Customer Council

Pamela is a shared owner who lives in our South London region.  Pamela is also a member of our Customer Services Committee where she is one of three resident representatives.

Ashley moved into her MTVH property in Aylesbury in 2017. Since moving there, she has helped to improve the sense of community by supporting her neighbours with food parcels and transport for those going to work.

Ashley cares passionately about her community, improving repairs services and ensuring residents live in safe and secure housing. Ashley joined the Customer Council because, as a resident, she would like to have the resident voice heard; she is also the Chair of our North London Regional Panel.

Beryl is mum of two grown up sons and proud grandmother of 2 lovely grandchildren. She moved into her home with MTVH in East Leake in 2023 and decided to join the Customer Council to meet new people, to keep in touch with communities and to support residents to have a positive experience with MTVH. She’s previously worked in hospitality, accounting and in the charity sector.

George moved into his MTVH flat in South London in 2009 and has been involved in service improvement both in his area and nationwide since. He has extensive experience in communication design, photography and filmmaking in the private, education and healthcare sectors. George is also the chair of the South London Regional Panel.

As someone who has worked in customer service roles for many years, Kerry is passionate about the importance of listening to customers and working with them to improve services.  Her experience in customer service along with her many years as an MTVH resident in Nottingham are two of the main reasons she decided to join the Customer Council.

Melanie is a homeowner living in a new-build MTVH property in Clapham Park since 2011. Melanie joined the Customer Council to work with MTVH to improve customer services and ensure all MTVH residents have their repairs and concerns dealt with as efficiently and quickly as possible. She is an active member of MTVH Customer Engagement focus groups.

Sasha is a mum to two lovely girls and became an MTVH resident in Wembley Park through mutual exchange in 2022. She has worked in a range of customer focused roles and is currently working in a secondary school where she supports the Committee of Trustees.

Sasha joined the Customer Council so that she could support MTVH to improve services and find ways to communicate positively with residents.

Scott is a homeowner living in South London since 2001. He has a passion for community spirit and supporting residents in his block. He was a member of the European Parliament and a professional actor for over 25 years. He is now a local councillor.

He joined the Customer Council to scrutinise MTVH’s promise that it will hear the residents’ voice. Scott also focuses on making sure that customer concerns are dealt with effectively.

Evelyn is a general needs resident who lives in London.

Nikki is a general needs resident who lives in Cambridgeshire.

Adam is a resident who lives in one of our keyworker homes in London.

Amit is a shared owner who lives in London.

Our first meeting of the year took place online via MS Teams, on Thursday 27th February, the meeting began with welcome & introductions to all Customer Council members and MTVH colleagues in attendance.

Chairs update including update from CSC

Our Customer Council Chair, Pamela updated the group on what happened at the last Customer Service Committee meeting, which included discussions on a new digital platform for customer feedback, the tenant welfare fund, service charge actuals, and upcoming consultations post-Thames Valley and Metropolitan merge. Additionally, remediation efforts were addressed.

Regional Chairs Update

Our Chair of the South London Regional Panel, George updated the group on the discussions had at their meeting. Starting off by advising that our CEO, Mel Barrett attended and members of the panel appreciated his engagement. Mel highlighted resident safety as his main priority and agreed with the panel that he would be visiting some of our estates in the South London area. The Housing Team also attended the meeting and advised that they have conducted over 1,000 estate inspections to improve anti-social behavior management. The Property Services team attended and noted that the transition from Axis to Metworks has improved efficiency, and there is a allocated team to focus on damp and mould issues.

Nikki, our Midlands Chair started off by informing the group about the opportunity for residents to attend estate walkarounds with Local Housing Managers. The panel reviewed quarter 3 performance data, focusing on anti-social behaviour (ASB), and expressed interest in analysing a specific ASB case report to identify lessons learned. An open discussion addressed community issues, particularly lengthy repairs. The panel aims to identify topics for collaboration with MTVH to resolve issues swiftly.

Ashley, our North London Chair updated the group on the North London Regional Panel meeting, highlighting key performance indicators for first-time repair fixes and customer satisfaction. The panel discussed support for anti-social behaviour victims with mental health issues. Recruitment challenges for Local Housing Managers were addressed, along with The Housing Team’s vision for enhancing visibility and trust with residents. Ashley emphasised the meeting’s productivity and the importance of participation. An update was provided on the Mendip & Penine House decommissioning project and ongoing customer consultations.

Financial Support for residents: how are MTVH helping customers

Dominic Briant, Director of Community Impact attended the Customer Council meeting to update the panel on the financial support that MTVH offer to their residents. Dominic started off by highlighting the increasing financial difficulties faced by individuals in the UK and discussed the initiatives undertaken by the Community Impact department at MTVH. This department focuses on addressing safety, health, and financial support for residents. Among the key initiatives is the strengthening of employment and skills offerings to help those affected by financial crises.
The eligibility criteria for the tenant welfare fund has been removed. This fund is designed to support residents, with half allocated for rent assistance and the other half directed toward essential services such as food and white goods. The team is actively collaborating with residents to review the welfare fund and to design pilot services tailored for shared owners.
In addition, MTVH is partnering with the NHS to provide support services, including a trial of a virtual service in Nottingham. The overarching goal of the Community Impact team is to enhance support for all residents, and they are seeking local charitable funds to ensure the sustainability of these initiatives.

Customer Experience Strategic Plan Update

Serena, our Director of Customer Experience attended the meeting to discuss the progress of the Customer Experience Strategic Plan. Serena noted that the strategy has now been approved by the board and the Customer Services Committee. The strategy includes three key programs: knowing your customer, involving customers in decision-making, and fostering a unified MTVH culture. The Customer Council emphasised the need for a strategic plan that residents can hold MTVH accountable to, with clear tangibles included. While many ideas from the Council were integrated, not all were pursued. Discussions about customer representation at the board level are ongoing, though the strategic plan itself won’t proceed. It was suggested that scheduling a future meeting to discuss the strategy’s progress would be beneficial, Customer Council members agreed making it a future agenda item.

The launch of the G15 Residents Group Update

Pamela, our Chair updated the group on the launch of the G15 residents’ group, comprising London’s 11 largest housing associations. The G15 aims to enhance housing sector excellence and promote social housing positively. They engage with CEOs and senior leaders to involve residents in decision-making and contribute to government policy from a resident perspective. Pamela emphasised the importance of MTVH listening to residents’ feedback to improve processes. The G15 also addresses the stigma of social housing, ensuring that residents are central to landlord decisions. The launch occurred at the Houses of Parliament, where Pamela discussed key topics with MPs.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Review Update

Megan, our Resident Engagement Co-ordinator, provided updates on the Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews, with the third review concluding in January. The first review, conducted in October 2024, focused on communal repairs and resident recommendations included implementing a live chat service for reporting repairs, along with email confirmations for logged issues. The second review, which took place in November 2024, addressed anti-social behaviour and suggested creating guidance for residents accused of such behaviour while also clarifying the existing policy. Maxine Gordon, the Director of Housing, will be exploring these recommendations further. The third review evaluated MTVH’s Annual Complaints Performance report and recommended including success stories and a glossary of abbreviations to enhance clarity. The Customer Voice Team encouraged members of the Customer Council to propose topics for the reviews planned for next year.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures Discussion

Lynda, our Head of Customer Voice presented on Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), Lynda clarified acronyms such as LCRA (low-cost rental accommodation) and LCHO (low-cost homeowner accommodation). The presentation included renters’ results broken down by 12 questions, comparing MTVH’s results to the G15 average. For low-cost homeowners, three questions were omitted due to different repair responsibilities. Final slides covered tenant performance measures, such as complaints per thousand homes and safety checks, aligning with The Regulator of Social Housing’s requirements. Pamela suggested adding this topic to the next meeting agenda for the Customer Council to review and discuss.

Our final meeting of the year took place in person at The Johnson Building, 77 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JS on Saturday 30 November. The panel welcomed MTVH’s new Chief Executive, Mel Barrett.

Update from Customer Services Committee

Our Chair, Pamela attended the National Housing Federation conference where conversations were centred around service charges, she also attended the G15 resident group, which aims to elevate customer voices and reduce social housing stigma. Pamela advised the group that the official launch of the G15 will be taking place the at the Houses of Parliament in due course. Pamela also shared that she had been at the recent Customer Services Committee (CSC) meeting, where she presented a paper on customer involvement at MTVH, which included our Tenant Satisfaction Measure data.

Customer Services update: Housing and Estates

Kush, our Executive Director of Customer Services updated the group on several key initiatives regarding Housing and Estates. Starting off by advising that Local Housing Managers now conduct one-on-one visits to better understand residents’ needs. Kush also told the group that a new Head of Lettings is reviewing the Lettings area of the business, and estate inspection processes are being trialled for improvement. A new system, Service Charge Pro, has been implemented to enhance the homeowner experience. There are also efforts underway to address anti-social behaviour (ASB), alongside fire safety measures due to rising fires from e-scooters and e-bikes, including staff fire training.

Regional Panel Chairs’update

Nikki, our Midlands Regional Panel chair started off by advising that the panel had Andrew Reston, Director of Care & Support attend and speak with panel members and provided them an update on all things Care & Support.

Ashley, our North London Regional Panel Chair stated that Ian Kennedy, Head of Property Services attended the meeting spoke about MTVH looking at best practices in each region. The panel also saw the Community Impact Team, Lesley Watson, Regional Manager and Ash Loskor, Resident Support Manager attend and provided an update on what has been going on in the Community Impact Team and they presented a case study to the panel.

George, our South London Regional Panel Chair began by stating that the South London meeting opened with a CRM update. Additionally, it was shared that the Development Team has been brought in-house instead of relying on a third party.

George also advised that the South London Panel expressed they would like to have Mel Barrett at a future Regional Panel meeting.

Customer Experience Strategy: the plan and next steps

Serena, our Director of Customer Experience provided the group with an update of the progress of the Customer Experience Strategy and presented the current status of the Strategic Plan, highlighting insights from over 6,000 customer data points. The plan focuses on customer feedback, SH emphasised the importance of customer and colleague engagement and noted that the 2019 Customer Experience Strategy aimed to unite Metropolitan Housing and Thames Valley Housing. However, many MTVH colleagues are unaware of the current strategy.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews 2024/2025 update

Megan, our Customer Engagement Co-ordinator provided the group with an update on the progress of this years scrutiny cycle. Megan advised the group that the topics selected by the Customer Council for this years scrutiny cycle are reporting communal repairs, handling anti-social behaviour at MTVH and reviewing the Annual Complaints Performance report. The Customer Voice Team have completed two out of the three reviews and the recommendations made by residents have been sent off to the relevant team to assess feasibility for implementation.

Service Charge Collaboration Group update

Nisha, our Customer Engagement Manager updated the Customer Council on the most recent discussions at the last Service Charge Collaboration Group meeting. Nisha stated that the recent meeting included discussions on service charge deficits, and the wording on communication sent out to leaseholders and homeowners, as the group highlighted some of the wording used on communication from MTVH can be unclear. The Service Charge Team are taking this feedback away and will look into how this can be improved moving forward.

Our mid-summer Customer Council meeting took place online on the evening of Thursday 15 August. The Customer Council welcomed our three new panel members to the meeting, Adam, Evelyn, and Nikki.

Update from Customer Service Committee

Pamela, our Customer Council Chair, provided the Customer Council with an update about what had been discussed at the recent Customer Services Committee meeting. Pamela shared with the group that the key discussion points at the meeting were regarding complaints, anti-social behaviour and service charges. We also had Helen Cope, a member of the MTVH board attend the meeting, who provided the Customer Council with great feedback about how over recent years the Customer Council has helped amplify the work that MTVH do.

Regional Chairs’ Update

All three of our Regional Chairs provided the Customer Council with an update regarding what was discussed at their most recent Regional Panel meetings.

The Chair of the South London Regional Panel started off this update by advising the group at their most recent Regional Panel meeting, the main topics of discussion were the need for MTVH to improve communication, anti-social behaviour management and up-keep of communal areas.

The Chair of our Midlands Regional Panel started off the Midlands update by advising the group that the panel were shown a demonstration on how to use the MTVH website, there were also discussions around planned works being carried out at individual properties on the same street, but not all properties, which caused concern and confusion within some residents.

In the North region, customer satisfaction has dropped slightly but it is still above the national average at 60% and the Head of Housing for North London advised that the main aim is to currently continue to focus on repairs and communication.

Back to Basics Discussion: Responsible Neighbourhood Management

This quarter, all the Regional Panels and Customer Council members were asked to discuss the topic “Responsible Neighbourhood Management” from the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard. The feedback from this discussion will be collated and shared by the Customer Council Chair to the Customer Services Committee to highlight areas of concern and satisfaction for residents across the organisation.

Continuous Learning Scrutiny Reviews (CLS)

The Customer Council submitted topic suggestions for the next cycle of CLS during July, and at the meeting they were shown the long list of topics suggested. The Council will now vote on three topics for review during August with the first CLS review of this cycle beginning in October.

Service Charge Collaboration Group

Nisha, our Customer Engagement Manager, provided the group with an update on the Service Charge Collaboration group and advised that we currently have 9 out of the potential 12 members and are continuously looking at how we can recruit for this group. Nisha advised the group that at the most recent meeting, the group were reviewing the accompanying commentary that goes out with final accounts and seeing how the group can help MTVH better communicate this with residents.
The next Customer Council meeting will take place in London on Saturday 30 November.