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Involving and empowering residents is a passion at Trent & Dove. We're on a journey to make customers’ voices heard Louder & Stronger.

Our new Customer Voice Strategy has seen people like you join our new Customer Committee, and our local and special interest groups.

Since its creation in 2022, Louder & Stronger has already made a real difference to the services we offer, updating many of our policies and, equally as importantly, holding us to account to make sure that we're focusing our time and your rent monies on the things that matter the most to you, our customers.

An example is the recently formed Community Grants Panel, where our customers assess funding applications and decide which local groups to support.

Since we were founded in 2001, customers have helped to set strategy, guide decisions and improve the homes and services we provide. Putting people and communities first, and at the heart of how we work, are key parts of our TPAS and PlaceShapers memberships.

Our 20-year partnership with residents has made us the organisation we are today, and we’re determined to build on these strong foundations. We never forget that customers pay for just about everything we do and are the real experts when it comes to living in the homes we provide and the communities we serve. Having a diverse and effective customer voice is crucial to our mission.

 

Our customers

By ‘customers’ we mean:

  • Anyone who lives in a home provided by Trent & Dove
  • Future tenants, leaseholders, owners and their families
  • People living in and near the communities where we work.

We also work closely and engage with other important partners including:

  • Local councils
  • Health and social care providers
  • Police and other emergency services
  • Charities and voluntary organisations
  • Community and faith groups
  • Membership bodies (for example, National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, PlaceShapers, TPAS).

Our strategy explained here includes all these groups and individuals.

 

Together with Tenants Charter

We've adopted the National Housing Federation’s Together with Tenants Charter: National Housing Federation - Together with tenants.

This covers six commitments:

  1. Relationships: treating all residents with respect, through relationships based on openness, honesty and transparency
  2. Communication: providing residents with clear, accessible and timely information on the issues that matter to them, including homes, communities, how we address problems, how we’re run and our performance
  3. Voice and influence: seeking and valuing the views of residents and using this information to inform decisions. Making sure every individual feels listened to and can speak without fear
  4. Accountability: working in partnership with residents to scrutinise and hold us to account for our decisions, homes and services
  5. Quality: providing high-quality, well maintained, safe and well-managed homes
  6. When things go wrong: giving residents simple and accessible routes to raise issues, make complaints and seek redress, with timely advice and support when things go wrong.

Vision

The Customer Voice Strategy is about:

  • Listening to customers so we can improve homes and services, and how we contribute to and invest in our communities
  • Making sure that our strategy and long-term plans are aligned with and influenced by customers’ views, needs and expectations
  • Showing customers how their views influence our actions and decisions at every level
  • Helping us to play an important and influential role in the communities we serve, to make them successful, thriving, and sustainable.

You can read the strategy in full here: Customer Voice Strategy

Benefits of a fresh approach

To achieve a louder & stronger customer voice we:

  • Offer a wider range of opportunities for customers to share their views, tailored to the reasons why they want their voice to be heard and how they prefer to engage
  • Gather high-quality data to obtain meaningful customer insight we can use throughout our business to achieve our vision and objectives
  • Are clear about who our customers are, and how we can best interact with different groups and individuals
  • Reach and learn from groups that have previously been less involved
  • Distinguish between our responsibilities as a housing provider and the broader role we play in local communities
  • Ensure that involved customers feel valued, supported and encouraged to keep on giving their views and input
  • Assure our Board that the views of all customers are listened to and acted upon appropriately
  • Meet the expectations set out in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, National Housing Federation Code of Governance and Together with Tenants Charter.

Our Customer Committee

We've built a vibrant, valued, supportive group of people who are all passionate about improving their area and homes. Improving things for themselves and others.

The committee makes sure that Trent & Dove’s customers’ views are listened to and acted upon. If you join, you will help shape and monitor our work as we transform homes, lives, and communities.

The committee reports directly to the Board, focusing on our role as a housing provider and on our community investment activity.

For more information and to apply to join the committee click here. 

Read further...

  1. Customer Committee