Making homes habitable

Following this year's devastating floods, affected homes across the city have been drying out.
Getting your home dry is the first stage of the repair process.
The time it takes for homes to dry depends on the type of property flooded and how much water entered.
When work starts, flood damage is being repaired and improvements will be undertaken to homes, to bring them up to the Decent Homes Standard.
Work has already started on affected homes.
Repairs to all flooded properties are scheduled for completion by December with Decent Homes work continuing until April 2008.

Step 1 – Homes dry out. Dehumidifiers and fans used to remove moisture. Check for standing water. Step 2 – Surveyors assess what work is required for flood repairs and for Decent Homes work. Step 3 – Flood damage repairs and decent homes works start.

Influencing decisions

As a tenant, would you like to influence your landlord's decisions concerning your home?
Then why not attend the Yorkshire and Humber Tenants' and Residents' Federation sub-regional conference at The Octagon, Walker Street, Hull on Thursday October 25.
The conference includes speakers from the Government and Partners in Change, and four workshops with their own guest speakers each dealing with different housing management organisations.
These include Arms Length Management Organisations, Tenant Management Organisations, Registered Social Landlords and Retained Council Stock.
If you would like to attend the conference you can call HURAT on 331313 or email info@hurat.org.uk

Trafford training course revisited

Two weeks after the Trafford Hall Area Housing Board (AHB) training workshops (September Hull in print), HURAT, BERG and two governance officers held a successful workshop at the Guildhall.
Attendees discussed the AHB 'Terms of Reference' and for those that couldn't go to Trafford Hall, the opportunity to debate the subject with their fellow Board members.

On call for flood help

Did you call 300300 during this summer's floods?
Throughout the flooding in June and early July the council's call centre operators handled more than 92,800 calls – their most challenging time since the service started almost seven years ago.
During the worst of the flooding, the service extended its opening hours until midnight and throughout the weekends, answering calls about repairs to flooded houses, sand bags, and requests to remove flood-damaged bulky items.
And when the Hull Flood Fund was launched on Saturday July 7, the call centre opened from 8am to 8pm over the weekend to take donations from the public.
Throughout this period of enormous workload the phone operators still managed to answer 28 per cent of calls in 15 seconds.

Going undercover

Mystery shoppers are visiting and contacting council offices and surfing the council's website to help improve the Hull Housing service.

Jordan Salmon and Rachael Harrison (middle) handing an extra mile award to council staff

Enid Savill (middle) congratulates Preston Road CSC staff on a job well done

To find out how good the housing service is to its customers, the Tenant Participation team (TP team) organises mystery shopping exercises, using council tenants as shoppers.
They identify examples of good practice, highlighting any gaps in the service, and assess the quality and ability of the council's front-line services to provide customers with the help and information they need.
Past exercises have seen mystery shoppers visiting housing estate offices, Customer Service Centres (CSCs), ringing the call centre and checking the council's website.
Shoppers range from 18 to over 70 years of age, some having learning or physical disabilities, each bringing their own requirements to the job.
Feedback from mystery shoppers, their comments and recommendations for service improvements are written into a report which is submitted to senior managers at the housing service.
In the last mystery shopping exercise, two adults with learning disabilities, Jordan Salmon and Rachael Harrison, posed as 'potential' council tenants enquiring about finding a property using the council's Homesearch scheme at the Derringham Bank CSC.
"I thought being a mystery shopper would be a good experience as it means I get to talk to people and ask questions about properties," Jordan says.
Rachael decided to take part in the exercise to get some experience of what being a mystery shopper was all about.
"My sister also has a job as a mystery shopper and so I decided to become one too," Rachael says.
"I thought it was very interesting and a good experience and now I know how I can get a council house in the future."
After visiting the CSC both commented on how they felt treated as an equal and asked if the member of staff they met could be given one of the council's 'extra mile awards'.
Both Jordan and Rachael agreed that the experience gave them confidence and urged other tenants and residents with learning or physical disabilities to become mystery shoppers.

Examples of the impact mystery shoppers have had on the service: Proposal: Up-to-date application forms for all tenant participation activities to be readily available to customers. Outcome: Tenants developed a tenant involvement registration form which is now included in packs given to all new tenants and is also available at housing estate offices and CSC's. Proposal: Raise frontline staff's awareness of involvement opportunities and activities organised by TP team. Outcome: TP team to roll out awareness sessions to all housing estate and CSC staff. Proposal: List of tenants' and residents' associations and contact details to be readily available to customers. Outcome: A directory has been posted on the Internet, and there are plans for copies to be available in housing estate offices and CSCs.

Want to be a mystery shopper? Ring 300300 for more information.