We received reports from several residents about BT Openreach operatives carrying out works on site. You told us that you had not been made aware in advance that they would be coming, and that some of the work they are doing is quite disruptive.

Unfortunately the on-site project team was also not informed that Openreach would be visiting, and so we were not in a position to inform residents beforehand.
 
As you may be aware, Openreach is carrying out a nationwide project to install Ultrafast full fibre broadband. Having already connected 10m premises, it plans to connect 25 million by the end of December 2026.
 
Alongside this, since 2018 our Special Projects Team have been leading an initiative to help improve internet connectivity in our neighbourhoods and support our customers to stay connected. As we build and develop new homes, a key requirement is to make sure our homes meet our customers’ expectations, including being able to connect to the internet. With this in mind, we are working closely with companies including Community Fibre and Hyperoptic, as well as BT Openreach, to install fibre optic cables across our whole housing stock.
 
The normal procedure for when a broadband provider is due to visit residents is for the Projects Team to let the Neighbourhood Management contact know so that this can be communicated to residents two weeks prior to the planned visit. We now know that on this occasion, this did not happen.
 
We are very sorry for this and for any noise and disturbance caused by Openreach operatives. The Special Projects Team have asked Openreach to pause this work to give us an opportunity to speak to you about this. So far, fibre optic cabling has been installed at two of the Chesham Apartments blocks (40 and 47), with plans to visit the remaining block (54) on Monday 12 June. The work will take two days.
 
We have asked BT Openreach operatives to contact the on-site remedial works team in advance of their arrival, to limit the number of engineers to two per day and to park around the corner rather than on site.
 
Fibre optic cabling will be installed in the remaining blocks at a later date, and we will make sure that residents are informed of this in advance.

We understand that there may be some noise but that this will be kept to a minimum. We are not aware that there will be any loss of power (this is not expected as part of these works), but please contact us immediately should this happen.
 
Once again, we are very sorry that we have let you down on this occasion by not making you aware in advance of Openreach’s visit. If you have any questions or would like further information, please let me know. Alternatively, please feel free to attend one of our drop-in housing surgeries which take place every other Tuesday (the next one is Tuesday 13 June).