News

Based on customer feedback and our own data, we’re working to improve the management and maintenance of lifts to reduce the time they are out of service. We also want to enhance communications with our customers to ensure we’re providing clearer information when a lift requires a repair.

This project is one of the Group’s priorities as set out in our new corporate strategy.

Russell Thompson, Interim Asset Director, said: “We understand how disruptive and frustrating it can be for our customers when a lift goes out of service.

“With responsibility for around 400 lifts across 250 buildings, we’re continually working to deliver a good service for customers. However, we know that repairs can sometimes take longer than we expect, and that our customers don’t always get the communications they need from us.

“These are the key areas we’ll be tackling with this project, supported by an investment of £5.6m into repairs, maintenance and lift replacements across a number of our schemes.”

As part of our work, we’ve been reviewing the main factors that impact how quickly we can deliver lift repairs and maintenance works. These include:

• The availability of contractors due to shortage of tradespeople and recruitment
• Difficulty with accessing spare parts due to the variety of lifts we maintain
• A long dispatch time for new parts because of the need to source parts from Europe.

Based on the initial findings of our review, we’re now:

• Working to better understand lift breakdown patterns in our buildings, which is enabling us to identify the parts commonly needed to fix them
• Ordering multiple spare parts at the same time. This means our contractors can hold a stock of spares, reducing delays in sourcing parts
• Carrying out proactive inspections of older and less reliable lifts and using these findings to consider where refurbishment or replacement is needed.

As part of our longer-term programme of improvement works, we will also be:

• Putting in place new processes to ensure we communicate with customers more quickly and clearly when lifts break down. This will include using text messages and noticeboard signs to keep customers informed of what actions we’re taking
• Improving our management of contractors through triaging issues earlier in the process, daily monitoring and enhancing the working arrangements to escalate issues earlier in the process particularly for lifts out of service. This should help improve customer experience and satisfaction with our services
• Delivering our investment of £4.7m for 2023-24 in new lifts to improve reliability and make sure we provide modern and easy to maintain lifts.