In This Newsletter
Where are Housing this Month?
Summer has arrived!
Housing will be attending a range of events this summer, so come and say 'hello' and ask us that burning question.
Broxtowe Play Days (12pm - 4pm)
RIG 'On the Move'
Join us for our next evening 'RIG on the Move' meeting on Wednesday 26 July at Southfields Court, Off Inham Road, Chilwell, NG9 4GA from 5.30pm - 7pm.
Get the Government download from Housing, Hear from our Housing Operations Manager and Let's talk local: What's happening with the Inham Nook Housing build?
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Independent Living Updates
Independent Living Duty Hub
Independent Living tenants, if you need Independent Living Service Support contact the Duty Hub number on 0115 9173125. It is available Monday to Thursday from 8.30am to 5pm and Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm.
The Duty number are unable to take Housing Repairs requests, but are available for all other Independent Living service and support queries.
Independent Living Surgeries
Where schemes have a communal lounge, Independent Living Coordinators have started doing Housing Surgeries from these lounges. These are not tenant's meetings, but a chance for tenants to speak with their Independent Living Coordinator on a one to one basis in the lounge. The Housing Surgeries dates and times are advertised on scheme noticeboards, so please look out for these.
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Have You Heard of the Housing Ombudsman?
The Housing Ombudsman investigate complaints and resolve disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities), as well as voluntary members (private landlords and letting agents).
Investigating these complaints is a free, independent, and impartial service and this work is funded by annual landlord subscription fees.
The Ombudsman work with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and the Regulator of Social Housing, under a memorandum of understanding, to agree a common approach to collaborative working.
They have been working against a new Complaint Handling Code that has been in place since April 2022. The code makes it easier and fairer on investigating complaints from your landlord. You can watch 'What the Complaint Handling Code' on YouTube and take a of the code read following this link.
We aim to share more around complaints, the Housing Ombudsman and decisions over the next for Housing New bulletins.
Share your view
The Housing Ombudsman urges the sector to tackle new social injustices as it issues call for evidence for next Spotlight report
Share your views to the Housing Ombudsman on your landlords' communication.
The investigation will establish three areas of best practice:
- What it means to be vulnerable in social housing and what is an appropriate response by landlords
- What effective communication looks like and how this could help service better outcomes
- Whether there are areas (either service or demographic) where there are repeated patterns of poor service response.
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Quarter 1 Performance - Repairs
The Housing Business Plan 2023-26 details the projects and activity undertaken by the Housing Department. A suite of Performance Indicators is set out within the Business Plan, which are regularly reported against to assist with action planning, target setting and assessing the current status against critical and key housing related services. Although the Business Plan covers a three-year period it is reviewed and updated annually.
One of the Key Performance Indicators is for the number of reactive repairs appointments made and kept.
Overall for Quarter 1 of this year 97.9% of appointments were kept, which is nearly at the target set of 98%.
During this period 2,338 appointments were made. 54 of these were not kept due to employee sickness, or appointments being rearranged due to emergencies.
The review of the Repairs Team is nearing its completion, with the Repairs Customer Services Team gearing up to taking all repairs related calls in the near future. Recruitment is also on-going to fill a number of Repairs Operative vacancies.
Once the review has been fully implemented, it is hoped that the team can not only maintain this high level of performance, but also bring about improvements across all aspects of the Repairs service.
To see the full suite of Performance Indicators, please visit our web page.
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Be a Good Neighbour
Whilst we understand that people are enjoying the nice weather being out in their gardens, we would like to remind you that whilst doing so you are respectful of your neighbours.
Please be mindful and ensure that you are keeping noise levels down so as not to cause a disturbance.
If you would like to talk to the Neighbourhoods Team about a tenant who is causing noise, then please contact us:
tenancy@broxtowe.gov.uk
0115 917 3400
We’re recruiting for Neighbourhood Champions. Are you interested in?:
- Being a good neighbour
- Helping to improve your neighbourhood
- Sharing neighbourhood feedback
Find out more about our role and how to sign up on our website.
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Housing Jargon - Engagement
Here are a few phrases that our Engagement Team use:
Engagement: What does this actually mean? Well it's a term we use to talk about interaction with our tenants, customers and leaseholders. It is important that we listen and work together to shape our services for the better.
Community Fund: It is a fund to help communities thrive. This could be installing some communal planters in the gardens to running a one day community play event for your neighbourhood.
RIG: Resident Involvement Group. This is daytime group of regular tenants and leaseholders who come together to discuss policies and look at services in-depth. We are looking to change the name to give the group more focus and power.
RIG 'on the move': The Housing team move around the Borough each month to host informal evening meetings about different aspects of housing services and also to hear ideas from local customers.
Are there any more phrases you've heard and want to know what it means? Send us an email at housngengagement@broxtowe.gov.uk
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Threatened with Homelessness?
Everyone should have a roof above their head. So, if you're threatened with homelessness or are homeless or rough sleeping, here are some of the ways the Housing Options Team can support you:
- Assessing your current housing situation and working out what your needs and requirements are
- Advising you on steps to take to prevent your homelessness and stay in your home
- Make referrals to support agencies that we believe could assist you
For more information visit our Housing Options webpage.
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