RBH marks a year of improvement and progress at Annual Members’ Meeting

Customers and colleague members looked back at a year of progress at RBH – the UK’s first customer and employee co-owned mutual housing society – at the Annual Members’ Meeting on Tuesday evening (30 September).

Over the last 12 months RBH has returned to compliance with the Regulator of Social Housing. We have also seen a big rise in our customer satisfaction figures - with 76.6% of customers in this year’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) saying they are satisfied or very satisfied, up from 72.3% a year ago. 

This improvement journey was outlined at the 2025 Open Day and Annual Members' Meeting, held at The Strand, in Kirkholt.

The day was a mixture of formal business and also a chance for attendees to speak to our teams and our partners about a range of topics including Money Matters, career opportunities, community safety and how we can work together to stop the stigma associated with living in social housing.  

We were also looking to increase our customer membership to ensure that the people we serve are truly represented; and there were some fun and games for our younger customers to enjoy.
At the start of the meeting, RBH Members took part in an hour-long question and answer session with members of the RBH Board.  

Discussions covered our plans for regeneration, how we are working with partners to tackle homelessness and the impact that the work of our teams and our partners is having on making our communities safe places to live free of anti-social behaviour and crime.   

The formal meeting heard a summary of the last year’s achievements from across the business with special focus on the work of the Representative Body on scrutiny and member-led improvement.  

We also got chance to welcome our new and re-appointed members of the Representative Body, a formal part of our governance structure which works alongside the Board and the Executive to be accountable for the performance and direction of RBH. 

We also welcomed Councillor Shakil Ahmed as the newly-appointed Rochdale Council representative on the Representative Body, who joins Councillor Dylan Williams.

Members voted to receive the Representative Body's Annual Report to Members, which was introduced by Andrew Johnson, Chair of the Representative Body. Andrew looked back on a year in which the Representative Body has delivered a new Membership Strategy, setting out how we can further enhance and embrace our mutuality, and completed three scrutiny reviews to help improve our services.

The final item on the agenda saw Members vote to receive the Board's Annual Accounts and Financial Statements, which were presented by our Executive Director for Finance and Development, Simon Mellor. 

He shared details of our £27m investment in homes over the last year and how our repairs team have almost eliminated a backlog of repairs orders which stood at more than 9,000 in November 2023. 

Amanda Newton, RBH Chief Executive, said: “Our Annual Members Meeting is an important milestone of accountability and transparency. 

“We have reflected on feedback from Members and introduced for the first time a question and answer session with the Board.  There were some great questions and challenges that will hold us to account for delivering what we promise. 

“We are clear - we have some tough decisions to make but will always act with integrity and in the interests of all of our customers. 

“I’d like to give a huge warm welcome to the new appointees to our Representative Body.   We look forward to working with you to move RBH forward together.   Special thanks also go to those representatives who have retired for their commitment and dedication to taking RBH forward.”

You can download the Annual Report to Members and the Annual Financial Statements at www.rbh.org.uk/amm 
 
Our full results in this year’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures – the annual survey that all housing providers must complete – are also available on our website.