All Building articles in Archive Titles – Page 753
-
Archive Titles
Do health and efficiency targets really measure up?
Efficiency Is one of the chancellor’s favourite words. It had a starring role in last month’s spending review, when he demanded that social housing providers make efficiency savings of £835m by the financial year 2007/8. The Treasury is expected to demand another £700m between now and then. That’s a lot ...
-
Archive Titles
Dont forget the ombudsman
In “No win, no fee … no fair” (30 July, page 34) Sian Evans mentioned the pre-action protocol on disrepair and said she hoped it would minimise the number of “no win, no fee” claims, thus saving social landlords legal costs. The guidance to the protocol, issued under the civil ...
-
Archive Titles
Doctor efficiency
Something as simple as learning how to use your email properly could be the antidote to a crushing workload. Kate Freeman asked time management guru Mark Forster to suggest remedies for three busy officers at Downland Housing Association.
-
Archive TitlesDefining the route to market
SIR – A long time ago in a place not too far distant from central London, I found myself being lectured about the nature of treason. What, I was asked, did the traitor see in the mirror each morning he shaved? Traitor or patriot?
-
Archive TitlesHow to... de-clutter your desk
A clean work space means a less stressed mind, clutter consultants tell Kate Freeman
-
Archive TitlesDear diary
… I’m desperate to improve accounts management here at Preston council and I’ve met a couple of consultants who think they can help. They use something called systems thinking, which is supposed to make us work more efficiently. I’m going to give it a go …
-
Archive Titles
Southwark named one of Englands most improved councils
Southwark council has been rated one of England’s most improved local authorities.
-
Archive Titles
Corporation to review its power to force RSLs to merge or transfer
The Housing Corporation is to re-examine its powers to force associations to merge or transfer.
-
Archive Titles
Be sure to hammer out an effective contract
Choosing the right procurement agreement for long-term repairs and maintenance can help RSLs meet the decent homes standard in the most cost-effective way possible
-
Archive Titles
Tory housing policy out to consultation
The Conservative party outlined the basis of its housing policy on Wednesday.
-
Archive Titles
Complaints: what a waste of time
As a tenant support officer under Supporting People, I accompany clients to interviews with the local council. At one such interview recently, I had the most unpleasant experience of my career with a member of staff who didn’t introduce herself or her role, was rude to me, adopted a very ...
-
Archive Titles
Community initiatives fund cut
The Housing Corporation has slashed its innovation and good practice fund by £2m.
-
Archive TitlesLooking for commonality
One of several reasons why biometric technologies have failed to take off in the UK has been the lack of a standardised approach for end users to follow. That’s about to change, with the BSI now working on producing international standards for publication in 2005.
-
Archive Titles
Efficiency: the moment has come
Last month Gordon Brown set social housing providers a mighty challenge: £1.5bn of savings, to be made over the next three years through greater efficiency.
-
Archive TitlesThe Wireless City
Westminster City Council is revolutionising its communications channels and security provision in the heart of London’s West End through the use of pioneering wireless technologies. We visit the Council’s Trocadero CCTV Control Room to assess how the pilot scheme in place for Soho is progressing.
-
Archive Titles
The Wireless City
Westminster City Council recently unveiled a hugely challenging series of new initiatives in what is now the forward-thinking body’s fourth term of Civic Renewal – helping to revolutionise the way in which the Council conducts its business while, as a by-product, ridding the Capital’s streets of petty crime and ...
-
Archive Titles
Security director for chief executive?
With the exception of security companies themselves, it’s virtually unheard of for corporate concerns to have someone at the helm whose career specialism was security. Bill Wyllie explores the reasons why, and how that situation might change in the years ahead.
-
Archive TitlesPartnership drives CCTV
On behalf of local businesses and residents alike, Huntingdonshire District Council has been trialling a dedicated mobile CCTV vehicle as part of its efforts to rid the Cambridgeshire streets of crime and anti-social behaviour. How effective has the deployment been?
-
Archive Titles
Cash for public consumption
SIR – I read with interest Graham Levinsohn’s article on the current state of play in the Cash-in-Transit sector (‘Winning the cash war’, Guarding Watch, SMT, July 2004, pp45-46).
-
Archive Titles
Nisbet takes over as head of cash services
Group 4 Securicor has also appointed a new managing director at Securicor Cash Services (UK), the cash handling business which currently employs over 7,000 staff and recently posted an annualised turnover in excess of £280 million.