Clean and Green Estate Management
At Settle, we're committed to creating initiatives that are led by residents, for residents. Together we want to define "what good looks like" and make sure the outcomes are shaped by your ideas, experiences and priorities.
How to get involved
📋 Take part in our survey and join the discussion
Have your say in our Clean and Green Improvement Survey in less than 10 minutes! Click the 'TAKE SURVEY' button below to get started.
Your experience matters to us, and no one knows your experience better than you! Share your story about a time when you had a positive experience with our grounds and communal maintenance service, or let us know where we missed the mark and how we can do better.
The Ideas board is your space to share suggestions - big or small - about our grounds and communal maintenance service! Whether it’s about improving communication, raising quality standards, or anything else on your mind, we value your input. Explore ideas from other residents, leave comments, and vote on the ones you like. Every suggestion counts!
What you've told us so far
Between April and October, we've received valuable feedback from residents, helping us identify the grounds and communal maintenance areas that matter most to you. We gained this feedback through Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM's), transactional surveys, complaints, Big Door Knocks, Neighbourhood Action Weeks, and more.
📊 Our current scores:
We understand that 25% of residents are dissatisfied with our grounds maintenance and communal cleaning services, and we’re already working on making improvements. Residents have told us that it's not always easy to report issues with grounds or communal spaces, or to find clear information about cyclical maintenance. That’s why we’re committed to strengthening our partnerships and helping residents better understand our service offering, so we can create a better experience for everyone.
🔍 Here are the three key themes that have been highlighted:
- Provide an easier reporting process
- Improved partnership working
- Understanding the services we offer to you and your communities
Do you agree with the three key areas above or would you like us to focus elsewhere? Tell us more by taking the survey below.
Why is your involvement important?
Your feedback ensures that the Clean and Green Improvement Plan focuses on what matters most to you, and helps us prioritise our resources to make sure we're meeting your needs.
We need your input to confirm what we've heard so far is right, and to share what else you think needs attention. Based on your feedback, we'll create Improvement Plan actions together.
A message from Julian Chapman, Neighbourhood Maintenance Manager
"With the opportunity to improve, we are committed to working with you to better understand your expectations for the cleaning of our internal communal spaces and external landscape areas. Together, we will explore the best ways to deliver this service, ensuring we work within the resources available to us and meet your needs moving forward."
At Settle we are relentlessly resident focused. Our aim is to provide homes residents are proud of and build communities that are welcoming to all.
Our 2030 plan has been developed by feedback from residents, colleagues, and local partners with priorities and commitments shaped by what we know is important to you. Improvement Plans empower you to have a say in how we deliver our 2030 vision.
We believe that working together with residents, colleagues and the community we can create real opportunities for positive, lasting change.
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Gardening and maintenance services update
We know how important it is to residents that we keep communal areas clean, and grounds well maintained. Through the tenant satisfaction measures surveys for the period April ’24 to September ’24, 25% of residents told us they were dissatisfied with how well we keep communal areas clean and well maintained.
We aim to make sure dissatisfaction is less than 20% and we continue to work through our neighbourhood improvement plan to act on the feedback we’ve received to improve our service.
What the feedback told us
Most of the feedback was around the cleanliness of communal blocks with fewer regarding grounds maintenance. We have also identified residents may be responding to this question in areas where Settle is not responsible for the communal space. We are working to ensure that more regular inspections are taking place before and after contractor visits to ensure the standards being delivered are those we and our residents aspire to.
What we’re doing
We’re continuing to review our cleaning of internal communal spaces, amending service frequencies, cleaning materials etc. to ensure our services continue to improve and are delivered in an environmentally efficient manner. We also want to ensure that residents have access to easier reporting when they want to report an issue.
Some of the other improvements we have introduced recently include:
- Our three- yearly cyclical tree survey has recently started in Letchworth to ensure that our communal tree stock is safe for residents and the public. We will be rolling this out to across our schemes in the coming 6-9 months.
- We are taking a new window cleaning and tree maintenance contract to tender in the coming weeks and hope these will be in place to carry out the early 2025 window clean and to deliver tree works from April 2025.
- During the winter we will make further investment in our landscape areas, including additional tree planting in Baldock, replacement of dead planting in Ashwell and Bedford and additional shrub planting in the Westmill neighbourhood in Hitchin.
- We are working alongside our contractors to improve the condition of outlying pathways and areas which do not receive any regular maintenance.
- We continue to work alongside our colleagues, partners and residents to carry out neighbourhood action days and other environmental projects and look to expand this work alongside North Herts Council and our contractors into 2025 and beyond.
More information about our responsibilities can be found on our communal areas and facilities page.
You can report a repair needed in a communal area, without using an online account – just go to www.settlegroup.org.uk/report-a-communal-repair
Who's Listening
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JC
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