Can you please tell us who you are and what you do?
I am David Thompson responsible for the day to day responsive repairs service, planned maintenance programme and decent homes investment that Lambeth Living provides.

Can you give a brief description of what your role involves?
Delivering around £25 million of revenue works and services through 30 contracts and £55 million of capital works through 80 contracts. These contracts and services affect tenants in Lambeth Living and Tenant Management Organisations outside Lambeth Living and the contracts and services also affect leaseholds in all over 30 thousand homes. There are over 130 multi disciplinary staff involved in this work in the Property Directorate that report to me and in addition we use external construction industry specialists to protect our interests.

How long have you been doing this role?
Four years.

What is the biggest change you have seen to Housing during the time in your role?
To date securing increased capacity to deliver new roofs and windows and increased value for money for tenants and leaseholders in Lambeth by joining a local authority purchase club called the London Housing Consortium has meant we have delivered the annual budgets we are given more effectively and have secured over £6 million of savings when compared to traditional small scale contracts that we used four years ago.

How important do you think it is for estates to be improved under the major works programme?
A safe, warm and modernised home can transform the lives of people and that is the objective of our decent homes investment plane over the next few years but we need to compliment this with improved day to day services.

Do you think there could be more investment in bringing council homes up to decent homes standard?
The Decent Homes standard is a minimum and residents could well wish to see further improvements to communal and external areas of their neighbourhood. Also there may be some neighbourhoods that require finance beyond the capacity of an ALMO where discussions will need to take place about the options for further investment to be made.

What are you and your team doing to improve communities and residents lives within Lambeth?
The Property Services directorate has an improvement plan following our view of what it takes to get to a two star organisation. This means that we need to respond to requests for repairs on time, ensure that gas servicing is completely up to date, deliver programmes successfully within budget and above all make decisions in collaboration with residents so that the disruption that goes hand in hand with investment is minimised.

Who has provided the biggest influence in your life?
The biggest influence in my housing career has been that of local residents involved in making key decisions about the management and investment in their neighbourhoods. There is nobody better to see the issues that need resolving and to be part of unlocking successful solutions.

What changes would you like to see being made to improve the way Lambeth Living delivers planned maintenance on estates?
Lambeth Living has plans to devolve and de-centralise housing maintenance and investment as currently it a centralised process. We have plans to devolve into 6 neighbourhoods and bring both accountability for service delivery closer to the 6 neighbourhood representative structures.

Where was your last holiday destination?
My last holiday destination was Centre Parcs in Penrith in Cumbria as it provided an opportunity for
strenuous physical activity with my three sons.

If you could change one thing about Lambeth as a place, what would it be and why?
The one wish I have about Lambeth is that it is seen as a place that delivers excellent housing services. The reason I would wish to see this is for too long residents have been disappointed in the level of services provided.

What is your favourite quote?
My favourite quote is that “individuals are seldom perfect, but teams can be”

How would you say your friends and family would describe you?
Driven

What services would you most like to develop under your remit of responsibility?
The service that I would most like to develop is that of the day to day responsive maintenance as it is that service which residents on average use three times per year and affects their view of their landlord significantly.

How important do you think direct communication with residents associations is in your division?
Direct communication is vital from the start to the end of a project. Without direct communication significant floors and mistakes develop.

What do you think has been your biggest achievement since taking up your position?
Stabilising the Property Directorate following a serious fraud over three years ago!

How do you feel Lambeth Living compares to the former delivery of Lambeth Council’s housing repairs and maintenance?
On a journey to improve and is just about to complete the performance year 2009/10 where improvements in time taken to respond to urgent repairs and resident satisfaction with repairs will show an increase on previous years, as will the ability of Lambeth Living to deliver the annual capital allocation.

What aspects of your role do you find most and least enjoyable?
Most enjoyable in receiving the thanks of a resident; least enjoyable receiving the disappointment of a resident!

What does community mean to you?
A place where people want to live

When should residents contact you, and how can they do this?
My telephone number is 020 7926 3427 or may be answered either by myself or my Support officer, it is also possible to leave a voicemail on this number should I or my support officer not be able to take the call