Riverside Visit Report - Ann Roberson, Pennyburn Tenants' and Residents' Association

Ann Robertson, Chair of Pennyburn Tenants’ and Residents’ Association (TARA) produced a report for the TARA on her visit to Riverside’s offices and stock in Liverpool this July.  She has now kindly agreed to share this report with the rest of our customers. Hope you enjoy!

The visit was an excellent opportunity to network with IHA & Riverside staff and directors.  On the journey down the Association staff were very attentive, knowledgeable and worked tirelessly to ensure everyone had the opportunity to ask questions before the visit.  We also met IHA tenants from other estates and were able to gauge their opinions with regard to the proposed partnership. 

Visit to Gilead Street and Lee Valley

We visited a selection of new build houses in estate with mixed tenure followed by a stopover at a local housing office:

·         Impressed with the mixed tenure system.  This would hopefully reduce the opportunity for antisocial behaviour.

·         Met with staff and volunteers at a local housing office - question and answer session dealing with housing issues, environmental issues and roles and responsibilities of warden service team.

·         Knowledgeable staff and volunteers, anything I asked that they didn’t know was followed up and relayed back to me.

Travelled to Seven Oaks

• Very good example of new build homes where tenants became involved from the first instance and contributed to the redevelopment and regeneration of their area.  Time was built in for us to visit the homes and allow us to discuss issues with the tenants who so generously invited us into their homes.
• Staff on hand to answer any questions we had about the estate and the community.

Visit to a Sheltered Housing at Cathedral Court in the city centre;

• Good location with quiet and restful outdoor areas.
• Good example of self-contained units within the complex.
• Communal areas a bit tired and dated - could do with a makeover.
• IHA certainly have a better track record in this field.
• Staff and residents very helpful and patiently answered my many and varied questions.

Runcorn

• A bit of a way out of the city but worth the effort.
• An estate very similar in many ways to our own in Pennyburn.
• Four Estates Ltd. managed by a small staff team but driven by the community and supported by Riverside.
• Impressed by the many and varied projects in the community centre we visited.

Riverside Customer Service Centre

• Very efficient 24 hour service.
• Well trained staff able to deal with all enquiries regarding, rent, repairs, housing applications, processing of payments and much more.  System in place whereby they can quickly identify the appropriate officer, access the diaries of all staff and offer immediate appointments, therefore ensuring little or no delays and allaying any concerns the caller may have.
• This system also promotes housing staff spending more time in the estates and less in the office.

In my opinion this is far from being a call centre and more of a one stop shop, geared to efficiencies whilst still retaining a person centred approach to all housing issues.

Community Regeneration

• I was encouraged by the efforts of the company to work closely with the communities they serve.

• Some of the many initiatives are environmental, community empowerment, intergenerational, employment, community engagement and community safety.  Efforts are made to ensure a bottom up approach is used and therefore encouraging sustainability through the communities taking ownership and responsibility for the initiatives they have identified in their local areas.

I had the added advantage of having visited some of the sites previously and indeed others that we did not see on this visit. One of these was a supported living project aimed at young people, who, for whatever reason are unable to live with their parents or guardians.  This is an excellent initiative whereby young people are able to access training and education whilst living in a self contained flat. When they move into a Riverside home they are supported through their tenancy until such times as they are able to stand alone and gain the confidence to live independently. This is an excellent example of agencies working closely together to support vulnerable young people in their quest for independent living.

A project of this magnitude is of course very expensive to operate and would require a multi-agency approach with both resources and funding.

During this visit, it became apparent that tenants and residents of IHA estates are not aware of the many community regeneration and tenant participation initiatives that the association are involved in.  It would be to the advantage of everyone if we could find a way to redress this.  We look pretty amateurish if when describing a project, one of the other tenants announces that we could do with that back in Scotland, when we do it equally well if not better.

An opportunity for a community forum with representatives from all areas served by IHA,  meeting two or three times a year, might prove to be informative to us all and also serve as a vehicle to address any issues common to all areas.

Ann Robertson

Pennyburn Community Association