Agenda item

Councillor Daryl Brown left the meeting prior to the consideration of this item.

Councillor Homan explained that when she had become Cabinet Member for Housing in 2014 she had attended a borough housing forum and the meeting had been dominated by people concerned about their housing partly because of the previous administration's approach to social housing and partly because they were not being involved in housing services. She felt that the council had made significant progress in the last two years to give residents the opportunity to get involved and shape how services were delivered.

Daniel Miller, Service Improvement & Resident Involvement Manager, explained that the emphasis of his team's work was now to put residents at the heart of decision making. The team had been expanded from 3 to 7 officers to allow them to do this; and his team now supported the Borough Housing Forum, Housing Representatives Forum, Sheltered Housing Forum, Leasehold Forums, Repairs Working Group, Communications Group, Investment Group, Inclusion Group, Reading Group, Caretaking Working Group and Residents’ Conference Planning Group. A new Resident Involvement Strategy had been developed with residents which aimed to:

1)    Place greater control and influence at the hands of our residents, making us more accountable for the housing services they receive.

2)    Deliver ‘More Involvement, Better Involvement’ by working with residents to identify and break down barriers to engagement.

3)    Promote social inclusion and support thriving and vibrant communities.

Councillor Connell asked how effective the service was at engaging new residents. Daniel Miller explained that over 150 people were directly involved in at least one of the groups previously mentioned or through their membership of a Tenants & Residents Association (TRA). At the residents conference a further 26 people had expressed an interest in getting involved in some way. These people would all be contacted by his team and officers would discuss with them how they might like to get involved; the process for contacting residents had been designed with the help of the active service improvement groups. Daniel Miller said that he was not complacent however, and explained that his team was trying to get lots more residents involved; one idea was to promote opportunities for giving instant feedback through ‘Rant and Rave’ which is being trialled by the Housing Department and repairs contract, Mitie.

John Ryan, Chair of the Investment Group agreed that more residents were needed to add to the range of experience and to reduce the workload of some of the more engaged residents. He felt that more training for those getting involved was important to retaining residents and to getting the most from them. Nilavra Mukerji explained that historically this training had been left to other volunteers, particularly Chairs, to organise, and agreed that this was not ideal. He said that officers planned to develop an induction programme for residents.

A resident said that some of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations (TRAs) in the borough were not as effective as they should be, with some not engaging well with either the council or the residents in the area that they represent. A resident also said that there was also a problem with the representation of those living in properties which were not on housing estates. He said that clustering these properties together to form a viable association might be a solution, but felt that a lot of residents were not currently being represented. Cllr Lisa Homan said that she agreed that TRAs should engage with their residents and the council, however, she noted that they were run by volunteers and that some chose to use their time to promote community activities on estates rather than help the council with its engagement work; she felt that there was a balance to be struck. She also felt that officers could improve their communications to promote meetings to TRA representatives more and explain their importance better. Councillor Homan said that knew that there was a particular difficulty with engaging those living in street properties. Daniel Miller explained that his team offered support to TRAs which wanted to engage with the council more.

John Ryan said that the Investment Group had recently carried out a tour of the borough and directly engaged with residents which had given them very useful insights into what residents thought. He felt that more direct engagement with residents, by residents, would be a worthwhile exercise.

Nigel Hensman, a local resident, asked what relationship existed between TRAs,community associations and residents associations that consisted of residents who do not live in council housing. Councillor Homan explained that a large amount of TRA work was focussed on issues related to council housing, however, she was keen to see all residents in an area work together for the benefit of their community. Ros O’Connell, Chair of the Repairs Working Group, said that this already happened in some areas, and that she felt it ought to be encouraged.

A resident explained that tenants often got together because of problems which affected all of them; he felt that the council ought to offer such groups of residents easier ways of resolving their problems as they were often left frustrated by the council’s bureaucracy. The Chair suggested that ward councillors could be invited to attend such meetings. Ros O’Connell said that during a visit to Croydon Council Housing they had explained that they had an officer whose main role was to champion resident concerns and priority areas who could ensure that groups of residents got the responses they needed and suggested that a senior officer could be given that role in the LBHF Housing Department. Gwen Cook asked whether there would be an overlap with the work of the InTouch team which managed complaints. Councillor Homan explained that the InTouch team was currently being reviewed to make it more effective, and that she would try to engage residents in that; she felt that there might be a role for a champion, but that it needed more consideration.  Nilavra Mukerji agreed to look into the idea with colleagues.

Adrian Van Zyl presented an update on the newly formed Inclusion Group. He explained that the Inclusion Group believed that having an open and accessible platform for all residents was needed. This platform would allow residents to achieve many possibilities and create opportunities. The group believed that the platform  would make it possible for talents to be shared and to involve everyone who could make a contribution – the council, other active community groups, charities, youth groups, and businesses including contractors working for the council. The Inclusion Group had identified the following main action tasks for consideration, although these might be added to:

·         Tackling social exclusion

·         Equality of opportunities for council housing residents

·         Digital inclusion

·         Financial support and inclusion

·         Access to services

Anthony Wood, Chair of the Communications Group, explained that the group had been busy redesigning parts of the council’s website and developing the new resident involvement packs. The group now intended to hold a series of meetings with officers to ask them to outline their communications strategy, starting with the Mitie repairs service. He explained that the aim of this exercise was to help officers learn how to communicate with residents better.

Councillor Phibbs said he was pleased that so many residents were involved in improving services, although he felt that the work residents did to improve their own communities and estates was also of great value. He was concerned that there were less active TRAs in the borough and that area housing forums, which he thought had been very useful, were no longer held. Councillor Phibbs noted that not all TRA halls were well used and said that he felt the council ought to be doing more to promote their use. He asked whether officers could assist with paperwork and to get more bookings. Nilavra Mukerji said that officers were working with TRAs to improve the use of tenants halls. A new Community Facilities Officer would be joining the council and part of their role would be to give support to TRAs; it was important by residents, however, that TRAs kept control of their halls. Ros O’Connell felt that the current administration’s approach to TRA halls was good; she remembered that previous administrations had dictated how halls could be used and had locked some residents out of their halls.

The Chair thanked officers and residents for their work, and all present for their contribution to an interesting debate.