Managing housing

Hightown is an experienced provider of excellent housing management. We deliver low cost but high quality services across a stock of over 5,000 rented and leasehold properties across Beds, Herts and Bucks.

When Hightown opened its first estate in 1973, housing management fell to our shareholding members and a caretaker, our only employee. With large new builds on the horizon, such as Scrubbitts Square in Radlett and Bohemia in Hemel Hempstead, Hightown quickly appointed our first Housing Manager, Charles Hooper.

Hightown’s customer service departments had humble beginnings, with rent collected door-to-door on the ‘Gilbert Strip’ paper system by a handful of staff. Much has changed since then: today our housing management teams must still keep pace with rapid growth but Hightown is equipped with a full professional service, including dedicated customer service, lettings, estate management teams, a repairs call-centre, and online self-service that caters for 25% of our residents.

In 1988, the decision to outsource Hightown’s repairs contracts caused Hightown uniquely positioned to provide our residents with value for money. By establishing excellent relationships with local suppliers and maintaining a keen focus on our own efficiency, we have kept our costs among the lowest in our peer group for several years, shown in Housemark benchmarking.

Yet Hightown efforts to remain cost effective come with no compromise on the quality of our service and our latest survey saw resident satisfaction levels rise to 84%.

Hightown has always worked to keep our residents’ perspective at the heart of what we do, welcoming its first resident committee member in 1981 and launching an official Residents’ Panel in 2000. Recently this group has evolved into Hightown’s new Resident Voice and Scrutiny Panel.

In 2016 we launched Hightown Lettings: our popular private sector leasing scheme. By moving into this area of business, Hightown has been able to capitalise on its reputation for excellent, low-cost services while meeting our social purpose by providing accommodation for temporarily homeless people.