Happy New Year to all our readers, we hope you had a lovely festive period!
As 2024 drew to a close, the Fitton Hill Community Voice group had its final gathering of the year.
I’m excited to share the latest update covering key discussions from our December Community Voice meeting. Our group is made up of myself and other tenants who live in the Fitton Hill area.
We work together with ForHousing to take action on the things that affect 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 a part of influencing what happens in our homes and communities.
Please read on for the key updates and highlights from our December Community Voice meeting.
Helen Wild, Chair of Community Voice
Through the Community Voice meetings, we share any concerns or worries that we have with ForHousing, so we can feel safe in our homes and proud of our neighbourhoods.
The ForHousing team listens to our feedback and works with us, the council, and local partners to improve our neighbourhoods.
We brought up an issue with cars being parked on corners near the Keswick Avenue and Firtree roundabout, which makes it difficult for buses to get through. ForHousing will work with the council and support them as they look into an alternative back road access to resolve this issue.
We’re happy to share that Janine Conway has received a Volunteer Award at ForHousing’s Be Proud Awards, for her dedication and work in running the junior youth club in Fitton Hill and supporting children in the community for the past 23 years. Congratulations to Janine and all of the Be Proud winners!
The Community Fund supports local groups with financial support to deliver activities in our neighbourhoods. There is currently £1,700 remaining in the budget which would allow for three to four new applications. If you would like to apply for this grant, you can find the application form here.
No Local Improvement Fund applications have been received so far, which offers financial support to local groups who work hard on small-scale neighbourhood improvement projects.
If you have an idea or suggestion about things that could be improved in your area, you can submit an application here. In the meantime, we agreed with ForHousing to transfer £1,500 from the Local Improvement Fund budget to the Community Fund budget.
Similarly, no Community Group Grant applications have been received. ForHousing told us about recent changes to this grant, where groups can now apply as and when they need the funds.
We’re thrilled to see the fantastic work already happening through these grants and how they’re positively impacting our neighbourhoods with support from ForHousing. These funds can provide additional support for your group, helping you achieve even more in your community, so we really encourage you to apply.
ForHousing has also launched a campaign to support those who may need help with their pension credit. If you need extra support this winter, please do get in touch with ForHousing’s Neighbourhoods and Income teams. They will happily share more details about the service and check your eligibility, you can find contact details here.
ForHousing is committed to improving services for tenants by continuously listening to our feedback and learning from our experiences.
The first meeting of the Repairs Service Excellence Group took place in October, and we’re happy to report that we’re already off to a great start in making some positive changes.
You may already know that Liberty, who carry out repairs and maintenance to your home, is now under the ownership of Wates. So you’ll soon start to see both Wates and Liberty vans in the area, and operatives also wearing either uniform.
Going forward, Wates will carry out any repairs or maintenance to your home which includes damp repairs, roofing, plastering and grounds maintenance.
Liberty will carry out any heating and compliance repairs including gas, electrical safety, and boiler repairs and servicing.
ForHousing has explained that it’s changing how they measure their performance. Instead of focusing on things like the number of repair jobs done each day, they’ll now focus on how happy we are with the repairs service.
ForHousing also shared how its Executive Director of Customer Experience: Repairs & Maintenance, Jamie McDonald, is aiming to half the number of service failures and complaints within 12 months.
Service improvement workshops have been set up with key partners to look at the customer experience. The feedback from these workshops will help improve processes and make customer service better for us all.
ForHousing reminded us how important phone surveys are for gathering tenants’ opinions, so it’s great to see there are now an additional 160 responses collected each month—a fantastic improvement.
This shows how important it is for us, as tenants, to have our voices heard, as every response helps shape and improve the services we rely on.
ForHousing gave us an update on the Employment Support Team, which became a permanent addition in 2024. They provide 1:1 tailored support to people living in ForHousing homes from ages 16 onwards. This service is tenant-led, so tenants have the opportunity to see officers as often and for as long as they want to.
So far, the service has supported over 400 tenants, helping them to increase their combined salaries by nearly £2 million.
One tenant is now working as a Customer Connect Officer and another in waste management, which shows the positive impact the team has had so far.
ForHousing shared that the council has almost £75,000 to use towards improvement works on the play park. They also advised the council to look into additional funding to support this project.
Draft designs for the park are currently being drawn up and we will share these with everyone as soon as they are available.
To make sure everyone has a chance to raise any concerns and voice their opinions, ForHousing surveyed 183 homes and received 56 completed questionnaires.
Responses included requests for more benches, plants, bins and lighting to be installed; a sensory area with swings, a climbing frame, a slide; and space for gym equipment.
Some concerns such as the general upkeep of the park, preventing vandalism, the use of off-road bikes, and an increase in parking on side streets were highlighted too.
A Community Fund Grant has been accepted to hold a fun day, which will give the wider community a chance to be involved in future consultation once the park plans have been drawn up.
Youth groups will also have an opportunity to share feedback, and the plans will be shared with the Community Voice group, schools, and tenants through the newsletter.
We also brought up issues with the muddy and uneven pathway that leads to Tunns Road towards the school. ForHousing will address this with the council and the developer, Countryside, to look into poor access and water logging issues on this path.
ForHousing has launched a tenant recruitment campaign to boost membership of involved groups.
This will include the relaunch of ‘tenant inspectors’ and the ‘mystery shoppers’ group which will be now known as Tenant Reviewers.
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 issue here.
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27/01/2025