Home Scotland AGM at the McManus Museum and Art Gallery 13 September 2012

Presenting the prize to the winner of the
Best Kept Garden Competition.

Last night I was reporting to the Annual General Meeting of Home Scotland (Housing Association) members in Dundee. This meeting was held in the McManus Galleries and was well attended by members from Dundee, staff of the Association and folk with an interest in social housing and the work of our housing association in Dundee.

The year 2011 to 2012 has been a busy one for the Dundee Area Committee. We have had 8 meetings, been on an 'away day' in the training room of the new Visitor Centre in Camperdown Park and also taken an active part in discussions with members of the other three Area Committees in Scotland.

Our principal achievements as an Area Committee have been:

• Commenting on and monitoring key changes in the Home family of organisations as these affect our tenants/customers in Dundee;
• Keeping in touch with wider developments in the Home Group and shaping new developments by having members of our committee on the Board of Home Scotland and the National Customer Panel;
• Following up issues that committee members bring to the Area Committee;
• Interviewing key staff from Seddons before endorsing them as single maintenance and repairs contractor for Scotland;
• Holding three consultations with customers/tenants in Blackness Sheltered Housing, Whorterbank and Whitfield;
• Developing links between Criminal Justice in Dundee and our Maintenance Manager so that in future some of our neighbourhoods can be benefit from work by offenders on Community Payback Orders;
• Continuing running the Cleghorn Charitable Trust which provides small grants for basic furnishings for customers/tenants moving into their new home;
• Exploring ways to cut the energy bills of customers/tenants;
• Monitoring the performance of the new UK call centre for Home Group and the new repairs contractor for Scotland and
• Meeting members of the North East England Regional Viewpoint Committee in Durham to see at first hand what their new structure might offer.

Overall it was a very constructive evening with a number of members expressing interest in joining us on the Area Committee.