To receive a presentation from Accent Housing.
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation from Louise Graham-Smith on behalf of Accent Housing. It was reported that Accent Housing had implemented a new targeting support system which was the creation of a fuel poverty dashboard to identify households which may be at risk of fuel poverty and also pinpoint those who may benefit from a greater level of support, or those who had been in limited contact. Accent Housing had secured £1.25m in funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to be spent on improving the energy efficiency of 66 homes in Surrey.
A recent pro-active communication campaign had seen staff from across Accent Housing knock on approximately 600 customers’ doors in one day, to which it had received responses from 200 households.
It was noted Accent Housing had decreased the amount of open orders from September by 22.5 percent. Legacy jobs had also been reduced to 721, with 75 percent of legacy electrical jobs now complete. There had been a targeted approach in strengthening teams and multiple positions had been filled, including a damp and mould contractor.
Members were informed that Accent Housing had provided a hardship fund for customers as well as provided a decarbonising fund which was in the second wave.
Concern was expressed by some Members regarding ongoing complaints from residents about the level of customer service and outstanding legacy jobs which had not been completed. Accent Housing provided clarification on a new process of customer service to be implemented whereby when additional ongoing work was due, contractors would call customer services whilst with the customer to advise that the work was not completed and would require additional visits.
RESOLVED to note the presentation.