As we head towards the festive season, I’d like to wish you a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year. If you’ve taken annual leave, I hope you enjoy the jolly season with your family / friends and have a well-deserved break. If you are working over the holidays – thank you for keeping our vital services running for our residents.
As you know this year, we’ve focussed on our Housing Transformation Programme, and how we are helping improve our services for residents.
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Over the course of the year, we have taken some fantastic steps forward. But as 2023 comes towards a close, it’s always nice to reflect on some key achievements:
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Workstream 1 – Repairs and Caretaking
- Working with MSPS we’ve reduced our outstanding historic repairs. In March there were 1493 and at the end of November there’s 362.
- Published our new Caretaking and Grounds Maintenance service standards and introduced our pilot Caretaking scheme on two of our estates.
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Workstream 2 – Regulatory Reforms
- Appointed HQN to support and help us prepare for compliance with new Social Housing Regulations
- Launched our dedicated complaints team, and performance this year on stage 1 complaints has improved to 86% responded to on time.
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Workstream 5 – Reshaping Homelessness Support
- Launched our new Housing Sustainment Team at Leyton Family Hub.
- Reintroduced our face-to-face appointments at Leyton Library.
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Workstream 7 – Housing Digital Programme
- Went live with the NEC electronic document management system in the Tenancy Management team.
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Workstream 8 – Culture
- Launched our Housing Staff Induction programme.
I’d like to thank all for your hard work, efforts and commitment. We would not have been able to achieve any of this without you.
Finally, looking towards 2024 with a couple of dates for your diary:
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Wednesday 17 January from 9:15am - we’ll be hosting our next Housing Staff Briefing.
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Thursday 8 February from 1pm – we’ll be hosting our next Housing staff induction session at Cedar Wood House.
If you haven’t received these invites – please email Rachael Bowey or Tara Walsh, Leadership Support Assistants, who'll forward them on to you.
Best wishes
Jane
Cedar Wood House will be closed from 6:00pm on Friday 22 December until 8:00am on Tuesday 2 January. If you have not taken annual leave during this time (27 – 29 December), please either work from home or visit the Town Hall where you will be most welcome. |
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Please find the Leyton Library opening times below:
- Wednesday 27 December - closed
- Thursday 28 until 30 December - open
- Tuesday 2 January - open.
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Before we close for the festivities, please can you…
- Check your desk and surrounding areas in CWH to ensure it is left in a clean and tidy manner. Remember we operate in a clear desk policy.
- Tidy up and remove any food or anything perishable in the office (don’t forget the fridge). In our absence, while the building is locked, we do not want to encourage any pests.
If there’s anything you need to raise with facilities about these arrangements, please let your line manager know.
In preparation for the Social Housing Regulation Bill, we commissioned the Housing Quality Network (HQN) to support us get ready for the new regulatory regime.
In June they delivered a briefing session for staff covering the new legislation. Among other things, the new legislation will reinstate housing inspections, publish a new set of key performance indicators, and implement redesigned and expanded consumer rules.
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As part of the new Regulatory Regime for Social Housing the government is introducing a new set of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) to help residents scrutinise their landlord’s performance. In April 2023, we instructed KWest, a market research organisation to survey tenants’ views, so far, they have completed three out of the four surveys this financial year.
Taken from our Resident News magazine, here are some examples of our performance against the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures for the last business year (2022-2023).
The Housing Transformation Programme (HTP) is pleased to be able to offer some training courses as part of a pilot training programme for housing staff. |
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In January 2024, we have two training courses delivered virtually by HQN. If you are interested in either course, please use the booking form. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. If demand is high, we may be able to run the courses more than once.
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Tuesday 23 January from 10am - Understanding our residents and their experiences
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Audience – Frontline staff and those in resident facing roles.
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Agenda – the importance of resident experience, and the key elements of great customer experience.
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Tuesday 30 January from 10am – Managing a dispersed team
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Audience – Team leaders or those with line management responsibilities
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Agenda – since the pandemic organisations and employees have embraced the transition to remote working, and while there are clear advantages to this, there can be some challenges too. Find out how you can keep your team communicating, collaborating and connecting.
For more information or any questions please email Elinor Green, NDGP Graduate Management Trainee.
On Friday 15 December Waltham Forest was officially recognised as a Borough of Sanctuary.
This brilliant news goes hand in hand, with our acquisition of 197 new homes at Osier Way, Leyton from the developer Pocket Living. The acquisition forms a critical part of the Council’s Refugee Housing Programme, with 117 of these flats available to house eligible refugee households. Longer term, these homes can be made available for residents in general housing need on the council’s Housing Register list, adding to the supply of much needed council housing in our borough.
Our Tenancy, Place and Assets teams are working hard to ensure our first residents are ready to move in late January 2024.
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Last month marked International Fraud Awareness Week. Throughout the year our Tenancy Officers and the council’s Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) are working together to prevent and detect housing fraud that happens at the expense of the council, borough and the wider community. This is to make sure public funds go to those who genuinely need it. |
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Between April and November 2023, the council has:
- recovered 31 properties where there is an allegation of tenancy fraud,
- 54 properties are awaiting civil legal court action,
- 14 properties are awaiting eviction,
- refused six housing succession applications,
- the CAFT also directly stopped six Right to Buy applications as a result of investigations, which equates to £767,400 in maximum discount savings.
A new partnership between housing association Peabody, the charity Furnishing Futures and ourselves, will see the organisations working in partnership to create professionally designed, fully furnished homes for domestic abuse survivors. |
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Many survivors flee abusive relationships with nothing, worried about the future and potentially facing furniture poverty. With minimal finances, vulnerable families must choose between living without furniture or taking out expensive loans. This scheme will provide safe, affordable, and ready-furnished homes for survivors to move into and rebuild their lives.
Local demand for housing is increasing, and the supply of affordable properties is limited. We know the only way out of the housing crisis is to build more family homes for social rent but until we can do that, we need to increase supply through other means. One way of doing this is working with local Landlords to increase the number of private rented properties available for local households.
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Our Procurement Team has launched their new Private Rental Scheme (PRS) for Landlords offering long-term accommodation solutions to local people in housing need.
Landlords that sign up for the private rental scheme can receive:
- Financial incentives
- Full tenancy checks and tenant finding service
- Free property accreditation
- Landlord insurance
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 Each year local authorities must report the number of rough sleepers on a particular night. This information is then submitted to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to help inform the national statistics of rough sleeping in the UK.
Remember if you are concerned about someone sleeping rough please use StreetLink to connect them to local services.
Forest Connect, our new corporate SharePoint intranet, is coming in a phased approach. Behind the scenes we have been doing a lot of work to transfer all our information over from Forest Hub, the old site to the new site.
Our Housing intranet pages are now live. The site hosts lots of information this includes news, events, induction information, service plans, Speak Up Champions to name a few. As it’s a SharePoint site, it is incredibly clever plus the search functionality is brilliant. Save the link in your favourites and check them out.
This month the council’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) team held their event ‘Making Change Happen’ celebrating all the work done through this innovative approach since it launched in February 2022. Mietta Barling, Housing's Domestic Abuse lead presented at the event.
The work includes:
- facilitating training and supporting local businesses and communities to disrupt misogyny and respond to VAWG.
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- providing advice and casework support to survivors.
- creating a street harassment reporting app.
- working with schools and colleges to prevent and address VAWG and misogyny.
We are committed to making women and girls feel and are safe, and where everyone knows that any form of violence against women and girls is not tolerated in our workplaces, schools, or any parts of our communities.
This month the Temporary Accommodation Resettlement Support Officer (TARSO) team held their second virtual advice session for residents in Temporary Accommodation (TA).
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During the session they covered:
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Cost-of-living advice – shared information on the Warm Home Discount, Social Tariffs, Household Support Funds and further deals and offers such as Community Kitchens.
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Education and employment - the Adult Learning Services (ALS) promoted their range of training options available, including English and Digital skills training courses.
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Health and wellbeing - the ALS also promoted further courses plus we covered volunteering opportunities, such as Legend of the Forest, as well as our Warm Spaces – Community Living rooms.
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Move on advice - Making appropriate use of your bidding – Understanding bidding icons and property descriptions. Other Housing Option – Private rented (Find Your Own Scheme) Shared Ownership.
The next session will be held in March, for more information please contact Shereen Millington, the TARSO Team Manager.
The Housing Digital Programme, part of the Housing Transformation Programme, works on improving our digital services for our residents and tools for staff.
Last month the NEC electronic document management system went live in the Tenancy Management team, and since then they have uploaded 717 documents.
Next area to benefit from this new system will be the Housing Assets Teams, followed by the rest of the Housing service. This new system will be used to store resident facing documents and will ensure staff can access these making it quicker to search, more efficient and secure place to store them.
More information will be coming soon regarding timelines, training and go live dates – but please keep your eyes peeled for when the team contacts you.
If you would like to know more, please contact Rajesh Sharma, Business Analyst in the Housing Digital Programme Team.
Dena Rafati, Housing Strategy and Implementation Officer, will share key policy updates to help keep you informed and updated about issues which could impact the Housing service.
We’ll be holding a virtual policy session on the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill on Tuesday 23 January 2024.
An invite to this session will arrive in due course.
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Passionate about local architecture and design? Nominate a project for a Waltham Forest Design Award!
We want to hear about brilliant buildings and amazing spaces that look great and meet the needs of people who use them like making them safe, environmentally friendly, and inclusive.
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To enter, read the criteria and submit a nomination for a project worthy of a Waltham Forest Design Award on the Let’s Talk website by Friday 5 January 2024.
We know that many residents will continue to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis during the winter. Please check our website for the latest information available to help residents.
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We now have an expanded network of 27 Community Living Rooms across the borough. These are spaces that anyone can drop in and use – to get warm, socialise, get food, and take part in activities.
Many of the spaces will also offer information, support and guidance – e.g. Citizens’ Advice Bureau drop ins, sessions with our Digital Champions, or advice from representatives from the London Renters’ Union.
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To help bring energy bills down, this year we have a Lower Bills Calculator. Residents can put their information into the short form, and it will show them what kind of support they can access to help bring down their energy bills. |
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Some residents will be able to collect free DIY materials to install themselves, and certain households will be eligible for free energy efficient upgrades installed for them.
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