What we've done from your feedback

You told us that our communications with you were not effective, clear or efficient.

From your feedback and complaints we understand that there may be poor communication between our Housing teams, Customer Services and you.

We understand this can cause you distress and dissatisfaction with our services, especially relating to issues such as reporting and repair, getting an update on an ongoing matter, and anti-social behaviour incidents.

We are taking multiple steps to improve our communication with you. 

• Increasing the capacity of our Housing Officers by employing a fourth full-time Housing Officer, allowing them more time to focus on each tenant and discuss your issues with you.
• Increasing admin support to our housing officers allowing them to be more visible in their communities and understand your needs.
• Creating new, more equal patches for our Housing Officers. A “patch” is the areas, neighbours and homes that our Housing Officers are allocated. Through reallocated the patches and taking into consideration factors like the number of empty properties in the areas and volume of anti-social behaviour cases, we are able to ensure their workload is more equal, and therefore each tenant is being provided the same standard of service.
• Updating our digital systems to allow for improved integration between platforms. This means that when you contact us via our online forms or through our Customer Services team, this action will be automatically sent to your housing officer to review. Customer Services will also be able to view the outcomes or updates – and therefore, be able to give you a better service through our phonelines.

That is just the beginning, and over the next 12 months we aim to make further improvements to our digital systems and implement new forms for our tenants allowing you to contact us more easily about: 

• Applying for a mutual exchange.
• A change in circumstances, succession or name change
• Wanting permission for a pet

You said our website was not particularly helpful and user friendly.

We have now implemented a new “tenants’ corner” area on the website, with the support of Your Choice we have tailored the main page to link to the areas of information that they wanted to have at their fingertips. We also put more information on there for tenants and will continue to use and build more into this area for our customers and allow them to self-serve where possible and to ensure that as much information as possible about how we operate and how we perform is available to you.

At Bradgate flats you raised concerns around the condition of the communal lounge.

We conducted a consultation with tenants at the scheme and offered them a choice of colours for the area. The tenants decided that they would like the walls to be yellow and light grey to compliment the lighting. This was conducted at an event at the scheme and will be funded as part of our social value programme from one or our partners. Tenants also told us how important the communal space is for social activities and a sense of community but raised concerns of how dated the communal lounge was. We have committed to investing in improving curtains, carpets and furnishings and will work with tenants on the details.

Tenants of Gretton Court wanted a better wellbeing service and support after the County Councils wellbeing service came to an end.

We consulted with tenants on providing this service for them and also having a budget for them to undertake activities both on site and externally. Tenants were consulted on the services and the associated charges. We have now appointed a new Independent Living Officer, Becky, who has been running lots of amazing and well attended events at Gretton Court (Burns night was a particular highlight) while also keeping the traditional favourites like bingo running. A review of the service is underway and we are committed to responding to feedback from tenants, their families and key stake holders.

You raised concerns around non-tenants using the parking for residents and tenants in the town centre.

As a result of this we consulted with all our tenants and leaseholders in the area effected and surveyed them on what options they would want. This included whether a permit system would be of interest and how much would you be willing to pay for such a scheme. The feedback was received and reviewed. It was clear there was an interest in a permit scheme but there was not an appetite to pay for such a scheme. As a council we were not able to provide this service for free, so we informed tenants and residents of this and regretfully we could not support them further in this area. We have installed some additional new signage to advise non-residents that it’s parking for tenants and leaseholders only to try to help with this understanding for non-residents.

You said the sheds were encouraging anti-social behaviour and could not be used due to poor security and disrepair.

We worked with tenants on understanding their feedback about the sheds across various locations. Our teams then renovated the outhouses, improving the security, including installing new doors on all the buildings. We hope everyone is happy with the results.

Our Housing Asset Management Plan details our commitment to enable the safe, efficient and effective management of our council homes. 

View the whole plan at www.melton.gov.uk/HAMPlan