Autumn has arrived with its cooler temperatures and an awful lot of rain.

I’m pleased to share this latest update covering key discussions from our recent 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 the Fitton Hill neighbourhood and signpost to partners when it’s needed.

Together we understand the importance of listening and learning from tenants, like me and you. We want to have our voices heard and be a part of influencing what happens in our homes and communities.

Please read on for all the latest and essential updates from our September Community Voice meeting.
Helen Wild, Chair of Community Voice

Everyone has the right to feel safe in their home and proud of their neighbourhood. We use the Community Voice meetings to share with ForHousing any concerns or worries that we have.

The ForHousing team listens to our feedback and works with us, the council, and partners to improve our neighbourhoods.

At our last meeting, we talked about the ongoing issues with pests. ForHousing has taken steps to tackle this and we’re hopeful things will improve. If you’re still having problems, please let us know so we can work with ForHousing to look into it further. This could include starting a Scrutiny process, which involves the Fitton Hill community giving feedback to ForHousing, and they will work with us to come up with an action plan.

We also brought up the ongoing concerns about signage, telling ForHousing that some progress has been made. This will need to be followed up with the council, who have agreed to resolve the matter.

ForHousing gave an update on the redrafted Communal Areas Policy, which makes sure all communal areas are kept clean and clear for safety reasons. Any items found in these areas may be taken away, with people facing fines for their storage and return.

ForHousing confirmed that there will be a grace period from November and the new rules will be enforced from January.

We raised concerns about an overgrown area of land behind Dowry Street, and ForHousing has now reported this to its Neighbourhoods and Grounds Maintenance team. Complaints about trees were also mentioned at a recent surgery held in the library, and a follow-up session will be held on Wednesday, December 4, from 4pm to 6pm to discuss this further.

We shared concerns about a shop in Fitton Hill selling expired goods. ForHousing confirmed that the shop has been reported to trading standards.

ForHousing gave us an update on the Community Fund, which is used to offer financial support to local groups who deliver activities in our neighbourhoods.

The Community Fund poster has been updated, and we talked about adding a QR code and step-by-step guidance for the application process. ForHousing reminded us that you don’t need to be a ForHousing tenant to apply, and you can find the application form here.

The Local Improvement Funding grant, used to support small-scale improvement projects in ForHousing communities, will be up for review soon. We’ll keep you informed on the progress of the review.

The health check grant has been renamed the Community Group Grant and it is now open for applications. This supports the running costs of local groups within our community, who work hard on services and activities that positively impact our lives. Groups can apply for a £500 grant and those with premises can apply for £1,000. You can find out more about the grant here, and ForHousing is working on some case studies showing how the grant has already supported local organisations.

We’d like to thank everyone for their help in raising funds for Alzheimer’s UK. Together, we raised £17,500! This is an amazing achievement and we’re very grateful for your support.

We wish Lisa Fowles, our Community Development Officer, all the best as she left ForHousing on Friday, October 11. Lisa will still be active in the community and may even join Community Voice herself!

ForHousing is committed to improving services for tenants by continuously listening to our feedback and learning from our experiences.
They updated us on the new Repairs and Maintenance Group, which held its first meeting on Thursday, October 10, with regular meetings planned going forward. You may have already seen ForHousing’s new Executive Director of Repairs – Customer Service, Jamie McDonald, out and about in the community.

After a recent board meeting, ForHousing’s Scrutiny team will turn their focus to Gas Service and wider repairs, to look into rising complaints.

We also talked about what happens when tenants are moved due to anti-social behaviour (ASB) but continue to cause problems. ForHousing explained that if a tenant is still causing issues in their new location, a new ASB case would need to be opened.

ForHousing told us about the Right Care Right Person Act, an agreement between police and health services to ensure that people get the right response to mental health incidents.

Although there have been some delays, Greater Manchester Police will be using this approach soon, and ForHousing will provide us with an update in March 2025.

A new team has been created, which will focus on looking into complaints and keeping us updated throughout the process.
There is now a difference between service requests and complaints—for example, a broken window would be seen as a service request unless reported multiple times, at that point it would become a complaint.

When escalating a complaint, we no longer have to say why. ForHousing may ask but we’re not required to answer.

We’re happy to report that long-term complaints are being resolved more quickly. ForHousing currently receives around 49 complaints per week, down from 102 six months ago. This number may rise over winter, but improvements are definitely being made.

We are actively recruiting new members to the Community Voice, so 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 so they can listen and learn.

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.