our service standards

we will:

• Ensure that information we provide to you is clear, concise, and jargon-free
• Provide information that is easily accessible
• Offer support to ensure you understand the information we give you
• Provide a range of methods for you to contact us
• Work with you to keep our records of your contact details up to date to enable us to reach you
• Continue to develop our digital means of communication whilst catering for customers with other requirements.

we expect you to:

• Behave in a way that shows respect towards our employees
• Let us know when things go wrong or when they go well so that we can use this knowledge to improve services
• Keep us informed of changes to your contact details e.g. phone number/s, e-mail address, or your circumstances to help us provide the appropriate service for you.

we will:

• Listen to your concerns and be honest, fair and impartial when dealing with your complaint
• Investigate your complaint in a timely manner and regularly keep you updated on its progress
• Learn from our mistakes using knowledge gained with dealing with complaints, to help improve our services.

we expect you to:

• Let us know if something goes wrong so we can put it right
• Specify the grounds of a complaint and co-operate with the investigation process
• Behave in a way that shows respect towards our employees – believe housing has zero tolerance to violence and abusive behaviour.

we will:

• Offer support to help you find a home; for example, helping you with application forms and the bidding process
• Register your application in a timely manner so that you can begin bidding for properties as soon as possible
• Provide you with all the information you need to make your tenancy a success when signing up to your home
• Ensure all properties we let are in a safe, clean and good condition
• Let you know when you have been successful in finding a home and give you regular updates on when we expect your home to be ready for you.

we expect you to:

• Provide us with relevant and accurate information when applying for a home
• Inform us of any changes to your housing needs whilst you are in the process of applying for a home.

we will:

• Provide a convenient way for you to pay your rent
• Offer support for anyone who experiences difficulties with paying their rent; for example, helping you apply for welfare benefits, offering money and debt advice and employability services
• Take prompt action should your rent account fall into arrears
• Undertake recovery action when all other avenues of support have been exhausted.

we expect you to:

• Pay your rent on time and contact us in the event you feel unable to do so
• Work with us to clear your account should you fall into arrears.

we will:

• Regularly inspect your neighbourhood to identify and address any issues
• Work in collaboration with partner agencies to improve the appearance of your neighbourhood
• Encourage all customers to take pride in their neighbourhood
• Feedback the outcomes of issues that have been raised in your neighbourhood
• Deal with incidents of antisocial behaviour in a timely and effective manner, and work with partner agencies to come up with solutions
• Keep you informed about the progress of your antisocial behaviour case and support you throughout the process
• Pursue tenancy breaches and work to resolve them with partner agencies.

we expect you to:

• Let us know of any issues you are experiencing in your neighbourhood
• Respect your neighbours and behave in a way that will not cause distress or offence
• Keep your home and garden tidy and in good repair
• Report any incidents of antisocial behaviour to us and/or to other agencies (e.g. police).

we will:

• Provide you with a convenient way to report your repair
• Offer flexible appointments to carry out your repair
• Be polite and respectful when carrying out work in your home
• Where possible, carry out your repair on the first visit
• Make you aware when we are unable to complete your repair at first visit and keep you updated on progress
• Undertake a regular programme of improvements and give you effective advanced notice of when this work will take place
• Ensure that our employees have the relevant up to date skills, safety equipment and training
• Ensure that our contract partners carry out work to the standards we expect.

we expect you to:

• Inform us of any repairs that need doing to your home
• Give our employees access to your property to carry out any necessary work, including your annual safety checks
• Treat our staff and contractors fairly, politely and with respect.

we will:

• Regularly inspect your neighbourhood to identify and address any issues
• Work in collaboration with partner agencies to improve the appearance of your neighbourhood
• Encourage all customers to take pride in their neighbourhood
• Feedback the outcomes of issues that have been raised in your neighbourhood
• Deal with incidents of antisocial behaviour in a timely and effective manner, and work with partner agencies to come up with solutions
• Keep you informed about the progress of your antisocial behaviour case and support you throughout the process
• Pursue tenancy breaches and work to resolve them with partner agencies.

we expect you to:

• Let us know of any issues you are experiencing in your neighbourhood that affect your safety in your home
• Respect your neighbours and behave in a way that will not cause distress or offence
• Keep your home and garden tidy and in good repair
• Report any incidents of antisocial behaviour to us and/or to other agencies (e.g. police).

we will:

• Identify customers who require additional support and provide a variety of measures tailored to their needs
• Work in collaboration with other partner agencies to support our customers
• Support you to live independently by providing a housing association disabled adaptations service
• Support victims of domestic abuse and hate crime and work with partner agencies to try to resolve their issues
• Provide information to assist you in managing your tenancy
• We will endeavour to assist our tenants who have been affected by emergency situations involving their homes, e.g. housefires/floods.

we expect you to:

• Let us know if you are experiencing difficulties in managing your tenancy
• Work with our teams, if they are assigned to you, should the need arise.

we will:

• Provide opportunities for you to engage with us, including an annual satisfaction survey and regular customer surveys. And let you know on a regular basis of how customer engagement has improved services
• Offer and promote a grant scheme so customers can apply for funding to support community projects
• Feedback on projects we are supporting with community funding
• Continue to improve our engagement methods to suit all our customers.

we expect you to:

• Be open and honest
• Listen to and be open to the views of others.

we will:

• Develop 1,250 homes over the five-year period 2021-26
• 92% of our new-build properties will be for affordable rent or affordable home ownership
• All new-build properties earmarked for older persons will have wet rooms and level access inside the home
• All our new-build properties will be constructed within a minimum of 85% of the national design space standards.

In return, we expect that you to keep to all terms within your tenancy agreement (if you are successful in being granted a tenancy).