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Associations working in the borough, learning about how these services were organised and to discuss current issues. I was also pleased to join staff at Thames Valley Housing and Paragon to tour their housing stock and attend other events throughout the year, such as: a visit to Richmond Housing Partnership’s (RHP’s) purpose built Extra Care Housing scheme for older people; joining in with the Paragon Stakeholders event, which enabled me to meet a huge range of people involved in providing housing; and joining a residents meeting run by London and Quadrant (L&Q) on the Queens Estate, all have helped increase my expertise.

“Over the past 12 months Paragon has worked very closely with Cllr Seymour to develop his understanding of the services we offer our residents in Richmond upon Thames. This included a tour of some of our properties to show the wide range of homes and services on offer. Cllr Seymour also attended the Paragon stakeholder day which highlighted some of the additional services we offer to our customers. These include: the handyman service which we offer to our more vulnerable residents where we carry out repairs and improvements which would normally be the resident’s responsibility, a financial inclusion service which provides advice on a wide range of ways of reducing household costs including utility bills and Paragon’s wider work in our local communities to positively impact on the lives of our customers and their families.

An enhanced complaints resolution service From April 2013 all local Councillors, under the Localism Act 2011 have formally had their role in local complaints resolution (as Designated Persons) prescribed and they can be contacted directly by tenants and leaseholders for help. The Tenants’ Champion role at Richmond upon Thames Council provides an enhanced service. This is a Councillor led initiative, which has cross party support, due to the great impact the service provides to borough residents needing help. Few Councils provide this service but Richmond Council consider it to be important. The Council no longer directly provides housing at subsidised rents; it is all owned and managed by Housing Associations. The Council wanted to show its commitment to continuing to support tenants and leaseholders of Housing Associations when they needed it, through the Tenants’ Champion service. The Council also hoped that the service would support Housing Associations to improve tenant and leaseholder satisfaction with their services.

Gearing up to be the Tenants’ ChampionMy experience of being a ward Councillor and my work in the voluntary sector provided a good grounding for this important role. To be really effective it was crucial that I built up good relationships with partners. One of my first tasks was to meet senior staff at the main Housing

Councillor Martin Seymour

I am delighted to present this annual report, detailing my year as Tenants’ Champion for Richmond upon Thames Council. This is the fourth Tenants’ Champion report and gives information on how I have helped support tenants and leaseholders living in Housing Association homes in the borough who have had unresolved problems with their landlords.

Richmond Council’s Tenants’ ChampionAnnual Report April 2014 – March 2015

Tenants’ Champion Annual Report April 2014 – March 2015

necessary permission from the complainant for me to be able to take up their cases properly.

Following on from feedback from last year’s Tenants’ Survey, where people said they liked direct and sometimes face to face contact, this continues to be offered by the service.

On receiving a request for help, personal contact is essential to ensure I understand the issues and to discuss how I may be able to help. This will often then require further enquiries or meetings with other partners like the Housing Associations. This year weekly meetings were held at the Council Offices with my support officer, at these sessions I met individual complainants, made calls on their behalf and also facilitated joint meetings with them and their Housing Association if necessary.

OutcomesThis year fifty households approached the Tenants’ Champion service for help. Of these forty four were new cases. Four of these were directed to the relevant Ward Councillor to help in the first instance and these were then resolved, I am grateful for the support from all my fellow councillors when needed. For example, one local Councillor had good knowledge of a Community Garden project, which was very helpful in getting practical help for a needy resident. I also assisted a further six households which had been commenced by my predecessor, they were more complex, longstanding, existing cases.

What were the cases about?There have again been a wide range of cases this year including: repairs, anti-social behaviour, requests for moves, grass cutting (which was not being done properly), rent issues, concessionary TV licence eligibility criteria concerns, concerns about shared ownership leases and pets. Tenants from eight different Housing Associations approached the service for help this year and a constructive working relationship with each of the Housing Associations helps in working through the issues and thinking of creative solutions.

This, coupled with regular meetings with Cllr Seymour, has helped the Tenants’ Champion to work with our residents living in Richmond upon Thames to resolve their concerns as quickly as possible. I look forward to working with Cllr Boulton in the coming years to develop the service further and ensure its continued success.”Ian Watts Managing Director, Paragon Community Housing Group

I found that building on work undertaken by my predecessor, Cllr Blakemore, having a good understanding of Mental Health issues, especially how these services are run locally is essential for dealing with case work. Igor Vertkin, from the Richmond Wellbeing Service offered some first rate and accessible training in this area. The first half day session ‘No Health without Mental Health’ gave an excellent insight into the relationship between physical and mental ill health. This could then be followed up with six half day sessions on ‘Motivational Interviewing’. These informative sessions gave me increased confidence to use some of these techniques in my case work to help motivate people to make positive changes in their lives.

“Over the last year, Richmond Wellbeing Service has been promoting an awareness of mental health issues, stressing the impact that poor mental health can have on an individual’s life chances. It was very positive that Cllr Seymour prioritised and attended the Motivational Interviewing training and demonstrated a genuine desire to improve how he supports tenants. By taking such a lead, as Cllr Seymour has done, inequalities for those with mental health will gradually be reduced.”Igor Vertkin, CBT Therapist, Richmond Wellbeing Service

How this service worksPeople are encouraged to contact me through the Council’s website www.richmond.gov.uk/Tenants_champion or through the Council’s Customer contact centre. This makes sure the service has the right contact details and the

Tenants’ Champion Annual Report April 2014 – March 2015

Examples of how the Tenants’ Champion Service has helped

Case Study One – as facilitatorI was approached by ten shared ownership households in a scheme managed by Metropolitan Housing Trust (MHT), their issues included: quality of repairs and how work was supervised and recharged. Some issues raised were long standing and unresolved. There were also policy concerns about how the shared ownership model works. Many had bought a share in their properties over twenty years earlier, but due to the rising value of the properties had not been able to increase their percentage share-holding in their homes. In addition, the terms left on their leases were decreasing and they were unsure about whether these could be renewed. One of the households in addition was suffering from anti-social behaviour from another household.

These issues were complex, some longstanding and some recent. The residents did not feel that their issues were being resolved at the correct level, leaving them feeling angry and frustrated.

Relationships with Housing AssociationsThe Tenants’ Champion service is now well established in the borough and the main Housing Associations are very clear about the role and how it supports their residents when needed. They publicise the role on their websites or through local publications to their residents. Twice yearly meetings with the Chief Executives and Directors continue, together with more regular meetings with operational staff of the main Housing Associations working in the borough including Richmond Housing Partnership, Paragon (previously known as Richmond upon Thames Churches Housing Trust), Thames Valley Housing and London and Quadrant. This year Metropolitan Housing Trust also participated in the service. These meetings are essential to highlight learning or issues raised from cases and for me to continue to build up my local housing knowledge and keep in touch with staff changes and new developments.

Cllr Seymour at his six monthly meeting with RHP staff

Tenants’ Champion Annual Report April 2014 – March 2015

Case Study Two – supporting new housing schemes I took over a long standing case of a family living in a one bedroom shared ownership property. The family are now overcrowded and need a larger property. However due to their links in the local community, they wish to stay in the borough and are struggling to find somewhere else they can afford to move to locally.

This family has been helped to explore their housing options and they are now clear about what they need to do to achieve their aspirations and are working towards this. With this case in mind I was very pleased to support a proposed new housing scheme at the planning stage that Thames Valley Housing is developing at Queens House. This, when built, will produce sixteen affordable homes and twenty nine shared ownership properties, so desperately needed in the borough.

“Queens House represents a significant increase in the provision of much needed affordable housing for local families. The support and leadership demonstrated by Councillor Seymour has been instrumental in our ability to move the project forward and ensure that the desire of local constituents to provide these homes was translated into a reality. TVH are very grateful of his input into this project.” John Baldwin, Housing & Neighbourhood Services Director, Thames Valley Housing

Case Study Three – as critical friend and advocateI was approached by a resident who had moved into a Housing Association flat, following a traumatic time. This person’s mental health was very fragile and she was greatly assisted with this, by keeping her pet dog.

It is recognised that Housing Associations need to manage keeping pets carefully to avoid them causing nuisance to other residents and yet there is also some well documented evidence on the

The approach taken in this case was to meet with three representatives from the larger residents group, listening to concerns and assimilating the details, this was a long meeting. I then made contact with MHT. This Housing Association does not have a lot of properties in the borough and there had been no previous cases reported to the Tenants’ Champion Service. I therefore had to establish contacts from scratch with the right people. It was pleasing to get an immediate and positive response to my request and meet with the Head of Housing. He outlined how MHT was organised and the recent improvements it was making to improve their services. MHT was updated on the role of the Tenants’ Champion in representing the concerns of the residents.

At the third meeting to which six representatives from the households came and two senior staff members from MHT, I guided a very constructive meeting where each party was heard. As a result of this meeting MHT has put together a detailed action plan, which has captured the issues and assessed how these will be dealt with and by when. This has already resulted in several site visits. This case and the associated action plan will be monitored until the issues are resolved.

“At Metropolitan Housing Trust we value the opportunity to address the concerns of our residents. We are therefore indebted to Councillor Seymour and the team at Richmond Council, who have provided a unique platform for us to listen, act and move forward often complicated and drawn out issues. Without this objective view and advice it would not be possible to do this as quickly and I look forward to working closely with the Tenants’ Champion in the future across a range of issues, to improve housing in Richmond.”Alasdair Manson, Head of Housing, North London and East Anglia Metropolitan Housing Trust

Tenants’ Champion Annual Report April 2014 – March 2015

Service improvement and the benefits of joint workingOne of the aims of this role is to capture the learning from casework and to share this to improve services.

Last year, the Tenants’ Champion Service worked with L&Q to highlight some examples where residents were being adversely affected by their policies or in the service they were receiving. At a review meeting with senior L&Q staff, it was good to learn that, partly as a result of the Tenants’ Champion’s concerns, a number of policies had been reviewed and a two day training programme had been delivered around anti-social behaviour, mental health and housing to all key staff, this picked up a number of the points of concern.

benefits of pets to people’s health and wellbeing which also need to be considered. This issue was discussed at my six monthly meetings with the main four Housing Associations to find out how this issue was dealt with by each of them. The main Housing Associations do have policies on this issue, but discretion often over-rides this and the policy is applied flexibly to situations where no nuisance is caused.

I am currently advocating for the resident concerned, who has great support from her neighbours to keep the dog. At the same time I am asking the Housing Association to be more transparent about how they manage their ‘discretion’ in applying their policies so that people understand they are being treated fairly.

Cllr Seymour with members of the Tenants’ Champion interagency forum

Tenants’ Champion Annual Report April 2014 – March 2015

Joint working across different agencies The Tenants’ Champion has continued to bring colleagues from the Council, Housing Associations, Mental Health Trust, Police and Voluntary Sector together to discuss joint issues of concern at the twice yearly Tenants’ Champion Interagency Forum.

This year I was delighted to support a six month project, led by one of the Council’s Graduate Trainees that brought these parties together. Over a course of four meetings and some lively debates, two protocols have been developed and signed up to by all the partners - the Mental Health and Housing Joint Working Protocol and a protocol for Hospital Discharge. These protocols are designed to ensure that better joint working brings positive results. The effectiveness of these protocols will be monitored at my twice yearly meetings with partners.

“L&Q owns and manages over 75,000 homes in London and South East. We provide a local service to our residents in Richmond and we are deeply committed to improving their experience of our service. As part of our Group-wide service improvement plan, our neighbourhood officers and their managers received additional training to improve our response to more complex cases of anti-social behaviour. The focus of the training was to provide more victim-centred support and mental health.

We would like to thank the Tenants’ Champion and our residents in Richmond for their contribution and collaborative support in this area. We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Cllr Seymour on his new role as Mayor.” Judith During, L&Q, Assistant Director (South West)

Again this year the Tenants’ Champion service has participated in the borough’s multi-agency Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Panel and has contributed to improvements in how this functions, particularly around support to victims.

The Tenants Champion and the ASB/Risk Panel

“Building on the tenure of the first Tenants’ Champion, Councillor Seymour has provided consistent support to the Panel while continuing to provide influence on key issues such as information sharing. The role of Tenants’ Champion is seen as central to both the successful delivery of multi-agency support and the ongoing development of best practice as the Panel seeks to strengthen its approach to risk management.”Colin Lucas, ASB Officer, LB Richmond Upon Thames

Councillor Seymour with Shurland Wilson (Operational Manager) and Zoe Mears (Associate Director of Social Work) of the South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

Tenants’ Champion Annual Report April 2014 – March 2015

and hospital discharge protocols and overseeing joint training around these.

●● To continue to attend the borough’s ASB Panel when necessary, to contribute to improvements to this with particular emphasis on support to the victims of ASB.

●● Continue to monitor issues and themes arising from casework, noting the impact of Government policy, and sharing knowledge and insights learnt with colleagues.

Councillor Jane Boulton will take on the Tenants’ Champion role from May 2015.

“At RHP our aim is to achieve high levels of very satisfied customers. This is sometimes trickier to realise where our customers are facing complex situations, including those with mental health needs. The work of the Tenants’ Champion has been invaluable in helping us to meet the individual needs of these customers. Their work in championing the development of the Housing and Mental Health service joint working protocols has been especially useful and we look forward to continue to work in partnership with them to embed these.”David Done, Chief Executive, Richmond Housing Partnership

Quotes from people we have helped

My sincere thanks to Councillor Seymour.

Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate this.

It gives me comfort to get your support.

May we please take the opportunity to offer Councillor Seymour our warmest congratulations upon his recent appointment as Richmond’s Mayor; also our thanks for all your help with this thus far.

Taking things forwardI have enjoyed my time as Tenants’ Champion and wish to thank all the partners who have assisted me in this role. It is with regret that I am leaving, but I am looking forward to serving the community of Richmond upon Thames as Mayor of the Borough.

The priorities identified for the Tenants’ Champion Service for the year ahead are:

●● To progress improvements between the Mental Health Trust and Housing Associations, Council and voluntary sector particularly by monitoring the implementation of the information sharing