Bryony Willett
Director of Scotland, appointed July 2024
Bryony became Home Group’s Director for Scotland in July 2024.
Bryony joined from Maryhill Housing Association in Glasgow. She was Chief Executive for seven years. Before this Bryony worked for Islington Council in London. She started out as a Graduate Trainee and working in various roles. One of those roles was Head of Housing Partnerships and Communities.
What are some of your key achievements as director of Scotland?
I’m proud of the work we do to drive brilliant service. This reflects the unique needs and strengths of our Scottish customer base.
Highlights include bringing severel long-term voids back into use. These were empty homes which needed some work to bring them back up to standard.
Scotland is no different to the rest of the UK in facing a housing shortage. Being able to breathe new life back into existing properties, alongside the new homes we build makes a significant difference.
We also work hard to improve the existing homes and communities our customers live in. We’ve seen improvements in key areas around:
- Managing anti-social behaviour
- Rent collection
- Recovering lost rent from empty properties
I have also loved working with colleagues in our customer service centre (CSC) to launch a dedicated team for Scotland.
How do you engage with customers and communities? How does that influence your priorities?
Getting to meet many of our brilliant customers is one highlight of this role. I am keen we continue to find ways to engage with our customers and communities.
I have attended viewpoint meetings, customer promise assessments and tall building safety visits. This helps me to get a clear understanding of customer needs and the challenges our estates and buildings face. I have also shadowed frontline colleagues, and spent time with customer board members.
This helped influence priorities such as:
- Improving the appointment system for repairs
- Moving management of estate services contractors from maintenance to customers and communities
- Direct, honest feedback from our customers and colleagues drives each step
What are the main things customers in your region should know?
From a regulatory point of view, we have always been Scottish focused. But we have made other changes to reflect the differences between Scottish and English customers:
- We launched our new name, Home Group Scotland, to give our work across this region its own strong, but connected, identity. We are still one organisation, but with a clear focus on the needs of our customers in our region
- We created a dedicated Scottish customer service centre team
I am really keen to meet as many customers as possible and to hear about their experiences. These ensure Home Group Scotland delivers the best possible services.