Jaine, based in Hertfordshire, has dedicated her career to social housing. She has worked with local authorities, councils, and housing associations. She spent six years as a board member of a small housing association and was also chair of their operations committee.
What are some of your key achievements as regional director for the Central region?
We are clear on the direction we want to take the Central region. So far, I have seen some great changes taking place across the region. Customer feedback informs our goals and our colleagues are clear on how to deliver these.
Some key outcomes of our work are:
- Collaborating with repairs and maintenance to improve outcomes for customers
- Improved compliance performance
- A refreshed approach to safeguarding
- An annual away day, including customers. These have been powerful and humbling sessions; consolidating why we do what we do
- An increase of 4% in our satisfaction rating via our tenant satisfaction measures
How do you engage with customers and communities? How does that influence your priorities?
We visit our customers in their communities, which I really enjoy. It’s insightful and helps us to make sure we are consistent with the services we deliver. It is also honest and refreshing to hear face-to-face feedback. For example, we:
- Visit estates to do our customer promise assessments
- Have colleagues from Newcastle visit our homes in the Central region
- Meet our customers in their supported and over 55 services
- Run regional viewpoint meetings
We have customers with amazing stories, lived experiences, and honest challenges. Hearing how our services impact and make a difference is very rewarding. Their feedback highlights how we can improve.
What are the main things customers in your region should know?
We are all aware of the impact of the national housing crisis. We know we have a role to play in fixing it. The most visible way we are changing and shaping our region is through our delivery of new homes. We are building affordable homes in our communities over the next five years.
We hope our customers will see improved services from us, too. We will continue to work with our repairs and maintenance colleagues and listen to feedback.
And my ask to any of our customers; if you see us out and about where you live, please come and say hello. We’d love to hear from you!