Resident panel meetings 2023
18 October 2023
Resident Panel Members focused on:
Rent, service charges, and the impact on resident affordability as one of its agreed priorities. At the meeting, the Head of Income, Allocations and Homeownership announced plans to communicate with residents about the rent setting process months earlier than in previous years so there is time to query and challenge.
Development of the Resident Charter ahead of its launch in November. The panel were able to confirm with Octavia that the commitments made throughout the document were based on the customer experience and insights provided by residents.
20 September 2023
Member focussed on key areas that residents had highlighted as concerns during the previous year in order to agree a list of priorities including:
Affordability – including rent, cost of living, fairness, VFM, Octavia finances
Safety and Security of Residents – Resolving ASB, Domestic Abuse, Safeguarding, working in partnership with other agencies
Repairs and Building Safety – regular updates on quality of service and compliance, involvement in how to improve, involvement in procurement, standards communication, improved use of digital methods to track jobs and resident experience
Improving accountability to Residents, and scrutiny – Demonstrate they listen and act on resident feedback and influence, access to Board, CEO and other leaders, TSM Performance
EDI and Wider Tenant Welfare – Sense of community, wellbeing, communication, meeting vulnerable and diverse needs, greater empathy with the resident experience
5 July 2023
Resident Panel Members focused on:
Providing feedback to the communications team on key issues that should be featured in the annual Resident Report
The Octavia Portfolio Income & Investment Strategy, in order to better understand the approach taken to generating the surplus required to effectively support the business plan
Monitoring progress on a joint resident and staff project developing a Resident Charter designed to set out new standards for service delivery based on resident feedback and experiences across 6 areas including:
- Relationships
- Communication
- Voice and Influence
- Accountability
- Quality
- When Things Go Wrong
03 May 2023
Resident Panel Members focused on:
Scrutinising the Octavia approach to resident communication regarding rent setting. Octavia has promised to consult with residents earlier in the process next year.
Monitoring the new Octavia approach to addressing cases of Damp and Mould following the Housing Ombudsman Spotlight Report which criticised organisations that had a practice of blaming it on resident lifestyle.