Social rent Affordable rent 2023: 6773 2023: 832 396 Shared ownership 687 Leasehold 2023: 320 2023: SAME Repairs The total number of enquiries dealt with by the Contact Centre
2023: 104k 30,016 made in 2023/24 £12.8M
Dates for your diary
Mark your calendars with the key dates for the rest of 2024 and the start of 2025 as we prepare to welcome the new year!
24 DEC 2024 2pm Contact Centre closure 2 JAN 2025
8:45am Contact Centre re-opens
Our Contact Centre will be closed over the Christmas period. If you have an emergency or routine repair during this time, please call 0800 542 8904. This ‘call-out’ number is available 24 hours a day.
If you smell gas, please call National Gas Emergency on 0800 111 999 immediately. Isolate the meter to make safe where necessary and open windows to ventilate your home.
Events coming in 2025
Our events calendar hosts dates for upcoming community events, resident drop-ins to meet your Neighbourhood Manager, Walkabouts where you can raise local concerns, as well as volunteering opportunities and training sessions for residents.
We’ll be adding new events for 2025 so be sure to stay up to date by following our social media channels and regularly checking our events calendar for updates: fairhive.co.uk/events
Are you worried about heating costs this winter?
Please contact our Welfare Team for advice and support at welfare@fairhive.co.uk
Board Member Vacancy
£7,880 per annum - Aylesbury
Closing date: Monday 23rd December 2024
We provide 9,500 affordable homes to over 20,000 people and have a growing portfolio of properties. With an annual turnover of £75 million and 320 employees, we make a significant contribution to our communities throughout Buckinghamshire and beyond.
This is an exciting time for us. We are currently creating our new Corporate Strategy for 2025 and beyond with a focus on making sure our services match the needs of our current and future customers, providing more homes for people in housing need, investing in homes and communities, reducing our environmental impact, and embracing new technology and innovative ideas to maximise their potential.
We are seeking a committed and enthusiastic Board member who can bring new perspectives, particularly in our approach to customer services and meeting customer needs. As an affordable housing provider, building on our accountability to residents, ensuring they have an effective collective voice and responding proactively to complaints are key aims for us, so we welcome applications from individuals with expertise in these areas.
Your strong interpersonal skills and enthusiasm will enable you to act as an ambassador for Fairhive, and win the confidence of residents, stakeholders and employees alike. This is an exciting and rewarding opportunity for candidates who have a clear strategic leadership focus and who are strong team players with the ability to both support and challenge through fresh thinking and innovation.
If this looks like an exciting challenge and you are interested in being part of a driven and successful organisation, then we want to hear from you.
Visit our website (fairhive.co.uk/fairhive-board) where you can download a recruitment pack and read our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion statement.
Dear Resident
As another year comes to an end, we are looking back on the work we have done in 2023-24 via our Annual Report to Residents. While the full report is available on our website, you can find a snapshot on pages 4 and 5. These figures provide information on our performance as a Social Housing Landlord and showcase how we listen to you and act on your feedback. You can read more about the areas in which we are doing really well and others where we have room for improvement.
This year, for the first time, the report has been published alongside our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), which can also be found on our website. This is the first year that all Housing Associations have been asked to produce and publish TSMs, so that customer experience and service delivery can be measured and comparisons made between different Housing Associations. We think the TSMs are a great tool for you to see how we are performing in comparison to other landlords across the country. This reporting structure will really take shape over the next year or two as more information is shared and a true benchmark is highlighted by the Regulator of Social Housing.
Take a look at page 6 for more information and where to find the full TSMs publication.
Looking forward towards the festive period, we have a message from the Resident Forum who do brilliant work in helping us improve our services and holding us to account as part of their scrutiny work. They have also played a big part in forming our new Corporate Strategy for the next five years which we will be sharing more about in April 2025. If you are interested in finding out more about the Resident Forum or are interested in becoming one of our Resident Volunteers, then read their message on page 7.
I look forward to writing to you again next year in Residents News and until then, I wish you and your families a very fun and safe festive break and a Happy New Year
Matthew Applegate Chief Executive
We want to make sure that the information we have about you and members of your household is accurate and up to date. Knowing more about our customers helps us to tailor our services to better meet your needs.
Over the next few months, we will be conducting an exercise to contact all our residents through various methods to ensure the key information we hold about you is correct. We will be contacting you via text, phone call, email, letter, or in-person visits. As a thank you for participating, you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Love2Shop voucher.
Annual Report to Residents 2023/24
Each year we publish a standards report for our residents along with our financial statements so that you can see how we’ve performed. You can view the full report at fairhivereport2024.co.uk
Repairs
Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and what they mean for you.
For over a year, we have been talking about Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) on our website, social media channels, and in Residents News. But what are TSMs and what do they mean for residents?
The Regulator of Social Housing collects information on tenants’ satisfaction with the performance of their social landlords through the agreed TSMs. As part of this requirement, all landlords need to collect feedback through tenant surveys and share the results with their customers and the Regulator. We do this through our Annual Report to Residents.
What do the Tenant Satisfaction Measures cover?
There are 22 measures which fall under five main themes. These are:
• Keeping properties in good repair
• Maintaining building safety
• Effective complaints-handling
• Respectful and helpful tenant engagement
• Responsible neighbourhood management
10 of the 22 measures can be measured using data we already have – for example, how many homes meet the Decent Homes Standard set by Government, or how many repairs we complete within our published timescales. You can read more about what to expect from our Repairs service on our website: fairhive.co.uk/the-repairs-process
For the remaining 12 measures, we gather feedback by surveying our residents. We capture information by talking to residents on the phone and these calls are carried out by IFF Research, an independent organisation who help us to collect feedback and understand how we are meeting expectations and serving our residents.
Your experience as a resident is a priority for us as a non-profit organisation and this is why we continue to reach out to residents through the IFF Research calls, emails and Residents News, events such as Resident Drop-ins, Community Hub and Estate Walkabouts. You can also contact us directly if you want to raise a complaint, provide feedback on a particular service or leave a compliment for a member of our team. You can find out more about our Complaints and Compliments processes on our website: fairhive.co.uk/compliments-and-complaints
Scan for more
Season’s Greetings from Resident Forum
Hello, we are members of Fairhive’s Resident Forum who meet on a regular basis. Our responsibilities include:
•
• Working closely with the Community Engagement Team to gain a better understanding of Fairhive’s operations and we have a direct impact on shaping Fairhive’s services.
• Collectively being involved with assisting Fairhive to develop future policies and strategies.
• Monitoring scrutiny arrangements, reviewing Fairhive’s Customer Service Commitments, the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), providing constructive feedback on Fairhive’s service delivery as well as reviewing policies and procedures. Fairhive employees are regularly invited to present relevant information about Fairhive’s performances.
As well as the Resident Forum, there are other groups that residents can join such as: Complaints Review Group, Task and Finish Scrutiny Group, Estates Services Group, Design Development Group and Policy Review Group.
Many of our volunteers gain personal satisfaction from assisting Fairhive to improve the services offered and we’d be delighted if you would like to get involved.
By becoming a volunteer you’ll receive the following
• Access to our shopping discount scheme (part of our employee benefits package)*
• Loaned IT equipment *
• Free broadband*
• Free refreshments during meetings
• Free training
• Expenses for travel and childcare paid*
*These benefits have qualifying criteria
We wish you all a Happy New Year!
£100 VOUCHER
2025 and the winner will receive a £100 voucher and have their name published in the next edition of Residents News!
We are pleased to announce the winner of our Residents News Autumn Issue Puzzle was Karen White. Congratulations on the shopping voucher.
If you need these
The winner of Spot the Difference in our Autumn edition was Gordon Berrow. Congratulations on your voucher!
