St Leger Homes manages around 20,000 council homes on behalf of Doncaster Council.

The first stage of the ALMO’s work around ‘no access’ has been to develop a better evidence base around the barriers to access. The organisation has set up an access team consisting of a team leader and three officers based in the tenancy support team. This was a conscious decision to focus the intervention on building a relationship with the tenant. The team picks up cases after the third failed attempt.

Coming at ‘no access’ from a supportive point of view allows the team to focus on other ‘hooks’ for the landlord and tenant to develop a relationship; linking it to help with finances, benefits, writing a CV or finding work, helping with energy bills and support around language barriers, hoarding, etc. It recognises that there’s often something else going on behind the failed attempts to access, with many tenants living in increasingly complex circumstances.

The access team takes a global look at the tenancy to identify any barriers and where they might be able to offer support. They also look at who else from the organisation is involved with the tenants and whether they can coordinate visits. Sometimes tenants are anxious about letting the landlord in (for example, because of fear of losing their tenancy or issues with hoarding), so a supportive approach can encourage the tenant to permit access in future.

Alongside this, the organisation is looking at communications from contractors to make it clear they are working for St Leger Homes and updating letters so that tenants know which company will visit. They’ve also looked at terminology within letters to make it very clear what the visit relates to and minimise the ambiguity around phrases such as ‘stock condition survey’.

St Leger Homes is triangulating the information it holds: for example, do other teams have any knowledge about the tenancy, have they had a ‘keeping in touch’ visit recently? This information will identify and help prioritise those properties of real concern. The increasing number of compliance visits is also driving work around scheduling and combining visits to minimise disruption.

Taking enforcement action is seen as a last resort. However, St Leger Homes has strengthened the tenancy agreement to make it more explicit about the tenant responsibilities around access for compliance checks and safety, carefully balancing this with the tenant’s right to a peaceful home. It recognises the line between cases where the landlord needs to push for access and where the tenant can choose to not let the landlord in.