Housing Matters The Catalyst Communities residents’ magazine Spring 2011 All sewn up Save money, energy and even the planet! Plus... DJ Brandon Block provides comic relief, page 3 Organisational restructure, page 4 Residents get on board, page 10 Welcome News DJ Brandon Block provides comic relief Welcome to the spring issue of Housing Matters I’m delighted to let you know that following area. Up to half the places on these boards positive feedback from over 620 residents, have been reserved for local residents, and we’ll be moving forward with our plans for we’re now recruiting resident board members Catalyst Communities HA to join together (see page 6). with the other member companies within This issue also includes other great new: Catalyst Housing Group, our parent new residents joined us at Beaufort Park company. We expect this to take place at (see below), our staff used the music studio the end of September and will keep you to record an album and raise money for Comic updated about progress of this change. See Relief (see page 3), and we’ve been working pages 4 and 5 for more details. with residents to develop local offers for local As part of our restructure, we’ll be setting up communities (see pages 10 and 11). local boards that will be responsible for making decisions on local services in local areas. The West London Board, chaired by Best wishes, DJ Brandon Block (right) sticks his red nose to help record album Paul Evans, will cover the CCHA London area and the South East John Foxall Board, chaired by Asit Acharya, will cover the CCHA South East Managing Director Our health and safety team was checking out the Fund’s People’s Millions – after a public vote and a live new recording studio at the Windmill Park Community appearance on television news. Centre in Southall when they decided to have a go DJ Brandon Block said: ‘It’s fantastic to have a studio themselves and convinced fellow colleagues to release like this for the local community, and the CD will raise a charity CD for Comic Relief. ‘Hello’ to our new residents Prize draw much needed funds for Comic Relief.’ The CD was recorded under the watchful eye of West If you’d like to book the Windmill Park Community London resident DJ Brandon Block at the studio, winners Centre or any of our other community centres, part of a £50,000 refurbishment of the Catalyst contact Chris Bamber on 020 8832 3328 or run community centre on the Windmill Park estate. More than 620 of you took part email [email protected] in our resident consultation on Funding came from a grant from The Big Lottery our restructure (see pages 4 and 4), and John Foxall picked the following three residents as winners of the prize draw: • First prize of £200 worth of Pushing the boat out shopping vouchers: Asmatulla Olomi (Fortunegate At Catalyst we believe that nature is a privilege that off and pick up. Throughout the winter months, Community Housing resident) should be shared by all even if it means pushing the the Dovecote offers a vibrant Saturday club for boat out. In early April, our staff joined residents to children aged five to 12 years. • Second prize of £100 worth of welcome all on board the new canal boat provided shopping vouchers: A-Wahid With thisnew addition, we’re sure the community by the Dovecote Voluntary Parents Committee. Home hunters look around the new homes at Beufort Park Rashid (CCHA resident) in Oxford will be making the most of the splendour • Third prize of £50 worth of We donated £5,000 to the project which went of nature in their neighbourhood. A warm welcome to the residents at Beaufort Park, North West London, towards purchasing the boat, which we hope will shopping vouchers: Edwin H For more details contact Carol Richards on who joined us from the end of March onwards. Beaufort Park is one of our become the hub of the Dovecote community, Rolle (Kensington Housing 01865 712 299. newly built schemes that is situated on 25 acres of the former RAF Hendon Trust resident) providing access to the river Thames for young Aerodrome site in Barnet. children and their families. A big thank you to everyone We aim to provide excellent customer service to all our residents. So if you’re who gave us their views. Your The Dovecote Voluntary Parents Committee one of our new residents and would like to speak to us about anything, feedback has helped us shape provide an afterschool club, holiday play scheme please call our customer services centre (contact details on back page) or our new organisation, and and a drop-in service to the local community speak to your local neighbourhood manager. we’re a step closer to providing which is run by local volunteers and child-minders. We’re also offering people the chance to buy apartments at Beaufont you with better homes and A relaxed parent and child drop-in playroom is Park on a part-buy/part-rent basis. For more details, contact us on better services. available four days a week allowing parents to 0845 601 7729 or [email protected] participate and play with their children or to drop 2 3 Organisational restructure Organisational restructure Your words, our actions We’re joining together so that we can deliver a better service to you. We’re listening to what you tell us, and taking steps to improve. Thank you to everyone who took part in the resident consultation about our restructure. More than 620 residents fed in their views, and more than 80% supported our plans overall (see page 2 to find out the winners of our prize draw). Below is a summary of your feedback and the actions we are taking. Open for longer Neighbourhood management Your words: More than 80% of our customers prefer Your words: Most residents think the to contact us by telephone, and more than 90% neighbourhood management system works well. of you told us that you would like to see longer More than 80% of CCHA London residents and opening hours. 90% of South East residents approve our plans to roll this system out to all the areas where we work. Our actions: When we join together, we will open our customer services department from 8am to 8pm Several people stressed that we must have enough during the week, and on Saturday mornings. We will let neighbourhood managers for their patch sizes to you know when these longer opening hours will start. be manageable, so they can spend time out and about in the communities they serve. Right first time Our actions: In CCHA we already use this system, Your words: We understand from your comments that so there will be no big changes. Your home will be some residents are frustrated when we can’t answer managed in the same way, and probably by the questions straight away, and when they get passed same staff. Once we have joined together, we around to different people. Over 90% of residents will confirm the name of your future were in favour of our plans to train our frontline staff neighbourhood manager. so they are able to deal with 80% of your queries over In direct response to resident feedback, we the telephone first time around. have decided not to reduce the number of Our actions: As we join together, we will improve neighbourhood managers as we join together. After positive feedback from residents, training and support for our frontline customer our board is satisfied that Catalyst services staff, so they can deal with 80% of queries One customer services department during the first phone call. Communities HA should join together Your words: More than 65% of residents support with the companies within Catalyst More say about local services our plans to create just one customer services Housing Group. department. Many people felt that this change would help us be more efficient, but others were This change is happening gradually Your words: Repairs and maintenance are the services that matter most to our customers, and more than worried that it could make our service less personal. during 2011, and we’ll keep you updated. 80% of residents approve of our plans for local boards More than 620 residents fed in Your landlord won’t change as a result Our actions: The customer services department, to make decisions about local services, including headed by John Foxall, will be split into two their views, and more than 80% of this restructure. But later this year, repairs and maintenance. working areas: London and the South East. Each supported our plans overall – see the name of your landlord will change to Our actions: As we join together, we are setting up will have its own housing, customer service, Catalyst Housing Limited. maintenance and resident involvement staff. page 2 to find out the winners of four local boards. There will be two boards covering Our restructure won’t affect your rent, CCHA’s current working areas. The West London board, We will work closely with local boards to make sure our prize draw... service charge or tenancy. There will be chaired by Paul Evans, will cover the CCHA London our services meet local needs, rather than being area. The South East board, chaired by Asit Acharya, ‘one size fits all’, and we will keep local offices in no change to the terms of your tenancy, will cover the CCHA South East area. and you won’t need to sign a new Ealing, Oxford and Reading.