Flourish tenants take the lead to quiz 'top brass'

Flourish Homes’ tenants got the chance to quiz their Somerset landlord at a special Question Time event organised by their fellow residents.

Tenant Nigel Strudwick was behind the event, coming up with the idea and organising the event, which took place at the Swan Hotel in Wells. Taking questions from the floor was the executive team who are responsible for the day to day running of the housing provider, based in Shepton Mallet, as well as its Board chair Wendy Murphy and Chief Executive of Aster Group, Bjorn Howard.

“This was a fantastic opportunity for our tenants to ask their burning questions to the people who run their housing association,” said Managing Director Alan Brunt. “What made the evening even better for me was that the whole idea came from tenants and was organised and run by our tenants. We are directly accountable to the people who live in our homes and getting their feedback, ideas and thoughts about how we’re providing our services to them is vital.”

Playing the part of David Dimbleby on the night was Flourish Tenants’ Federation Chair Elaine Penton, who lives in Street. She handled around 50 questions from the floor during the two hour event which took place at the Swan Hotel in Wells on Thursday March 4.

Questions ranged from keeping dogs in flats, anti social behaviour and how we deal with asbestos in our homes to the number of new homes we’re building and how environmentally friendly we are. Questions were also asked about what the new local standards that the Tenant Services Authority want to bring in will mean for Flourish Homes as well as how budget cuts at county council level would affect our services to people living in sheltered accommodation.

“We’re always looking at new ways that we can involve our tenants in improving the way we do things and this Question Time event proved a popular way to get tenants to ask the questions they want answers to so we perhaps need to look at how we can do similar things in the future,” added Alan.

On the top table taking questions from the floor on the night were Flourish Homes Board Chair Wendy Murphy, Managing Director Alan Brunt, Customer Services Director Chris George, Finance Director Karl Potts, Housing and Care Services Director Susan Holmes and Aster Group Chief Executive Bjorn Howard. Flourish Homes is a member of the Aster Group, which brings together like-minded housing associations across the South and South West of England to work together.