Project Details

Axis has partnered with WHG (Walsall Housing Group) to provide housing compliance services across our Repairs and Maintenance contract. WHG manages 20,000 homes and is one of the largest housing associations in the West Midlands region. Our contract is worth a value of £1m per year.  

The compliance works span 130 communal blocks and 72 void properties per year. They include Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) – for 1,500 fire doors and fire-stopping in roof spaces. We also provided asbestos testing and removal. This comes alongside smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm testing and replacement, as well as gas safety testing. 

Running compliance throughout all the works helps our client in many ways. Our contract managers oversee the work while a dedicated contract administrator ensures the compliances are recorded in line with the wider programme management. We send weekly records and bi-weekly full contractor updates to WHG.  

WHG has full supervision and control while maintaining full visibility of the status of each compliance service. We help make considerable savings for WHG, as one example shows that in the first year our client saved around 36% on the cost of fire door replacements. This amounts to approximately £240,000.  

Our direct operatives reduce overlap and increase productivity elsewhere on the contract, creating efficiency throughout. For example, Axis Resident Liaison Officers (RLOs) increased our access to residents’ homes.  

Project feedback

We have vastly increased the installation rate of fire doors, fire rated closers and frames. Before Axis took on the WHG contract it was 61%, which has risen to 99%. Another notable benefit of our integrated housing compliance services management approach is increased resident satisfaction levels which now stand at 98%. Residents establish relationships with Axis operatives and RLOs and get quick results. We fix prospective compliance failings in real-time and join them up with repairs and maintenance services. 

Ammo Singh, Commercial Manager at WHG, said “The integrated management approach adopted by Axis has really paid dividends for us. Full transparency over works has demonstrated value for money savings and provided peace of mind that we are on top of our compliance. But, crucially for us, we have been able to deliver better services to our residents.”

The integrated management approach adopted by Axis has really paid dividends for us… We have been able to deliver better services to our residents