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GHA round the clock
31/12/2010
Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) staff have been praised by Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil after working round the clock to keep disruption to tenants to a minimum during the thaw.
GHA's Customer Service Centre (CSC), open 24 hours a day every day of the year, has dealt with hundreds of calls from tenants reporting problems due to the bad weather over the Christmas period.
Since Christmas Day, staff have taken almost 400 calls about burst pipes and more than 400 about gas maintenance.
GHA - one of the biggest social landlords in the UK with 54,000 tenants - and its partner City Building have had emergency teams working through the festive season, checking on tenants, contacting family members on their behalf and helping with the aftermath of the big freeze.
City Building staff arranged for dehumidifiers to dry out homes affected by flooding, delivered drinking water to homes which have had their supply affected, supplied temporary heaters where there have been problems with heating and checked electrics.
Mr Neil said:
"In recent weeks, Scotland has experienced the most significant snowfall at this time of year since 1965.
"As the big thaw takes hold, today, I saw for myself the GHA emergency teams in action and their tremendous efforts to help tenants across the city.
"Their commitment is being replicated across the country. Other publicly funded and voluntary bodies are also rolling up their sleeves and working hard to keep Scotland moving."
GHA's Executive Director of Housing and Customer Services Mick McCabe said:
"Our staff have dealt with a higher number of calls than usual over the past few weeks and tenants who phone in with an emergency in their home are our top priority.
"With our partners City Building, we've been doing everything we can to help tenants affected by the severe weather and the thaw over the last few days. The impact of the freeze has been minimised for our customers thanks to our huge investment programme which has provided new heating and energy-efficient overcladding to the majority of our homes. This has helped keep homes and families warm in these freezing temperatures."
If tenants need to report a repair or frozen or burst pipes or a gas breakdown they should call the GHA Customer Service Centre on 0800 479 7979.
Staff will be able to give advice on what to do next and arrange a visit from our repairs team if necessary.