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Andrew Kidds Head of Customer Contact @Andkidds_Accent
Customer Portal Update We launched our online ‘Customer Portal’ in June. You should have received your username and password over the summer months.
Since its launch, around 3,000 accounts have been activated. This means that lots of you have still not yet taken advantage of this new self service via our website. If you haven’t had, or you’ve misplaced your username or password, please get in touch so we can get you set up.
Matt Cobb Housing Manager @accentcmy
Season’s Greetings! I would like to wish all our residents a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Customers accessing the online service can now report repairs directly, view their repairs history, make payments and look at their rent accounts. You can access all our news and publications too, so it is well worth visiting our website, www.accentgroup.org and selecting ‘My Account’ at the top of the page.
Those of you already using the website and self-serving will know how simple and easy it is. So, if you haven’t already, we would encourage you to set your account up as soon as you can. Please contact us to find out how.
At this time of year, probably more than any other, is the temptation to spend more than we can afford. If you are struggling to pay your rent, or you need help with managing your budget in the final run up to Christmas, or any time after, please contact us, full details on page 8, we can help...
Andrew Williams Executive Director of Customer Services @AndrewAJW
Revised reception opening times As most of you now contact us via phone, and only a small number of you (around 5%) visit our offices, we are moving towards closing our office reception areas to the public.
From Monday 1 February 2016, we are proposing to change our office visiting times to: • • • • •
Monday: 9am – 1pm Tuesday: 9am – 1pm Wednesday: 10am – 1pm Thursday: 9am – 1pm Friday: 9am – 1pm
Although you won’t be able to visit our offices outside these times without an appointment, you can still contact us and access your personal information via our customer portal. The portal is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With mobile working for staff coming soon, you’ll also be seeing
They are designed to improve service standards to:
Head of Contract Management
• Help us to achieve 98% customer satisfaction.
@neilcox84
• Meet 95% of all appointments.
Neil Cox
New repairs and maintenance contracts for 2016 The new contracts will improve service and deliver better value for money.
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• Complete repairs in less than seven days on average. • Provide a service from 8am to 8pm on weekdays plus Saturday mornings. • Carry out ‘Home MOTs’. • Provide a handyman service.
much more of your housing officers in your neighbourhood. Our Shipley contact centre is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 8am to 12pm on Saturday. If you have any comments on the proposed new office opening hours, please contact us by Friday 8 January 2016.
You will be able to order repairs online 24 hours a day and track them. It’s a huge project for us, but we think you’ll agree it will be worth it. We believe it will provide you with a consistent and high quality service, at the same time as reducing our cost and contract administration. Contracts are due to be awarded this month. As soon as we know who the successful contractor is for your area we will let you know.
Introducing our new Customer Contact Centre Andrew Kidds, Head of Customer Contact @Andkidds_Accent
With our new customer contact centre located in Shipley, we are now in a much stronger position to improve the quality of services you can access, and develop our digital service. We have been recruiting and training new staff throughout the summer period and have a great team ready to support you. When you call us, we understand that it is often to deal with something more complex than just reporting a repair or making a payment so having trained, knowledgeable staff to support you is our priority.
“Developing the quality of service we provide directly to our customers has been the main reason for bringing our contact centres together in one building. Our digital transformation is well underway too with services easy to access online. We understand that a ‘quality’ service to most people means that their enquiry is dealt with fully at the first point of contact with little or no follow up required. We are investing in our staff training as well as technology to ensure we can deliver on this objective from our contact centre.”
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We are really proud of this investment and we are sure you will enjoy speaking with our contact centre team members
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We’re excited about Mobile Workin g see pag e8
The Perfect Fit: helping you to find the right home Have you thought about moving to a smaller home that better suits your needs? We can help, both practically and financially, by providing support to move, or a financial payment of up to £500. We can help with, for instance, arranging removals, disconnecting and reconnecting appliances and offering decorating vouchers. To qualify, you must leave your home in good, clean condition and be willing to move quickly – with reasonable notice. You will also receive a further £250 for each room you free up. For example, if you move from a 3-bed home to a 1-bed home, we will offer you an extra £500 for freeing up 2 bedrooms. Interested? Please contact us and when a suitable property becomes available, we will be in touch. @ CONTACT US SEE PAGE 8
Benefits could include: You may no longer be affected by bedroom tax Your bills and rent may reduce Your home may be easier to maintain You may be closer to friends and family, and amenities and services Your home might be more accessible and easily updated
We will provide support to move, or a financial payment of up to £500 3
Right to buy You may know that the Government has proposed plans to extend the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme to housing association residents. As yet, the Government has not made it clear exactly how the scheme will work, and we do not think it will come into effect before the summer of 2016. However, if you are interested in owning your own home one day, it may help to make that ambition more of a reality. The Government may limit the funding available to support the scheme, so it is really too early to provide much information. However there are things you will need to consider. Are you eligible? You will need to have been a social housing resident for a set number of years. Some homes may be exempt – but we do not know what the restrictions are yet. If your home is exempt, you may be entitled to a ‘portable discount’ which you can use to help you buy another property. Can you afford it? You will need to think about whether you can get a deposit and a mortgage and if you can keep up with the repayments, as well as whether you can afford the service charge, any ground rent and the repairs and maintenance your home will need. Other costs to consider are solicitor’s fees, stamp duty, valuation fees and surveyors’ fees. The Money Advice Service website www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk has free
information to help you understand and calculate these costs. The Government has also set up a useful advice website: https://righttobuy.communities.gov.uk Will it suit your lifestyle? Owning a home is a long term commitment which doesn’t suit everybody. Some people prefer not to have the responsibility of carrying out repairs, or they want to be flexible about where they live. Owning a home can limit some people’s opportunities to move for work or other reasons, downsizing and upsizing can be more difficult too. Watch out for ‘unscrupulous’ companies offering to ‘help’ you buy your home, they may not have your best interests in mind.
TELL US YOUR VIEWS If you think you’d like to buy your home at some point now or in the future, we would like to hear from you. We are keeping a ‘register of interest’ so we can understand and plan for how we can best help our customers. We will contact you when we know how the scheme will operate. Did you know that we also build and provide shared ownership homes in some areas? This could be another way for you to get on the property ladder. See our website for details – www.accentgroup.org/find-a-home
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Festive Wordsearch Our wordsearch is full of the things you might expect to find at Christmas. There are no prizes for finding the words, it’s just for fun. We have listed 12 words for you – but there is a hidden 13th word. Why not post the hidden word on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/accentdcmy if you find it.
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Missing Word: @ CONTACT US SEE PAGE 8
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Robert Mills Regional Housing Director @RobMAccent
You can help stop tenancy fraud
Improving your homes
Across Surrey, the Surrey Counter Fraud Partnership (SCFP), is working hard to investigate fraudulent use of housing.
The types of fraud include: Illegal subletting of social housing. Providing false information to obtain a tenancy. Unlawfully passing social housing to a relative or friend. Right to Buy fraud. We have teamed up with Surrey Heath Borough Council and the SCFP to launch a new publicity campaign ‘Don’t stop his family having a home’ asking for residents’ help by reporting any suspicions they may have about fraudulent tenancy activity and allowing those in real need to occupy available homes.
We are pleased to be supporting this campaign. Tenancy fraud is a serious matter, and can deprive someone else of a much needed home. We need to make the best use of the limited housing we have in Surrey Heath. It is neighbours who are often well placed to notice anything unusual and, if anyone has any suspicions about who is living in a property or possible fraud, they should report it. Anyone with information or suspicions of tenancy fraud can call the Surrey Heath Borough Council Confidential Counter Fraud & Corporate Enforcement Hotline on 01276 707 376, or report it online at www.surreyheath.gov.uk/webform/ report-suspected-fraud
Garden Competition is a huge success! Thank you to everyone who entered and welcomed us in to their gardens for our gardening competition – it was great to see all the effort and enthusiasm. Judging took place over two days in August and it really was a difficult job to decide the winners and runners up from all the wonderful entries – but here they are...
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Best Garden: 1st D Boxall 2nd A Piggot 2nd R Parrant Best Fruit & Veg: 1st K Matthews 2nd D Newman
Best Container 1st S Elgie Best Sheltered Scheme Garden: 1st G Collins 2nd M Comer
We’re already looking ”forward to next year! ”
Matt Cobb Housing Manager @accentcmy
We have been very busy since our last newsletter with a number of different consultation events, and we have carried out quite a lot of improvements including:
New communal doors at Tarragon Grove, Sydenham, London. Major ground maintenance (pictured right) and cyclical decoration at Kilnbarn Court, Haywards Heath. Removing washing lines and re-turfing at Tilebarn Court, Haywards Heath. Installing bins in Wimbledon Road, Camberley. Our contractors, (Lotus) will be emptying them. Replacing uneven paving slabs at Appley Court, Camberley. Repainting the car parking lines in Highview Crescent, Camberley. Undertaking tree work in Bloomsbury Way and Portland Close, Kent. Installing ventilation fans at Wimbledon Close, Camberley. Improving the security in Whitley Court, Aldershot with a new communal door. Replacing the lift carpet at Imperial Court with vinyl flooring. All this work was as a direct result of your suggestions and our estate inspections. If you’d like to be involved in future inspections, check our website for the next dates for your scheme, or contact your housing officer.
We will be upgrading the CCTV in Avenue Sucy and Surrey Avenue in Southway, and installing CCTV at Whitley Court and Burchetts Close. We have also upgraded the CCTV in Alexander House and Stafford House in Aldershot. We are also renewing the roofs in Chapel Road and James Road, Camberley, following consultations with our leaseholders and shared owners. Our housing officers have also been spending time on your schemes. Shannon Waugh and Julie Frankham door knocked at Gilbert Road and Greenbank Way in Camberley and, as a result, we collected over £1,400 in unpaid rent. Lisa Mitchell and our collection officers visited Horseshoe Crescent and collected £800 in rent. Through these site visits, seven residents have expressed an interest in getting more involved. Tom Wright visited our new development in Addlestone. He will be carrying out a joint visit in January with Paragon Housing Association. The aim of these initiatives is to make us more visible, give us the chance to talk to you and give you the chance to talk to us, or address any conerns you have. They also help us to tackle suspected tenancy fraud.
Rubbish Collection
Staff Changes
In May 2015 we introduced a rubbish removal service, where our caretakers would remove items for a fee of £5. Since the service was introduced, we have collected £935. Due to the increase in costs, we will have to increase the charge to £10, but this is still considerably cheaper than the council.
You may have noticed a number of staff changes in our housing team recently. Zoe Miles now works on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and Sarah Yeo, who previously worked in our contact centre, covers the patch for the rest of the week. Sarah is also helping Michelle Howard on her patch on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. This allows Michelle to concentrate on being part of a project group to update our current computer system.
@ CONTACT US SEE PAGE 8
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Using mobile technology, your local team should be out on our schemes more often in future and will be able to deal with any aspect of your tenancy whilst visiting you in your home – that’s anything from reporting a repair to helping you with your rent account.
Steve Dungworth Head of Corporate Services @accentICT
Mobile Working Our staff, with their new mobile devices, are now equipped to deliver an even better service to you.
We think this will make us more efficient by enabling our staff to see more of you by spending less time in the office. It’s all part of our personal, modern and better service.
Universal Credit is now replacing a range of in work and out of work benefits across most areas of the country.
Robert Mills Regional Housing Director @RobMAccent
If you currently receive in work or out of work benefits, there is a good chance that you could move onto Universal Credit at some point in the coming months. Universal Credit brings a big change in how rent is paid. It is no longer paid directly to us by the Housing Benefit department – you will be responsible for making the payment yourself. Universal Credit is also paid monthly rather than fortnightly or every four weeks. For some people, this will mean a new way of budgeting. If you move onto Universal Credit, it is important that you tell us and let us know when your payment date is.
If you have any concerns about how the new benefit affects your rent payments please contact us. Our staff have been trained in how to deal with Universal Credit and will be able to help you set up payments to make sure your rent is paid on time. We can also help you with household budgeting.
Stay in touch! Address: 1 Pembroke Broadway Camberley, Surrey GU15 3XD
Telephone: 0345 678 0577 Email: cemberley@accentgroup.org
Social media: @accentcmy /accentcmy www.accentgroup.org