Agenda item

Objective: Feedback and insight from the quarter 1 phone surveys with tenants carried out on behalf of CBC by Acuity.  These surveys provide our results for the perception based Tenant Satisfaction Measures.

The Head of Community Services presented the report to the Committee and explained that it would be shared quarterly.  She highlighted that performance is strong, with the Council being benchmarked in quartile one due to satisfaction above 80% in time taken to carry out repairs, keeping tenants informed and treating tenants fairly and with respect.  She noted that areas for improvement had been identified with how we communicate our listening and acting to tenants, our management of anti-social behaviour (ASB), complaints handling and the maintenance and cleaning of communal areas.  She explained that in the case of ASB and complaints handling those surveyed may not have used the service being reviewed and that an additional transactional survey would be launched in October to balance our understanding of the perception with lived experiences.

The Committee’s discussion raised the following points:

-       All customers who express dissatisfaction are followed up with a personal conversation that aims to resolve their concerns and change their perception of how we listen and act to their feedback.  Work is also being undertaken with the Comms team to highlight the actions carried out through ‘You Said, We Did’ features in our tenant magazine.

-       Communal areas are a fundamental part of tenants’ homes.  A tenant scrutiny activity has been carried out on the maintenance and cleaning of these areas and a number of recommendations have been made, which alongside the survey feedback will form a multi-team project.  The Committee will review progress of this work in the future.

-       The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) also recognises the importance of communal areas and this is reflected in the regulations where an issue in a communal area is reported as an issue per each home accessing that area.

-       Work in communal areas is primarily managed by UBICO and a strong client-contractor relationship is maintained with regular meetings.  UBICO have generally been responsive to areas of concern raised. 

-       Some concerns about communal areas relate to design issues rather than service issues, for example with bin storage areas.  It is hoped that the efficiencies in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) achieved through bringing CBH back in-house will enable the Council to re-invest using the feedback that the surveys provide.

-       ASB has been identified as a priority issue for both tenants and the Council.  It is important that this is addressed through partnership working.  A Community Safety Partnership has met which is built of key organisations including the Council and the Police. A proposal around management of ASB as a tenure neutral service to improve our offer to all Cheltenham residents is being developed.

-       It was agreed that it would benefit Cabinet and Committee Members to visit estates to understand the areas and issues being discussed.

-       Tenants need to be assured that they have a right to live in clean, well maintained and decent homes and communities.  It is important that a welcoming culture is developed to ensure they feel empowered to raise issues and provide feedback.  One of the Council’s key commitments is to build a culture within the organisation that is people driven without judgement and provides a welcoming communal offer.

Councillor Jan Foster joined the meeting