Welcome from David Ripley

I’ve worked in housing nearly all my life, most recently at Thirteen Housing, a similar sized Housing Association, where I worked to deliver excellent services that our customers could trust.

I don’t think we can do a good job without listening to you and acting on what you say. My predecessor, Sue Shirt, felt the same and I’m glad to be picking up a service that already has customer voice at the heart.

Since I started at the beginning of May, my priority has been getting to know our communities.

I’ve visited schemes such as Marton Heights, Dormer Court, Cookridge House, Westdeane Court and Swindon Foyer. I have further visits planned throughout the year, including many of our supported and retirement living schemes, plus many more general needs schemes. On these visits, I've seen some of the opportunities and challenges we are facing as well as heard firsthand from customers about what it feels like to be a Stonewater and Mount Green customer.

The discussions with customers were great and showed me the good and the indifferent, as well as the impact that this has on people's lives. I was very taken by one customer, where we needed to do better, and their feedback was extremely valuable. The main things I've been learning from customers are:

• When we’re good, we’re fabulous, and we need to be fabulous more often.
• When a customer sees or speaks to a colleague, we need to keep acting with great empathy and by listening.
• We must make life easier for everyone, whether they are contacting us for the first time or any other time after that. Every moment matters.
• Community matters, people matter and we mustn’t lose sight of this.

I know that customers have told us we need to improve our communication and consistency of services. Everything we are doing in the background is to ensure this happens and I’m pleased to see our engaged customers, including the Scrutiny Panel, Customer Complaints Learning Panel and Ageing Well Board have been looking at these areas. We will continue working alongside them to embed their great recommendations to make sure you can get the information and services you need, when you need them.

I’m sure you’ll be wondering what I’ll be working on in the coming months and how that impacts you. I’ll be focusing on our Customer Strategy, which sets out what we’re going to do in the next few years and how we’re going to do it well for you. I want to make sure you have a say in this, so keep an eye out on the hubb and in the customer newsletter for ways you can help me to do this.