Ask Amplius

Fallon Warren, our Head of Environment and Sustainability, answers your questions below about energy efficiency improvements.

We review each customer’s service charge annually to ensure the charge is as accurate as we can be against the costs we incur. To calculate this, we use information about what’s been spent in previous years and the contracts we’ve entered for the year ahead. Service charges may increase or even decrease, according to our review of this. 

We continue to face some challenges given the current market in rising costs, and our teams work hard alongside our contractors and suppliers to ensure we achieve value for money where we are able to do so, without compromising our service delivery. 

Unfortunately, we can’t give a general answer, as we’d need to carry out an assessment of your home first, to see if your roof is suitable. The assessment would be carried out as part of our programme of energy efficiency upgrade works. 

At the moment, only homes that are an EPC Band D and below are currently being reviewed as part of this programme due to government funding criteria. However, as we look to the future of Net Zero by 2050 and decarbonisation of our customers’ homes, this is something we will be reviewing in more detail.

We know that a lot of our customers need a self-serve offer from us, so we’re delighted to say that we’re working on creating a single portal across Amplius. We hope to have this available this year and perhaps develop an app in the future.

Our contract with our grounds maintenance service is not based on a cost per hour, but by the size and type of area to be maintained, for example 100 square metres of grass. Contractors then decide how many operatives/hours are needed for the size and make-up of the scheme and what tasks are needed that month. 

Our grounds maintenance contractors should follow our specification, which includes grass cutting and hedge/shrub maintenance. Some work takes place in winter, some in summer.

We know we’ve had an increase in customer dissatisfaction at the start of the new contracts. Our Estate Officers are trying to get out to every site over the coming months to audit the contractors against our specification. Where standards are not as expected, we will issue action plans and monitor them to ensure standards are back in line with our specification. 

Where poor performance continues, we will address this at a senior level to drive improvements. 

We’re working with our Customer Engagement Team over the next 12 months to look at how we can improve the information we share about this area of the business.