Pennine Communities Federation of
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5 Lister Court |
2007 Tenant Satisfaction
Survey Results
Amanda Garrard, Executive Director of Pennine Housing attended the Federation meeting on 27th June to give us some feedback from the Tenant Satisfaction Survey.
She explained that 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 tenants are 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 Garrard says "YES"!
Repairs Service has improved despite recent Pennine Direct issues
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.
Pennine is using a number of different methods 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 causes of anti-social behaviour.
At our August meeting we will be having a fuller discussion about Pennine's Action plan for dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour and there will also be a roadshow touring Calderdale raising awareness of the Government's Respect agenda at the end of July and early August.
Where to next for the Federation????
The last year has seen a lot of change taking place in how the Federation delivers its service to Tenants Associations. We now have three Working Groups in place and they each have a different area of responsibility; Big Picture Group looks at wider housing issues, Training Group sort out the Federation's training package and the TARA Support Group visit both new and existing tenants groups to raise awareness of the work of the Federation.
Overall we're really happy with the way the changes have been embraced by members -- you'll always get one or two people who 'knock' things but quite often those individuals go out of their way to find faults which is the 'no brain option' -- the hard bit is rising above this and looking at how we can build on the positive things that are happening.
At the June Federation meeting we split up into smaller groups and came up with some really exciting ideas for how we can further improve the Federation, these included:
Visits to the new Pennine Sheffield estates and to Green Vale Homes
Running an 'Involving Young People' conference/training day
Setting up a Young People's Fed'
Developing links with other similar Federations
Organising an 'Introduction to using the Internet' training day
Sending out regular bulletin of housing news, press cuttings and information
More awareness raising about current housing issues
Setting up a Social Committee and running more social activities eg Quiz Night, Proms in the Park, Race Evening, Blackpool Trip, etc
Having a competition to design a poster and tickets for New Year Party
Some of these ideas we can get on and organise immediately eg the Quiz Night, visits and the training days, others will take a bit longer.
Social Housing is currently high up on the Government's 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 21st 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?
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.
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