We’ve held a number of feedback sessions, with our customers and colleagues, to find out what is important to you about the services we run.
We received over 1,000 responses and have used this feedback to inform our new Five-Year Plan which sets future priorities for our homes and communities. We’ve listened to all the feedback and while some points may not be covered in our Five-Year Plan, we are addressing these in other ways to continue making improvements in these areas.
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Property Maintenance
‘Address requests for fencing, gates, and kitchen replacements.’
We’re aware that this is a significant issue for tenants. Our current boundary policy will be discussed by our People and Places Committee in July to make sure that it reflects the needs of our tenants, while remaining cost efficient and effective.
‘Modernise existing properties.’
We’re currently carrying out detailed surveys of all our homes and will have completed this by the end of 2025. This will help us understand what work needs doing as part of future home improvement programmes.
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Property Development
‘Focus on building homes that meet community needs and learn from past projects to inform consistency in the design of new builds.’
Since 2016, we’ve built nearly 400 new homes for social and affordable rent. We will build a further 600 homes by 2031 as we recognise the need for more affordable homes across Greater Manchester.
We’re committed to building the best quality homes and we review all our new build developments to help improve our future housing schemes.
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Customer and Community Engagement and Support
‘Increase investment in community projects and customer engagement. Increase frequency of inclusive neighbourhood events and activities. Increase support services and advice, especially for young people and vulnerable groups.’
We spend over £1 million per year on Community Investment activities, because we know how important it is to customers, and we’ll continue to do this for the next five years.
‘Improve communication and engagement with customers.’
We’ve launched a new Customer Voice Strategy to help customers to have their say on our services and get involved with our community events and we encourage a diverse range of people to take part. We know we can do better with communication. We carried out a review of our External Communications in 2024 and are using the recommendations to make sure that we talk, listen and act with respect.
‘Increase customer involvement and emphasis on benefits to customers of a holistic approach to zero-carbon initiatives.’
We will launch a new Zero Carbon Strategy later in 2025. This will be done in consultation with customers to help them feel the benefit from new projects. We also aim for all our homes to have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of C by 2038.
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Age-Friendly Services
‘Increase involvement with elderly tenants.’
We have had over 2000 attendances at a range of age friendly activities since 2022. Providing services to our older customers is extremely important to us and we will continue to invest in this.
‘Increase handyman services for Age-friendly customers.’
We do want to extend the handyman service to more tenants, but will only do that if it is value for money for all our tenants.
‘Modernizing the approach to age-friendly services.’
We will produce a new Age Friendly Strategy next year in consultation with our customers. We know how important it is that our older residents are not left behind by changes in technology and this will remain part of our plan.
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Financial Concerns
‘Address concerns about rent increases and perceived wasteful expenditure.’
We set rents in line with Government policy. We know that cost of living worries affects a lot of our customers which is why we invest so much into community support and advice.
‘Review rent policies to make sure they are fair and reasonable.’
We will be launching a new Value for Money Strategy this year to make sure that we are using rent money efficiently to deliver the best service to our customers.
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Staff Development and Support
‘Ensure staff have the resources needed to deliver high-quality services.’
We’re investing in staff training and there is a section in our new five -year plan that explains what we’ll be doing. We’ve started this by enrolling all staff on Customer Care training in 2025.