Winter 2016 housing news

WINTER

2016

housing news The newsletter for Link tenants

Inside: • Rent increase consultation • Link on tour • Meet the Customer Support Team • Festive opening hours and contact numbers

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WAYS TO GET INVOLVED We offer a range of ways for tenants to get involved with Link.

Tenant involvement is about working together to improve services and provides tenants with the opportunity to have a say in the decisions which affect you. Get involved and you can gain confidence, new skills and make a difference in your community. Individual tenants and tenants’ groups can get support to access funding, organise activities and influence investments in their area. We aim to provide flexible ways for tenants to get involved depending on their interests and

how much time they have.

Travel and childcare expenses are paid.

You can get involved in: l Tenant Scrutiny Panel l Neighbourhood inspections l Local tenants’ and residents’ groups l ePanel l Regional Tenant Forums l Mystery shopping l Tenant events and conference l Link Board membership

Meet the Customer Support Team Did you know the team...

The Customer Support Team deals with all enquiries.

Customer satisfaction with contacting Link has improved from 73.2% in 2013 to 89.9% in 2016.The team is committed to providing excellent customer service and we look forward to helping you. The team comprises Cathy Tourish, Roxanne Ewing, Yvonne Paton, Sarah Trotter, Lorna Hastie, Lauren Moran, Laura Campbell and Leigh-Ann McMillan.

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l Handles around 250 phone calls per day.

The team answers customer enquiries, where possible, at the first point of contact. l Answers around 300 emails per week. l Manages the Live Chat website facility. l Sends out large tenant mailings, surveys and keeps customer records up-to-date. l Provides housing options advice to people looking for a new home. l Takes payments over the phone for rent, factoring charges and repair costs. The average amount of money taken in a full year is £3 million!

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LINK ON TOUR We recently travelled across Scotland as part of our first ‘Link on tour’ event.

The aim of the tour was to meet tenants and tell them about the variety of projects and services we offer. The bus visited Clackmannanshire, Perthshire, the Scottish Borders, North Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Fife and West Lothian. Staff provided advice and encouraged tenant participation in the rent setting policy and tenant participation strategy consultations. Tenants accessed information about a range of issues such as welfare rights, estate management, allocations, anti-social behaviour procedures and getting online.

Feedback from tenants who joined the tour was very positive. Link tenant Pam Wood from the Scottish Borders said, “The Link bus was a great chance to meet staff, including those responsible for the area. I would like to see this on a more regular basis.”

Leah Webb, Tenant Liaison Officer, added, “It was a great week. We got the chance to meet and speak to over 60 tenants who told us about the needs and issues in their areas.”

June Green, Director of Housing Services, said, “The Link tour helped us to reach tenants across Scotland to give them the opportunity to participate with Link. Tenants told us they would like this to be a regular event and we hope to do this again in the future. These events are important to ensure customer experience is at the heart of the decisions we make."

Congratulations to Sara Mitchell from Kilmarnock who won the £20 shopping voucher raffle prize.

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BENEFIT CAP The benefit cap imposes a limit on the total amount of income from certain benefits a household can receive. From Monday 7 November 2016 the UK Government is introducing a reduced benefit cap. The reduced benefit cap will be: l l

£384.62 a week if you have children or are a couple or £257.69 a week if you are a single person.

If you receive more than this, your housing benefit will be reduced until you are brought within the cap. This means you will need to find the money to pay your rent yourself.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will write to you if you are going to be affected by the benefit cap. There are a number of exemptions from the benefit cap so it is important to get advice if you are notified that you are going to be affected.

HELP TO APPLY FOR THE WARM HOME DISCOUNT In Scotland, the estimated number of households living in fuel poverty is 845,000.

“A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it spends more than 10% of its income on all household fuel use. If over 20% of income is required, then this is termed as being in extreme fuel poverty” (Scottish Fuel Poverty Statement 2002).

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Link’s Advice Service can support tenants to access the Warm Home Discount. It helps tenants to access the cheapest tariff, if tenants are in debt with their fuel supplier, to negotiate a repayment plan, or access charities to try to clear the debt.

If you would like help to apply, contact the Advice Service 0330 303 0106 or email TTAS@linkhaltd.co.uk.

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Get help with sanctions You may have sanctions applied to your benefit if the DWP decides that you have not complied with its instructions. The sanction can be for different time periods and can affect the whole or part of your benefit payment. The most commonly sanctioned benefit is Job Seekers Allowance for failures to comply with work related requirements. Sanctions can also apply to Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support and Universal Credit.

You may get a lower level sanction (4 to 13 weeks) if you don’t: l Attend work coach meetings on time or take part in interviews l Do what your work coach tells you to do to find work l Take part in employment schemes when your work coach tells you to l Meet your employment scheme provider on time or take actions you are told to do You may get an intermediate level sanction (4 to 13 weeks) and your claim may be ended if you are not available for and actively seeking work.

You may get a higher level sanction (13 to 156 weeks) if you: l Were dismissed for misconduct from your last job l Left your last job without good reason l Don’t apply for suitable jobs l Are offered a job that your work coach or employment scheme adviser has told you about

It is important to challenge any sanction if you do not feel it has been correctly applied. This is especially important if you are sanctioned for the first time as the period of subsequent sanctions will increase. For example, if you don’t attend an appointment at the Job Centre on time, a fourweek sanction will be applied. If you do the same the following week, your sanction will be 13 weeks, despite it still being a lower level sanction as “the offence” has been repeated within the same 52week period.

If you are affected by the benefit cap or need assistance to challenge a sanction decision, please contact Link’s Advice Service on 01324 417174 or by email adviceserviceteam@linkhaltd.co.uk.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) correction In the spring edition of Housing News, we printed an article ‘Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is ending for adults’. We would like to apologise as there was an error in this article, it stated, “If you were born after 8 April 1948 and are in receipt of DLA, you will not be required to make a claim for PIP”. This should have read “If you were born before 8 April 1948 and are in receipt of DLA, you will not be required to make a claim for PIP”.

Thank you to our tenants who brought this to our attention and we apologise for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. If you are unsure whether this change will affect you, please contact our Advice Service on 01324 417174.

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Customer satisfaction and rent increase survey 2016

We are committed to listening to our customers and acting on your views.

We have commissioned an independent market research company, Research Resource, to complete a customer satisfaction and rent increase survey.

Over the next few weeks, you may be visited or receive a telephone call from Research Resource. Please note that not all tenants will be contacted by Research Resource but all tenants have the opportunity to take part in the survey. The

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survey will take approximately 20 minutes and all answers are confidential. Interviews will take place in November, including evenings and weekends.

The interviewers’ names are: Eliz Walker Stephanie Allen Moira Wilson Kate Cosgrove Robert Cosgrove Graeme Colquhoun Donna Ward Monica Boyle Theresa Skivington Jamie Lee Brooks

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Home visits Check interviewer’s identity card and name. This will show their full name, reference number and photograph. They will also carry a letter of authority from Link Housing Association.

Telephone calls Ask interviewers their full name and reference number. Call Ross Cusick at Research Resource on 0141 641 6410 or FREEPHONE (landlines) 0800 121 8987 if you would like to check the identity of the researcher.

Rent and service charge increase consultation for next year 2017/18 We would like your views on our proposal to increase your rent by around 2.5% in 2017/18. On average (excluding service charges) this will mean an increase of £1.91 per week.

We want you to be able to afford our rents. We also want to be able to invest in our properties and provide you with quality housing management, repairs and advice services. If we increase our rents by 2.5%, we will be able to continue to do this.

You may also pay charges for services such as stair and window cleaning or communal grounds maintenance. These charges are calculated on an area basis depending on the level of service provided and are not included in the above proposed increase.

How our weekly rents compare to other landlords Average Weekly Rents (which include service charges) Size

Link average 2015/16

Housing association average 2015/16

Studio

£64.19

£63.76

1 Bedroom

£72.60

£72.78

2 Bedroom

£82.49

£78.76

3 Bedroom

£89.94

£84.81

4 Bedroom +

£97.98

£94.94

All properties of the same size across our 22 council areas are used to calculate the average rent. Most of our rents are above the housing association average but have been reducing in comparison during the past few years because of our below-average rent increases.

Average Annual Rent Increase Year

Link average rent increase

Scottish average rent increase

2015/16

1.5%

1.9%

2014/15

2%

2.7%

2013/14

3%

3.5%

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What does your rent pay for?

Your rent is needed so we have money to repair, maintain and upgrade your home, manage neighbourhoods, provide housing management, grow our business and achieve social aims. Link invests profit and rental income back into services for customers.

What we spent in 2015/16 The diagram shows how your rent was spent in 2015/16 under the following headings:

■ Voids & Bad Debts £383,000 ■ Employment Costs £4,326,054 ■ Maintenance £9,165,946 ■ Service Charges £1,379,000 ■ Staff Overhead & Facilities £2,142,000 ■ Depreciation £5,074,000 ■ Loan Costs £5,059,000 ■ Direct Housing Costs £574,000

l Maintenance – planned and cyclical maintenance (e.g. bathroom and kitchen replacements) and repairs. l Service charges – estate management including landscape maintenance, stair cleaning, communal lighting and window cleaning. l Staff overhead and facilities – all back office administration and support staff plus office costs and overheads relating to front line services.

l Depreciation – reduction in value over the lifetime of our properties. l Loan costs – interest on borrowing to build new homes. l Direct housing costs – property insurance and other property management expenses. l Voids and bad debts – cost of lost rent between tenancy changes and unpaid rent arrears. l Staff employment/salary costs – direct salary cost of staff providing the housing management and repairs service.

What service did we provide in 2015/16?

In 2015/16 your rent helped us to provide a service to more than 6,300 tenants. We: l Completed more than 23,000 emergency and reactive repairs l Let 739 houses l Resolved 727 antisocial behaviour cases l Spent £5.3 million on planned maintenance projects l Upgraded 98 kitchens and 35 bathrooms

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l Carried out painter work to 1283 properties l Carried out 5841 annual gas services l Upgraded 287 heating systems

felt their rent represented good value for money compared with 71% in 2013. The percentage of tenants who found our rents fairly or very easy to afford has also increased from 34% in 2013 to 55% in 2016.

The average cost of a new kitchen is £3006 and the average cost of a new bathroom is £2780.

We want to keep improving value for money and affordability for our tenants. We will do this by comparing our performance and costs with other social landlords and by putting the customer first in our ‘Link Housing 6’ service improvement initiatives.

We added value to our maintenance and housing management service by: l Providing 1,500 tenants with money and benefits advice l Building 241 new homes l Helping 120 tenants to get online by promoting digital inclusion with training and laptop loans l Supporting and funding 57 tenant group activities including a tenant conference in Edinburgh l Investing in environmental improvements and supporting tenants' groups with community gardening through Linkscape l Providing employability opportunities including 10 apprenticeships and 26 work placements l Supporting social enterprises What can you expect next year?

In addition to the services above, we have budgeted to replace: l Windows in 96 homes l External painter work in 1,553 properties l 165 kitchens l 276 bathrooms l 423 gas boilers l 145 stair/close doors l 254 smoke detectors

What do you think?

How does our service compare with other landlords?

Our performance is better than the Scottish average in most areas relating to customer satisfaction, repairs, property condition and rent collection.

Our customer satisfaction survey in March this year reported 95% of our tenants were satisfied with the overall service we provided compared with a Scottish average of 89%.

Comparisons with other housing associations can be found on the Scottish Housing Regulator’s website https://www.scottishhousing regulator.gov.uk/find-andcompare-landlords By the end of October each year we publish a Link Charter Report Card on our performance which is available on our website.

We want to hear from you and we have employed a company called Research Resource to carry out a customer satisfaction and rent increase consultation survey. To participate in the survey you can: l Telephone 0141 641 6410 l Speak to Research Resource, if they contact you by telephone or at home to ask you to fill out the survey Who decides the rent increase?

All the views and comments we receive will be added to a report which the Link Group Board will consider in February when it will make the decision on what the rent increase will be. A letter detailing the rent increase will be sent to tenants in February to confirm the decision.

Value for Money Our latest customer satisfaction survey found that 78% of tenants

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SHELTERED CHATTER

John Greenlees zip wiring across the Clyde.

A round up of activities Between April and July an amazing 3754 tenants took part in activities organised by the Sheltered Housing team. l Tenants from Claddens Place, Possil, raised £140 for the Marie Curie Hospice during a social night. l Tenants from Castings House, Falkirk, had an action packed few weeks with bus trips to Largs, Loch Lomond Shores, St Andrews and Perth, including afternoon tea with entertainment and a fish and chip tea. l Tenants from Peel Court, Cambuslang, enjoyed a bus trip to Largs and a social night with entertainment. l Tenants from Kenmuir Court, Possil, enjoyed a fish and chip tea. l Around 70 tenants from across five sheltered developments enjoyed a night of entertainment at Lochwinnoch Bowling Club. l Tenants from Glenpark Road, Lochwinnoch, Glenpark Gardens, Cambuslang, Peel Court, Cambuslang, Kenmuir Court and Claddens Place, Possil, all had a night with cabaret act ‘Time of Your Life’, covering acts such as Tina Turner, Neil Diamond, Doris Day, Shirley Bassey and the “King” himself, Elvis Presley.

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June Green, Director of Housing Services, and Elaine O'Hanlon, Older Persons' Services Manager, doing a prize draw for Peel Court.

Ben Lui tenants on a canal trip.

Thanks to sheltered housing staff Maureen Banaghan, Eleanor Cunningham, Liz Kerr, May Wright and Nicola Thomson who helped organise the night. Also thank you to volunteers Janice and Rachael who helped out.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for trips and entertainment, speak to your sheltered housing officer.

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Ben Lui sheltered tenants at the summer fete tea room.

sheltered housing tenants to chat and see one another. You will be able to share activities such as quizzes, discussions, exercise classes, hobbies and sing-songs – it’s up to you.

Round of applause l A special mention for John Greenlees, age 89, who did a sponsored zip wire across the Clyde for the Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Charity. l Congratulations to Helen Reynolds from Morar Court, Grangemouth, who won £50 worth of shopping vouchers for returning her completed Eldernet questionnaire. l Well done to Mary Teague, Margaret McLuskey and Isobel Donaghy who attended and passed a Food Hygiene course held at Claddens Place.

Eldernet coming soon We hope to have Eldernet up and running soon.

Every sheltered lounge area will get a 55 inch high definition smart TV and an internet connection. TV will be available ‘on demand’ which means tenants can watch programmes at times that suit them.

Eldernet will be available via a camera and microphone attached to the television to enable

Glen Lyon, Castings, and Peel Court will test Eldernet. Once these areas are up and running it will be installed in all other sheltered housing.

Techy Tea Parties Kerry McCall, Digital Inclusion Officer, and Jennifer Richardson, Project Assistant, held Techy T Parties in Ben Lui Place, Cumbernauld, Claddens Place, Possil, and St Andrews Gardens, Airdrie, during August and September. Kerry and her colleagues provided training for 121 tenants to support the use of tablets, laptops and smartphones.

Sheltered Housing Forum The Forum met in August in Denny to discuss the Sheltered Housing service redesign consultation process. The Forum also discussed the tenant participation strategy review and rent setting policy consultation. The next meeting will be held on 15 November in Glen Lyon Court. Minutes of the Forum meetings are posted on the notice board in each complex. If you would like to attend, please contact your Sheltered Housing Officer.

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WAYS TO PAY YOUR RENT There are various options available to make it easier for you to pay your rent:

HOLIDAY OFFICE OPENING HOURS CLOSED 24, 25, 26 and 27 December OPEN 28, 29 and 30 December CLOSED 31 December 1, 2, 3 January The office reopens on 4 January 2017

Wishing you a happy festive holiday from Link

Debit or Standing Order: If you wish to set up a  Direct Standing Order or Direct Debit, please contact Link’s Rent Enquiry Team on 0330 303 0801 for advice.

and Postal Orders: Cheques and Postal Orders  Cheques should be made payable to “Link Housing Association”.

To identify your payment please write your name and property address on the reverse of the cheque/ postal order.

You can use your allpay card to make payments ℡ Telephone: using a credit or debit card. Please telephone Link Housing on 0330 303 0801, option 1 during office hours, or call the allpay 24 hour automated service on 0844 557 8321.

Text: Debit or credit card payments can be made using your own mobile phone – register online first at www.allpayments.net/textpay/login.aspx.

You can pay using your allpay card and credit/debit  Online: card at www.allpayments.net.

To download the allpay app for your mobile phone please refer to the www.allpay.net/app.

Emergency contact numbers when the office is closed Gas Boiler and Heating Repairs

• Call 03451 400 100 Other emergency repairs

• Call 0800 783 7937 (out-of-hours service provided by Bield 24) • Call Lochaber HA on 01397 702 530 if you live in Fort William or Skye & Lochalsh HA on 01478 612035 if you live in Kyle of Lochalsh

Link Housing Association Limited is a company registered in Scotland under the Companies Acts, Company Number: SC216300, Registered Office: Link House, 2c New Mart Road, Edinburgh, EH14 1RL. It is registered as a Property Factor Id: PF000355 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Reference Number: 674050. Part of the Link group © Link Group Ltd 2016.

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