Property Plus, which carries out repairs and maintenance services for all our Homes Plus customers, has been named Contractor of the Year in the UK Housing Awards.
The sector’s most influential awards celebrate the UK’s top housing services and are presented jointly by Inside Housing magazine and the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Property Plus was singled-out for its willingness to go the extra mile to keep customers and staff safe during the pandemic.
Chief executive Sarah Boden said: “Property Plus overcame incredible challenges to provide services in lockdown and ensured that essential services were maintained at all times. They were on the frontline of the pandemic and very much deserve this national recognition.”
Property Plus is responsible for repairs and maintenance in 19,000 homes in towns and villages across Staffordshire and Shropshire.
In response to the pandemic, its specialist teams were quickly redeployed into new priority areas. Tradespeople who would normally install kitchens and bathrooms transferred to other work streams, taking the opportunity to redecorate and refurbish general needs blocks.
The facility management team responded to huge additional requirements for cleaning and sanitising in offices and retirement living schemes and while care home residents were separated from their loved ones, the Property Plus carpenters designed and built a Covid-safe pod so that visits could resume.
Urgent repairs and essential services were maintained throughout lockdown with demand only ten percent lower than the previous year. As restrictions eased, Property Plus was able to resume routine repairs and despite successive lockdowns and other restrictions in 2020-21 its teams undertook 115,584 visits to customers.