Graphic version of this page | Change how these pages look
[Image - Albyn Housing Society Ltd.]
Introduction
Housing Options
Housing Services
Digital Switchover - Are You Ready?
Tidy Tenancy Reward Scheme
Paying your Rent, Occupation and Service Charges
Adaptations
Handyperson Services
Repair Responsibilities
Frost Precautions
Gas Servicing
Laminate Flooring Advice
Advocacy Highland
Community Needs Initiatives
Highland Community Mediation
Maintenance Service Caithness
Board
About us: corporate information
Contact us
Recruitment
News + Events
Downloads & Publications
Links
Latest News
Families Go Back To School – To Live27 Aug 2010
Affordable Homes for the Heart of The Highlands27 Aug 2010
Albyn backs local scheme to boost IT training20 Aug 2010
Four Hundred Affordable Homes Secured for Highlands18 Aug 2010
Albyn puts on a show for kids at Scotland’s Housing Expo16 Aug 2010
Events
(External) [Image - Scotland's Housing Expo 2010]
Introduction/
Housing Services/
Community Needs Initiatives
Community Needs Initiatives
last updated
02/06/2009 10:00
Albyn Housing Society hosted a seminar in Aviemore on 19 June 2006 to discuss our proposed way forward for Local Lettings Initiatives. Our aim was to discuss what types of housing and allocations systems are needed in the future which will allow us to develop a flexible approach where it is needed, with input from community groups. The seminar was well attended by 58 delegates including representatives from community groups, Communities Scotland and housing associations from Shetland down to the Borders.
Chief Executive Calum Macaulay said that the management and allocation of most of our homes is generally handled without any direct input from communities. He said “We’ve been approached by a small number of groups who have come to us because they are worried about particular housing issues in their communities. We quickly realised that our usual allocations policy wasn’t always able to take specific community needs into account.”
“We developed an innovative new model of local lettings initiatives to try and address this. More recently, we commissioned some research to evaluate whether the local lettings allocations were achieving what we had hoped, and to check that we are still complying with allocations and equal opportunities laws. The evaluation came up with some things that we need to change, and so we organised this seminar to share our findings and to discuss new ways forward with other people who share our interest in this.”
Liz Pritchard from Shieldaig Community Council gave her community’s first hand impression of the Local Lettings Initiative process; Professor Paul Spicker told us about his research into that work and clarified his proposals for the way forward; and Liz Burns from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations told us the legal and good practice issues we that will have to guide what comes next.
There was general consensus that the Local Lettings Initiatives already implemented were well received by those communities where they were used. There was also agreement that we should continue to build on what we have learnt when developing our new Community Needs Initiatives (the successors to the Local Lettings Initiatives). We have looked at how we can give greater weighting to community needs as part of mainstream allocations processes. We are also developing a new Community Needs Assessment model so that we can identify what the actual needs of the community are, and how our housing provision can help to meet it.
The majority of people at the seminar agreed that there needed to be a method of prioritising particular communities’ needs in certain areas where we can show that the usual allocations system could not reasonably be expected to meet them. We are very pleased with the backing we received on the day for our proposed Community Needs Initiatives and are now actively developing these in pilot areas.
If you would like to know more, please contact either Helen Barton (Housing and Communities Director: helen.barton@albynhousing.org.uk) or Lucy Fraser (Community Involvement Officer: lucy.Fraser@albynhousing.org.uk), or telephone our Invergordon office on 01349 852978.
contact us
t 01349 852978
e send email
98-100 High Street,
Invergordon, Ross-shire IV18 0DL
tel 01349 852978 | fax 01349 853859 | email office@albynhousing.org.uk
A Scottish Charity: SC027123 | Register of Scottish Landlords: 64 | Register of Friendly Societies: 1776R (S)
Website by (External) Pelican Design Consultants | Powered by (External) Sitekit CMS