 鈥淚t鈥檚 having a huge, huge impact,鈥� says Wylie.

Being the manager of Newcastle鈥檚 largest 鈥� and arguably most customer-focused 鈥� furniture supplier also gives him a unique insight into the city鈥檚 interiors fads. 鈥淭he most popular items are sofas,鈥� he reveals. 鈥淭erracotta; everyone wants terracotta. We go through spells 鈥� there鈥檒l be a week when it鈥檚 blue, but hardly anyone wants green. Terracotta is the outright winner.鈥�