Agenda item

The Head of Housing and Neighbourhoods to give an update.

Following the last meeting the Head of Housing and Neighbourhoods, Ian Richardson had been asked to attend the PDG to give an update on tenant engagement.

He briefly outlined the arrangements for tenant involvement referring to the local neighbourhood groups that had been used in the past. However, these had not been demographically representative of the district and the issues discussed had been location focused. The council had supplied admin support but this had been stopped following a review of the arrangements.

Following the introduction of the Localism Act the housing service wanted to look at different ways to work with tenants especially as the Audit Commission inspections had been replaced by the Homes and Communities Agency with a more co-regulatory framework for the Council to work closely with tenants and for them (the tenants) to scrutinize the service they received.

Consultations had been undertaken with the neighbourhood groups across the district and they were broadly supportive of the new proposals. The revised arrangements meant that resources that had previously been directed at the neighbourhood groups were now redirected to the new tenant scrutiny panel and the two service review groups which Officers assisted.

Mr Richardson then spoke about the recruitment process for the scrutiny panel and the service review groups.  Expressions of interest had been asked for and application forms completed.  To ensure an unbiased view an independent panel made up of three assessors (the Manager of the Grantham CVS, the Service Manager of Community Safety and Licensing and a member of the Communication Teams who also worked with tenant involvement) had gone through each application checking them against a criteria list.  All personal information had been removed from the applications during this process.   Following the process 30 people had been invited to join the groups and had undergone inductions, team and skills training.  The selection process had brought a diverse range of skills and demographic representation to the panels and groups.  A meeting of the first review group had been held and Mr Richardson was encouraged by the way that they had approached the work.

Members welcomed the report and the improvements made.  Concern was expressed about having representations from the different towns but Mr Richardson said it was not proportional representation.  The current demographics of the groups contained a wide cross section of tenants including younger people and people with disability.  The panel and groups were there to give a thematic approach rather than look at individual problems.   Concerns raised by neighbourhood groups would still be looked at by officers in Housing. 

A discussion then followed on the makeup of the groups with Mr Richardson reiterating that a blind selection of the groups had been undertaken. Following the discussion a Member asked if Ward Members could attend the new groups.  Mr Richardson said that it was a decision for the groups themselves, Terms of Reference and Codes of Conduct were still being drawn up but he would pass on to the Groups the Members interest in them, but it was the Groups decision and they may not wish Members to be present until they had “found their feet” and even then, they perhaps would not feel comfortable having Members present.  

The Chairman thanked Mr Richardson for attending the meeting and his presentation.