Regenda Homes to be represented on Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel
Two Regenda Homes residents have been selected to sit on a the Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel made up of only 100 people in England.
Chris Oldroyd and Keith Vallance will sit on the Panel which provides an opportunity for residents to be involved in the development of the Housing Ombudsman service as well as giving them direct feedback of the service throughout the year.
Chris said: “I’m excited for the new challenge and curious as to what is involved. I want to help residents throughout England to get their voices heard and improve social housing services going forward. I already sit on the Regenda Homes Complaints Panel and I am a Regenda Customer Inspector so I thought it would be a good way to influence the Regenda Homes complaint process and improve services for residents. After such an awful year, I just wanted to give back to the community.”
Keith Vallance
Keith said: "I think it’s great that residents can have a direct voice to the Ombudsman and want to help social housing residents get their voice heard. I see it as a challenge for myself to do something different. I already sit on the Regenda Homes Complaints Panel so I thought it would be interesting to see how a national panel would work and it would be useful to bring some inspiration back to Regenda to help improve their services."
The panel includes a mixture of residents to reflect the different types, sizes and locations of landlords in the scheme. The aim of the panel is to create a stronger resident voice by seeking feedback from the residents themselves.
Steve Newsham, Regional Director of Regenda Homes, said: “We are delighted that Chris has been chosen to sit on the Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel. Feedback from our residents is extremely important to us and it is great that one of our very own Customer Inspectors and an active member of our Complaints Panel will be having his voice heard on a national scale. We hope to use his insight to help us continue to shape our services around the needs of our residents.”
Setting up the panel is part of a wider aim from the Housing Ombudsman to be more open and accessible, and to engage widely with both residents and landlords to share knowledge and learning.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “This is an exciting new initiative to draw on the vast experience of residents and provide valuable input to inform our plans. We want to promote excellence as well as provide more insight and learning from the complaints we see. Alongside our engagement with landlords, the panel will be important in helping us further develop these areas of our work.”