Serving the community since the 70s

Ian Vickers, neighbourhood team leader at Believe Housing, has worked in housing since 1978. He joined Easington District Council as a painter and decorator, before becoming a neighbourhood officer a few years later.

He came to speak to NHC colleagues at our staff quarterly meeting as part of 50 Stories Live.

Tell us about when you joined the council?

I applied to be an apprentice painter and decorator and was interviewed by 70 people in the council chamber. A lot of councillors were there, and there was the personnel department too! It was intimidating for a young 16-year-old lad, I’d brought in schoolwork to show! But I managed to hold my nerve by focusing on the one person I knew in the audience.

It was so different back then. They asked me if I was Catholic.  If you were, a percentage of your wage was paid to the church. To do the job it was compulsory to be in the union. Women were asked if they had a boyfriend and if they planned to have children, this would definitely no longer be part of an interview.

What prompted you to move from being a painter and decorator to working in neighbourhood management?

It was a case of redundancy, and I was offered a position in the neighbourhood team. I did a week of shadowing and then I was straight out into the community!

What have been the biggest changes since you started?

The number of homes we manage has fluctuated with Right to Buy and pit closures changing the face of communities. I’ve overseen a lot of houses being pulled down, due to structural faults, or there simply not being the demand. When the mines closed a lot of younger people moved away from the pit villages to find work. This meant older people tended to stay put and didn’t want bungalows anymore.

Things have now gone full circle as with the bedroom tax there’s now more demand for smaller properties. We’re also redeveloping and building new homes in many of the areas we were demolishing homes in a few years ago.

The introduction of IT has changed how we work and the pace. When I started, we relied on paper memos. Now everything has been digitalised and can be done so much quicker. We no longer have to wait for monthly committees to meet to decide on allocations.

What’s got better over time?

Housing providers listen to customers a lot more now, and often customers’ needs turn out to be different to what we expected.  Customer communication has improved, and we’ve got better at listening.  It’s great to see customers as part of the board, making a real difference.