Published: 12 December 2022

Dear residents,

As you may remember, I wrote to you all just over a week ago to introduce myself as the Interim Chief Executive for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH). Today, as I formally begin this role, I wanted to update you on my initial priorities.

As I mentioned in my previous letter, I believe all tenants have the right to live in safe and secure homes. It is therefore extremely important to me that I understand the condition of all our homes and ensure there is a plan in place to improve them as quickly as possible.

This is why, during my first two weeks, I want to meet as many people as I can – listening to your views on what RBH does well and what it needs to improve. To help achieve this, I am planning on visiting our neighbourhoods to learn from you what it is like to live in an RBH home.

We already know that there are some areas where we can do better and I will be working with the entire RBH team to have a clear improvement plan in place – one by which you can hold us to account and measure our progress.

I am also aware that there are cases of damp and mould that we need to address and this work is already urgently underway. Amongst other initiatives, this includes setting up a Damp and Mould Taskforce to tackle this where it exists in our homes. That said, if you have a damp and mould problem but have not yet reported it, then please report it through our repairs line on rbh.repairs@rbh.org.uk, on Freephone 0800 027 7769, or via the MyRBH portal.

You can also attend one of our drop-in sessions with our customer experience team which are taking place this week and next week – visit www.rbh.org.uk/events to find your nearest drop-in.

Our entire team is bound by our commitment to supporting our tenants. We want to make sure you are listened to when you contact us, and that you feel you are treated with respect. We also want to respond to any of your concerns promptly, so are currently reviewing our complaints policy to make sure it is focused on quickly putting things right where we have made mistakes. As part of this, we know that our repairs service is important to you, so we will be looking at how we can improve this.

I am sure that over the coming weeks we will identify, with your help, other areas that we need to focus on. In the meantime, I want to reassure you that I am listening - so if you see me out and about then please do come over and say hello.

I will update you on what I've learned and what our future plans are in the New Year.

Yours sincerely,

Yvonne