A number of esteemed awards could be on their way to North Tyneside as the Council secures nominations across its Housing service.
North Tyneside Council’s new video diagnosis system has seen the authority nominated for ‘Best Use of Technology by a Social Landlord’ at the Northern Housing Awards.
Working alongside Confurr, the Council implemented the innovative system initially to support its work to treat condensation, damp and mould – but it is set to be expanded to cover all calls into the housing repairs team.
When a call comes through to the repairs service, residents can now give permission to show their camera, meaning they can show the call handler exactly what they are concerned about.
Since its introduction, the Council has been able to offer more specific advice to residents – allowing officers to allocate resource to the most pressing reports and respond promptly.
Cllr John Harrison, cabinet member for Housing, said: “We’re delighted to see how successfully our video diagnosis system has been so far, and it’s made a real difference to our teams and our residents.
“Everybody should have a home where they feel comfortable and safe, and our number one priority is always to ensure that our residents’ concerns are responded to quickly and efficiently – this system has given us another platform to do exactly that.
“It’s been an absolutely fantastic addition to our service, we’re going to be furthering our use of it and expanding to cover all repairs calls that come into us.
“We’re delighted to have been nominated for the award and look forward to finding out the result later this month.”
There are also nominations for two recent affordable housing developments, celebrating the Council’s work alongside local firm HUSK in North Shields and Wallsend.
Falmouth Close, in North Shields took old garages that had become derelict and turned them into nine new comfortable, affordable homes for residents. And now, the site has been nominated for ‘Residential Project of the Year’ in the Constructing Excellence North East awards.
Falmouth Close has previously won the ‘Best Approach to Modular Housing’ award at the Northern Housing Awards in 2023.
Another story of the Council’s fruitful work alongside HUSK is Belshill Close and Backhill Close, in Wallsend. The scheme took garages across both sites and created nine two-bedroom bungalows for residents and is now among five finalists in the MJ Awards’ ‘Innovation in Housing’ category.
