Looking after your neighbourhood

Our teams work hard to make sure your neighbourhood is a safe and comfortable place to live in. In 2023/24, internal improvements were made to ensure a better service, and our teams focused on improving the biodiversity of our estates and tackling anti-social behaviour.

Improving biodiversity

Being more ‘green’ played a big part in the work we did across 2023/24, with many of our staff taking part in projects that aimed to improve the biodiversity of our local community areas.  

In September 2023, over 100 of our staff members volunteered to make Abbots Langley tidier and to help promote biodiversity. We improved eight residents’ gardens and local communal areas by weeding, clearing moss, cutting back hedges and planting 100 laurels. We also made up seed packets, bird boxes and planters to give out to attendees of Abbots Autumn Fest the following weekend, which would allow them to plant their own wildflowers and encourage bugs, birds and bees – all integral parts of our eco-system – to flourish. 

Members of our Estates team also gave up their own time to help plant hedges and trees at a farm in Maple Cross.

We contributed to the national ‘No Mow May’ campaign – which involves leaving specific areas of grass uncut across our estates – and planted wildflowers and bulbs to encourage wildlife.

In December, our grounds maintenance contractor, Accuro, did some landscaping work around Abbey View and Munden View to provide wildflower areas, including planting 2,500 native bulbs to attract pollinators.

Reappointing our cleaning and grounds maintenance contractror

We worked closely with residents to make sure they had a say in who we appointed as our cleaning and grounds maintenance contractor, as the previous contract was coming to an end. We listened to residents’ feedback and personal experiences during a Tenant Question Time event, and we also sent out a survey. Based on this, Accuro won the contract and have been reappointed to be our cleaning and grounds maintenance contractor for the next four years.

Tackling anti-social behaviour

By working with the Environmental Crime unit at Watford Borough Council, we cracked down on fly-tipping issues at our two high-rises, Abbey View and Munden View. In February we installed 94 CCTV cameras to help identify and prosecute the perpetrators of fly-tipping, as well as identifying other forms of anti-social behaviour, keeping the blocks safer and more secure. 

We created an easy-to-use online toolkit which helps residents to identify what counts as anti-social behaviour and how we, or our partners, can provide support. 

Following a successful trial period, we officially launched the Noise App. This allows residents to safely and securely record and report noise as it is happening, and then send it directly to their Housing Officer so we can determine whether it is noise nuisance and how we can provide support.

Working in partnership with local authority partners we were able to take action against anti-social behaviour and make our communities safer. We are part of Safer Watford – Watford's community safety partnership – and as part of that we have a staff member that acts as Chair of the Community Partnership Group (CPG) and also sits on the Responsible Authority Group (RAG). This allows us to work more closely with organisations such as Herts Police and to have a say in conversations around how anti-social behaviour is tackled in Watford. 

Making internal improvements

Following a restructure within the team, our Estates Officers and Housing Officers now work even more closely, which allows them to provide a more comprehensive service when tackling complex anti-social behaviour issues. Our Housing Officers also changed their dedicated community areas, in order to broaden their experience. By focusing on a new area with different challenges, they are able to increase their skills and offer more support to all of our residents.  

In 2023 the government announced an initiative to professionalise the housing sector by ensuring senior staff are suitably qualified. While this is still in its infancy and no official guidance has been issued, we’ve always made sure our staff are equipped to provide the best possible service to our customers. With this in mind, we have multiple members staff who have already passed their Chartered Institute of Housing qualification, and more began working towards achieving it this year.