Spring Newsletter

Meet our new CEO

Design Design our our front front cover cover

Maintenance Update

Ayrshire Housing would like to thank our tenants for their patience and understanding whilst recognising the disappointment that some of you have experienced due to delays in completing our investment programmes.

Over the past 4 years we have continually been faced with external challenges that have had a major impact on our investment programmes. The onset of this was the Covid Pandemic in 2020/21 which led to all investment works being stopped. Then as we moved through into 2022, we were faced with rising costs for labour and materials and limited access to contractors which ultimately led to less improvements being carried out than we had scheduled.

We are still facing many of the challenges of the past few years however, we are committed to investing in our homes and are currently setting out our investment programme for the coming year.

Moving forward, our focus will be on energy efficiency and ensuring homes are wind and watertight, with kitchen and bathroom renewals having less priority.

We will aim to publish details of the investment plan in our Summer Newsletter. We will update tenants as soon as we can if they are part of the 2024/25 programme, with future year updates being published this Summer.

Whilst we complete this work, we regret that we are unable to provide individual updates regarding renewal dates however, we will endeavour to provide updates quarterly through the newsletter.

We would like to inform tenants that CAS Contract Cleaning are taking over our close cleaning contract from 6th May, more detail to follow.

NEW NEW

STARTS STARTS

We welcomed 2 Technical Services Officers late last year, Greg Dunlop (far left) and Stephen Connelly (left). Make sure and say hello if you see them out and about in your estate

After 24 years of service, Jim Whiston, our director retired from Ayrshire Housing in February. Lesley-Anne Junner (right) has joined us as our new Chief Executive Officer I’m sure you will all wish her a warm welcome

Lisa Seivwright (left) joined our Corporate Services Team in February 2024 and will oversee the day to day running of the office. You might see her friendly face within the reception team if you pop into the office!

Meet the team

Name: Samantha Scott

Position: Receptionist

Do you have any pets? A Ragdoll cat called Bleu (right), he’s 2 years old and called Bleu due to his piercing blue eyes.

How Long have you worked in Housing for I’m just about to celebrate my first year.

What was your dream job? Mortician.

What’s your biggest pet peeve? When people don’t say please or thank you.

What is your favourite dessert? Fruit flavoured cheesecake.

What’s the one thing you would take with you on a Desert Island? Water filtration system.

Name: Joanne MacLellan

Position: Housing Officer

What’s the one thing you would take with you on a Desert Island? Mascara! (this was a tough decision between that and lipstick!)

How Long have you worked in Housing for? 30 years

What’s your biggest pet peeve? Leaving the toilet seat up!

What was your dream job? Midwife.

What is your favourite dessert? Vanilla ice cream with crushed up Maltesers.

Do you have any pets? Yes, a Cavapoo called Murphy (right). He is loving but also lazy, but does like the odd 5k! He’s just the best of both worlds.

Rent Consultation

Thank you to everyone who took part in our rent consultation, we value your feedback, and it helps us get a better understanding of the issues affecting our tenants. Feedback helps us to shape our services to meet your needs. Tenants were consulted on an increase of no more than 7%. The results of the consultation were presented to the Board at our January Board Meeting, and it was agreed that an increase of 6% would allow Ayrshire Housing to maintain our current services and provide additional funds to ensure a comprehensive re-investment programme for 2024-25.

Three lucky winners who completed our rent consultation survey won a £50 ASDA E-Gift Voucher, our way of saying thank you for taking the time to share your views

Rent Harmonisation

Late last year we consulted with our tenants about bringing all our rents in line with our policy rent levels This mainly impacted those tenants who were part of the original stock transfer between Scottish Homes and South Ayrshire Homes. Following a robust and emotive consultation 89% of tenants who responded agreed that all rents should be brought in line with policy rents The outcome of the consultation was presented to the Board, and it was agreed that the Ayrshire Housing would implement a rent harmonisation programme over the next few years starting in April 2024. Many of our tenants will not be directly impacted by this however for those tenants who are, a maximum increase of £1.50 a week has been set. If you have any questions or concerns about what this will look like for you, please contact your Housing Officer, or email us at info@ayrshirehousing.org.uk and we will be in touch

Community Update

It has been a busy few months here at Ayrshire Housing! We have been to Girvan to present our Christmas Card competition winners with their prizes and the whole school received a selection box courtesy of our reactive maintenance contractor James Frew. We have had the pleasure of presenting our Good Neighbour Award and we had a great night at our screening of Elf the movie just before Christmas which was courtesy of The Iris.

We have awarded over £5000 in community grants to local groups within our communities, well done to Newton Residents Group, South Ayrshire School Uniform Bank, Vics in The Community, The Iris and South Ayrshire Befriending, all very worthy causes Applications for our community grants are available on our website.

What's happening at

Our Wednesday Welcome Club continues to be a huge success! This is a weekly club that runs each Wedneday and is open to EVERYONE and not just tenants! It’s completely free and gives our community a chance to catch up with friends old and new, play some board games and enjoy a sweet treat. Each month, we incorporate a themed event such as Burns Supper, Pancake Day, Christmas Lunch, Easter Crafts, Valentine’s Afternoon tea and so much more All we ask if you book a space for our themed events as these can get booked up fast! If you’d like to know more about these events, give us a call on 01292 880120 and ask for Shonya Gibson We look forward to seeing you there!

Community Group looking for a room to hire?

Our community space “The Local” is an ideal venue for a variety of different events and activities which are hosted by our community partners. The Local is set in the heart of Ayr close to the town centre, with plenty of free parking close by plus good transport links.

Our space has a bright formal meeting area with a rustic, fresh feel to it This area can be tailored to suit your needs – holding up to 40 people theatre style and with other options available. If you are a community group looking for somewhere to meet, we’d be happy to discuss this with you.

Annual Pet & Garden Competition

Our annualpet and gardencompetitions are now open for 2024! All you need to do to enter is send us a photo of your pet or garden and you could be in with a chancetowin a £50 voucher for a local pet shop or National Garden Centre. Featured are last years winning entries, Miya the lovely Cockatiel (right) and the immaculate garden belonging to Mr StewartofAyr(left).

Good Neighbour Award

In our last newsletter, we asked our tenants to nominate a neighbour who goes above and beyond. We love to hear all your wonderful stories but there could only be one winner! Mr Edwards (pictured middle) from Maidens won a £50 Love Local voucher plus a voucher from a local bistro to take his neighbours out for lunch. Our runners up are Mr Carmichael from Troon and Mrs Callow from Maybole. A huge congratulations to all!

KIDZONE Design our next front cover!

We are always keen to work with our tenants and we would love for one of our younger tenants to design our Summer Newsletter front page. Not only will it feature on our newsletter, but the winner will win a £50 The Works voucher. Please send your entries to 119 Main Street, Ayr KA8 8BX by Friday 17th May to be in with the chance to feature in our next Newsletter.

Easter Word Search

basket chocolate easter lambs

bunny daffodils egg rabbit

chicks ducklings hotcrossbuns spring