I hope you’re enjoying the crisp autumn days and the changing colours across Salford.

I’m pleased to share this latest update, which covers the key discussions from our September Community Voice meeting.

Our group brings together tenants, like me and you, to work closely with ForHousing to make sure the things that matter most in our neighbourhoods are heard and acted on. Together, we’re shaping better homes and stronger communities.

Please read on for all the essential updates from our autumn meeting.

Janette Ball Chair of Community Voice 

We celebrated the success of the Brookhouse in Bloom project, where a local school teamed up with the community centre to create beautiful, shared spaces. This kind of collaboration shows what’s possible when local groups work together to benefit the community.

We’ll be feeding this back to ForHousing’s Community Development Officers to explore more opportunities for schools and community groups to join forces.

The Decent Homes Standard has been set by the Government and all ForHousing homes must meet the standard. This means ForHousing are responsible for making sure your home is safe, well-maintained, and free from things that could cause you or anyone living in your home serious harm.

There was a great discussion about what “Decency” means in housing reports. In short, it’s about the condition of kitchens, bathrooms, and fittings — all measured against the Decent Homes Standard.

We agreed that future communications should include a chart to make clear what decency means. It’s all about making information easier to understand for us all.

Each month ForHousing will ask around 90 tenants to give us their views at random, these will show ForHousing are performing against TSMs. For transactional surveys, ForHousing will invite you to provide feedback on the services you’ve experienced, your responses will directly influence their service improvements.

We learnt that overall satisfaction from tenants was at 74.2%, which is just below the 75% target set by ForHousing. This shows that things are heading in the right direction, which is reassuring to us, but more needs to be done by ForHousing to reach their overall target.

To keep up to date with how ForHousing are performing, visit their performance page.

We know how important it is for everyone to feel proud of where they live — and that includes keeping our shared spaces clean and tidy. Fly-tipping remains a concern for many of us. To help tackle it, the council offers a low-cost removal service, which is great value if you have several large items. ForHousing is continuing to raise awareness through social media and the website and encourage reporting from tenants. To find out more about reporting fly tipping in Salford, click here.

We heard an update on the Tenancy Support Service, which has been running since April 2024. It’s fully funded and has already supported 280 tenancies. The service is shaped around a tenant’s needs, offering information, advice and housing related support before the tenancy begins, at the sign-up point and for the first 12 months of their tenancy.

We know from feedback that the initial sign-up process for a tenant can be stressful and overwhelming as there is a lot of information for new tenants to take on board, we also know this can be even more overwhelming if people have additional needs or personal issues.

This service goes above and beyond core housing support, helping people find homes, stay in them and thrive.

The Employment Support Service shared how they’re helping tenants into work. With a target of 10 jobs per month, they’ve already and launched new schemes with Salford Council.

Five tenants have recently secured roles at ForHousing, and there’s also a Women into Construction project starting soon. The team is also building a talent pool to make it easier for tenants to access job opportunities. If you need support in getting back into work, get in touch with the Employment Support Service by clicking here