Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Alison Hansford, Steve Murfitt and Paul Leadbetter.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of any interests.

To confirm the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Select Move meeting held on 22 October 2013 (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Select Move meeting held on 22 October 2013 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Group will interview representatives from the following Registered Providers:

·         Accent/Contour Homes/Progress Housing Limited

·         Chorley Community Housing

·         Places for People

Written responses will be submitted from those Registered Providers that cannot attend the meeting.

A copy of the questions are enclosed for Members information.

The group interviewed representatives from Registered Providers who had housing stock in the Chorley area. Members had prepared a number of questions that were sent to the representatives in advance of the meeting and their responses were taken in turn at the meeting.

Members were interested to learn how the Registered Providers knew that their Select Move customers were happy with the choice based lettings system. For example, what front line services were available, how they decided on what band a certain property would be advertised in and how did their organisation intend to improve the overall online experience for the customer.

Chorley Community Housing:

Customers can contact their main Contact Centre in Leigh, where staff are trained to use the Select Move system and can give advice, complete applications/bids on properties over the phone. For those customers who wish to speak to someone face to face, Chorley Community Housing have a local office in Chorley which deals with around 200 visitors a month about Select Move. Those people who don’t want to wait to see someone, but are unable to access the internet, can complete and leave a card at reception, requesting a bid to be processed on their behalf.

The organisations all subscribe to Language Line and arrangements can be made for a telephone interview with a translator. CCH also have some staff who are polish, who can also be called upon to assist applicants.

Chorley Community Housing consider changes in legislation, property type, location, adaptations, whom needs it most and banding criteria when allocating the correct banding to each property and then use the calculating spread sheet to ensure that they don’t go over or under a bandings quota. For example an adapted bungalow would be allocated under medical priority banding. This is sometimes a challenging process. Higher demand properties could go to Band A but need to ensure a spread of people with different needs have access to a wide range of housing.

The new improvements to the system that have been agreed by the partnership will make the system far more user friendly for the customer and is a big step going forwards.

All Chorley Community Housing properties are advertised with photos, but understood the reasons as to why other housing associations did not. It could often be difficult to obtain photographs of a property at the pre-termination visit and turnaround times were tight.

Contour Homes:

Although Contour Homes have a small housing stock within Chorley, they have property that is extremely popular to rent. The organisation has changed its name quite a bit over the years and they are now a confederated partnership. Contour Homes joined the Select Move Partnership around the same time as Chorley Council and follow the policies and procedure set by the Partnership to ensure fair and consistence lettings. They don’t have a central office in Chorley but do hold a drop-in session once a week in the town. Their central office is located in Preston and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.SM.20