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Word on the Street! Cirencester Housing

Summer 2015

RURAL HOUSING WEEK

Each year we take part in National Rural Housing Week. The aim of the week is to highlight rural housing issues

and spotlight successful projects that offer a lifeline to local people in market towns and villages. Last year we held

a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party as part of Cirencester’s Hare Festival. Our Hare was painted by the children at a local

school and moved to its resting place before being auctioned. This year, along with another Housing Association,

English Rural, we organised a bus tour for local Parish Councillors visiting new developments in the Stroud and

Cotswold area. It was a beautiful hot sunny day when the bus arrived at Bibury and the tour was completed with a

visit to Arlington Fields where visitors could treat themselves to an ice cream from the Winstones Ice Cream Van.

The week was completed with Lynne and one of the Bibury residents being interviewed by Radio 4’s Farming Today

programme.

If you want to listen to the interview check out the blog on our website- www.cirencesterhs.org.uk.

Government Changes 2015 One of the consequences of

these changes in Government

legislation is that our repair

budget is going to be severely

reduced.

In all tenancy agreements

there is a section which out-

lines what repairs we will do

and what repairs are the re-

sponsibility of our residents. In

the past we have been able to

be flexible in our approach but

unfortunately we cannot con-

tinue to do this.

When you report a repair in

the future you may be asked

more questions than you ex-

pect as we try to ascertain if

the repair is necessary, if it is

our responsibility or if it is

something that we would ex-

pect you to do.

We are proud of the way that

our repairs service has been

operated and the standard

that the majority of our homes

are in, and we will do our best

to ensure that this is main-

tained, but there are certain

jobs that we can no longer do.

If you cannot carry out a re-

pair and have no-one who can

assist you, we may help, but

you may also be charged.

Election and Budget 2015:

Following on from the election and

the recent summer Budget, the

Chancellor announced various

changes which will have a big impact

on residents of housing associations.

Rents:

Rents will reduce by 1% per year

over the next four years. It is ex-

pected that rents will be about 14%

less by 2021 than they are today.

While this is very good news for cur-

rent residents, it does mean that

housing associations will have less

money to build new homes in the

future which will affect future gen-

erations, who will also struggle to

buy their own homes.

Welfare and Work:

The household benefit cap will be

reduced to £20,000 (for people who

live outside London). This places the

limit at £385 per week for a two par-

ent family and £258 for a single per-

son.

The benefit cap sets a limit on the

total amount in benefits that most

people of working-age can claim.

You may be exempt from the bene-

fits cap for example if you are of

pension age or if you receive work-

ing tax credits.

Pay to Stay:

One of the biggest changes for both

landlords and residents is the ‘pay to

stay’ idea. Under this scheme resi-

dents who have a joint household

income of over £30,000 a year will be

charged a market rent.

It is not anticipated that this change

will affect too many of our residents,

however when it does come into

effect in April 2017, there will be an

incremental increase in rents for resi-

dents who earn just over the thresh-

old with their rents rising gradually as

their income increases.

Housing benefit for under-21s:

The automatic entitlement to housing

benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds will be

scrapped for new claimants from April

2017. Exceptions will be made for

vulnerable young people, those una-

ble to return to the family home and

those who were in work for the six

months prior to making a claim.

Right-to-Buy:

In the election manifesto the Govern-

ment promised an extension of the

right to buy legislation.

At the current time there is no further

information on how this will work.

We will let you know when we

receive more information.

Repairs

Coffee Morning!

Friday 25th September

11.00am-2.00pm

Social activities Residents have asked us if we

would start up some of the

social activities that we used

to hold, particularly during

the winter months when it’s

more difficult to get out and

about.

These were stopped, mainly

due to dwindling numbers,

however we would love to

hold them again if we receive

enough support.

If you would like to get

involved in these groups and

have some ideas for activities

that would interest you, let us

know.

If enough people show an

interest we will be happy to

help get things moving!

Don’t forget we also have a

book exchange in the office.

Everyone is welcome to pop

in and see what there is to

read!

We have recently had reports of foxes and

badgers being seen in some of our communal

gardens! While we all like to see nature at such

close quarters, can we please remind residents

that these are wild animals and we should not be

feeding them.

Foxes in particular can become a real problem if

they get used to food being in one place, not only

do they start scavenging in bins and rubbish

bags, but there have been occasions where ur-

ban foxes have entered houses through open

windows and patio doors.

Bird watching and attracting birds

to your garden and communal ar-

eas is something that we all like to

do and there is now an array of

different bird feeders available to

buy, including sunflower seeds and suet balls,

each designed to attract different species of birds.

If you are used to using stale bread and food

scraps to attract birds, please remember that they

also attract vermin and should only be used on

bird tables or somewhere raised off the ground.

We are holding our annual coffee and cake morning in aid of

Macmillan. Come and join us in the office at any time between

11.00am and 2.00pm and bring your friends and family with

you! All welcome!

If you need a lift please contact us and we will arrange this for

you.

There will also be a raffle with prizes donated by local

businesses including Costa Coffee, Rose the Flower

Shop, Whiddetts Bakery, The Bakehouse and Crown

Electrical

Wonders of Nature!

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Shredding

If you have a lot of private paperwork,

bank statements, or utility bills which have accumulated over the years, we now

have the facility to dispose of these securely. Just call into our reception area

and you will see a ‘shred-it’ box, where you can ‘post’ your papers and they will

be collected by uniformed, security checked staff from the ‘shred-it’ company.

These boxes are locked until they are collected and then the contents are shred-

ded off site in a secure environment.

This service is free for all our residents. Please contact Dawn at the office for any

further information.

Charlotte

Innes

Charlotte has

been with us

all summer

and will have already spoken

to many of you on the phone

or in reception.

Having completed her A levels

this year and passing with

2A’s and a B, she is now off to

university. Thank you for all

your help Charlotte!

Car Parking

Once again the issue of car parking has arisen and we have received a num-

ber of complaints about inconsiderate and unauthorised parking.

Quite simply there is not enough car parking on any of our estates to accom-

modate all the cars that our residents own. Although there are conditions

within the Tenancy Agreement these are difficult to police, and would be

costly to pursue. We do therefore depend on the goodwill, co-operation and

common-sense of the community.

The basic ‘rules’ are: One car parking space per property, no commercial

vehicles in the car parks, and visitors should not park in our car parks.

We would hope that in the interests of neighbourliness you will bear these

conditions in mind, especially where you have two or more cars in your

household, or where you have a car and a works van. No-one has a ’right’ to a

car parking space even if they have been using it for a long time and it is out-

side their front door.

The exception to this is Vyners Close where there is the additional car park

for use by visitors and for commercial vehicles.

Sharon Savage

Many of you have already met

our Maintenance Officer, Sha-

ron Savage. Sharon has joined

us on a temporary basis and will

be looking after the day-to-day

maintenance issues.

Sharon is your first point of con-

tact for any repair queries that

you have and works full-time, 9-

5 Monday to Friday.

Steve will be in the office con-

centrating on maintenance and

asset management projects.

Update of information

Before she left, Charlotte contacted many of you to update the information we hold. A big thank you

to everyone who responded! If anyone has not been called and would like to make sure their contact

details are correct please give us a ring.

Some of the information we ask for is used for statistical purposes. It is up to you if you want to pro-

vide this more personal information, you do not have to do so.

We do however, need up-to-date contact information in order that we can raise job tickets, and it is

helpful to have details of an emergency contact number in case the unexpected happens to your

home, or there are any concerns for your safety.