Minutes of the Full Federation Meeting held on
28^th February 2007 at Bull Green House

Attendance
Nora Greenfield	Barker Close	Norma Marriott	Barker Close
Leslie Godfrey	Beechwood TARA	Ian Van Loon	Central Ovenden
Carole Shaw	Fall Spring Gardens TARA	Grace Paradise	Fall Spring Gardens TARA
Iris O'Donnell	Haley Court TA	Eric Sutcliffe	Haley Court TA
Bert Swaine	Haley Court TA	Mary Battye	Headlands House TA
Rita McWhirter	Heptonstall TARA	Margaret Coupe	Heptonstall TARA
Vera Benney	Heptonstall TARA	Don McLean	Ling Bob
Val O'Leary	Kershaw TARA	Bill Stafford	Kershaw TARA
Doris Maden	McBurney Close TA	Sheila Whiteley	McBurney Close TA
Val Barker	Middle Mixenden TARA	Carole Coles	Middle Mixenden TARA
Anne Lees	Mozley Drive Flats	Irene Mulhall	Mozley Drive Flats
Esther Richardson	Pollit Fields TA	Chris Lates	Pollit Fields TA
George Cameron	Shaw Lodge RA	Richard Guillot	St James Court TA
Heather Pitt	Stansfield Crossley	Heather Stacey	Thornhill TA
Mick Stacey	Thornhill TA	Maureen Scrimshaw	Twin Towers
Ruth Rider	Twin Towers	Sue Molineux	Whinney Hill Park TARA
Val Morris	Pennine Housing	Amanda Garrard	Pennine Housing
Janette Dunne	Pennine Housing
Apologies
Alan Randall	Dodge Holme TARA	Sue Hodgson	Dodge Holme TARA
Brian Battye	Headlands House TA	Anne Durkin	Pollit Fields TA
Val Bennett	Pollit Fields TA	Betty Moore	Roomfield House
Janet Wilson	St James Court TA	Barbara Gunshon	St James Court TA

2. Minutes of previous meetings

Sheila Whiteley questioned the accuracy of the minutes on two points. The first one relating to publication of information about the 2007 - 2010 Improvement Programme and the other about Amanda Garrard's comments about the future movement of Housing Officer patches.

It was pointed out that the minutes could never record every detail of the discussions which had taken place during a debate, so there would always be some omissions. To clarify; Amanda's reference to the publication of the improvement programme information related to the Spring '07 edition of Homing In, not the Christmas '06 edition as this was already at the printing stage and the programme was still to be finalised.

The minutes were proposed as a true record by Mary Battye, seconded by Sue Molineux and carried by the meeting.

3. Matters arising

3.1 Rita McWhirter raised a point relating to item 6, she questioned if Pennine Housing were subsidising Green Vale Homes? Amanda Garrard reassured the meeting that this was definitely not the case and then explained how the new Trans Pennine group structure had provided major cost saving benefits for Pennine Housing.

3.2 Rita raised a second point regarding Housing Corporation subsidy for new build. She questioning whether the Housing Corporation would have the final say over who Pennine Housing lets properties to if they had been built using a Housing Corporation grant. Amanda reassured the meeting that Pennine would decide who lives in the properties. However, in order to get Housing Corporation subsidy Pennine needed to demonstrate that there was a housing need for their proposals and that having been awarded funding to build new homes Pennine could not change their plans and build something different.

3.3 Val Morris raised a matter relating to point 3 of the minutes. At the last meeting Eric Sutcliffe had been elected as Convenor of the TARA Support Working Group. Since the last meeting Eric had resigned from his TA's committee but was prepared to continue as the working group Convenor until the AGM in October, if this met the meetings approval. This suggestion was proposed by Mary Battye, seconded by Ruth Rider and carried by the meeting.

4. Correspondence

Letter from Tiscali relating to the none payment of the broadband account - this matter was now sorted and had arisen as a result of a change of Pennine Housing banking arrangements.

5. Treasurer's Report

Agreed

6. Pennine Housing Issues

The Respect Agenda - Janette Dunne, Operations Manager North Halifax/Lower Valley

Janette explained to the meeting that the Government's RESPECT agenda was about making a clear statement to communities that Anti-Social Behaviour will not be tolerated. RESPECT is about prevention, intervention and support. Janette outlined the self-assessment process Pennine is currently undertaking to identify any gaps in the current service delivery, prior to signing up to the RESPECT agenda. She explained that Pennine could 'sign up' tomorrow but they want to ensure that everything is in place before making such a major commitment.

Janette particularly wanted to focus her presentation to the meeting on the development of Good Neighbour Agreements

1. Good Neighbour Agreements can be used for different purposes and in different ways. The overarching aim, however, is to promote positive behaviour. In addition, Good Neighbour Agreements:

• seek to give a clear indication that there is a commitment from the landlord and other agencies to tackling anti-social behaviour

• seek to engage local residents and to encourage them to share responsibility for tackling nuisance behaviour and promoting positive behaviour;

• are used in conjunction with a range of other enforcement and preventative measures to address anti-social behaviour.

2. Good Neighbour Agreements can be used to do one or more of the following:

• reinforce the tenancy agreement;

• reassure tenants and residents that local concerns around anti-social and nuisance behaviour will be addressed;

• present a statement of desirable or positive behaviour and what it means to be a good neighbour;

• promote a shared set of community standards and expectations around behaviour and highlight the rights and responsibilities of tenants and residents (including children and young people), landlords and other service providers;

• contribute to the sustainment of community regeneration initiatives; and

• contribute to wider anti-social behaviour strategies.

3. The benefits of Good Neighbour Agreements should be:-

• a reduction in complaints over time;

• fewer voids;

• more applications for homes on previously unpopular estates;

• greater tenant and resident satisfaction;

• a greater willingness among residents to challenge and report anti-social behaviour; and

• improved community cohesion.

Janette explained that Pennine would not be looking to develop Good Neighbour Agreements for every estate. Pennine is planning to set up a working group to look at developing a criteria which would help to identify where Good Neighbour Agreements could be used as an effective tool to reduce Anti Social behaviour - the type of areas which would benefit from such an agreement would be estates with multiple problems, e.g. high turnover of properties, anti-social behaviour problems, etc. Janette stated that she hoped that she would get some volunteers from the Federation to be involved in developing the Good Neighbour Agreement criteria.

Federation members' comments on the presentation:

• Has to come from the grassroots if Good Neighbour Agreements are to work

• Some concerns that serious anti social behaviour problems will not be resolved - Janette responded by stating that Pennine has a number of ideas as to how they can make RESPECT work

• What happens where there are estates with a lot of home owners? - Janette explained the need to adopt an inclusive multi-agency approach

• What happens if an estate doesn't want a Good Neighbour Agreement immediately, could they have one later? Janette explained there were no time scales attached to the development of the agreements

• Estates have to work together to get stronger

2007/08 Rent Increases including Support Charges and garage rent increases - Amanda Garrard, Executive Director

2007/08 Rent Increase

Amanda explained to the meeting the process that Pennine uses to determine how much rents should rise by annually. She reminded the meeting that Pennine had had a 5 year rent guarantee of RPI + 1% (including a 20% uplift for new tenants) but that had expired as we are now in year 6. Additionally, last year Pennine Housing had separated out rents and service charges - % increases apply to the rent element; service charges are dealt with separately by dividing up the cost of the service by the number of tenants receiving that particular service.

The amount Pennine increases its rent by is now determined by the Government's national rent setting policy which applies to all Housing Associations and Councils. It is the government's intention that by 2012 it should not matter whether you are a tenant with a Housing Association or the Council, your rent would be calculated in the same way - this is called Rent Convergence. Target rents will be decided using the following formula:

Government rent setting formula - 3 elements

Maximum annual increase RPI + 0.5% +/- £2

Most Pennine rents are currently below the Government's target rent, this means that each annual rent increase will have to be carefully calculated to ensure that they reach the 2012 target. This is made more difficult because of the need to converge new and existing tenants' rent levels and also to continue to meet the targets in the 30 year business plan.

Support Charges

Amanda explained that Support Charges were paid by tenants living in Sheltered Housing. She further explained that the charges had not been altered since 2003 but that during a recent Supporting People inspection carried out independently by the Council it had been recommended that Pennine review the charges; reducing the higher charge but increasing the lower charge. The following changes have now been applied:

Support Level	Current Charge	Proposed Charge	Number of tenants
Low	£5.79	£8.00	150
Medium	£17.18	£12.00	250
High	£23.15	£16.00	500
Very Sheltered	£23.68	£27.00	78

Amanda explained that the vast majority of Sheltered tenants receive Supporting People grant so the impact of the changes would be minimal.

Garage Rents

Amanda explained that Pennine was spending more on garages that they were receiving in income - currently spending £270,000 annually but only charging £190,000 in rent.

She pointed out that a high proportion of the people who rent garage were not Pennine tenants and therefore the cost of providing garages was being subsidised by Pennine tenants. Pennine needed to increase the rents to reflect expenditure; the following increases will apply:

	Current	Proposed 2007/8	Proposed 2008/9
Garage	£3.55 wk	£7.00 wk	£10.00 wk
Garage Site	£29.00 pa	£31.00 pa	£32.00 pa

Amanda's presentation was followed by a general discussion amongst members around a number of concerns regarding the abuse of garage tenancy agreements, particularly where garages were being used as cheap storage for businesses.

7. Feedback from Working Groups.

Big Picture Working Group

Ruth informed the meeting that Richard Guillot and herself had attended the Council's Housing Strategy launch. Ruth outlined the Council's housing priorities until 2010:

Ruth informed the meeting that the Big Picture Working Group will be meeting with Mark Thompson, Head of Housing, Calderdale MBC on the 12^th March and will report back on the outcome of the meeting to the next full federation meeting.

Ruth also brought two conferences to the attention of the meeting:

CIH, Making a Difference conference, Rotherham, 29^th March

TAROE, 'Your chance to influence' conference, London, 13^th March

The Management team had already discussed these conferences and recommended to the meeting that the Federation should fund the sending of two delegates to the TAROE conference and three to the Rotherham conference. This was agreed: Ruth Rider , Margaret Coupe and Don McLean will attend the Chartered Institute of Housing event; there was no interest on the night in the TAROE event.

Training Working Group

The working group has put together and sent out to groups a training needs survey. There has been a fantastic response to the survey and the working group now has a clear indication about the type of training that Federation members need providing.

Committee Skills

The Training Working group has recently met with Marilyn Sutcliffe from Calderdale Council's Adult Learning section and a proposal has been put together which would enable the Federation to deliver a 12 week Committee Skills Course from September 2007. The cost of the course would be £79.20 per person, however, this would only need paying for those people who do not qualify for concessions. There would be an additional charge of £15 per person for the accreditation (formal qualification). The meeting agreed that the Working Group should go ahead and organise the course and the Federation would fund delivery.

IT Classes

The Working Group has also been discussing the current IT classes provided by the Federation and have concluded that the current delivery does not necessarily provide the best value for money. The Working Group proposed developing a new delivery arrangement which includes adding 2 IT sessions on to the Committee Skills course, ensuring that every participant gets a basic introduction to using a computer. Additionally, they are proposing to establish a weekly IT club - staffed by the Tenant Involvement Workers - where tenant group representatives can come along and share knowledge and learn new skills. The Tenant Involvement workers have agreed to refer anyone wanting to produce newsletters, flyers, etc to the IT club rather than coming to Bull Green House.

Additionally, Adult Learning have offered to provide a number of one day courses free of charge to cover topics like newsletter production, accounting, fundraising, publicity, etc.

The benefit of the proposal would be that the Federation would no longer need to employ external IT support.

The Working Groups proposal was accepted by the meeting and will be implemented within the next month. It was suggested that it might also be useful for a day course to be put on to help groups make things to sell as part of their fundraising efforts - this suggestion will be looked into.

TARA Support Working Group

Eric Sutcliffe informed the meeting of the progress this working group since the last meeting. They have written to all Tenants Associations asking if they would like a presentation at one of their meetings about the role of the Federation. They have now finished the information leaflet and this has also been circulated to groups, as well as being put on the Federation website.

Richard Guillot has also visited each of the Housing Offices team meetings to explain the role of the Federation and tell them about the changes which have recently been implemented. Richard has also arranged for the Federation's newsletters to be made available for tenants in each housing office.

8. Impact of the Government's ban on smoking in public places

Val Morris explained that a no smoking ban in all enclosed public places - such as offices, factories, pubs and restaurants - will come into force across the whole of the UK by July 2007. Pennine Housing already has a policy in place regarding smoking in its offices, however some tenants associations still allow smoking in their community rooms but this will have to stop once the ban comes into force.

9. Review of the Tenant Participation Policy

Val Morris circulated copies of the revised Involvement policy which has been reviewed to take into account a number of changes which have taken place since the policy was last updated in 2003. The policy now includes a revised section which outlines the need for anyone taking part in Pennine Housing participatory activities to be tolerant of each others' views and to respect the right of others to enjoy their involvement. Within this section there is included a protocol which allows Pennine Housing the right to decide to exclude any individual whose actions during consultation events, public meetings, Area Committees, etc. causes distress and anguish to others. Val explained that this additional section had been included as a direct result of pressure from tenants who had experienced a number of problems at activities which had been held during the course of the last 12 months or so.

The meeting fully supported the revised document and voted in favour of recommending that it is adopted at the Pennine Housing Board meeting on Tuesday 20^th March 2007.

10. Feedback from the New Year Party

Everyone agreed that it was the best yet, Grace Paradise stated that it was really, really good and thanked the organisers. Sue Molineux asked for her thanks to Iris, Bert and Eric for their hard work, both on the night of the party and the following day.

It was suggested that this year the event might be held before Christmas rather than after it but after some discussion it was agreed that it was better after Christmas - suggested date 12^th January 2008. Sue Molineux suggested that the tickets go on sale in September giving people a lot more notice, she also invited people to think of new ideas for making the party even better next year.

A summer event was also discussed, ideas such as a summer picnic in People's Park were suggested but it was decided that everyone should go back to their Associations and ask them to come up with suggestions - any ideas to Sue M. on 01484 716026.

11. Board Observer & Jargon Busting vacancies

Chris Lates was elected as the new Board Observer to work with Bert Swaine. Carol Coles, Heather Stacey, Grace Paradise, Vera Benney, Margaret Coupe and Bill Stafford all volunteered for the Jargon Busting team.

12. Any Other Business

Board Elections -

Information about the proposed process for electing a new Tenant Board member for Upper Valley was circulated

Office use -

Mary Battye reminded everyone that if they want to use the office it is important that you let Mary know so that she can check the diary to make sure no one else has already booked it. Mary can be contacted on 01422 205665

TPAS Mailings -

Val Morris informed the meeting that TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) would be writing to groups asking them if they wanted to be put on the TPAS mailing list. This was a free service as Pennine Housing was a member landlord of TPAS. Val explained that the monthly information is really useful and encouraged groups to take up this offer.

Venues for Future Meetings

Val Morris explained that Pennine Housing would shortly be relocating their Boardroom to their new offices in Brighouse, this would mean that the Federation would need to identify new premises for future meetings. Agreed that the next meeting be held at the Salvation Army premises (Richard Guillot to book) on St James Rd, Halifax. Also agreed that it would be good to rotate meetings around the districts e.g. Todmorden and Brighouse.

Tenant Involvement Impact Assessment

Val Morris explained that work would shortly begin on measuring the impact of tenant involvement during 2006/07, part of this assessment would include a review of the Federations work during this period - more info' at next meeting.

Central Ovenden Tenants and Residents Association -

Ian Van Loon, COTRA Chair, informed the meeting of a number of issues affecting the Ovenden estate. Members present gave Ian advice about how to take effective action to improve matters.

13. Date of Next Meeting -

Wednesday 25^th April 2007 - venue to be confirmed

The meeting closed at 9.00pm