National Residents' Council
National Residents' Council 2012
Making a difference
On the weekend of 23/24 November, 91 residents came
together in Birmingham for the second ever National
Residents' Council.
Despite the inclement weather we had a great
turn out, although sadly it did prevent a
number of residents from the South West region
attending.
One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of our
Shine Awards which
recognises residents who have gone that extra mile and made a huge
positive difference in their community. Check out our winners and watch their awards
videos.
Residents also visited a number of information stands giving
them the opportunity to network over lunch and find out about some
of our key projects. The stands covered:
- Welfare Reform and changes to benefits
- Website and our Get Connected campaign to get
more residents online
- Young Ambassadors
- Energy Fit and Future Fit - two of our energy
saving and sustainability projects
- Planned Investment
- Livesmart - our newly launched housing for
over 50s
- Resident Involvement
Detailed interactive workshops were held on
four topics with residents feeding in their views and concerns on
in the following areas: Getting young people more engaged, Welfare
reform, Antisocial behaviour and community involvement.
Key discussion points
A number of important topics were raised and debated and
will be taken forward both by management and in the various
resident scrutiny groups.
How we allocate our homes, should local authorities have all the
nomination rights to our properties and how much vetting there
should be for new residents was a key area for discussion.
Closely linked to this was the controversial
topic of managing antisocial behaviour and the roles that
Affinity Sutton, residents and other bodies such as the Police
should play.
The current performance of the repairs service was disussed and a
number of suggestions for improvement were identified by
residents in this area.
How should Affinity Sutton allocate its resources between
developing new homes and maintaining and upgrading its existing
ones.
Direct payment of Housing Benefit to residents caused a lot of
concern about the likely build up of personal debt.
There was direct feedback from the Chairs of the Regional Scrutiny
Boards about their achievements in their first year of operation
and more general review of the Resident Area Panels and their goals
going forward.
Tenancy fraud was another topic discussed with a number of
suggestions being made on a way forward.
The whole conference was very positive with lots of
great feedback, ideas and suggestions for improvement.
We look forward to working with residents over the next
year to implement these changes and will be reporting back on how
we've done throughout the year.