Providing high quality, affordable housing and meeting the social, educational and recreational needs of our tenants through a programme of community activities.

Development

The Development Section runs the Co-operative's development programme on a day to day basis. This covers everything from major improvement work to smaller projects, with a variety of different funding sources.

The section has a Senior Development Officer, a Development Assistant and a Clerk of Works. The Development Sub Committee makes decisions on all development matters, including policies and procedures, with the overall priorities being agreed by the Management Committee.

The main role of the staff is to make sure that improvement work to the flats is done as quickly as possible. This means making sure there is funding, appointing consultants, appointing contractors to carry out the work, making sure all safety and legal requirements are met, making sure all contracts run smoothly with as little inconvenience to tenants as possible, providing information and making sure the Co-operative gets value for money.

Committee, tenants and staff are all involved in the process to make sure any problems are sorted out quickly.

Tenant Participation and Consultation

The Co-operative wants tenant involvement and control in improvement work, to make sure your views and wishes are taken into account as far as possible, and to make sure you are satisfied with the work carried out.

A participation plan is put in place for each project and by:

• providing good quality information on proposals and choices,
• holding meetings and open days,
• making sure everyone is kept up to date on progress and items coming up,
• providing newsletters and information sheets all through the work,
• carrying out opinion surveys when the work is finished.

The Co-operative gets an overall picture from the tenants and learns lessons for future work.

Consultants

Most improvement work needs specialist input, which means appointing consultants. The kind of consultant depends on the work proposed, but a team is usually made up from the following:

Architect; Quantity Surveyor, Planning Supervisor; Structural Engineer; Mechanical and Electrical Engineer; Landscape Architect.

These are the people who are employed to provide their expertise to the Co-operative so we can make progress. They work along with staff, committee and tenants to come up with design proposals, which meet all of the Co-operative's needs.

The Development Sub Committee appoint the consultants needed, following a very rigorous procedure, with every step being recorded, to make sure the best people for the job are appointed and that we get the best value for money.

Contracts

When all the consultation and the full design are complete, the work is issued to contractors on an approved list for competitive pricing. The Development Sub Committee decide which companies are put on the list after considering detailed information on each company proposed. The contractor who submits the lowest price is generally appointed.

We make sure we get value for money by getting competitive quotes for all of this type of work.

During a contract, the Development Assistant will take the lead with arranging access to flats, helping tenants with any special needs, dealing with any defects, and general problem solving during the work.

If a contract includes internal work to your flat, a visit called a march-in will be made to look at any non-standard fittings or layouts, the general condition of the flat, and to give you more detailed information.

This also gives you the opportunity to raise anything that might be a particular problem. Staff will do their best to sort out problems as quickly as possible.

All the way through work being carried out, staff are available should you have any problems or enquiries.

Funding

Making sure that money is available for improvement work is a very important part of the work of Development staff.

Major work is mostly funded by Housing Association Grant from Communities Scotland, with additional private loan finance for some works.

Applying for Housing Association Grant involves making a bid for funding every year, which is the basis of negotiation. The outcome of funding made available depends on the level of funding made available by the Government.

Funding for some other work has been found from other funding sources such as the National Lotteries Charities Board.

Aids and Adaptations

The Co-operative will help tenants stay in their homes wherever possible. If you, or a member of your family, has an illness or a disability which is causing difficulty for you in your home, help may be available.

Aids are temporary, and can be removed if you no longer need them, or if you move. Things like grab rails, bath aids, toilet frames and kitchen aids are supplied by South Lanarkshire Council Social Work Department.

Adaptations are permanent changes to the layout or fixtures of the building and the Co-operative may be able to arrange for this work to be carried out, depending on funding.

If you, or a member of you family would benefit from this kind of work, please contact your Housing Officer who will make a referral to South Lanarkshire Council Occupational Therapy for an assessment.

The Occupational Therapist will then tell us what work needs done to improve your use of your home.

Work is carried out in order of the priority given to it by the Occupational Therapist and when funding is available.