Minutes of the Full Federation Meeting held on
27^th June 2007 at Central Library, Halifax

1a. Attendance:

Nora Greenfield	Barker Close	Norma Marriott	Barker Close
Leslie Godfrey	Beechwood TARA	Sue Hodgson	Dodge Holme TARA
Grace Paradise	Fall Spring Gardens	Iris O'Donnell	Haley Court TA
Eric Sutcliffe	Haley Court TA	Mary Battye	Headlands House TA
Margaret Coupe	Heptonstall TARA	Don McLean	Ling Bob
Val O'Leary	Kershaw TA	Bill Stafford	Kershaw TARA
Val Barker	Middle Mixenden TARA	Chris Lates	Pollit Fields TA
Esther Richardson	Pollit Fields TA	Richard Guillot	St James Court TA
Heather Stacey	Thornhill TA	Maureen Scrimshaw	Twin Towers
Ruth Rider	Twin Towers	Sue Molineux	Whinney Hill Park TARA
Amada Garrard	Pennine Housing	Val Morris	Pennine Housing

1b. Apologies:

Alan Randall	Dodge Holme TARA	Carole Shaw	Fall Spring Gardens TARA
Bert Swaine	Haley Court TA	Brian Battye	Headlands House TA
Rita McWhirter	Heptonstall TARA	Vera Benney	Heptonstall TARA
Carole Coles	Middle Mixenden TARA	Anne Durkin	Pollit Fields TA
Val Bennett	Pollit Fields TA	Janet Wilson	St James Court
Barbara Gunshon	St James Court	Mick Stacey	Thornhill TA

2. Minutes of previous meetings

Agreed

3. Matters arising

None

4. Correspondence

Letter from the company who service the photocopier, stating that they were withdrawing from the servicing agreement because the age of the copier meant it was no viable to provide this cover. Agreed to keep running the copier until there are some maintenance issues and then to consider options.

5. Treasurer's Report

Breakdown provided of the Federation's spending over the last 5 years, estimated spend for this year is £6000 plus Pennine's additional contribution of rent free office accommodation, postage, printing, broadband link, heating, lighting, insurance and staff time. Pennine have suggested that the Federation should retain a working balance of £3000 and will provide funding as soon as the surplus funding, currently approx. £14000, from previous grants reaches this level. Accounts will be audited in September prior to AGM.

6. Pennine Housing Issues

Respect, Tenant Satisfaction and the Future of Social Housing (feedback from the John Hills' Review and Martin Cave's Review) - Amanda Garrard, Executive Director of Pennine Housing

Amanda explained to the meeting that her presentation would be covering four very important subjects but, as she only had a 30 minute slot on the agenda, it would only be a quick overview and she would be happy to provide further information for anyone interested.

A. Respect

Both Pennine and Trans-Pennine have now signed up to the Government's Respect Agenda. The Standard, which is aimed at council and housing association landlords, is built around six core commitments:

• Accountability, leadership and commitment

• Empowering and reassuring residents

• Prevention and early intervention

• Tailored services for residents and provision of support for victims and witnesses

• Protecting communities through swift enforcement

• Support to tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour

Pennine now has a 12 month action plan in place, setting out how they are going to meet each of 6 core commitments. Pennine has recently appointed a Family Intervention Worker whose role will be to work with potential problem families, co-ordinating the delivery of services and using a combination of support and sanction to motivate families to change their behaviour.

Amanda explained some of the different methods Pennine is using to bring Respect into our communities:

Early Intervention work - Engaging with young people/adults and providing them with opportunities to contribute to their communities and deal with issues before they become problems.

Enforcement work - Pennine uses all enforcement and legal powers at its disposal (e.g. ASBOs, ABCs, eviction orders, etc) to take action against people who are committing anti-social behaviour.

Partnership Working - Amanda stressed the importance of partnership working with other agencies such as the Police, Council, Fire Brigade, CALM, etc in dealing with the problems caused by anti-social behaviour.

B. Tenant Satisfaction Survey Results

The Housing Corporation expects all Housing Associations to carry out a Tenant Satisfaction survey every 3 years. The Housing Corporation also decides which questions should be asked in the survey; this is so they can compare the results of similar sized Housing Associations as a way of assessing their performance. Pennine's survey was carried out earlier this year and the results have just been released by the independent organisation conducting the survey.

Amanda explained that 5306 surveys had been sent out and 51% had been completed and returned; so the results should give us a good indication of how Pennine tenants feel about the way their homes and communities are managed. However, she also explained that 79% of the respondents have been tenants for more than 3 years, 56% were over 60 years old and 95% were white British, so the results don't give the full picture.

Satisfaction with homes and neighbourhoods

The survey results show that 78% of tenants are satisfied with the overall service provided by Pennine, 77% feel they get value for money and 84% are happy with their accommodation. Satisfaction is highest in Central Halifax, this has changed since the last survey when Lower Valley (Brighouse, Elland and Rastrick) were the most satisfied tenants, North Halifax were less satisfied (74%).

79% of tenants are satisfied with their neighbourhoods, the main problems respondents identified were litter, vandalism and dogs.

Contacting Pennine

64% of respondents had contacted Pennine in the previous 12 months (77% by phone) and the main reason for making contact was repairs. 82% were able to speak to the right person and 82% found the staff helpful.

Repairs Service

70% of respondents had requested a repair in the last 12 months, 77% were satisfied with the service they received. 94% thought the attitude of the workers was very/fairly good and 89% thought appointments were very/fairly good.

Communicating with Pennine

83% of survey respondents thought Pennine was good at keeping tenants informed, 71% thought that Pennine took their views into account when making decisions, 56% were satisfied with the opportunities to take part in management and decision making - only 5% were dissatisfied.

Improving Services

The 3 most important services for tenants are repairs & maintenance, overall quality of homes and value for money

Allocations and Lettings

There was a general lack of understanding on the current lettings system and 53% of respondents knew nothing about Choice Based Lettings. 18% were considering moving homes in the next 3 years - 70% would move to another Pennine home, 8% were interesting in owning their own home.

What does the Tenant Satisfaction Survey tell us?

• Pennine needs to continue to improve services

• Expectations have increased - tenants want more!

• Neighbourhoods are improving

• Can Pennine's phone systems meet tenants needs?

• Can Pennine improve customer services further? Amanda said "YES"!

• Repairs Service has improved despite recent Pennine Direct issues.

C. The Housing World

Social Housing is currently high up on the Governments agenda and recently two very important reviews have been carried out which will kick-start the debate about how Housing Associations have to adapt to meet future housing need and who should regulate them.

John Hills' Review

Professor John Hills published his report on what role social housing can play in twenty first century housing policy on 20 February 2007.  In his report he suggested that more urgent debate was required to find the most effective ways in which policy could better achieve the underlying objectives of social housing and of housing policy more generally. Professor Hills poses four fundamental questions:

• What role can Social Housing play in the 21^st century?

• How can we create genuinely mixed communities?

• How can we encourage social mobility and opportunities?

• Can we respond to changing needs and enable greater geographical mobility?

John Hills' key findings are:

• Tenants have higher levels of dissatisfaction

• 50% of social housing is in the most deprived fifth of neighbourhoods

• Lack of job related mobility

• 50% of social housing inactive

• 41% disabled people live in social housing

Where to next - what are the options for change?

Increased attention to existing stock & tenants

• More quality management - get the basics right

• More voice power options for tenants - go the extra mile/give choice

• More ability to move

• Mixed income communities

• Open up more options for existing tenants

• Supporting Mixed Incomes within existing communities

• Use Choice Based Lettings to assist with this

• Diversify stock

• Retain high income tenants

• Improve income and employment opportunities

What are the implications for Pennine Housing

• How can Pennine encourage mixed income communities and improve income levels?

• Are Pennine getting the basics right for tenants?

• How can Pennine use its existing stock more creatively?

• How can Pennine improve job support & opportunities for tenants?

• What alternative products can Pennine develop?

Martin Cave's Review - Every Tenant Matters

This independent review was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and led by Professor Martin Cave, Director of the Centre for Management under Regulation at Warwick University.

The review was asked to look at how the regulatory system for social housing could be reformed to better support tenants and drive up standards of housing provision, reduce burdens on social housing providers and to reflect current and future Government priorities. It considered the range of options available for the regulation of social housing activities, the review has only just been published so its too early to go into too much detail but some of the recommendations are:

• New Independent social housing regulator to be established

• Single Housing Ombudsman

• National Tenants Voice - within the National Consumer Council

• Improve choice for tenants

• Range of Intervention & Enforcement actions

If anyone wants a copy of either of the above reviews they should contact Val Morris, tel. 01422 284517.

7. Feedback from the Management Team Awayday and Future Ideas group exercise

Notes from the awayday were circulated along with agenda, everything seems to be going very much to plan, although there's a need to get more people involved in the working groups and we also need to ensure that the Federation's Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are kept fully up to date with the working groups progress and are involved in their activities.

The focus now had to be on the Federation's future development, the meeting split into four groups and each discussed ideas which the Federation could undertake in the future. The ideas are:

• Visits to both the Sheffield estates and Green Vale Homes

• Involving Young People conference/training day

• Young People's Fed'

• Develop links with other similar Federations

• Introduction to using the Internet Training Day

• Regular mailouts of housing news press cuttings and information

• More awareness raising about current housing issues

• Set up a Social Committee and run more social activities eg Quiz Night, Proms in the Park, Race Evening, Blackpool Trip

• Competition to design a poster and tickets for New Year Party

Some of these ideas we can get started on immediately eg visits, Quiz Night, Involving Young People Conference/Training Day, others will take a little while to get started. The meeting agreed to fund TPAS to run the Involving Young People training approx.£650 plus room hire.

8. Respect/Choice Based Lettings Roadshow

Pennine is organising a roadshow which will tour all of the main Calderdale shopping areas, as well as a few estates, raising community awareness of the Pennine's new Keychoice lettings system and Pennine's commitment to delivering the Government's Respect Agenda.

The roadshow will take place in late July and into August. Pennine is going to kit out its mobile trailer unit with key message boards and interactive displays, there will also be prizes draws and freebies. There will be more publicity nearer the time.

9. Quiz Night

The Quiz night will be held on Friday 7^th September (evening) at the NALGO Bar underneath Northgate House. Peter Dawson has very kindly offered to be the Quiz Master for the evening, there will be a Pie and Pea supper - price included in ticket price, but you will have to buy your own drinks from the bar. We will be sending out leaflets to all TA's inviting them to enter a team(s), there will be a prize for the winning team but it will be to be spent on their community and, as we see this being an annual event, there will be a trophy for the winning team. The cost of the NALGO bar is £65 for the evening.

10. PH2K membership

Company Membership forms had been circulated along with the agenda, Val Morris explained the benefits and encouraged everyone who is eligible to complete the form and return it to Margaret Holt or the Tenant Involvement section ASAP.

11. Any Other Business

Issues and venue of next meeting

Janette Dunne to be invited to discuss in more detail Pennine's Respect Action Plan, a presentation about the work of Mixenden Community Link and an item about Mobile phone masts.

12. Date of Next Meeting - Wednesday 29^th August 2007 - venue to be confirmed

The meeting closed at 9.05pm