Metropolitan Housing respond to Archery Court concerns

Alison Hopkins has now received a reponse from  Metropolitan Housing regarding the concerns she raised over conditions at Archery Court, Wembley that were publicised on Wembley Matters. LINK

Dear Ms Hopkins

Thank you for your emails to Geeta Nanda, Chief Executive Officer received on 15 and 28 December 2017 Geeta was concerned to note the continuing difficulties residents in Archery Court are experiencing at this time. She has asked this team to look into your concerns and to feedback to her.

I firstly must offer our sincere apologies for our failure to respond to your earlier communication of 15 December 2017. Whilst it is evident there has been a lot of work carried out by ourselves and Barratt Homes it has become apparent that we did not take the opportunity to update you personally. I agree that this is disappointing, and we will be seeking to understand why such a fundamental part of the process was overlooked.

It is vital that we do not lose sight of any unresolved issues moving forward, and as such I have recorded your concerns as an official complaint, as this will enable us to keep track and, more importantly, keep you appraised. A formal acknowledgement will follow in due course.

In the interim, I wish to advise you of the action taken thus far:

·         A number of residents reported individual failures of electrical items in their homes to the concierge on duty at Archery Court on 09 December 2017. This appears to be the consequence of a power surge;

·         I understand that Barratt Homes, our developers, visited Archery Court over the weekend of 09/10 December 2017 in response to these reports and to effect repairs. I believe there were staff from Barratt Homes present to address any immediate concerns residents had during this weekend;

·         As a consequence of the significant numbers of electrical problems being experienced by a number of residents, helpfully summarised by yourself, we identified we should carry out emergency electrical checks of each flat to ensure there were no ongoing concerns, this being over and above what Barratt Homes were doing. These checks did not reveal any immediate risks;

·         We provided temporary heaters to those residents who had lost use of their heating, again over and above what Barratt Homes were doing;

·         I was particularly concerned to note from your email today that one resident has no hot water Barratt Homes have attended the flat in question today and diagnosed a fault with the programmer, a consequence of the power surge. I understand a similar scenario occurred in other residents’ homes and programmers have been replaced. Please be assured we are now working with the resident and with Barratt Homes to ensure a replacement is fitted as quickly as possible;

·         Barratt Homes are currently carrying out further investigative work to identify any ongoing faults with the communal heating/ventilation system, and we are liaising closely with them to understand the current position, and to establish what the next steps will be to resolve this. We should have a clearer understanding of the position early next week.

I agree that consideration needs to be given to how each resident has been affected by recent events, and as such we will consider the impact on a case by case basis, based upon the information you provided on 15 December 2017 to identify the support we are able to offer.

If you are aware of any other residents who experienced difficulties or damaged electrical items, please do let me know.

We will contact each resident affected in due course.

In summary I believe that appropriate steps have been taken as quickly as they can, but acknowledge there remain some issues which are still under investigation, and more importantly some concerns residents have about losses they may have incurred.

I am amenable to discussing your concerns further. I was unable to locate a contact number for you, but I can be reached on the direct number below this afternoon before 6pm.