About our Customer Committee

Trent & Dove is supported by a Customer Committee, whose members are Trent & Dove customers. The committee takes customers’ views into account to shape and continuously improve the homes and services that Trent & Dove provides and the community investments it makes. 

Trent & Dove also has an  Executive Team and a Board that are responsible for the organisation's day-to-day running.

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Rolf Levesley | Non Executive Director member

Rolf Levesley

Why is social housing so important?

I have a strong social view that we’re failing as a country. We're not adequately housing enough people. The Government made a massive mistake when it sold off its council houses in the 1980s. Some people never manage to buy their own homes, and everybody should have a safe place to live.

What sets Trent & Dove apart from other housing organisations?

The strength of the community work is very much part of our brand such as the community-based programmes, the Warm Spaces cafes, and the Coffee Connect van. Trent & Dove does it well. We have also quickly embraced the customer voice, putting a lot of resources into building meaningful customer relations because if we have proper engagement with our customers, we get information from them that we need to shape our services and make them more effective.

What is the most important part of the Customer Committee?

It is encouraging the Customer Committee to feel comfortable enough to tell us what they think and what the community thinks. It is capturing their views coming to us and they can transmit it to the customers

I wanted to be on the Committee because I wanted to find out what our customer base thinks about our work, and it is really important to involve them in scrutiny.

What is your proudest achievement on the Board or the Customer Committee?

Being involved in getting the Customer Committee going. I'm a bit of a voice on the Committee for maintaining our community programme spend. It is discretionary spend, so we have to repair leaky taps and fix roofs, but we don’t have to do any of the community programmes unless we want to, and we do that. I'm passionate that, with the financial and other constraints we have, we maintain that.

We also have a very good development programme. It is very valuable to provide people with somewhere to live.

What are your priorities within Trent & Dove?
Maintain the development programme in accordance with our strategy in terms of numbers and locations, control the rents as there is always a balance with rents as not everyone can pay, and continue the community programme.

Do you have a particular philosophy you work by?
‘ We should treat other people as you wish them to treat you’.

It is about the glue which makes it all work. Organisations that have the good fortune to influence the way society is structured should do something for the people who are falling out the bottom end. Trent & Dove does this with passion and ensures our customers and colleagues are well cared for.

Rolf Leavesley is also a Board member

The Customer Committee’s purpose is to:

1. To provide a diverse cross-section of views, insight and opinion to the board from a customer perspective to:

a) Influence the board’s decision-making on key customer-related issues relating to the organisation’s responsibilities as a landlord or its commitment to communities (“Place-shaping”)
b) Enable the customer voice to shape and, and continuously improve, the homes and services that Trent & Dove provides and the community investments it makes. 
 

2. To scrutinise operational service delivery to ensure that quality, performance and impact is in line with:

a) The expectations set by the board
b) The organisation’s customer service commitments.
 

3. To provide assurance to the board on the impact and operation of Trent & Dove’s community support and investment activities, including:

a) Approving the criteria for awarding community grants and priorities for funding
b) Providing assurance to the board that Value for Money and Social Return on Investment is being achieved as a result of community initiatives, activities and grants.
 

4. To provide assurance to the board that there are effective mechanisms in place:

a) For the organisation to gather and analyse customer opinion and insight on key customer-related issues
b) For the organisation to take customers’ views into account in a meaningful way before making decisions on important matters which affect them
c) For the organisation to respond to customer views and feedback and implement continuous improvement actions
d) To enable the quality of homes and services provided by T&D to be continuously improved in response to customer insight and feedback;
e) to effectively communicate to customers how their views and insight have influenced Trent & Dove’s actions and decision-making.