Following the leader

17-NOV-06

Bolton at Home’s award winning commitment to put customers at the heart of efforts to improve housing in the borough was at the centre of national attention this week.

Bolton’s Beacon Conference at the Reebok Stadium played host to visiting housing organisations, local organisations and tenants from across the country.

The event showcased how the organisation works with customers to improve housing services borough-wide, providing visitors with an opportunity to take away knowledge to apply to their own areas.

Fourteen workshops promoted and celebrated successful customer involvement in Bolton, including:

• engaging communities in neighbourhood and local community planning;
• the role of Urban Care and Neighbourhood (UCAN) Centres in developing sustainable communities which reflect local needs;
• successful art-based housing and regeneration projects through Bolton at Home’s Housing Percent for Art team;
• how volunteer customer inspectors influence the services which customers receive through reality checks and mystery shopping;
• exploring the work of the Bolton Affiliation of Tenants and Residents Associations (BATRA);
• customer involvement in the governance of Bolton at Home

Noel Spencer, Chair of Bolton at Home, and Councillor Akhtar Zaman, Bolton Council Executive Member for Regeneration, said in a joint statement: “We are proud to be involved with customers and staff who have achieved so much and deservedly won national recognition.”

Bolton at Home, through Bolton Council, was chosen as one of just four organisations in the country to receive the Beacon award for ‘Improving Housing Services by Involving Tenants’ in March of this year.

This was Bolton’s third housing-related Beacon award in recent years. The previous two were for work on homelessness; and housing renewal.