Tenant Focus Group Meeting 7th October 2021

Tenant survey results & Tablet winner

A summary of the recent tenant survey was discussed, and included the following points;

• 61 responses in total
• 53 tenants completed paper copies & 8 tenants used the survey monkey link
• 97% of tenants said the layout and information was fairly good or very good
• 64% would prefer to receive an electronic version next year
• 3 tenants requested support with IT skills
• 64% have never switched energy suppliers, 18% over one year ago, 18 % within 12 months
• 14 tenants would like support from HHA on how to shop around for a better energy deal
• 38% classed as in fuel poverty & 18% classed as in extreme fuel poverty
• 25 tenants wanted to sign up to ‘my tenancy’

The team will now work to identify those who have requested support in both IT skills & energy advice, and sign-post appropriately.

Using an automatic number generator, a winner of the prize-draw was selected (no. 56 on the returns list).

Grow your own project summary

Discussion on the summer initiative aimed at providing tenants and their families with the information and tools to ‘grow your own’. 25 households signed up for the project, were provided with instructions and materials to grow 3 pots, and were then approached for feedback;

• 7 tenants responded to a survey to review the project
• All said they would attempt to grow food in the future
• All would participate in a future project with The Association
• Where there were children in the house, all said they enjoyed helping in the process, and 50% of the children had enjoyed eating the produce
• Suggestions included progressing to ground vegetables next year; potatoes and carrots

Service charges consultation

We are currently consulting with a number of housing schemes, where they have internal cleaning every week. Proposing to reduce this to fortnightly to reduce the cost to them, without jeopardising the cleanliness or health and safety. We will go with the majority decision within each scheme

Maintenance updates – routine and planned

Heidi provided an update on the routine maintenance service, confirming The Association continues to operate a full repairs service, whilst continuing to reduce the number of repairs that were placed on-hold due to C-19. Some repairs have been delayed due to both contractor availability and shortage of materials.

Planned - £300,000 spend on painting contracts, electrical surveys, smoke detector upgrades, replacement bathrooms and boiler/ventilation maintenance. Kitchen replacement programmes have now started, and other outstanding work includes pressure washing, cleaning gutters and various environmental repairs.

Development updates

• Houlland Lea now has 12 very happy tenants, even featuring on STV News at six
• Gulberwick is progressing but January completion due to be pushed back due to delays faced by the contractor, DITT (12 properties)
• Wista is now on-site and due for completion next summer (6 properties)
• Upper Scalloway on-site and due for completion summer of 2023 (26 social rent & 6 New Supply Shared Equity properties)

Estate Inspection updates

Housing Officers visited schemes during July and August, and have been following up with tenants in relation to over-grown gardens, alterations without permissions, abandoned vehicles etc. An update on common findings will feature in the Autumn edition of The Association newsletter.

Energy efficiency upgrades project

General discussion on The Association’s legal duties to provide high quality accommodation. All HHA properties meet the current standard of Energy efficiency (Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing) - equivalent of a Band D rating within an EPC certificate.

New targets, known as EESSH2, have been published by the Scot Govt., with implementation by 2032. Some of the older stock will require energy performance improvements, and there is currently work on-going to model the best way to achieve this. The Association is looking to adapt a ‘Fabric First’ approach, where additional insulation is used to reduce the energy required to heat the home to an adequate level.

A pilot project is being planned for the next void property within Thistle Court, Virkie, where The Association will not re-let the property straight away, but instead test and assess the level of work required to bring the property up to standard. This will include retrofitting rigid insulation boards to the external walls (from the inside), along with underfloor insulation where required. The project will consider the potential level of disruption to tenants, and if this work can be done whilst remaining in the property.

Complaint’s handling

Earlier this year, The Association adopted the latest version of the SPSO Complaints Handling Procedure and is committed to improving the level of service by logging all complaints and looking at lessons learned. The following summary was discussed;

• 16 complaints received during the first six months of this year
• All complaints handled as a stage one complaint, where response must be provided within 5 working days of initial query
• 6 complaints were upheld, where there was an acknowledgement HHA did not meet expected standards
• A number of complaints related to recharges levied against former tenants – an internal review of this process has taken place to mitigate further issues

There was a good discussion regarding recharges. It was suggested The Association could include indicative figures when advising tenants of possible re-charges, and this may motivate them to repair damage themselves. It was agreed this would be considered, but in the past this has been avoided as it can be difficult to estimate at the time, and tenants may then be faced with a substantially inflated figure on what they were first quoted. This is especially true at present, with increase in material cost.

Equal Opportunities Monitoring

The Scottish Housing Regulator, along with SFHA (Scottish Federation of Housing Associations) & ALACHO (Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers), have created a new template for RSLs to monitor and record equality information. This will include applicants, tenants, employees, and committee members.

A template version was shared with the group, and agreement for it to be reasonable to adopt this for HHA. This will go out with application forms, and new tenants will be provided the opportunity to complete when they sign up.

To capture the information of existing tenants, it is proposed this will be sent out with the next all-tenant mail drop.

Policy reviews

The three following policy documents were circulated to all focus group members prior to the meeting, and tenants were invited to comment on any proposed changes. The documents will be presenting to the Management Committee at the November meeting.

• Arrears Policy
• Pets Policy
• Tenant participation strategy & Action Plan

Autumn Newsletter

Estelle led a discussion on proposed items to be included in the Autumn Newsletter. The items put forward for inclusion were;

• Christmas office close-down
• Energy advice and signposting
• Planned maintenance updates
• New development updates
• Estate Inspection updates
• New staff member updates
• Complaints summary year to date

Meeting closed – 12.45pm.