EMPLOYEES whose jobs are affected by a housing company’s decision to restructure its customer service department say the cuts to staffing have been “too brutal”.

Staff at the Home Group, which provides housing to tenants throughout the region, from Northumberland to south Durham and east Durham to Teesside, were told in February that the restructuring would reduce frontline staff from 68 to 42.

Under the plans, rather than tenants contacting housing officers directly, they would contact a call centre in Newcastle, which would allocate appointments to officers.

Staff expressed concern at the fact that, in the new roles, the officers would not have individual patches to look after, so could be sent anywhere in the region to see a client.

A source, who wished to stay anonymous, said: “There will be no continuity for customers, they could get anyone.

“No-one will have their own special areas and we have got no control over our diaries.

“We just feel as though what the company has done is too brutal.

“They have absolutely decimated the workforce.

“We are losing some great knowledge and some excellent staff.”

Another source said that people with dependants and young children felt as though they had no choice but to take redundancy as the hours were being annualised and the option for flexible working was being taken away.

They added: “To me, this is more than just a job.

“I love the job satisfaction and we all love the communities where we have tenants.

“We have got a great rapport with councillors, police and other agencies to help our tenants but now there will be no more of that.

“We often check on elderly and vulnerable tenants who have no family each week for about ten minutes just to make sure everything is okay with them.”

Margarita Morrison, Home Group director of customer service, said: “We’re altering how we work so we can provide a better service to our customers.

“This is part of improvements started four years ago with the opening of our award winning Customer Service Centre (CSC).

“Customers want more flexibility in appointment times and how they contact us.

“We’re providing this with extended appointment hours and increased use of our CSC which is open each weekday until 8pm and until noon on Saturday.

“Our website and app also allow customers to report issues 24/7.

“Colleagues will not work any extra hours and all flexible working requests will be considered in line with our HR policies.”