Octavia Summer 2023 Resident Update

Summer 2023

Resident update

Service updates and important information for residents

Message from the CEO

Welcome to our first digital Resident Update. We have embraced a fully digital, email distribution of our regular news update for residents to make it both more accessible to you and more environmentally friendly. We hope you like it.

We can still provide a printed copy for anyone who requires it. Please let us know if you would like one to be posted to you.

In this edition, you can find out about how we can help with the cost of living and other essential support needs, as well as important fire safety updates and how to contact us for feedback or to make a complaint about our service.

We are keen to know what you think about our new Resident Update. Please email your feedback to update@octavia.org.uk

New Board Chair

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new Group Chair, Stephen Jack, who joined us in April. Stephen took over the role from Sandeep Katwala, who provided us with strategic direction and support during his six-year term with us, for which we are very grateful.

Stephen is an experienced chair, with a 30-year executive career as a Finance Director and Chief Finance Officer in financial services. The Board and Executive Team have warmly welcomed Stephen, and we look forward to working with him as we continue to develop our services and build on our achievements.

You can find out more about him on our website: www.octavia.org.uk

Talking to residents

We will be contacting residents in July to get your views on our services

Your views about our services are important to us. They help us to shape our services and make improvements.

This month (July) we will be contacting a number of randomly selected tenants by telephone to invite them to share their views about Octavia as part of our Tenant (STAR) Survey. We are working with a market research company called Acuity to do this. They specialise in social housing resident consultation.

If you are contacted

If you are telephoned, the call from Acuity will register as being from ‘Brighton: 01273 093939’.

Calls will take place between Mondays and Fridays from 10am to 8pm (10am - 6pm Saturdays). The survey will take around 10 minutes. Please try to find the time to answer the call and use the opportunity to tell us what you think about Octavia as your landlord.

The STAR Survey is a standard survey which is used across UK housing organisations, so we can compare our results with other social housing providers.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey

Later this year we will be carrying out another survey with all residents (tenants and shared owners) based on the new national Tenant Satisfaction Measures introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing.

We will let you know more about when this will take place closer to the time.

SANDRA SKEETE, OCTAVIA CEO

Your views are important. Help us to improve our services.

Fire safety

Important information about fire doors

Fire doors are specially designed safety doors that help contain fire or smoke.

Fire doors are an important precaution in case of a fire, as they stop fire and smoke from spreading from one part of a building to another.

They are an essential part of a building’s fire safety measures.

If you live in a flat, the door to your home is a fire door. All internal doors in communal areas, including cupboards, are also fire doors.

What fire doors do

Fire doors save lives and prevent further damage to the building and its contents. They help keep escape routes, such as corridors, clear from fire and smoke and they contain fire in the area where it started, allowing time for the fire service to attend and manage the fire.

It is vital that all fire doors in your building are kept closed at all times when they are not in use. They must not be left open under any circumstances.

Fire doors in your building must be kept closed. Please report any damage to fire doors to us.

The door to your home, and other fire doors in your building, should close securely by themselves.

It is important that:

• all fire doors in your building are fully closed when not in use

• the door to your home closes properly

• you never tamper with, or try and adjust, a fire door or its closing device.

Report any damage to a fire door in your building, such as a door not closing properly, to us as soon as possible.

Fly tipping Don’t let it slide

We want our residents to live in a safe and rubbish free environment. We are aware that fly-tipping is a problem around some of our homes. We are asking our residents to be vigilant about reporting any incidents of people fly-tipping at our schemes.

Fly tipping can affect the cost of the services we provide to you to maintain your home. You can report any incidents of fly tipping to your local council through this website: www.gov.uk/report-flytipping or by clicking the button below.

Please keep all communal areas clear of personal belongings

Personal items left in communal areas will be removed and disposed of, often without warning. This ensures that residents are free and safe from any obstructions or fire hazards in the communal areas.

Please help us by storing all personal belongings inside your home and not in communal corridors and other spaces you share with your neighbours.

If you are concerned about anything to do with fire safety in your building, please contact us.

You can call us on 020 8354 5500 or email us at: info@octavia.org.uk@octavia.org.uk.

Fire Risk Assessments

We carry out fire risk assessments periodically to highlight any actions required to keep residents safe. This includes inspecting all fire safety equipment, including fire doors, and carrying out repairs and upgrades where required.

Please be aware that during fire door inspections in your building, our contractors may request access to your home.

Repairs

Reporting a repair

We operate a 24/7 telephone service for emergency repairs. If you need to report a repair that is an emergency, call us straight away on 020 8354 5500.

If you call after 5pm Monday to Friday, on a public holiday or during the weekend, we operate an emergency only repairs service which you can still access on this number.

Follow the instructions in the message and your call will be automatically transferred to our emergency out-of-hours service.

Please note, if an operative is sent out to you and they find it is not an emergency, you will be recharged for the cost of the visit.

Damp and mould

If

Don’t suffer in silence

We can help

Domestic abuse can be one of the most difficult types of situations to talk about and to escape from. Abuse is not always physical violence. It can be sexual, financial, psychological, or emotional abuse and includes:

• Controlling behaviours – designed to dominate another person, or make them dependent on the abuser, by isolating them from sources of support. Examples include depriving the person of their independence and means of escape or regulating their everyday behaviour.

• Coercive behaviour – such as assault, threats, humiliation, intimidation or other abuse used to harm, punish or frighten someone.

Domestic abuse is against the law and is a criminal offence

Domestic abuse affects women and men and can occur between current or former intimate partners or abuse from family members. Abuse caused by family members can include forced marriage, abuse relating to gender identity or sexuality, and so-called honour-based violence.

It can be difficult to understand if a relationship is abusive, or for someone who is being abused to realise what’s happening to them. It’s also hard for a person to know what to do when they are experiencing domestic abuse.

We work jointly with specialist, confidential services that can support you if you are dealing with abuse – whether you have left your abuser or not. Our work centres around helping to keep those being abused safe. For more information see:

www.octaviahousing.org.uk/domestic-abuse

We are here to help - If you, or someone you know, is experiencing domestic abuse, contact us on 020 8354 5500. We will arrange to talk to you about your situation and together with you, come up with a plan of action to help.

Meeting up for coffee

Widen your social circle with an octavia coffee group

We run a number of social groups to enable adults to meet new people in their community. They are free to attend and designed to connect people for friendly conversation and fun.

If you are over 50 and would like to meet people in your local area, we would love to see you at our community coffee events.

You can join us by coming to one of our group meetings at any of the following locations and times:

Coffee afternoon at the reed

Where: The Reed, 28 Convent Gardens, London W11 1NH. Close to Ladbrook Grove station

When: Mondays 2pm to 3.30pm

Coffee morning

Where: Starbucks coffee shop 24-32 Kilburn High Rd, North Maida Vale, London NW6 5UA. Close to Kilburn Park Station and Kilburn Highroad Station.

When: Mondays 11am to 12.30pm

Marriott coffee afternoon Where: Marriot Hotel 134 George St, London

W1H 5DN. Close to Marble Arch and Edgware Road station stations. When: 2.30pm to 4pm Friday Afternoon.

If you would like more information about joining our social activities for older people, please contact:

meenaxi.chavda@octavia.org.uk or call us on 07341 489839.

All over 50s are welcome.

“What I really like is the fact that everything is really relaxed and you can speak when you like and just mingle.”

Got it covered?

stolen?

As your landlord, Octavia does not insure your personal possessions against any kind of damage, loss or theft. This applies even to damage caused by an accident outside of your home, such as from a water leak in the building or from a neighbouring property, or a flood.

To give yourself peace of mind, it is important that you insure your valuable belongings against accidental damage and other household risks. Home Contents Insurance can cover furniture, carpets and kitchen appliances, as well as jewellery and electrical equipment.

Octavia has partnered with the National Housing Federation to offer Housing Contents Insurance for social housing tenants at a competitive price. The product is called ‘My Home’ and you can find out more about it by looking at: www.thistlemyhome.co.uk , or by calling them on 0345 450 7288.

There is more information about home contents insurance for tenants and homeowners on our website: www.octaviahousing.org.uk/insurance

It’s important to feel safe and secure in your home. But are you prepared for a situation where your possessions are damaged or

Though rare, incidents like this can be really upsetting, and if your possessions are not insured, it can be even more distressing to cover the cost of replacing them.

Cost of living Struggling to meet essential household

With household bills remaining high everyone is dealing with a reduced budget to cover the basics. We are aware that some people are worrying about how to make difficult choices, like paying for food or going without heating and hot water.

If you are struggling to pay your essential home bills, talk to us about it - we can provide support and advice with things like:

• helping you to access benefits you are entitled to

• paying essential bills or buying food

• being worried about getting into rent arrears, or at risk of losing your home.

Are you in need of extra support?

This is a very challenging time for many people and some people may be needing extra support.

If you are struggling to pay your essential household bills, or with being able to buy

bills?

enough food, get in touch with us. You can talk to us in confidence about accessing support locally.

020 8354 5500

Money and benefits advice line

We have an advice line to support residents who may be facing financial difficulty. The service is designed to provide targeted support for residents seeking help to manage money and maximise their income.

If you are looking for help with financial worries or benefits concerns, call our Advice Line to find out how we can help.

If needed, we can arrange a longer, followup appointment with someone from our Financial Resilience team for further support.

Find out more about this service here: octaviahousing.org.uk/advice-line/support

Complaints

How to make a complaint about our service

We take complaints about our services very seriously.

We are committed to providing all of our residents with an exemplary service. While we always strive to be reliable, responsive, respectful and resourceful, occasionally we may not meet our customers’ expectations.

When things go wrong, we welcome the opportunity to listen to your concerns so that we can respond consistently, fairly and sensitively.

To find out how to make a complaint, visit: www.octaviahousing.org.uk/complaints

How you can make a complaint

Ways you can make a complaint:

• online using our web form

• by phone: 020 8354 5500

• in person at one of our offices

• by email to complaints@octavia.org.uk

• through an advocate (with your written consent)

We welcome feedback on our services, whether you are a tenant or shared owner resident, or someone affected by our work in any other way.

Resident Panel update

Thank you to everyone who showed an interest in joining our new Resident Panel.

We were delighted with the number of residents who put themselves forward to be considered.

A selection panel of three Octavia residents and two Octavia officers appointed six new resident members.

Our new Resident Panel members have now joined the seven existing members to form our new panel, and they have already been busy with:

• looking into Octavia’s performance data

• sharing their ideas for improving value for money

• monitoring Octavia’s approach to dealing with damp and mould, and being consulted on proposed policy changes

• being consulted on changes to our Pest Control Policy

• monitoring the development of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

• holding Octavia to account on issues around the rent cap and service charge increases.

Be an Octavia ‘mystery shopper’

We take our customer satisfaction very seriously and we are looking for residents to become mystery shoppers.

As a mystery shopper you can help measure how well we deliver our customer service. This can be done through telephone calls or by email from the comfort of your home. The feedback you provide will be used by us to improve our services.

If you are interested in becoming an Octavia mystery shopper and would like to know more about what is involved, email us at be.involved@octavia.org.uk .

You will need to come along to a briefing session at our head office at Emily House, 202-208 Kensal Road, London, W10 5BN before you start. As a mystery shopper, you will record the tasks you undertake. This will take around one hour of your time over the course of a month and in return you will receive £30 worth of shopping vouchers for each excercise you support.

Sizzling summer of fun with Base Youth Club

Base Youth Club are holding their Summer Programme 2023 from July 24 to August 25.

All activities are free to attend for young people aged 10 to 16 but you do need to register as a member and book your space to avoid disappointment.

For more information

email: conor.lynch@octavia.org.uk

or text 07985 692369.

See octaviafoundation.org.uk/base