The William Sutton Trust is to close up to half of its estate office in the wake of a damning internal review.
The best-value review found that rent collection methods at the Hertfordshire-based registered social landlord were "old-fashioned" and offered limited choice to tenants.

The trust, which runs 15,000 homes, presently collects rent over the counter at estate offices. In future, more ways of paying rent will be introduced, like direct debit and payment over the internet.

The trust has not decided which offices to close, although sources suggest it could reduce the overall number of neighbourhood offices from 60 to 35.

This decision, and a separate best-value review of staffing, may lead to redundancies. Letters are being sent to employees of the trust outlining the plans, which will be put into action in July.

The move has angered some employees within the organisation. One worker, who asked not to be named, said: "We are to cease taking rents at our estate offices – work that is central to our existence and highly popular with our tenants."

It is possible the move will lead to job losses, but we haven’t made a decision yet

Mike Morris, chief executive, William Sutton Trust

But Roz Duffy, chairwoman of the trust's Employee Consultative Council, said most employees welcomed the move as it would free up time for them to work with tenants. She said that some estate offices were little more than a room with a counter.

She said: "The feedback we got from many employees was that if people had another way of paying rent, officers could get on with the other aspects of their jobs."

William Sutton chief executive Mike Morris said: "On average, 20% of time in estate offices is spent on manual collection of rents, so we need to look at how we organise these offices and take them into the 21st century.

"It is possible the move will lead to job losses, but we haven't made a decision yet."

Source

Housing Today