Emma grew up in Twickenham on the outskirts of London and has called the area home all her life. She has been part of the housing sector since 1997. Initially, she was a Lettings Assistant and has taken on a variety of roles over the years.
What are some of your key achievements as regional director for the South region?
We have a diverse mix of customers across our region. One of my proudest achievements has been getting out to meet our customers; to hear what we are delivering well and where we can improve. I’ve visited communities in Cornwall and Kent and colleagues and customers in London. Being visible across our region helps us build trust and understanding with customers. This is key to ensuring they feel safe and comfortable letting us carry out things like safety checks and repairs.
We know that the quality and speed of repairs remains the priority of most customers we speak to. That is why I work closely with our maintenance teams, continually aiming to improve our service.
How do you engage with customers and communities? How has it influenced your priorities?
We have a real mix when it comes to our communities across the South. Each is unique, diverse, and special. They also have their own challenges. That is why it's always important to be out and about visiting our services, homes and estates. It is so helpful to understand customer needs, and what is most important. That includes the smaller and more practical aspects within that.
We do hear success stories too when we're out and about. That encourages us to believe in the work we are doing.
What are the main things customers in your region should know?
We are always collaborating with our housing and maintenance teams. The aim being to improve repairs experiences for customers across our region.
We also want to provide a better service with anti-social behaviour. We know how distressing it can be, and so we have worked to improve the way our reporting processes work. We take reports seriously. And, we know improving our own understanding of situations means we can act more quickly.
We work with several partner organisations which customers have contact with. So, we are working to ensure our values are reflected by our partners too.