L&Q responds to the Social Housing White Paper
David Montague, Group Chief Executive of L&Q said, “Safety, customer service and accountability are some of the defining topics in the social housing world, and we welcome the government’s continued interest in this important agenda.
“We’ll be examining the recommendations of the white paper in detail, but we recognise the importance of the issues raised here for our communities. We believe that by meaningfully involving residents in the decisions which impact their lives, housing associations can draw upon local knowledge rooted in lived experience, and gain a crucial perspective on the different and emerging needs of the neighbourhoods they manage.
“This isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s key to delivering better services, and helps to keep our core social purpose of providing successful homes and communities at the centre of our decision making. We haven’t always got things right, but we’ve been listening to our residents and have already begun our journey to find ways to involve and support them more effectively.
“L&Q is a signatory to the National Housing Federation’s Together With Tenants charter, which commits us to ensuring a deep level of resident involvement in our activities. In 2018, we established a representative 3,500 strong online customer panel, which is actively involved in providing feedback on our services, and L&Q resident Fayann Simpson joined our Board. Last year, we carried out an overarching governance review which led to the creation of a new Resident Service Board. This is a talented and diverse body which, as well as advising our wider Group Board, will play a key role in facilitating our approach to resident involvement and placing community voices at the heart of our business.
“We recognise there is still work to do, and we are absolutely committed to improving, guided by our residents. Our top priorities over the next five years are safety and service. These will be embedded in our forthcoming five-year strategy which will see us make significant investments in our existing homes and the services which we provide, while still providing new homes across a variety of tenures for every stage of our resident’s lives.”
“And underpinning all of this will be our continued commitment to working with our residents and the government to strengthen accountability, improve transparency, and make our services and neighbourhoods the best they can be."