YourHome Magazine - Issue #8 - Winter 2022

Westminster Housing

YourHome

Westminster Housing Magazine | Issue No.8 | Winter 2022

News and events for Westminster housing residents

We’re rewarding you for recycling

Your home at your fingertips

Giving you the latest leaseholder news

A taste of Westminster

Your home at your fingertips At Westminster Housing, we are all about improving homes and we’ve been busy revolutionising our systems too.

After taking on board feedback from residents, the MyWestminsterHousing site has been upgraded. The online home of everything to do with organising your tenancy or lease is now built around you. Always available, you will notice your online account is easier to use, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – giving you the freedom to organise your home whenever it suits you.

Accessing your housing services has never been quicker, safer or more convenient. Plus, you can use any digital device of your choice. There’s no need to wait for office hours to get in touch.

Even more services were launched in August. Now you can easily make the most of the great features in your MyWestminsterHousing account such as: Æ request, cancel and reschedule repairs (tenants only) Æ view communal repairs Æ report anti-social behaviour You can also make payments, update your details and more in your online account. We will keep improving MyWestminsterHousing over the coming months, making it even easier to contact us about your home.

Welcome from Councillor Harvey Cabinet Member for Housing

As part of our continued City for All commitments we want to deliver the highest possible standards of accommodation for our residents, ensuring our homes are safe, warm and comfortable, with clean estates and thriving green areas, whilst also tackling anti-social behaviour and ensuring repair work is dealt with quickly and effectively.

Getting repairs done well is one of the most important housing functions, so we need to make sure we get it right. Residents are rightly quick to tell us when there are problems and we are always working to ensure we get better. This is with 95% of all repair work undertaken completed within the target timeframes, and when 85% of residents have expressed satisfaction with the quality of our repairs.

We always want to improve for our residents. We know we don’t always get it right, but we will work with you to tackle the issues until we do.

We’re also always committed to ensuring that our neighbourhoods and communities are safe, clean and well maintained. This includes providing more opportunities for recycling on our estates, and cleaner streets which we cover in this edition of the magazine.

Do we have your correct details?

It is important to keep your contact details up to date for when we need to send out essential information.

Please take a moment to think about whether your phone number, email address or other contact information is correct. You can update your details through your MyWestminsterHousing online account or by contacting us at housing.enquiries@ westminster.gov.uk

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How to register Simply register today in three quick steps and enjoy taking control of your home at a time that suits you:

Go to westminster.gov.uk/ mywestminsterhousing

Enter your details, including tenancy number or leaseholder account number

Receive an email confirmation and login to use your MyWestminsterHousing account

“Accessing your housing services has never been quicker, safer or more convenient”

We may need to contact you to complete your registration within three working days if the details don’t match up with our system exactly. MyWestminsterHousing complies with all governmental security protocols which are in place to keep your information safe.

We are here to help, so please contact us if you have any questions about registering or using your online account.

How to pay your rent Æ By Direct Debit/ebilling You can help us save money, protect the environment, and make your life easier by setting up a direct debit and receiving your bill electronically.

Visit westminster.gov.uk/ways-pay-your-rent to find out how to set up a Direct Debit.

Æ By telephone Alternatively, you can pay by using our automated voice response system on 020 7823 2601. Calls to this service are charged at the local rate. You’ll need your rent reference number and payment details to hand.

Payments made before 5pm on a working day will appear on the rent account the same day. Payments made after 5pm will appear the following working day.

Support available to you If you are finding it difficult to pay your rent, please contact us immediately as we can support you and discuss the best option available to you. Please call us on 0800 358 3783 or email housing.enquiries@ westminster.gov.uk to speak to an income advisor.

westminster.gov.uk

YourHome Magazine | Page 3

Food waste recycling is coming to all households In 2019, we ran a food waste recycling trial across some of the households in the city.

Following its success, we are pleased to announce that this year we will be expanding this to all households in Westminster.

Thanks to all the residents currently using the trial service – to date we have recycled more than 645 tonnes of food waste.

To receive updates and for more information, visit our website at westminster.gov.uk/collections

Get rewarded for recycling!

We’re rewarding estates for recycling – no catch, it’s that simple: the more you recycle, the more prizes you win for your community!

Every three months we pay out £5,000 worth of rewards to the top performing estates.

Estates who recycle the most can earn up to £1,000 in the council’s quarterly ‘In It To Win It’ recycling competition. It’s a communal award and residents can choose through the local Estate Action Plan what to spend the money on for the benefit of their estate. Look out for the ‘In It To Win It’ stickers on all the bins on estates taking part for your chance to win prizes.

Read more about the scheme and sign up to the ‘In It To Win It’ newsletter at westminster.gov.uk/inittowinit

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Leaseholders news Latest updates and information for leaseholders Making an alteration to your property?

Is short-term letting allowed?

Under the terms of your lease, leaseholders are required to seek our consent as the landlord before carrying out alterations to your property.

Short-term letting is when a property is let for less than 90 consecutive days – which is not permitted and would be in breach of your lease.

You are advised to check with us whether consent is required no matter how minor or major the work you plan to undertake; this can range from installing new flooring, to updating your boiler, to completely renovating your property.

This type of letting has led to anti-social behaviour, damage and excessive rubbish left in communal areas. We want to ensure our estates are safe and comfortable places for everyone to live and take this issue very seriously.

To apply for landlord’s consent, you will need to submit an application, further information can be found on our website at westminster.gov.uk/alterations

Visit our website to find more information on short-term letting at westminster.gov.uk/short-letting

Online leaseholder surgery sessions

How to pay your service charges

During March we will be holding online surgery appointments giving you an opportunity to discuss any queries you may have about your 2022/2023 estimated service charge invoice.

From March we will be making changes to our major works service charges payment options. This will apply to all new major works service charge invoices issued from March along with any final accounts issued. Recognising the times we are in, this includes extending the interest free repayment period for most significant major works to five years.

You will be able to book a 20 minute session between 9am and 7pm with a member of our team. Our surgery will be available for bookings from 8 March to 11 March.

To book an appointment, call 0800 358 3783 or visit westminster.gov.uk/book20-minute-telephone-appointment

westminster.gov.uk

For further information, please speak to one of our leasehold advisors by contacting us on 0800 358 3783 or by emailing us at: housing. enquiries@westminster.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can visit our website at westminster. gov.uk/leasehold-communication YourHome Magazine | Page 5

Christmas hamper deliveries bring festive cheer to our Westminster residents With donations and support from the Sir Simon Milton Foundation, Age UK, and other local charities, volunteers from Westminster Connects and our housing team delivered thousands of festive hampers to Westminster residents this Christmas.

The Sir Simon Milton Foundation, a Westminsterbased charity committed to tackling elderly isolation and loneliness, alongside the South Westminster BID and Age UK Westminster all donated hampers across the city. Joining the volunteers were Cllr Christabel Flight, Deputy Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, Cllr David Harvey, Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Debbie Jackson, Executive Director of Growth, Planning and Housing and Neil Wightman, Director of Housing – all helping with deliveries to residents including those living in sheltered accommodation.

The Lord Mayor of Westminster, Cllr Andrew Smith, was also on hand to help pack and deliver the festive treats.

Our housing contractors, including Axis, Bauder, Effectable, Gem, Morgan Sindall, Precision Lifts, Oakray and United Living also provided support and we thank them all for their contribution.

Matthew Sykes, Chief Executive of the Sir Simon Milton Foundation said: “We have been giving hampers to the most lonely and isolated older citizens of Westminster every Christmas for many years. We are again delighted to be partnering with Westminster City Council and its wonderful volunteers to deliver them. For many this is not a season of joy and facing the pandemic for a second year has made it harder still. We hope that these gifts will lift their spirits and show them they are not alone.”

“We hope that these gifts will lift their spirits and show them they are not alone”

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Double award success for the Clean Streets Team Our outstanding waste collection and street cleansing service has won two prestigious awards.

Westminster City Council has been awarded ‘Public Sector Fleet of the Year’ at the Green Fleet Conference in recognition of our efforts to modernise and decarbonise our waste collection vehicles. We also picked up the ‘Partnership Excellence Award’ at the National Recycling Awards for our partnership work with Veolia.

“I’m hugely proud of our amazing waste collection and street cleansing teams who keep the city running every day of the year”

Westminster City Council and Veolia have worked together to transform waste collection and street cleansing across the city. A quarter of the 286 vehicles operating on diesel have now been replaced with fully electric vehicles, ranging from waste flushers and waste buggies to electric bikes and electric road sweepers. This has already generated a saving of around 480 tonnes of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions each year. 40 per cent of all Westminster street cleansing vehicles now run-on electric power, and waste collection in the West End is now 100 per cent electric.

The council and Veolia also worked closely to redesign waste and recycling collection services to support businesses during the reopening of the city this year. The partnership work played a key role in enabling al fresco dining to run smoothly in the centre of London – supporting the hospitality sector at a crucial moment and allowing our businesses to thrive.

Not only are our streets cleaner, so are our estates with 88 per cent of residents satisfied with the cleaning of their communal areas on their estates and blocks. Our Estates Services teams carry out daily monitoring of the cleaning standards on all the communal areas of the council’s estates in the borough, ensuring standards are maintained.

The teams work very closely with PinnaclePSG who provide the cleaning service on the housing estates city-wide. The team also works in close cooperation with Veolia and Pinnacle to ensure that all refuse and recycling bins on our estates are emptied as per schedule.

westminster.gov.uk

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A Taste of Westminster The Taste of Westminster cookbook showcases how you can create new recipes and show how we are utilising food to bring our communities together.

In this edition you can find amazing new recipes such as Afsara’s Bang Bang Chicken Wings, Ruth’s Meatball Pasta Bake, Ciean’s Cinnamon Rolls and lots more.

There are also a range of food facts for you to learn and you can see how we are getting our community involved in cooking. The cookbook is free, easily accessible and can be found at westminster.gov.uk/cookbook

A TASTE OF WE STMI NS TE R

A COLLEC TION OF RECIPE S BY WESTM INSTER VOLUN TEERS, RESIDE NTS, ORGAN ISATIO NS AND BUSINE SSES AUTUM N 2021 EDITIO N

Creating an inclusive culture for our visitors We are doing lots of work to ensure we continue to foster an inclusive culture across Westminster for our residents and visitors.

This includes improving our services to help meet our residents and visitors’ accessibility needs. We’re proud to be the first city council in London to sign-up to WelcoMe. The WelcoMe app allows visitors with accessibility needs who wish to visit Lisson Grove and Westminster City Hall to discreetly inform our staff of the assistance they require before visiting. This enables us to have relevant information so that we know how best to help you receive a warm welcome.

Contact us

Let’s get fully vaccinated The best thing we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones this winter is to get fully vaccinated, including getting the booster when eligible.

First, second, third and booster COVID-19 vaccines are available for all those eligible (third vaccines are for those with severely suppressed immunity). You can book your vaccination by visiting the NHS vaccination website or calling NHS 119, free of charge. You can also find out about all the centres and pharmacy sites in Westminster where you can get your vaccine on our website at westminster.gov.uk/vaccinations

Keeping you updated

Westminster Housing, Westminster City Hall, 12th Floor, 64 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QP

We are updating you in many ways to ensure that no one feels left out. We have reaching out by post, email and text. We also carrying out telephone calls to those who are the most vulnerable. Please let us know if your contact details have changed recently.

Tweet us

Get the latest and sign up online

0800 358 3783 housing.enquiries@westminster.gov.uk

Write to us

Report housing or repair issues via Twitter @wcchousing Please note we have stopped our drop-in surgeries and are operating our service centres by appointment only until further notice.

Our website is updated daily with detailed advice and the very latest information about coronavirus (COVID-19) including what you can do to protect yourself, and the impact of the disease on our services.

We urge all residents to sign up for regular email updates at westminster.gov.uk/coronavirus

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