Spring has arrived, and I hope you’re enjoying the brighter evenings and warmer weather. 

I’m pleased to share the latest update, covering the key discussions from our most recent meeting.  

Our group is made up of myself and other involved tenants from the Salford area. We work closely with ForHousing to address issues impacting our neighbourhood and signpost challenges with partners when it’s needed. 

We understand that tenants, like me and you, want to have our voices heard and be able to influence what happens in our homes and communities.  

Please read on for the latest news from the March Community Voice update. 

Janette Ball, Chair of Community Voice 

Community Voice meetings give us the chance to speak openly and share any concerns we have with ForHousing, so we can all feel safe in our homes and proud of where we live. 

The ForHousing team listens to what we say and works with us, the council, and other partners to make real changes and improvements in our neighbourhoods. 

We shared concerns about cuckooing, which is when criminals target the home of a vulnerable person for illegal activity. 

ForHousing is treating this seriously and is currently working on a toolkit to help spot the signs and support people who might be at risk, especially as it is often a hidden issue. 

Flytipping is still an ongoing problem in our neighbourhood, and while ForHousing does its best to remove this quickly, it’s still a big issue that negatively affects our community. 

We encourage everyone to make sure they dispose of waste correctly, especially as this could lead to a breach of tenancy for extreme cases of fly tipping. We agreed with ForHousing that it would be a good idea to look into an awareness campaign to tackle this.  

There is also an issue with cleaning up littered laughing gas canisters. It costs £10 a bottle to clean and properly dispose of the canisters, and this is concerning as it is taking up a lot of money that could be spent on other things. 

To help manage general waste better, ForHousing has a new in-house waste compacting service. These machines can compact waste, so three times as much waste can fit into the bins, and extra bins have been added to certain tower blocks. 

Did you know ForHousing is responsible for looking after three million trees? 

While ForHousing does maintain these trees, it was explained that there is no legal “right to light”. This means that not every request (like trimming for more sunlight) can be carried out, or we could risk losing too many trees unnecessarily. 

In Irlam, some trees had to be removed because of serious diseases like ash dieback. It’s important that trees aren’t removed without proper checks, so every tree is mapped, numbered, and closely monitored.  

Any removed trees are replaced with more suitable ones to keep green spaces growing healthily. 

We’re happy to share that ForHousing has been named Employer of the Year at this year’s Resolve ASB Awards in helping to make our communities safer! 

The judges were impressed by ForHousing’s Community Safety Team and their focus on training, domestic abuse awareness, and their work with external services and agencies.  

ForHousing is committed to improving services for tenants by continuously listening to our feedback and learning from our experiences. 

During the meeting, they asked for our feedback on the new way to report to Community Voices. Rather than having over 100 pages of detailed reports, we now get a shorter report that highlights key headlines and priorities. This makes it easier to understand and is easily supported by dyslexia software.  

You may already know that Liberty, who carry out repairs and maintenance to our homes, is now owned by Wates.  

In our last update, we mentioned that you’ll start to see both Wates and Liberty vans in the neighbourhood, with operatives wearing either company’s uniform. 

Since then, we’ve seen more vans and uniformed staff with the Wates branding in the area. Wates has even bought all operatives new tools and has continued to develop strong relationships with existing team members. 

ForHousing shared findings from their latest performance report, which looked at how tenants feel about the services they’re receiving. 

They found that the way feedback is collected can really influence the results. For example, people tend to be more negative when replying by email, but face-to-face chats often bring more positive responses. 

Because of this, we suggested that telephone calls might be the best way to gather feedback, as they often bring a more balanced and varied view. 

The report also showed that 45.1% of tenants are satisfied with how complaints are being handled. This is a great step forward, especially when compared to the national average of 33%.  

There were over 5,000 calls last year from tenants to follow up on their complaints, and this year, this has halved to 2,500. It shows that ForHousing is moving in the right direction, but there is still room for improvement. 

There have also been big improvements in the number of successful passes for voids repairs, which is when repairs are made to homes before they are re-let to a new tenant. This is currently going very well with thanks to support from ForHousing’s teams and contractors consistently getting it right the first time. 

ForHousing shared an update on what budgets are available and how money is split across the different funds that help support local projects and community groups.  

This includes the Community Fund, the Local Improvement Fund, and the Community Group Grant. If you want to know more about what each fund is for, you can find more details here. 

We are currently underspending the budgets in Salford, especially with the Community Fund, which offers support to local groups to deliver community projects and services. We agreed that we should look at how the funds are promoted and advertised, to prevent any underspending in the next financial year. 

We talked about ways to make the application process more open by adding a Declaration of Interest at more points during the process. This would help make sure decisions are made in a more transparent way. 

There will also be some changes to the application form, the website, and how this is reported in the monthly funding reports – helping to make sure everything runs smoothly. 

Another topic that came up was whether Community Interest Companies (CICs), which are set up to benefit the community rather than make a profit, should be able to apply for the Community Group Grant. We agreed to keep this conversation going before making any final decisions. 

You might have already noticed the new Go, See, Do maps on the ForHousing website! These digital maps show everything that’s available in our Salford community, from the Red Devils Stadium to spaces like Peel Park Pavilion. 

While there have been a few technical teething problems, we’ve had some positive feedback so far. As more time passes, things will run more smoothly. 

We’re even looking into how community volunteers could support with updating the maps with new locations, businesses, and major events. Tenant reviewers could also potentially support by keeping the map updated with fresh information and events. 

To find out more about what’s happening in Salford, when things are open, and what locals think about them, visit the digital map for Salford here. 

ForHousing has made some changes to how the Community Voice group is set up. One big change is that the chairperson’s term is being extended from three years to five to match the group’s quarterly meetings better. 

From now on, there won’t be a limit to the maximum number of members, but there will be a minimum requirement of six members in all Community Voice groups. 

There will also be some changes to the staff who regularly attend the meetings, with Jacqui Holmes, the Tenant Involvement Partner at ForHousing, now responsible for organising the Community Voice meetings.  

We’re always looking for new members to join our Community Voice group. If you are interested in representing your local community and working with ForHousing to make improvements, please get in touch here. 

ForHousing wants to understand what matters most to us and we really appreciate more tenants giving their time and input to groups like these. 

We’ll continue to share future updates with you. Do spread the word about the tenant newsletter with your family and friends, this is published every three months, and you will be able to view the latest version here.