Get to know our Neighbourhood Team: Meet Caroline Grimwood | Tenant news

Find out what Central & East Neighbourhood Coordinator Caroline Grimwood loves about her job, why she was left thank you chocolates on her desk, and what celebrity she’d love to live next door to (clue: Top Gear).

Describe your job in one sentence?
I liaise with tenants, surveyors, contractors, other professionals, and my colleagues, to provide the best possible service to ensure our tenants are happy in their homes. 

What’s the best thing about your job?
My colleagues. I have a brilliant team that helps me to grow and achieve. I couldn’t do my job without my team and managers. I also like helping others (both tenants and colleagues), moving tenants into homes that are suitable for their needs, and helping to improve tenants’ quality of life.

What’s the best thing about working on your schemes?
Seeing the tenants. I also like being there because I can identify problems or issues first hand in order to resolve them or find solutions. 

How many tenants’ lives do you change in a week?
It’s difficult to say as every week is different. This week I moved a wheelchair user into his first-ever adapted property; he was over the moon about it and was looking forward to being able to cook in his new, low-level adapted kitchen.  

What’s the nicest thing that’s happened to you on your scheme?
Being left a bouquet of chocolates on my desk from a contractor, for helping with access into all the properties.

What’s the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you on your scheme?
Trying to get a pigeon out of the communal hallway, not a great experience as I have a phobia of birds’ wings flapping.

If you had to be CEO of your region for one week, name three things you’d do? 
I would arrange meetings with staff working on the ground, have dialogue with customers to resolve issues, and get feedback on what can be improved. I’d go out and meet the tenants, which is what CEO Nick Apetroaie has done in my region and the tenants really enjoyed meeting him. 

If you were able to ask one thing of all the tenants in your region, what would it be?  
I would ask: how can we improve the scheme and what do you like most about your scheme?

Which scheme in your region would you like to live on and why?  
Millview Meadows in Rochford because its properties are spacious, well planned, most have their own gardens, and all have parking. It has a good location, just a few minutes’ walk to Rochford Market Square, five minutes’ from an international airport, close to the seaside and less than an hour on the train from central London. 

You’ve got a bonus holiday for being a great Neighbourhood Manager/Coordinator – how do you spend it?
I’d take my son to Legoland if he’s been behaving!

How do you think your Habinteg colleagues describe you?
I think they would probably say I am helpful, try my best and am proactive.

If you could choose, who would you most like to live next door to, and why  
If you mean someone famous, I’d say Jeremy Clarkson - he’s comedy gold.