Investing in your community - Have your say on options for next year Consultation on rent levels 2020/21
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Better homes, better lives Investing in your community Have your say on options for next year Consultation on rent levels 2020/21
Glasgow Housing Association
Listening to you,
and responding
Thanks to all of you who have given us Proposals for next year’s rents
feedback on services in your community over We set out three options for next year’s rent
the past year. levels, explaining how each option would
affect the improvements we could carry out
By listening to you and understanding in your area as well as the wider services and
what’s important, we’re able to invest in your support to tenants.
priorities and make sure our services are right
for you. Shaped by focus groups
The booklet has been shaped by tenants’
Based on what you told us, we’ve continued to feedback from 20 focus groups held as part
invest in our repairs service, upgrade kitchens, of our consultation on rents for 2020/21.
bathrooms and heating systems, and improve
neighbourhoods. You can read more about Have your say
this on page 4. Please take time to look at the options on
page 8 and have your say on rent levels for
Tenants have again told us they want us to 2020/21. You can find out how to give your
keep investing in homes and neighbourhoods. views on page 11.
They have also told us the repairs service is
the most important service for them.
This booklet looks at how we can continue
investing in homes and neighbourhoods,
maintain and further improve the repairs
service and keep providing all the other
services which support our tenants and their
families.
What’s inside?
3 What tenants tell us
4 What you helped deliver last year
6 How your rent was spent last year
7 Challenges for the year ahead
8 Your choices, have your say
10 Ways we can save you money
11 How to make your voice heard
2Rent Consultation 2020/21
What tenants tell us
At GHA we want to deliver what tenants tell us Tenants have consistently told us that:
is important to them.
GHA should continue with improvements to
homes like new kitchens and bathrooms;
We engage with tenants in lots of ways
including through focus groups, local we should look at more investment inside
community events, customer panels, surveys, homes;
social media and conversations with housing
helping communities stay safe is important;
officers. We listen to all the feedback and use
it to shape what we do and the services we we should continue to work on keeping
deliver. neighbourhoods clean and tidy; and
repairs is the most important service.
We want to keep delivering the improvements
you tell us you want.
3Glasgow Housing Association
What you helped
deliver last year
Last year you helped us deliver a huge range Improving neighbourhoods
of improvements to homes, neighbourhoods Tenants also let us know they wanted us to
and services. This was in line with what we continue to do more to keep neighbourhoods
set out in our five-year plan Investing in our safe, clean and tidy. Wheatley’s Community
Futures, which was shaped by tenants’ views, Improvement Partnership continued to work
and the local plans you also helped develop. with GHA communities to tackle anti-social
You can see these plans at www.gha.org.uk behaviour, crime and fire safety.
Here are some of the things delivered last
year.
Improvements to homes
Tenants told us how much they want to
see continued investment in homes and
communities. We invested £48.2m in our
tenants’ homes and communities including a
£48.2M
new district heating system, new lifts in multi- invested in our tenants’ homes
storeys and improving fire safety.
New homes
Tenants told us they wanted to see more
affordable homes for rent. GHA built 342 new
homes over the year - 197 for social rent for
social rent and 145 for mid-market rent. 342
new homes built over the year
4Rent Consultation 2020/21
Repairs service
We continued our mission to improve our
repairs and maintenance service. We were
delighted that tenant satisfaction with the
service remained at 94% for the second
year in a row. We also kept 100% of repairs
appointments and 96% of repairs were
completed right first time.
Supporting our customers
Tenants tell us they value the range of
wraparound services and support we
provide, particularly as Universal Credit poses
challenges across our communities. Our
services helped tenants with welfare benefits
and money, cut fuel bills, get furniture for their
100%
home, put food on the table and find jobs and of repair appointments kept
training opportunities.
I.D.
JOB
JOBSEEKER
SEEKER
5Glasgow Housing Association
How your rent was
spent last year
Here is the breakdown of how each Investment and maintenance can
pound was spent in 2018/19
include responsive repairs, planned
maintenance and larger scale
improvement work.
Responsive repairs:
boilers and heating;
showers and taps;
lighting;
controlled entry doors; and
much more.
59% Investment and maintenance Planned repairs:
23% Staffing and administration
14% Funding new homes lift maintenance;
4% Activities supporting communities gutters;
fencing and paths;
close painting; and
stair lighting renewal.
Improvement projects:
roofs and wall insulation;
kitchens and bathrooms;
new windows and doors;
new lifts; and
environmental improvements.
Adaptations:
handrails; and
level access showers.
6Rent Consultation 2020/21
Challenges for
the year ahead
Every year we work hard to become more How we compare with others
efficient and deliver the best value for money
we can. But like most social landlords we Lower than average rents
face challenges such as rising inflation which GHA rents are 2% lower than the
pushes up the costs of goods and services. average for social landlords in Scotland
and in line with other Glasgow
We also want to be able to keep delivering landlords.
improvements to homes and communities
2 %
which tenants have told us they want and to
improve important services, such as repairs,
which is one of our largest costs.
Traditionally rents have gone up by the Retail
Price Index (RPI) plus 1%. Based on the
August rate of RPI of 2.6%, that would mean
an increase of 3.6%. However, we have been Lower operating costs
working hard to reduce costs in recent years Our operating costs per home are
with our management costs now lower than below the Scottish median.
the Scottish and UK averages. This means the
rate of increase needed to keep delivering all
our services, taking into account rising costs,
is 3.4%.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction with GHA remains
high at 90%.
90 %
7Glasgow Housing Association
Your choices,
have your say
Here we set out a number of 1. Increase rents by 3.4%
options for proposed rent levels Increasing rents by 3.4% would mean we
could keep delivering all the services we
together with what these options provide to you and your family, carry out
would mean for services and all investment work already planned for
improvements. homes, keep communities clean and safe
and provide a range of support for tenants
who need it. We would also continue to offer
24/7 customer service and carry out further
improvements around fire safety which will be
required by law.
£86.27 3.4%
GHA average weekly rent Would enable us to deliver all
services and planned work.
Average weekly rent would go up
by £2.93 per week.
8Rent Consultation 2020/21
2. Increase rents by 3.9% 3. Increase rents by 4.4%
Increasing rents by 3.9% would mean we Increasing rents by 4.4% would mean we
could keep delivering services and all the could keep delivering services and all the
investment work already planned. In addition investment work already planned. In addition
we would also be able to carry out further we would also be able to carry out a much
improvements to homes and neighbourhoods. wider range of the additional improvements
These improvements would be based on outlined in option 2 in more homes.
what tenants tell us are priorities. They could
include: Giving your views
In the attached survey, you can tell us which
new doors;
option you support and what your priorities
new floorboards and skirtings; for investment would be. The survey also
gives you an option to let us know if you don’t
better lighting or paving round homes;
agree with any of the options. Our Board
upgrades to backcourts and bin stores; and would take account of this, together with
the need to continue delivering services and
anything else tenants thought was a
improvements, before making a final decision
priority.
on rent levels.
If option 2 or 3 went ahead, we would gather
tenants’ views on their priorities for additional
3.9% investment. Our Board will listen to that
feedback before deciding how the funding
is spent.
Would enable more improvements
based on tenants’ priorities.
4.4%
Average weekly rent would go up
by £3.36 per week (an additional
43p per week on option 1).
Would enable a much wider range
of additional improvements.
Average weekly rent would go up
by £3.80 per week (an additional
87p per week on option 1).
9Glasgow Housing Association
Ways we can
save you money
Keeping on top of bills and running a home EatWell
can be hard. But don’t worry, we can help you Struggling to put food on the table? EatWell
save money and keep a roof over your head. supports tenants who face real hardship and
who may be forced to turn to food banks.
Check out the many ways we can help tenants More than 1000 tenants across Wheatley
save money: Group got support from EatWell last year.
MySavings Welfare advice
Tenants who sign up for an online account Our welfare benefits advice team helped
can enjoy savings of up to 10% on everyday tenants across Wheatley Group claim more
shopping bills. Register for MySavings and get than £8.1m last year in benefits and tax
money off everything from food and clothes credits they were due. We can help you too.
to cinema tickets, gym membership and
takeaways. Universal Credit advice
We help tenants make a Universal Credit claim
Fuel advisors and offer support until the money comes in.
Worried about rising gas and electricity prices? We also help tenants get online, set up an
Don’t stress. Our fuel advice service helps email address, manage money and open a
tenants get on to the lowest tariffs, arrange bank account.
low-cost repayments and, in some cases, get
debts written off. Last year tenants across Budget planner
Wheatley Group saved more than £500,000 Do you know how much it costs to run your
on their energy bills. home? How much is left over after paying
rent? Our household budget planner can help.
Home Comforts
Buying furniture can be expensive. Our Home Work and training
Comforts scheme helps make a house feel Want to apply for work, but struggle to fill
like a home – without spending a penny. In in online forms or write a CV? We can help
2018/19, we recycled 2981 pieces of unwanted you get ready for work. We also have great
furniture and passed them to tenants across training and job opportunities for people of
Wheatley Group who needed extra help. all ages. In 2018/19, Wheatley Group created
788 jobs, apprenticeships and training
opportunities.
10Rent Consultation 2020/21
How to make
your voice heard
You can have a say on rent levels for next year What happens next?
by completing our online form. But that’s not We will collect all the views from the survey,
the only way to make your voice heard. the community events and the other
conversations with tenants.
You can also:
The GHA Board will consider all the feedback
Visit www.gha.org.uk/consultations
before making a final decision on rent levels
to fill in the form online
for 2020/21.
Email us at talk@gha.org.uk
We will let you know the results of the
Have a chat with your housing officer
consultation and the final decisions made
with your feedback
about spending priorities and rent levels on
Come along to one of our community events our website www.gha.org.uk and in your
– see www.gha.org.uk for details. magazine ‘the Key’. We’ll also report on the
progress of the work carried out through the
year.
We will let you know what your new rent for
2020/21 will be by letter. Your new rent will
be due from April 2020 onwards.
11Wheatley Group, Wheatley House, 25 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, G1 1HL www.wheatley-group.com
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