Estate services - City of London
Estate cleaning and grounds maintenance
City of London Housing cleaning and grounds maintenance is predominantly provided by estate-based teams. Estate Supervisors manage a team of porter cleaners and grounds maintenance operatives who are tasked with carrying out the caretaking responsibilities for all communal areas on our 13 housing estates.
The majority of our teams are trained to British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) standard. Some of the caretaking responsibilities covered include:
- Sweeping hard surface areas
- Washing floors, stairs and entrances
- Cleaning lifts
- Washing internal windows
- Litter picking
- Clearing bulk waste
- Grass cutting
- Maintaining hedges and shrub beds
- Leaf clearance
- Weeding
Estate Supervisors manage these teams and are responsible for ensuring standards are upheld. Regular inspections of all communal areas are one way in which they aim to achieve this. As well as monitoring performance and safety, Estate supervisors are also tasked with identifying issues in communal areas and taking appropriate action. This includes:
- Identifying and raising repairs in communal parts
- Highlighting hazards and taking steps for removal
- Identifying signs of anti-social behaviour and reporting
- Signposting customer enquiries to appropriate services
- Checking parking and reporting issues relating to unauthorised vehicles
Estate Services Standards
The estate Services standards document has been designed to provide clear and easy to use guidance on how to assess the standard of our estates. This assists in measuring how the areas are being maintained and provides structure for those tasked with maintaining them.
Estate inspections are carried out by our Estate Supervisors. We aim to carry out inspections for each estate and the blocks monthly using a digital auditing software application.
The inspections are broken down into the elements that make up our blocks such as entries, lobbies, lifts, corridors, and balconies etc. These areas are graded using the standards document as guidance which then automates a score based on the selections. The end score produced helps assess the overall standard, and the areas that could potentially require further attention to raise the standard where it has dropped below a certain threshold. We aim to keep our standard above 80%.
If you wish to see the latest quarterly overview report for your estate you can do so via your Housing Estate page.
Window cleaning to communal parts on the estates is carried out by our external contractor New Concept General Cleaning. The window cleaning varies for each site but is generally carried out on a quarterly basis.
If you have any questions regarding this service you can contact your local estate office or email the Estate Services team.
Out of the 13 City of London housing estates, just two are located in the City of London. The other 11 are located in six other London boroughs outside of the City of London (Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets). The refuse and recycling facilities on these estates are delivered by these ‘host’ boroughs.
The council tax you pay goes to these authorities, so it is worth familiarising yourself with the services they provide. If you have any questions regarding refuse and recycling on your estate, please feel free to contact your estate office and they should be able to offer some guidance.
You can also visit your local council webpage for information regarding their services:
If you have any enquiries regarding parking on your estate, please contact your estate office for details. Some of our estates have paid daily parking facilities and use of this can be authorised via the estate office front desk.
For long term residents parking permits please apply via our Resident parking permits webpage.
Please note, estate parking is monitored, and enforcement measures will take place against unauthorised vehicles. Parking without a permit or authorisation is done so at your own risk.
For enquiries relating to any of the above, please email the Estate Services team.