Tenants Forum 2009
The Tenants Forum was held on Thursday 11th June 2009, and attended by tenants, the senior management team from Arcon and board members.
Mystery Shopping
David Lovelady, the Housing Director, explained that Arcon had introduced mystery shopping to test the customer service that we provide, and to identify areas where improvements to the service could be made.
Several tenants have volunteered to carry out the mystery shopping and they received training in November 2008. The first mystery shopping exercise was finished in December 2008. The areas of the service that were tested included:
- The Pinpoint lettings service.
- Right to buy request.
- Rent statements-request and explanation of information.
- Transfer request.
- Explanation of rent arrears information.
- Advice on rehousing
- Test the out of hours repairs service provided by Astraline.
The results were collated and recommendations have been made to improve the service we give to our customers. These recommendations were circulated at the meeting.
Some of the key improvements have been around how staff handle telephone calls, which accounts for over 80% of contact with tenants.
These include a standard greeting where staff give their name. Also staff will try to get as much information from the caller to allow them to decide if we can assist, and if they have to pass the message onto a colleague, they will tell them what the enquiry is about to avoid the caller repeating themselves. All staff will now wear name badges to help identify who they are. It was agreed that in the future we will test the response time of Astraline, as some concerns were raised with the length of time it took to respond to calls.
A second round of mystery shopping was finished in March and further recommendations will be made to help improve the service.
If any tenants would like to get involved in the mystery shopping they should contact David Lovelady.
Tenant Inspections.
David explained that Arcon are looking to introduce tenant inspections, where tenants from one area will visit another area and carry out an inspection of the estate, completing one of Arcon’s development checks. It may also be possible to expand this to inspecting void properties to make sure our repairs void standard has been achieved. This will help to give an independent assessment of some of the services Arcon provide or the void standard that our contractors should achieve. If anyone is interested in this type of inspection role, they should contact David Lovelady.
Tenant Scrutiny Committee.
David Lovelady talked about the new role of the Tenant Scrutiny Committee. The membership of this new committee is made up primarily from the original Tenant Committee that was formed in 2002, and the mystery shoppers. The new scrutiny committee will work with an independent mentor and Arcon staff, looking at how the association performs. They will have access to performance information, and also be able to compare Arcon’s performance against other north west housing associations. Their role will be to scrutinise performance and make suggestions where necessary on areas where the association can improve its performance or services it provides. It will be part of a co-regulation approach of the association with the board. This is in line with the proposals being made by the Tenants Services Authority, the new regulator for social housing, which replaced the Housing Corporation last year. A training programme is being delivered, and the committee should start their first scrutiny exercise later this year. Again if anyone is interested in the work of the Scrutiny Committee and would like more details they should contact David Lovelady.
Improvements and Major Repairs
Jim Bradley, the Property Director, informed the forum that Arcon has a planned major repairs programme, based on a full stock condition survey. Schemes or individual properties have been identified that need major works such as boiler replacements, new kitchens and new windows and doors. A programme for replacement is set out based on the age of the components that need replacing, and the money available in the budget. Properties have also been identified that fail to meet the government’s decent homes standard, and all social landlords have been set a completion date of the end of 2010 to bring these properties up to this standard.
Peter Schilizzi, the Chief Executive, told the forum that after changes made by our regulator, Arcon can no longer use the recycled grant that is raised from the sale of some our properties to fund major repair schemes. This money can only be used for building new properties in the future. Consequently Arcon have had to cut the work in the programme, and some schemes may have to wait a little longer for the major works to be completed.
Tenants from Alder Court asked when they would have their electric storage heating system replaced. Jim Bradley confirmed that they are in the programme for replacement with a modern electric heating system in 2013/14.
Tenants from Albert Avenue asked when their schemes would benefit from the next phase of major repairs, and they were told this would be in 2013/14 when new kitchens and central heating boilers will be installed.
Jim explained that there are still some of our properties that do not have double glazing or need new boilers. While Arcon would like to finish all major repairs as quickly as possible, decisions have to be made on which properties are completed now and which will have to wait a little longer for the work.
After further discussion on individual issues the forum was brought to a close.
Amended 21st July 2009
