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.

Councillors Matthew Lynch and Steve Murfitt declared a non-pecuniary interest in all items on the agenda.

Members of the Task Group identified Jigsaw Homes Group Ltd. as one of the Registered Providers they wished to speak with during the inquiry.

The suggested topic areas for discussion are enclosed for consideration.  

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Richard Houghton, Director of Operations for CCH, which is part of the Jigsaw Homes Group. 

Richard explained that CCH compromises the former Chorley Council stock which transferred to CCH on 26 March 2007 following a vote by tenants.  The transfer contract agreed that CHH would bring the properties up to the decent homes standard.  CHH have invested £35 million on bathrooms, kitchens, boilers and car parking.  At Longfield and Greenside other enhancements have been undertaken. 

Following the transfer CCH maintained a local office in Gillibrand Street, then moved to St Thomas Road and now there is a presence within the Union Street Council offices until 2022.

Since 2007 CCH have continued to build new homes, and have committed to building 100 homes a year for next three years.  Jigsaw is the biggest developer of social housing in the North West.

Customer Service

CCH housing standards are in line with other Registered Providers.  Some Registered Providers rely on an annual survey, but CCH carry out quarterly surveys which are independent.  When the contact centre was first set up 1 in 5 calls were chasing repairs.  This triggered a decision to deal with queries at the first point of contact.  The target is to answer 80% of calls in 60 seconds to a person.  Performance last quarter was 76.3%.  The contact centre deals with queries relating to repairs, rehousing, rent and antisocial behaviour.   Performance last quarter was 77.9% of queries were resolved at the first point of contact.

A call back from an automatic service is undertaken if a customer is not satisfied to found out why.  CCH don’t want frustrated customers – if there are problems with particular workman fitting the wrong components customer services need to know about it.  If there is a service failure CHH try to sort it out, complaints go to the complaints team. There is a dedicated email address for Members, with a 5 working day response target.

If complaints get to the stage 2 process involves board members and the next stage is the panel including customers.  If the complaint is still outstanding the tenant would be referred to the Ombudsman.

This proactive approach is popular with customers; CCH actively want to hear from the unhappy tenants.  Some tenants prefer to contact CCH by phone, if they struggle to read for example.  Members requested figures on the % of complaints upheld, customers satisfaction levels.

Update since the meeting: there were 18 complaints in 2017-18, of which 9 were found to be service failures, ie. the tenant’s complaint was upheld.

CCH look at pattern of problem tenants and target support for these families.

Maintenance

As part of the stock transfer CCH brought the houses up to the Decent Homes Standard.  Since this assessment has been undertaken on planned work with a 3 year business plan.  This is reassessed this as per customer requests.

The stock improvements were mostly internal at transfer, now CCH have a roofing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.14

Members noted the differences in approach from Places for People and CCH. 

Decision:

1.    To write to Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Help the Homeless and CAB for their views

2.    The draft survey results and the results of the Member survey will be sent to the Task Group for their information

3.    Set a date to present the survey results to the Registered Providers

4.    To request a written response to the questions asked of Places for People and CHH to

5.    That the next meeting commence at 6:30pm.