LMH's 29 Neighbourhood Plans empower tenants

Published by Jean Clarke for Liverpool Mutual Homes in Housing and also in Communities

Liverpool's largest housing association has launched 29 Neighbourhood Plans to complement the physical regeneration work across the city as part of its £400 million improvement programme.

Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH) carried out detailed consultation with the tenants, staff and Board members of its 15,000 housing stock to identify the concerns and priorities of the people in each neighbourhood.

Tenants are now able to see the type of physical and social regeneration work taking place and planned in their homes and neighbourhoods with timescales given in the plans which are on the LMH website.

Initially, questionnaires were sent to resident groups and given out to tenants and leaseholders at various open days to gather information about what they felt about their neighbourhood and what it was like to live there. LMH staff were also interviewed to use their expert knowledge of the neighbourhoods.

Tenants, Board members, staff and residents groups took part in neighbourhood audits with bus tours to gain more detailed feedback on issues such as anti-social behaviour, available facilities, attitudes and the general kerb appeal of the neighbourhoods.

The information collected complemented the statistical data analysis which was used to produce specific ‘interventions’ which are documented in 29 Neighbourhood Plan brochures providing a detailed breakdown of each area explaining the targets and requirements and identifying the challenges faced within each specific neighbourhood rather than having a ‘one size fits all’.

Aspects being monitored within neighbourhoods include the number of empty properties and demand for them, tenancy turnover rates, rent arrears levels, repair costs, long-term unemployment and worklessness statistics, average household incomes, educational attainment rates, anti-social behaviour, crime and burglary as well as customer satisfaction of their neighbourhood.

Each neighbourhood has been graded as either gold, rated as ‘performing’, silver as ‘aspiring’, and bronze showing ‘potential’.
LMH will work with it’s contractors and partners and many other organisations within the neighbourhoods in order to achieve success in the delivery of the plans.

Chief Executive at LMH, Steve Coffey, said: “The Neighbourhood Plans identify the key priorities and aspects for each neighbourhood where we have homes but more importantly, provides a strategic vision of how we are going to make the improvements to change people’s lives for the better.

“The aim is to promote social, environmental and economic wellbeing to all our tenants in all our neighbourhoods because the physical regeneration to their homes alone will not guarantee improvements to their general quality of life.

“We have addressed this by looking at all the aspects that affect people such as education, employment, training and crime, and how these can be improved by working closely with tenants, staff and partners.

“This is part of our wider approach as a tenant-led organisation to put customers at the forefront of all the decisions and work we carry out.”

LMH’s Assistant Director for Regeneration and Asset Management, Debra Parr, said: “We are committed to creating neighbourhoods where tenants choose to live and want to stay and these 29 plans will allow us to work with others to deliver the most important issues that affect their lives.

“The Neighbourhood Plans are flexible and will evolve as progress is made and can be adapted to address different requirements and external influences to make sure that relevant challenges are being tackled in the relevant neighbourhoods.

“The plans also give useful information such as the average house price in the neighbourhood, average household incomes and the percentage of homes that currently meet the Decent Homes Standard, all of which empowers tenants as they know the objectives and deadlines that have been set and can monitor our performance as we carry out the work.”

Neighbourhood Plans are designed to improve the sustainability of individual neighbourhoods by maximising the level of internal and external resources and services in those neighbourhoods.

The plans are aimed at allowing the organisation to prioritise neighbourhoods’ needs, identify individual neighbourhood issues and identify the actions necessary from all stakeholders (including LMH) to improve neighbourhood sustainability.