Welcome to my latest blog as Chair of Community Gateway’s Board, following our Board meeting in May.
We heard from our Chief Executive, Rob Wakefield, who updated us on the current regulatory inspection. This is a standard process that every registered social housing provider goes through every four years, to check the overall health of the organisation alongside the quality of service we provide. CGA has previously achieved the highest possible ratings for Governance and Financial Viability, and this time we are also being assessed against the new Consumer Standards for the first time since their introduction in 2024.
After submitting our evidence and taking part in a range of meetings with the Executive Leadership team, selected Board members and our tenant committee Gateway Central, we are expecting the result to be published by the end of July at the latest.
As usual, we received our quarterly Business Assurance update, which gives us a full picture of CGA’s performance – including financial management, risk, and health and safety compliance. Our tenant committee, Gateway Central, recently reviewed these key performance indicators too. This is vital in helping us understand where we are doing well and where we can improve. Receiving these reports at Board level gives us extra assurance and the opportunity to challenge and learn.
We also heard from our Service Improvement Manager, who gave an update on what our customer insight is telling us. These details are updated continuously, via a range of feedback channels and provides us with valuable information on learnings from complaints and compliments, combined with customer satisfaction survey results and scrutiny recommendations from tenants.
An update on delivery of our Treasury Strategy was presented, ensuring that CGA continues to manage its finances responsibly and is able to deliver on its priorities.
We also received a half-yearly update on ‘Asset Management’, which covered key areas like repairs, maintenance and planned investment, including volumes of work and budgeted spend.
In addition to maintaining existing homes, CGA also continue to build new ones. At the May meeting, the Board approved plans for 86 new homes to be completed between 2026 and 2028. These form part of CGA’s wider development programme as detailed in the 2024 – 2030 Corporate Plan.
We said thank you to Sara Murphy as her term on the Board came to an end and welcomed Stuart Lynch as our new Tenant Board Member. Stuart brings a fantastic range of skills and experience, and we are looking forward to working with him.
And finally, a date for your diary – our Annual General Meeting will take place on Saturday 13th September. We will take a look back over the last year and our plans for the coming year. There is also a wide range of fun activities, food and drink, lots of prizes and giveaways and opportunity to meet teams and ask questions. For more information and to register click here.
After what has been a bright few months, I hope you have had plenty of chances to enjoy the lighter evenings and warmer days. I will be back in August with more updates following our next Board meeting at the end of July. Thanks for reading.
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