A day in the life of a neighbourhood officer and how they support you:
Checking in on your home and neighbourhood
Find out more about your local neighbourhood officer here:
Supporting a customer with his first ever tenancy
A customer in Devizes needed to leave a 3-bedroom family home where he had previously lived with his parents and latterly his brother. When we were informed of the death of his brother, our Neighbourhood Officer, Paul, visited him at his home to explore any claim of succession of the home. As the customer’s brother had succeeded his parents at the home, Paul explained to him that he couldn’t remain in the property but that we would work with him to find more suitable, alternative accommodation.
During Paul’s visits there were concerns that he was quite vulnerable and that he would struggle to navigate the housing system and manage his finances, so Paul worked with the local lettings team and the financial wellbeing team to put in place helpful and relevant support.
Paul helped the customer to remain in the property under use and occupation whilst the financial wellbeing team supported with a claim for Universal Credit and a discretionary housing payment.
Our lettings team regularly looked for one-bedroom suitable alternatives and worked with the customer to provide regular updates and choices, before eventually identifying a ground floor property near to the centre of Devizes as a suitable alternative home and the customer was offered this as a direct let.
Once we were in the position of offering a property, Paul worked with the customer to reduce the number of items he owned and arranged for removals. They worked hard to reduce his belongings, making trips to and from the recycle centre with unwanted items. Once our customer had moved into his new home and was comfortable and settled, a referral was made to our tenancy sustainment team to provide additional ongoing support.
With the continued cost of living increases, a small number of customers have experienced financial difficulties when paying their rent and service charges. Where this has happened, we have provided support through our financial wellbeing team, helping customers to put in place manageable solutions and affordable payment plans.
35,165 customers pay towards services charges, including grounds maintenance, communal cleaning, sewerage and building insurance amongst other essential routine works. This includes customers with C&C, Enham and EBHT.
Here’s an easy guide video to help you to understand more about your service:
We budgeted a spend on some services of the following values:
- Management companies £1.6 million
- Management fees £1.9 million
- Grounds maintenance £1.3 million
- Emergency systems £1.5 million
- Utilities £6.7 million.
The actual spend on chargeable services for 23/24 was £24 million. Additional costs were incurred due to the rising costs of materials and labour and further repairs and works needed to communal spaces and equipment.
These included:
- £331,633 on tree works
- £656,368 for door entry repairs
- £1.5 million on management company costs
- £335,960 on building insurance.
Your service charges
at the start of the year
million
We budgeted a total service
charge spend of:
During 2023/24 we arranged new energy contracts for Aster, EBHT and C&C. The new energy contracts started in April 2024, and it’s the first time that we have secured an energy contract that spans most of our group brands (excluding Enham Trust) and means customers benefit from the increased economies of scale from the supplier. Through the procurement process we were able to secure contracts that would see gas costs reduce by 31% and electricity costs by at least 21.9%.
Making a positive impact
During 2023/24 we carried out a total of 365 Section
20 consultations on the behalf of all brands.
This included:
- 6 consultations for longer term contracts of more than one year
- 147 consultations for works that would cost any individual customer more than £250
- 212 consultations for communal decoration works.
As a result of these consultations, we received 519 written observations in response to these consultations, all of which we responded to.
Section 20 Consultations
During the Section 20 consultation process, customers can register observations about work or contracts that we intend to undertake. When an observation is made, we take into consideration what is being said.
In Somerset, a Section 20 consultation was undertaken concerning drainage works. Via the observation process, several leaseholders registered their concerns about the proposed works as they believed it to be excessive. As a result of their observations and further exploration a CCTV survey was instructed. As a result of this specialist survey, it was agreed that we would not undertake the work to the extent that had been proposed.
Customer voice impact
Management companies deliver services to properties where we are not the freeholder of the land. The role of the Aster management company team is to oversee the work of the management companies that we work with. The team are responsible for reviewing the monies that we pay to external management companies for their services and ensuring they are complying with the terms of the legal contracts we have with them. Where they do not, the team will hold the management company to account to resolve the situation.
Management Companies