Local offers
Local offers are standards agreed between landlords and their residents to make services more suitable.
Over the last year we have been working with you through meetings and surveys to find out what our local offers should be.
Firstly - thank you to everyone who got involved. In all we had over 380 separate responses from residents detailing your views. As a result of this work, a set of draft local offers were put together and these were discussed and agreed by the Residents’ Forum and Newlon Board. The ‘offers’ needed to match your views and concerns but also had to be realistic, achievable and good value for money. The final ‘offers’ are set out below and they will be running alongside our existing standards from April 1st, 2011.
Our local offers made in partnership with you:
- Where residents work or have family commitments such as the school run, we will arrange suitable repair appointments such as two hour timeslots or during the middle of the day. This currently does not apply to defects (the repairs that building contractors are responsible for during the first year of a new build being handed over to us).*
- If you are working, or have similar full time commitments such as studying. and we cannot resolve a repair after two visits, we will arrange flexible appointments including times outside our normal hours. This currently does not apply to defects.*
- We will make available a programme of the year’s cyclical decoration works to all residents via the newsletter and our website. This is the decorative work we do to the outside and communal areas of your homes every few years. This will include other information such as the choices that will be made available and the number of years within which it will be done again.
- For those residents experiencing Anti-Social Behaviour, we will now provide feedback to you on the progress of your case every 4-6 weeks.
- We will increase the range of options available to staff for managing noise nuisance cases, including the use of noise monitoring equipment.
- Within the first six months of a new letting we will inform tenants of the services available from Newlon Fusion and tailor this information where possible using the diversity information we hold. Newlon Fusion is our community regeneration organisation that provides training and support for things like employability skills, reducing fuel bills and managing your money. They also run our community centres.
- We will improve resident scrutiny of the major repairs and gas servicing contractors performance by creating a Resident Scrutiny Panel.
- We will offer suitable training to involved residents who get involved at Newlon that is specific to their role.
- Every resident over 75 will get a visit within six months of their birthday to discuss any housing needs and to carry out a check on their property. After this they will be contacted annually. They will automatically get priority heating and hot water repairs in the winter. A package of additional support will be arranged as appropriate.*
- We will increase the level of choice that we currently offer to residents throughout our Stock Improvement Programme and improve the energy efficiency of residents' homes, which should assist in addressing fuel poverty in our homes.*
- Where an estate is graded at B2 or lower we will consult with residents and devise an action plan on how we can improve the grading of this estate.
* This 'offer' does not apply to Leaseholders or Shared Owners.
Along with the 'offers' themselves, in the pdf document below, we have shown you which Newlon service the 'offer' covers and which Tenant Services Authority (TSA) standards they fall under. The TSA is the current regulator for Social Housing.
Local offers (pdf)
Monitoring
The Residents’ Forum will monitor these 'offers' and assess how successful we are at fulfilling them. They will also make recommendations depending on their findings.
Just because we have agreed these specific offers doesn’t mean that we won’t continue to tailor our services in other ways to improve them. We will continue to work in partnership with residents to see where we can adapt and improve our services.
For all other enquiries see our Contact us page.
