South West London housing provider RHP is now investing £750,000 annually to fit their empty homes in line with their new home standard programme, before customers move in.
RHP’s home standard, which launched last year, means that any home that someone moves into will be freshly decorated with new carpets throughout. The customer is able to choose from two paint colours for the walls and will be welcomed with a specially selected carpet to make the home look as bright and open as possible.
Since the launch of the home standard, 155 homes have already been fitted to this level. Displayed is a variety of what the homes look like now after being fitted to this home standard. Customer feedback has included “I was very happy with the condition of my new home — it was clean, freshly decorated and carpeted throughout which meant we could just move straight in without worrying about decorating and carpeting the home” and “I was pleasantly surprised that a new carpet was fitted and walls were freshly painted as this is something I thought I would have to arrange myself.”
Peter Cogan, RHP’s Executive Director of Customer Services said: “A key part of our purpose is to provide people with homes they can feel proud of. We believe our new standard will play a major part in this, benefiting both existing and new customers. It’s been very encouraging to hear the positive feedback from customers who have moved into these homes so far and we look forward to rolling it out across all future relets.”
As well as bringing relets up to a higher standard, an integral part of RHP’s strategy is to invest in all of its homes through major works and fire safety programmes. In 2019 they invested nearly £18m in maintaining and improving existing homes, which included new roofs, bathrooms and kitchens.
In addition, the organisation plans to provide around 600 new homes by 2023 for social rent, Shared Ownership and the intermediate market.
