Agenda item - Environmental Improvement Survey

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Agenda item

Environmental Improvement Survey

Minutes:

7.1         Janet Dowdell, Tenancy Services Operations Manager, introduced the environmental improvement survey which was a new pilot initiative launched for seven weeks to collate resident feedback to then bring comments to meetings and organise estate projects.

 

7.2         Councillor Simson raised concern over the existence of the survey not communicated to residents sufficiently and caused animosity regarding the survey only being only directed towards to council tenants when improvements would affect the entire estate.

 

7.3         In response to leaseholders enquiring if they would be charged a percentage of the cost of EIS projects affecting their blocks, Janet Dowdell stated that the environmental improvements were HRA funded which was also the reason that it was only council tenants and leaseholders consulted for projects however all estate residents were welcome to attend the meetings. It was further stated that leaseholders would not typically be expected to pay the cost of EIS projects.

 

7.4         Martin Reid stated that he had spent time with the LAG to improve engagement earlier in this process, beyond the statutory 30-day consultation period, and a report had been approved at committee for that agreed route.

 

7.5         In response to residents stating that all tenants, including private renters, should have a voice in what is planned for Housing land, Ododo Dafe stated that this was not planned for the first round of consultation which was to ensure that resident voices were primarily heard and apologised for the ambiguous wording on the survey.

 

7.6         In response to the Chair questioning whether residents could be provided with paper copies of the surveys, Janet Dowdell stated they would not be provided and if residents had difficulties in completing the online survey then they could either ring or visit the help desk or customer services for a member of staff to assist or manually complete the form on their behalf.

 

7.7         Councillor Mears referred to the Field Officer presentation at the previous meeting and commented on how their remit was increasingly citywide beyond Housing services, Brett Stacey informed that there the HRA budget contributed between 10-15% of the Field officer budget and they were delivering support to several Housing services with notable improvements. He added that the Fields Officers had been active for five months and the first set of performance statistics were soon to be generated.

 

7.8         Janett Dowdell stated that there were currently three meetings per month in a year’s programme and once the survey was complete a report would go to the Housing Committee for review.

 

7.9         RESOLVED – That the Panel agreed to note the report.

Supporting documents:

 


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