Resident Board update November 2022

Our Board meet for a formal meeting every other month and have Board Learning seminars In between these meetings.

Before every Board meeting, everyone is sent Board papers to look through and an agenda so they can see what will be discussed. Each Board meeting follows a pattern of who is in attendance, who couldn’t make it and members declare if they have any interest in anything that is coming up on the agenda.

In November Sanni Salisu declared that he had an interest in our proposed development of Land at Church Road, Llanishen, Monmouthshire, as he works for Celtic Horizons.

The minutes of the previous meeting are signed off, and any sub-committee meetings. For November the Board signed off for

• the Audit and Assurance meeting held on 28 September 2022
• the Quality and Engagement Committee held on 19 October 2022

Board meetings

• A schedule of meetings for 2023/2024 was circulated and dates will be put in diaries
• The training plan for Board learning seminars is to be circulated. We will publish more details once approved.
• The Board discussed how meetings are held and this will be reviewed on a month-by-month basis, some meetings will be held online, and some will benefit from being face to face.

Development of land, Llanishen

The Board discussed options about our approach to restarting work on the proposed development of Land at Church Road, Llanishen, Monmouthshire. The Board were very supportive and approved plans to use this as a pilot scheme to test a whole host of new technologies and create low carbon homes for the benefit of our residents.

Candleston and Melin Homebuy

• Our Deputy Chief Executive Peter Crockett gave an update on our subsidiary Candleston. The team have formed excellent working relationships and with careful planning have been able to appoint another contractor for their site – The Grove. As you may be aware the previous contractor, Jehu went into administration. The team’s hard work has not gone unnoticed and thanks to them delays on site have been kept to a minimum. LCB construction have been employed on an open book basis to complete the six units outstanding in phase 1. Any completions that were due to go ahead, will happen, which is great news for the new home owners.
• Seven of the reservations out of 12 of the low-cost home ownership units have been secured by our Melin Homebuy team.

Refurbishment of sheltered housing schemes programme update

• Joanne Kirrane, The Executive Director of People Homes and Communities, provided an update on our refurbishment of Sheltered Housing Schemes Programme. The next big scheme in the programme is Roderick Hill Court. Resident consultations have begun and will continue.
• A discussion was held around future plans for refurbishment of general need schemes. Paula Kennedy, Chief Executive added that all these discussions are currently taking place and will be built into the Corporate Plan.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) – how are we doing?

• The Director of Business Improvement presented the latest KPI paper to the Board. KPIs help the Board monitor how Melin is performing as business, and alerts the Board to any areas which need improvement.
• Paula Kennedy further advised the Board that the Performance Team Manager has been doing some deep dives into the KPIs. One of these has been around emergency repairs being completed within 24 hours and it is worth noting that this is now at 91% and just shy of the 95% target. It was highlighted that if we look at our own teams they are hitting the target, it is external contractors who are bringing the figure down. This will be looked into by Sharon Crockett, our Director of Assets.
• The Executive Director of People, Homes and Communities advised that when the team carried out a deep dive on channels of contact from residents there was a great sense satisfaction in personal contact and speaking to someone. This was placed higher that digital interaction.
• The Board congratulated our Customer Contact Team on dealing with residents at the first point of contact, our target is 80% and the team hit 85.56% in September.

Coming up

• The next meeting of the Board is the joint meeting of the Melin and Candleston Board scheduled for Wednesday 14 December 2022.
• There is a Special General meeting for Rent Setting scheduled to take place on Wednesday 11 January 2023 at 5.00 p.m via Zoom.
• The next Board meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 18 January 2023 at 6.00pm at Melin Homes.