Water hygiene for Southern Housing

Since 2016, Sureserve Compliance Water has kept water systems safe and compliant across Southern Housing's homes in the South East. Today the programme covers 727 blocks and more than 4,000 homes.

The portfolio is varied and demanding. It spans low, medium and high-rise blocks, sheltered schemes and CQC-regulated healthcare settings that need enhanced monitoring. Every one of them needs a clear, auditable record that Legionella risk is being properly controlled.

What we deliver

We provide Southern Housing with a complete water hygiene service, from risk assessment through to repair:

• Legionella risk assessments (LRAs), with logbooks for every site
• Scheduled visits in line with each property's written scheme, including monthly monitoring, temperature checks and microbial sampling
• Shower head cleaning and descaling
• Six-monthly servicing of thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs)
• Remedial works as required
• A 24/7 call-out service, covering emergency sampling, urgent works and disinfection
• Legionella awareness training for Southern Housing staff, plus on-site training in tasks such as routine flushing

How we deliver it

A dedicated, directly employed team. The contract is run by our own managers, technicians and plumbing operatives. Six full-time water hygiene technicians are ringfenced to Southern Housing, alongside three two-person teams for shower head cleaning and TMV servicing, and a scalable team for remedials and projects.

Because the technicians are ringfenced, the same person visits each property every time. They get to know the building, its water assets, the site contacts and the residents, which makes every visit quicker and more thorough.

Planned a year ahead. Each year we build a full programme, with a provisional date for every monthly, quarterly, six-monthly and annual visit to every property. The programme is audited against each site's written scheme and the monitoring frequencies set out in HSG274, so Southern Housing can show competent, compliant management of water hygiene at any time.

Booked around residents. A dedicated Operations Coordinator books each appointment with residents and site staff at times that suit them. Built-in tolerance either side of each provisional date gives flexibility without putting compliance at risk. Standard task times, based on our historic data, let us plan appointment lengths accurately.

Always covered. Every core role has back-up. If a technician is off sick or an appointment overruns, a supervisor steps in, so no agreed visit is missed.

Data at the client's fingertips. Every visit is logged in our Zetasafe compliance software against Southern Housing's own UPRNs. The client has live access to the data and digital logbooks through our online portal and dashboard.

Supporting a merger without missing a beat

When Optivo and Southern Housing merged, water hygiene services carried on without interruption. At the client's request, we first kept running the two contracts separately through the transition. We then worked with the combined team to align processes, procedures and reporting formats, and since June 2024 the service has run as a single contract.

The merger also revealed around 1,300 Legionella risk assessments that were missing or incomplete across the combined stock. These sat outside our original scope, but we took on the work as an urgent priority. We added a trained risk assessment technician to the team so the backlog could be cleared quickly.

Remedials and major works

Routine remedial works are completed within a 30-day target from order to completion, and 100% currently meet it. Many issues are fixed on the same day, as our technicians can carry out repairs they find during monitoring visits.

We also deliver larger projects. At three 17-storey 1960s tower blocks, residents had long struggled with poor water pressure. We are replacing the roof-level tanks with smaller units and fitting high-pressure booster pumps at ground level to fix the problem for good.
On a number of low-rise blocks, we have removed old water tanks altogether and converted homes to a mains-fed supply.

Social value

Our partnership goes beyond the plant room. Each year we invest £10,000 to sponsor an apprenticeship placement for a Southern Housing resident, creating a route into skilled work for the communities we serve.

The results

• Ten years of continuous water hygiene delivery, through a major merger
• Two contracts brought together into one aligned service from June 2024
• 1,300 additional risk assessments completed at pace, beyond our original scope
• 100% of routine remedials completed within the 30-day target
• Live, auditable compliance data for every block, logged against the client's own UPRNs

For Southern Housing, the outcome is simple: safe water, clear evidence of compliance, and a partner that adapts as the organisation changes.