Welcome to the blog of Ray Davies, a Tenant Committee member and Board member

Ray Davies has been a Venture tenant for over ten years and has been a Venture Board Member for five years.

Ray is a founder member of the Tenants’ Committee which was launched in September 2009.

‘Ray’s Blog’ will appear each month in this space with news of what the Tenants’ Committee and other Venture tenants are doing to improve services.

Latest Post - Previous posts listed below

Ray`s Blog June 2011

On the 31st May, I attended a focus group on Recharging Policy and Recovery organised by the Neighbourhood Housing Manager, Louise Wallace. The question was asked by Eddie Cotton, “What is meant by recharge?”, which is something that had not occurred to any of the staff, Board or Tenants’ Committee members there. It is ‘Housing Speak’ for repairing damage caused by the tenant deliberately or via a criminal act. Is it fair to have such a policy? Well, yes; after all, why should you pay to repair a property that the tenant allows to be damaged deliberately? Recharge is one of those terms that your Neighbourhood Housing Officer uses every day. Venture does have a jargon buster on the web site if you have any questions about other terms used. A lot of discussion was about the time it takes to confirm it is a recharge and how much, as you could wait 8 weeks to find out how much you owe. Under the new system, you should be told immediately how much and have it confirmed within 7 days. A payment plan could be worked out or you could ask for the charge to be reconsidered.

Points we raised - To ask for 10% or £25 up front causes great strain on the family budget with those who are on fixed income. The chance to bring in your own contractor in such cases must be considered as, if you are hit with a bill, you should have the right to get the cheapest price providing the work is up to Venture’s standard and guaranteed. This has been taken on board and will be looked into. The whole of the Policy document should be reviewed and, as the policy review date is in February 2012, it is within the time that we should start looking at it now. I think that Louise Wallace is going to put the policy on-line so you can e-mail your views and your views can actually form part of the next policy document.

The Next Tenants’ Committee Meeting on the calendar is 14th June @ 5 30 pm at Venture’s offices in Boaler Street. I hope to see you there. Do not forget, you can e-mail Venture at info@ventureha.co.uk about anything that you want.

See you next blog.

Ray Davies
Board/Tenants' Committee

May 2011 - scrutiny and surveys