Pennine Communities Federation of
Tenants & Residents Associations

5 Lister Court
Halifax
HX1 5DR
 
01422 365281

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Minutes of the Full Federation Meeting held on
27th 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:

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?

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:

John Hills' key findings are:

Where to next - what are the options for change?

Increased attention to existing stock & tenants

What are the implications for Pennine Housing

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:

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:

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 7th 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 29th August 2007 - venue to be confirmed

The meeting closed at 9.05pm


Download these Minutes as a Word document (79K)



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