Photos courtesy of Kingston Council and Michael Schwager
Kingston Council provides a housing service to over 6,000 social housing and leaseholder properties across the borough.
Our consultation team used a mix of methods including surveys, stakeholder interviews, street interviews and focus groups, collaborative design sessions and workshops to gather feedback and develop insight from Kingston residents.
The Project
With diminishing resources and rising demand, Kingston housing service was under pressure to deliver change. The council was considering how best to develop housing services and to ensure that services and systems were fit for purpose. Mobilise, together with Kaizen and Social Engine, were commissioned to carry out wide ranging and independent research into the development of a new housing model.
Our Approach
Reaching 1,156 people that represented Kingston’s diverse residents, Mobilise was able to establish broad support for the new housing model’s six priority areas. Our consultation team used a mix of methods including surveys, stakeholder interviews, street interviews and focus groups, collaborative design sessions and workshops to gather feedback and develop insight from Kingston residents. Building on the qualitative research that highlighted frustration with the housing service, Mobilise was able to make recommendations in the areas of online services, communications, engagement and service responsiveness to support the development of the new model. Mobilise was retained to design and lead a process that brought staff and residents together to co-design the new housing model offer document.
Impact
The research provided detailed feedback across the six priority areas where tenants and leaseholders wanted to change the housing service. The process also revealed that residents were excited by the opportunities presented by adoption of a new housing model. The housing service used the research as the basis for beginning to make the changes needed to deliver a service residents wanted.