Salix Homes Customer Senate praised by Hazel
Monday 1 June 09 saw Salford MP and former communities secretary Hazel Blears MP highlight in the House of Commons excellent work done by Salix Homes in relation to tenant-led self regulation in the form of our very own Customer Senate.
The Customer Senate is a group of Salix Homes customers who make sure that we behave and perform in a way that meets our customers' needs. This means looking in detail at how we conduct our business and how good our services are.
Hazel commented, "All the partnership organisations should certainly be under a responsibility to involve local people. Those organisations are spending public money and our intention is to move towards a system in which community engagement with decision making on the totality of public expenditure by local authorities, the health service and the police is fundamental to ensuring that the best possible decisions are taken.
"I should like to mention an excellent example from my own neighbourhood. An arms length management organisation called Salix Homes has a scrutiny panel of about 30 local tenants, known as Senators. I think that this has been the first scrutiny work of this kind in the country. The panel makes recommendations and its views are fed into the housing association, which makes changes on the basis of what its tenants have said is important. That scrutiny is driving continual improvement and excellent services, and it is really making a difference".
The endorsement by Hazel Blears MP underscores the important work that we are doing to ensure that we listen to our customers at every opportunity and bring about changes in accordance with recommendations made, so that changes for the better really happen.
For more information on the work of the Customer Senate please contact the customer involvement team on 0161 779 8843.
