Newsletter. Spring 2010 Newsletter HOT TOPIC. There is a lot going on at the moment so read on to find out more. POSTIVE PARTNERSHIPS

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1 Newsletter May 2010 Spring 2010 Newsletter There is a lot going on at the moment so read on to find out more. POSTIVE PARTNERSHIPS Working together with other organisations is a key part of how we like to do things at Paragon. In this newsletter find out how working with partners is bringing benefits to the Association and local communities. HOT TOPIC GAS SERVICING - IMPORTANT NEWS If you have gas central heating or it is about to be installed in your home, please make sure you know about the importance of providing access for servicing and an annual safety check. Positive Partnerships. Dig inside to find out more The vast majority of tenants grant access without any problems but in the past we have had to take people to court to get in. From 14th June 2010 we are changing how we deal with situations where tenants do not allow access for this vital service to be carried out. This may involve breaking into properties to carry out the work if we cannot get in. See Page 9 for more details.

2 INVESTMENT PROGRAMME Positive Partnerships Environmental & Employment Project The current programme includes an innovative project in the Grangemouth area which is designed to create jobs and improve the environment around 15 blocks of flats in Kersiebank Ave, Avonbank Ave and Claret Road. Work has started with new fences being installed to improve security; new bin storage areas built; removal of overgrown trees and shrubs and; new paths laid. ROLLS ON This is a real partnership project made possible with grants being Closes before work starts obtained by the participating organisations from a variety of sources. The Association got money from the Scottish Government s Wider Role Fund, Grangemouth Paragon Tenants and Residents Association received funding from the Fairer Scotland and Falkirk Council were able to access the Future Jobs Fund. Jean Murray Chair of the Tenants and Residents played a big part in making this project happen as she had to go along and make a presentation to the Fairer Scotland Panel and convince them why they should fund the project. The trainees will build up practical skills and receive additional employability skills such as number and problem solving skills, Health and Safety training and communication skills. Flora Wallace, Chairperson said This is a great example of how working together can bring benefits to local people, it is about more than environmental improvements. The fact that it provides valuable training opportunities for young people in the current economic climate and demonstrates that local people can get together to make positive changes really makes this project stand out. Trainees on site Thanks to Falkirk Council for some of the photographs 2 Paragon Newsletter Spring 2010

3 Positive Partnerships - New Houses at Craigleith Rd, Grangemouth In January 2010 the Association took possession of 15 new houses at the Craigleith Rd development in Grangemouth. This is another example of the benefits of working in partnership with others. The site used to be occupied by blocks of flats owned by Falkirk Council. When they decided to demolish these, the land was transferred to the Link Group to redevelop as new housing with Paragon as a partner in the project. The development consists of 32 properties for rent made up of 2 bedroom cottage flats, and 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses and bungalows. Link has made an excellent job of managing the development project and the builder, Ogilvy, has produced high quality homes. Management Committee and staff meet Link on site to view the houses nearing completion Craigleith Road kitchen, bathroom and front Older Persons Advice Project (OPAP) Regular readers will know about the OPAP project and it is still proving to be very successful. This is another project run with other housing association partners. It offers advice and support to Paragon tenants over 60 in relation to benefit entitlement. The project is now in its third year and to date 183, worth of unclaimed benefits have been awarded to Paragon tenants. If you want more information then please contact Marie McKay, Regeneration Officer on Paragon Newsletter Spring

4 Heating, Windows and Doors Our major investment programme continues to roll on with work well underway in a number of estates. New gas central heating is being installed in the Posthill / Rosebank area of Sauchie. In the Mar Policies estate in Alloa, storage heaters are being replaced with gas central heating and new double glazed doors and windows are being fitted. Helen Forrest, Vice Chair said We are spending over 1.25 million on these projects in the Clackmannanshire area. Feedback we have had to date from tenants is very good and we would ask everyone to fill in their satisfaction surveys when the work is completed too as these really help us to keep standards up. I can see a real difference in the Mar Policies by just walking around. Completing this work will bring us nearer to 100% of our properties achieving the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. New Doors and Window Mar Estate, Alloa 4 Paragon Newsletter Spring 2010

5 PERFORMANCE MATTERS In our 2009 Winter Survey we asked if people find performance information helpful and most do. However some people were not sure of the value and we are looking at ways we can present the information in ways that are easier to understand. This will be a topic for discussion at the Tenants Conference in June. In the meantime here are the usual tables. A TICK means we are on or are better than target and a CROSS means we are not on target. Repairs Performance Figures to End March 2010 (last quarter) TARGET ACTUAL (Year to date) TARGET GUIDE Emergencies - 98% 99% Urgents/RTR - 94% 94% Routines 5 day response category - 90% 89% X Routines 10 day response category 90 % 92% 90 % Respondents Highly Satisfied or Fairly Satisfied with Work Quality 98 % Arrears & Void Performance Figures to End September 2009 (last quarter) TARGET ACTUAL (Year to date) TARGET GUIDE Current Tenants (non technical) Rent Arrears as % of gross rental income Target 2.3% Rent loss due to Void loss (empty houses) as % of gross rental income Target 2.0% 2.3% 0.7% Paragon Newsletter Spring

6 Spring Summer 2010 Diary Calling All Tenants One of our regular events that is growing in popularity is the Joint Tenant Conference where tenants of many of the Forth Valley landlords get together to discuss current housing issues. This year s conference will be held on Saturday 5th June at Forth Valley College, Grangemouth Road, Falkirk between 9.30am and 3.45pm. The partner organisations involved are Paragon HA, Falkirk Council, Clackmannanshire Council, Stirling Council, Ochil View HA, Rural Stirling HA and Forth HA. This is a free conference and lunch will be provided. There will be a keynote speaker from the Scottish Government providing information about important legal changes which are on the way which will affect all tenants of Scottish councils and housing associations. There are also workshops, information and display stands. Lunch is included free of charge. If you are interested in going you will need to book a place. Contact Linda Duncan or Mhairi Binnie by no later than 1st June 2010 if you are interested. Places are limited so book early to be guaranteed a place. Phone or enquiries@paragonha.org.uk The Association s Annual Garden Competition is open to all tenants and owners living in Paragon estates. The competition has prizes for all areas including anyone who enters for the first time. Window boxes and communal gardens can be entered too. You do not have to be Alan Titchmarsh standard to take part. There are some excellent gardens in our estates and there are people who are making a real effort to get new gardens started. So if you are an expert or beginner why not take part? We will be contacting previous competitors to ask them if they want to take part and our housing officers are nominating gardens. If you want to nominate your own or a neighbour s garden please contact Mhairi Binnie, Office Administrator on or enquiries@paragonha.org.uk. Tell us who you are, your address and the address of the garden you are nominating. Garden Competition 2010 All entries to be in by Friday 9th July 2010 and judging is planned for the following week, weather and judges availability permitting. One of our Garden Competition Award Winners for Paragon Newsletter Spring 2010

7 The Annual Senior Tenants Bus Trip is heading for North Berwick this year. The trip will be on 31st August The staff team is making preparations for the trip and information will be issued to those eligible to attend over the summer. Fingers crossed for a nice day. Look out for changes to the Paragon web site which are coming your way this summer. We are revamping the site to make navigation round the contents a bit easier and updating some key information. We also hope to use the site to make it for easier for people on our waiting list to keep us up to date with information about their application. There is a lot of useful information on the site so why not go for a browse if you have a spare few minutes online? Remember you can also use our enquiries address if you want to contact us by on enquiries@paragonha.org.uk Springing into Action for the Keep Scotland Beautiful s Spring Clean Week Pupils from Moray Primary and Sacred Heart Primary Schools in Grangemouth were invited to design a poster to publicise a litter pick event held in the area in early April. Over one hundred entries were received. BUS TRIP NEW LOOK WEB SITE News of some events already held Thanks go to our judges, Walter Inglis, Chair of Grangemouth Community Council and Sheila Davies of Paragon s Management Committee. Sheila said The posters were fabulous, so creative, and these young artists showed real awareness of their surroundings and the environment. STIRLING HOUSING INFORMATION EVENT Staff from the Association recently took part in Stirling Council s housing information day held in early April in the Albert Halls. The open day was held to provide information on a whole range of housing matters. Our staff provided information on making housing applications and on our investment programme in the Stirling area. Paragon Newsletter Spring

8 CONSULTATION CORNEr We really value your opinions and we are delighted to hear from you. We need your help once again as we seek your opinions on important issues. Read on to find out more and how you can give your views to us. LARGE SCALE VOUNTARY TRANSFER CONTRACTS Paragon Housing Association was originally established to transfer houses owned by Scottish Homes to our newly set up tenant led housing association. The first transfers took place in 1998 and others followed in 2001 and Since then other properties have been taken into our ownership through development and mortgage to rent activities. We now have around 1400 properties in the Forth Valley area. At the time of the transfers we signed up to Large Scale Voluntary Transfer contracts with Scottish Homes. These gave us certain rights and obligations. Some of those tenants who transferred from Scottish Homes may remember the discussions on transfer issues that we held with them but new tenants might not be aware of the background. The Scottish Government is now proposing to end these contracts and we are seeking your views. It is our view that this would bring positive benefits for the Association. It is a complex issue so to find out more about what is being proposed, have a look at the enclosed insert. It also tells you how you can feed your views back to us. COMMON REPAIR SURVEYS We do listen to views from the people we provide services to and try to keep improving services. We carry out sample surveys of all repairs carried out and we thank everyone who makes the effort to return these. However it can be difficult to get information back on how well repairs have been carried out in communal areas or common parts of buildings eg repairs to controlled entry systems, gutters etc. New Surveys for Common Repairs In response to feedback on how we gather information about how well repairs are carried out to common areas such as closes or common elements such as shared roofs, we have now introduced a Common Repairs Feedback Survey form. We will issue these to tenants and owners where common repairs have been carried out. Please help us out by sending these back where you can. By doing this we can identify any quality issues early on and get them dealt with as quickly as possible. It can also help establish if the work is required because of vandalism so we can follow that up where possible. We appreciate your help and your views can help us improve the service. 8 Paragon Newsletter Spring 2010

9 GAS SERVICING IMPORTANT CHANGES If you have gas central heating in your home you will know that it is important that it is serviced on a regular basis to make sure that it is working properly and is in a safe condition. We are legally obliged to do this annually through the provisions of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations Working closely with our gas contractor, the McDougall Group and with co-operation of the vast majority of tenants, this normally goes smoothly. The McDougall Group has introduced new procedures to allow some flexibility on appointments. However in a few cases we have real problems getting access to some properties to do this. Up until now we have followed the advice of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) and have gone to court to gain access where we can t get in. This takes time. It also costs money and the costs are recharged back to tenants when expenses are granted by the courts. Following new legal advice received from SFHA, from 14th June 2010 we will be using the provisions of Clause 5.12 of Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement to force access if we do not get in. Here is a summary of what to expect when your gas servicing is due. Step 1 The McDougall Group will write with a proposed appointment date when the service is due. They will ask you to confirm if you can provide morning or afternoon access or need an alternative date. If the appointment is arranged successfully then the service will go ahead. In most cases only this step is required. Step 2 If the appointment is not arranged successfully then a reminder will be issued by the McDougall Group Step 3 If an appointment is not arranged successfully, the details will be passed to Paragon who will then make attempts to contact the tenant for access Step 4 If an appointment is not arranged successfully then a 7 Day Warning letter will be issued and forced entry arranged if there is no response. If forced entry is required then the costs will be recharged to the tenant. The last thing we want to do is have to break in to any tenant s home to do this so please let us in. If you need any help or assistance regarding your gas servicing appointment then call the office and we ll do our best to help. If you want any more information on the proposed changes or would like to comment on it please contact us on or by via enquiries@paragonha.org.uk Paragon Newsletter Spring

10 COME & JOIN US - MEMBERSHIP Membership of the Association is open to tenants, owners and other community members who can bring knowledge and skills to our work. We currently have around 400 members. It is 1.00 for life membership. For this you can come along to the AGM, vote for Management Committee members, you may consider standing for election but above all else you get to demonstrate your support for the work of the Association. Most people attending our AGM tell us that it is a great experience. We deal with the vitally important business such as electing the Management Committee, receive the Annual Accounts and Annual Report. We also have information displays, some entertainment and it is great chance to meet other people involved in the work of the Association. At the 2009 AGM we were also very proud to recognise the achievement of Flora Wallace our Chairperson when she obtained her formal qualification in the Governance of Scottish Housing Associations If you are interested in joining you will find an application form in your pack. Just complete it and return it to us and we ll take it from there. We will arrange the paperwork. A copy of the rules will be provided to you and we will submit your application to the Management Committee for consideration and arrange to collect your Come and join us AGM info Helen Forrest Vice Chair presents Flora Wallace with a bouquet in recognition of her achievement 10 Paragon Newsletter Spring 2010

11 Contacts Quick Guide Paragon Housing Association Out of Hours Emergency Gas Leaks National Grid Emergency Services Scottish Water Customer Services SEPA Floodline Council Special Uplifts Please note that arrangements and charges differ in each council area so please contact them direct if you need an uplift.your housing officer can also provide you with advice on refuse collection and special uplifts. Clackmannanshire Council Falkirk Council Stirling Council OFFICE OPENING Our office is open 9 am 5.00 pm Monday to Friday excluding public holidays SUMMER / AUTUMN PUBLIC HOLIDAYS 2010 Friday / Monday Friday/Monday Friday/Monday 28th/ 31st May 25th/ 28th June 24th/27th September The office is closed for staff training on the THIRD Wednesday afternoon of each month from pm. If you telephone the office for an emergency repair on a training afternoon your call will be redirected. Paragon Newsletter Spring

12 Published by: Paragon Housing Association Limited, Invergrange House, Station Rd, Grangemouth, FK3 8DG Telephone: Fax: website: Paragon Housing Association Limited is a charitable organisation registered under Scottish Charity No. SC