Croydon's homelessness services are undergoing significant improvements to enhance the customer experience, following a review by the Housing Assurance Board. The board, which met on Monday, March 9, 2026, discussed a range of initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges faced by individuals seeking housing support.
Key to these improvements is a shift towards a more accessible and responsive service. Previously, the homelessness advice service operated on a walk-in basis, leading to long waiting times, with some applicants waiting over six months for an appointment. This has now been replaced by an appointment-only system, which, along with protected emergency appointment capacity, has reduced waiting times to approximately two weeks. The data presented shows a high attendance rate for scheduled appointments and a proportionate use of emergency slots, indicating the new model is effectively managing demand without restricting access for those in urgent need. The 'protected emergency appointment capacity' is available to ensure immediate access for households at risk
, with 21% utilisation of the 84 emergency appointments available per month, suggesting it is reserved for urgent situations.
Telephone response times have also seen a marked improvement. Following a pilot in August 2025, where the corporate contact centre began handling all calls, average waiting times have dropped from 30 minutes to under 4 minutes. The contact centre now resolves approximately 66% of calls, with the remaining 34% being referred to the homelessness service. Ongoing training for contact centre staff is underway to further refine their ability to resolve cases at the first point of contact. Staff are receiving training to refine the scripts
and are being equipped to resolve a lot of the cases
, with the aim of resolving 80% of calls at the contact centre, requiring only 20% to be referred to the homelessness service.
The meeting also discussed a 'Forward Plan' outlining future deep dive items for upcoming meetings, suggesting ongoing development. Specific future improvements mentioned include a potential review of the Rent Standard, rent convergence, Ofgem regulation of heat networks, and HR issues. There is also a focus on digital tools, process redesign, and automation to manage high volumes and improve data-driven decision-making. Further details on these initiatives can be found in the Public reports pack and the Customer Experience document.
