FEBRUARY 2017WWW.BRENT.GOV.UK/HOUSINGREVIEW

BRINGING HOUSING HOME

YOUR HOME – YOUR SAYYou are the experts on your own homes and neighbourhoods, and it’s your experience that will help us get the future of housing right. So we want you to tell us about your priorities for where you live.

We want to make sure that everyone has a say and to talk to those people whose voices are heard less often. There will be lots of ways to tell us what you think.

Soon you’ll receive a survey letter from an independent research company called ERS. It’s quick and easy and you can let us know what

you think – by filling in the form, by phone or text, or on the internet.

COME AND MEET USOf course, surveys can give us a part of the picture but we’d really love to meet you to give you the chance to talk to housing experts from the council.

In March, we’ll be holding meetings across the Borough so there will be an event near you. So, if you’re a council tenant or leaseholder here’s your chance to influence the future of housing in Brent at one of these venues (see right).

MEETINGS NEAR YOU... Tuesday7 March 6-8pm

Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre

Brentfield, Harrow Rd, London NW10 0RG

Wednesday 8 March 6-8pm

Brent Civic Centre

Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ

Thursday 9 March 6-8pm

Comber Close Meeting Room

17 Comber Close, Cricklewood, London, NW2 7EG

Tuesday 14 March 6-8pm

Willesden Green Library

95 High Rd, London NW10 2SF

Wednesday 15 March 6-8pm

Roundwood Youth Centre

49 Longstone Avenue, Willesden, NW10 3UN

Thursday 16 March 6-8pm

South Kilburn Studios

2A Canterbury Road, South Kilburn, NW6 5SW

Visit www.brent.gov.uk/housingreview for details of extra daytime events coming soon

BRENT HOUSINGNEWS

Tenants and leaseholders across Brent are being asked to help the council make decisions about how best to run our housing

phone or face to face.

And, while we will make it quicker and easier for people who are comfortable using computers, this will also free up customer services and housing operations staff to spend more time with people who still need face-to-face help.

We can make life better for you and your family by joining up housing with other council services like roads, parks and social care.

Having a decent home is everyone’s top priority. But people also need to feel safe on the streets. You want great local schools for your children, health services that work for you, good transport links and places to enjoy sport and the outdoors.

It’s our job to make sure these services work well together, and housing should be at the heart of this.

You need to know who to talk to about every day issues like potholes and illegal rubbish dumping and who will deal with it and when. As a single organisation you’ll know exactly who does what in one joined up-service that will also save you money.

We have already brought together teams in health, social care, housing and employment to help over 1,000 residents with common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, to turn their lives around and get stable jobs. As a single organisation, we can harness the expertise of BHP alongside the wide range of council services and do more to join up services around you and your family.

LOVE WHERE YOU LIVEOn Valentine’s Day 2016 the council launched its Love Where You live campaign to do the things residents told us would make their areas better, happier places to live. We helped you organise clean up days and made it easier to recycle waste and report littering and dog fouling. Improvements in recycling have already saved council tax payers three quarters of a million pounds.

We’re also looking at ways we can build on the successes of Love where you live and how we can keep supporting local people’s small projects that make a big impact to improve where they live.

We will listen and act on what you tell us and let you know what we can, and can’t do.

Everyone’s needs are different. When it comes to your home, you want to talk to someone who listens, understands and treats you with honesty and respect.

We also know that you are the experts about where you live and by listening, that’s how we will get things right. Last year we asked residents for their views, including 600 phone calls to tenants and leaseholders. What we heard was very clear; you want a better repairs service that delivers a good quality repair with appointments that are kept – that is doing what we say when we say we are going to do it. You want us to hold our contractors to account and monitor their performance to make sure they keep their promises. On our estates Anti-Social Behaviour needs to be resolved by working with residents, the police and Community Support Officers to develop a real partnership which maintains a good standard of public space.

BHP is working with the council to improve the way we work with all our tenants and leaseholders. If the council takes back control of housing, we’ll find ways for residents and councillors to work

together to watch over and improve services.

We’ve put money where you said it was most needed. You told us that you wanted us to do more to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour so the council agreed to pay an extra £408,000 per year to bring 12 extra police officers into the borough.

Major new funding to repair our roads and pavements will reduce trips and falls and make life easier for people who said they find getting around difficult.

We’re a big organisation, so we can get better deals and we have a track record of making services better and saving money.

We are the largest employer in Brent and spend more than £500,000 every day buying goods and services. This means we can use our size to get the best deal from companies. We also know that sometimes the council and BHP are buying the same things and we know that as a single organisation,

BRINGING HOUSING HOMEThe way we manage council housing in Brent is changing.

We want every tenant and leaseholder to enjoy a high-quality service and make sure that we have as much money as possible to spend on council homes in the future.

We sent you a newsletter before Christmas explaining why we need to make improvements. To deliver the service you and your family deserve, we propose bringing housing management back under council control. This would mean ending our contract with Brent Housing Partnership (BHP).

Tenancies are already held by the council and tenants and leaseholders will not need to do anything differently if housing management is returned to the council.

We want to build on what BHP has achieved using our knowledge and experience to make the improvements you want.

The council is a big organisation with a track record of making services better and saving money. We want to do the same for housing.

Cllr Harbi Farah, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Tenants and leaseholders deserve the best and, having considered the options, it is the council’s belief that now is the time to join up housing with other council services once again.

“This approach has several advantages for tenants and leaseholders and, if approved, will ensure we have as much money as possible to spend on council homes in the future.”

Here’s why we want to directly run council housing – we have the knowledge and experience to make the improvements you want.

The council and BHP are already working together to improve services – but we can do more. As a single

organisation, we could use technology – such as our successful fly-tipping app – to make it easier for you to request repairs, report illegal dumping, pay bills on our website, and to get a quicker service.

The council is already putting money and expertise in to give residents access to all our services online so that at the click of a button you’ll get 24/7 access to your council tax account, libraries, benefits and a wide range of other services all in one place.

It’s also up to us to use our technology expertise and investment to give you all the information you need, that’s easy to understand, when you want it – whether that’s online, by text, on the

FEBRUARY 2017FEBRUARY 2017 WWW.BRENT.GOV.UK/HOUSINGREVIEWWWW.BRENT.GOV.UK/HOUSINGREVIEW

Listening to your needs

Cllr Butt and Brent’s Love Where You Live volunteers

Cllr Harbi Farah, Brent Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing

Brent Council will work to improve the environment as well as housing in the borough

we can use that buying power to deliver a better deal whether that is cutting the grass or repairing the roof. We also try to spend our money with local companies where we can so jobs are created in Brent delivering local social value as well as value for money.

And we shouldn’t forget that a single organisation means less spending on administration, which means more money to focus on front line services.

We have worked hard to reduce the impact of the government cutting our budget in half since 2010. We’ve kept council tax rises to a minimum and found new ways to protect services local

people really value like Children’s centres, care visits for the vulnerable in our community and CCTV cameras.

We’ve managed our finances well and have found new, smarter ways of working. For example, by sharing our computer network with Lewisham we are saving more than £1m a year.

THE BIGGER PICTUREBHP was originally set up 14 years ago to use special government funds to improve sub-standard homes with better kitchens, heating or insulation, for example. This was called the Decent Homes programme. At the time it was estimated that

this could give Brent Council up to £5,000 to spend on each home that needed improvement. In return, the government decided that to get this money, councils had to set up Arm’s Length Organisations (ALMOS) – organisations owned by the council but run independently – to manage housing.

But that was then and the world has moved on a lot since 2002. Like Brent, councils across the UK are looking to do more for less money. More and more councils have decided to bring services back in-house to cut costs and deliver improvements.

In London alone, Islington, Lambeth, Enfield and Ealing, among others, have returned council housing to direct local authority control. Hillingdon has cut costs by more than £2 million as a result while improving services for residents, by getting housing and social care working much closer together.

From Northumberland to Dorset, councils have found that bringing some parts, or all of their housing services

under direct control can lead to savings of up £1 million a year.

So we don’t have to start from scratch. The council is looking at what’s working for other councils so we can apply the best ideas in Brent. No two councils are the same – so we’ll need your views to get this right for Brent.

If you would like more information, please write your name, address, and telephone or email, and send it to the address below:

Name

Address

Telephone or email

Please send to: Freepost CIVIC CENTREFor more information, visit www.brent.gov.uk/housingreview, or contact us at

housingpartnerships@brent.gov.uk

020 8937 2850

If you have a disability and require this information in another format, please contact us on the same number.

FREEPOST

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FEBRUARY 2017 WWW.BRENT.GOV.UK/HOUSINGREVIEW

Electoral Reform Services (ERS)

Brent Council has asked the ERS Group, (www.electoralreform.co.uk), an independent organisation, to carry out the survey on its behalf. They will collect your views by post, online or telephone and analyse the comments provided.

All replies will be processed in confidence under the Market Research Society Code of Conduct, and you have our guarantee that your responses and comments will not be passed back to the Council or any other organisation in a way that enables individuals to be identified.

12 extra police on the beat in Brent