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Bassetlaw District Council e-Newsletter

Rents to rise by 2.7% from April

Rents for homes owned and operated by Bassetlaw District Council will rise in line with the Government’s National Social Rent Policy, which applies to all social housing providers across England.

At a meeting of Cabinet on Tuesday 7^th January 2025, Councillors approved a recommendation of a rent increase of 2.7% for its 6,534 Council homes to help meet demand for services and repairs, a new Decent Homes Standard and further investment in tenants’ homes.

Every penny received from tenants rent helps fund housing services. Last year over 12 million pounds was re-invested into work including major refurbishment at the Council’s Independent Living Schemes in Worksop and Harworth and Bircotes, the Green Doctors Scheme targeting damp and mould in tenants’ homes and improving the poorest energy performing properties.

Rents are set to rise from 1st April 2025 with the lowest change in rent being an increase of £1.58 per week for a small property and the highest an increase of £3.41 per week for a larger property.

As a comparison, the average rent for a typical two bed property owned and managed by Bassetlaw District Council per month will be £406.33, this compares to an average private rent per month of £589*

The majority of tenants (70%) will be less affected as housing benefits or Universal Credit will rise in line with these increases.

All tenants will receive formal confirmation of their new rent via letter at the beginning of March.

Donna joins the team

We are very excited to introduce you to the latest member of our Tenant and Resident Engagement Team, Donna-Marie Pressley.

"Hi, my name is Donna-Marie Pressley, and I’m the new Tenant and Resident Engagement Officer for Bassetlaw District Council.

I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you a little about my background and what led me to Bassetlaw.

After working for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue for a number of years, I retrained and worked as a Nurse. Following this, I had a complete change in direction and I started working in employability, focusing on work and health programmes, and then went on to lead these projects for the Bassetlaw area. However, having been made redundant recently, I felt that working for the Housing Team at Bassetlaw was a great opportunity for me to use all my previous skills and learn some new ones.

I’ve only been here a couple of weeks and I’ve already been made to feel very welcome by my new colleagues and the few tenants I’ve met. I’m looking forward to this new challenge and working with people, tenants and housing colleagues across the district on the many projects that are taking place."

Exciting new ways to get involved During January and February we will be hosting four public sessions to talk about some exciting new roles that tenants can volunteer for which will help to scrutinise housing services and play an influential role in your community. A number of these roles can be done outside of normal working hours, there is opportunity for the roles to be flexible and we offer reimbursements for travel and childcare costs. These roles include: Tenant Representative for Repairs – You will be involved with the review and implementation of the new Repairs Policy and Strategy. Scrutiny Panel Member – This panel identifies areas of the Council they believe would benefit from undergoing a level of scrutiny and conduct a review. Tenant Voids Inspector – This role will conduct inspections of empty properties that have been prepared and assessed as ready to let. Tenant Representative for Compliance – Representatives will be involved in areas of Compliance that impact tenant’s homes. Neighbourhood Champion – help support your community by reporting issues such as overgrown hedges and grassed areas, fly-tipping, issues with anti-social behaviour and any other issues affecting the wider community. Customer Experience Group – You will help review recently resolved complaints, with the aim to take learning from complaints, including issues raised by complaints and how they were handled. Tenant Steering Group – You will work with the Tenant and Resident Engagement Team to review the Tenant Engagement Strategy and highlight aims have been achieved, whether they are ongoing and if further aims need to be added to the following year’s strategy. Contract Inspector – In this role you will follow-up on work completed by contractors, take photos and confirm whether work has been completed to the correct standard. Mystery shopper – You will provide feedback on the Council’s services and highlight positive working practices and where services need to be improved.   If any of these volunteer roles interest you, please come to one of the following events to find out more: Retford - Monday 27th January 2025, 10.30am to 12.30pm, Retford Town Hall, Ball Room Harworth and Bircotes - Friday 31st January 2025, 10.30am to 12.30pm, Devonshire Road Community Centre, Worksop - Monday 3rd February 2025, 10.30am to 12.30pm, Worksop Town Hall, Online - Wednesday 5th February 2025, 5.30pm to 6.30pm, on Microsoft Teams To confirm your interest in an event, please email Tenant.Engagement@bassetlaw.gov.uk or call 01909 533 263.

Even more opportunities to talk

Over the next 12 months, there’ll be even more opportunities to meet our Tenant Engagement Team as they will be hosting tenant focussed events across Bassetlaw.

This includes more formal meetings such as the Tenant Conference and Tenant Forums, right through to informal drop-in sessions where you can talk to us about anything relating to your tenancy, your home and your community.

Please check out our new events page where you’ll find all the details of our latest meetings. This includes our existing regular family hub sessions in Harworth and Bircotes, Manton and Hallcroft, as well as new venues like Rhodesia and Tuxford:

Tuxford coffee morning at The Beeches Community Centre, on Wednesday 29^th January, between 10.30am and 12noon.

Rhodesia drop-in session at the Village Hall on Friday 21^st January, between 3pm and 4.30pm;

Please go to our new events page to find a meeting close to you!

Healthy Neighbourhood Inspections

Healthy Neighbourhood Inspections help us to look for things that will improve your communities, such as removing graffiti, tackling overgrown gardens, and resolving parking issues.

Each area has at least one inspection per year, and they are carried out by your Housing Officer. People from other council departments, Nottinghamshire Police and other agencies may also attend, so that specific problems can be addressed.

We want tenants to be part of these inspections, even if it is just for your street or to raise an individual issue, after all it is your estate, and nobody knows it better than you.

Please join us at one of the inspections that take place in February 2025: 

We're Hiring

Bassetlaw District Council is hiring for the positions in its housing team and across the council. Here are just some of the positions available: