have your say on the allocation of social housing in County Durham
County Durham residents and housing representatives are being invited to have their say on the way in which social housing is allocated.
Our Customer Voices group is a key part of our governance structure.
Established in 2019, its purpose includes ensuring that our core value to ‘Do the right thing for our customers’ is intrinsic to everything we do. This is as well as hearing the true voice of the customer when providing services.
The group is made up mainly of tenants/leaseholders, with one staff and two independent members.
Customer Voices responsibilities include:
Monitoring and reviewing insights to ensure customers have the chance to share feedback and influence improvements to our services.
Analysing complaints trends.
Assisting with the annual customer survey and analysing responses
Engaging with customers to feed back information regarding future plans and helping improve service delivery
Carrying out scrutiny reviews.
You can find out more about the work of Customer Voices here (customer voices).
what changes are we proposing?
We are proposing that Customer Voices’ responsibilities change so that its focus is solely on scrutiny.
what is scrutiny?
Scrutiny is a process which involves Customer Voices taking an in-depth look into our services, or a particular area of our performance, or how our policies and strategies impact upon our customers. The aim of all scrutiny reviews is to improve our performance and the quality and the standard of services we provide to you.
why are we proposing changes now?
Customer Voices has played an important role in hearing the true voice of our customers, however since it was first set up, how your views influence decisions has evolved.
Your views about our current and future services are gathered in a number of ways. For example, by responding to satisfaction surveys after using one of our services, taking part in ad hoc feedback or Tenant Perception questionnaires, as well as making a complaint when things haven’t gone well.
Given our wider customer engagement, we think now is the right time to consider asking Customer Voices to focus solely on carrying out scrutiny reviews. We think this will create time for more, or more in depth, scrutiny reviews to be carried out and as your landlord it provides a valuable reality check on the services we provide to ensure they are tailored to reflect your needs and priorities, and improve value for money.
when will this all happen?
Our Board will be meeting in March to consider your feedback. With the benefit of your views, they will then decide whether to move forward with the proposal or not.
what do you think about our proposals?
We would now like to hear what you think about our proposals to change the role of Customer Voices to focus solely on scrutiny.
You can contact us with your views or queries by:
Calling 0300 1311 999
Writing to Governance Team, Coast House, Spectrum 4, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT
get involved
If you would like to get involved with Customer Voices, we have several existing vacancies.
We’re always on the lookout for new people to help shape our services. It doesn’t matter how much time, skills or experience you have, it’s your opinion that counts and you can engage with us in a number of ways.
If you are interested please get in touch.
The deadline to give us your views is Monday, 3 March 2025.
County Durham residents and housing representatives are being invited to have their say on the way in which social housing is allocated.
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Pop along to our free job club and digital skills sessions, starting in January. Taking place every Monday for six weeks in County Durham.
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