Thank you to everyone who attended our Catch up over Coffee session in August. If you couldn’t attend, you can watch it back on YouTube

Here’s a summary of what we covered:  

Journey to C1: The revised consumer standards 

Every year, the Regulator of Social Housing assesses us in two main areas – governance and viability. This year, we will also be assessed on a C rating which is our performance against the revised consumer standards. This will look at how we work with our residents and how satisfied residents are with the services we provide.  

The revised consumer standards that we need to meet are:  

• Standard One: Safety and Quality
  We need to demonstrate that all of our homes are of good quality and well maintained, repairs are carried out in a timely and efficient way, and we offer reasonable adaptations and adjustments in our homes and services.  
• Standard Two: Transparency Influence and Accountability
  We need to demonstrate that we treat all residents fairly and with respect, consider the diverse needs of residents, provide information to enable residents to hold us to account and address complaints fairly, effectively and promptly.  
• Standard Three: Neighbourhood and Community Standard
  We need to demonstrate that we can work with partners to promote social, environmental, and economic wellbeing where we provide housing, work with police and relevant organisations to tackle ASB, domestic abuse and hate crimes and take a victim-centred approach to supporting residents.  
• Standard Four: Tenancy Standard
• We need to ensure we let homes in a fair and transparent way, support residents to maintain their tenancy, support residents with mutually exchanging their homes, and assist local authorities to meet identified local housing need. 

Influencing Housing 21 

It’s important that residents can influence our services, and there are several ways you can do this, including getting involved in national and regional resident groups, completing our resident survey and scrutinising our performance.  

• Resident Scrutiny Panel: We’re looking for volunteers to scrutinise our performance, you’ll receive information about our performance and services and provide us with that independent residents’ view. You can register your interest by emailing: strategicoperations@housing21.org.uk
• Resident Engagement Groups: These are a great way for residents to share their lived experiences with us and shape our services to ensure they meet the needs of all residents. The following groups are available for residents to join: 
• National Residents’ Forum
• Residents’ Complaints Panel
• REACH – Race, Equity and Cultural Heritage
• LGBTQ+
• Disability Forum 

More information about these groups can be found on our website. Alternatively, your Local Housing Manager will be able to provide you with more information.  
 

National Residents’ Survey: It’s really important that you give us your feedback. The survey will be running from Monday 2 September to Saturday 21 September, and all those who complete and return their survey will be in with a chance of winning one of 10x£50 Love2Shop vouchers. Once completed and returned to your manager, they will be sent to the independent research company, Acuity for analysis to ensure your feedback is completely anonymous. (More information in a later article)

Next session 

Our next Catch up over Coffee session will be on Monday 18 November, 12noon – make sure you save the date in your calendar. You will be able to join the meeting on the day here.