Inspirational Housing, Neighbourhoods and Communities that Residents are Proud to Call Home
Your opinions matter – and you could win £25!
It’s that time of year where we ask your opinion of how we’ve done in the past 12 months, for our annual Tenant Satisfaction Measures.
This year we have entered a new partnership with Service Insights Ltd and House Mark to carry out the survey.
This ensures that the process is fair and that our tenants can remain anonymous if they want to. The survey will be conducted by telephone survey – if you receive a call asking if you’d like to take part, we’d really value your opinions and feedback – and four residents who complete the survey will be randomly selected to win shopping vouchers of their choice for £25.
We have driven through a lot of changes over the last 12 months here at CHISEL and we hope that you have felt a difference in the way we communicate and carry out services with you.
There’s definitely some way to go, however we have a plan of further improvements in the next twelve months.
House Mark are the leading experts in data and benchmarking for the social housing sector and have worked with CHISEL for the past year and a half to help us ensure that you are receiving best or better practice as other social housing residents.
What we really liked about Service Insights was that they try to recruit people to carry out the surveys who have barriers that might prevent them entering the workplace for other jobs.
This sort of social impact is always important for us when we select people to work with or who will be talking to you the CHISEL residents.
CHISEL colleague Dan is leading on this work, and please email him if you have any questions at [email protected]
We’re committed to working with you to tackle Anti-social Behaviour
We’re committed to working with you and our partners in the neighbourhoods and communities where you live to tackle and manage anti-social behaviour from other CHISEL residents or third parties.
As an area that was focussed on for improvement in the past 12 months we have invested in a state of the art portal to log all cases, and we have carried out a top to tail review of our existing caseload.
We are currently collaborating closely with the Police in two cases, another Housing Association with properties next to ours, and have two live injunctions.
You can report ASB to us on 020 8692 5258, and we also have an out of hours ASB reporting service for you to use, the Respect Line – 0800 075 6699 where you can speak to a case worker with training and experience in managing ASB.
Case workers will ask callers for details of the incident, give advice, signpost to support services or contact Police and the Environmental Health Team on their behalf. Please keep in mind that emergency situations or witnessing crime should always be reported to Police first.
Our First Residents Buildings Forum was a big success
The Resident Chair of the new CHISEL Residents Buildings Forum, Peter Coker has asked to say thank you to everybody who came along to the last meeting..
The residents discussed the Retrofit Award CHISEL received from the government, budgets, and how to develop a scheme where residents get paid to carry out their own repairs – for themselves or their neighbours.
The Forum also got a sneak preview of some proposed plans for a new self build scheme that CHISEL are proposing
The passion in the room was infectious – and the next meeting is on Monday June 23rd at 6pm – you are all welcome to attend in person on on-line, please RSVP to CHISEL colleague Miles at [email protected] if you’d like to come.
Thank you to the 92 homes who are to to date with their rent accounts
For the 150 homes who are in arrears (ranging from £5 to £6,000) please look out for your rent statement which will come through the post today. Please make a payment to bring your account into credit.
We have taken a deep dive into everybody’s account, we have the most accurate set of figures for some time, and if you have been avoiding our calls and letters, please engage with us so that we can help you bring your account into credit again, and remove the risk of court action and losing your home.
Whilst we have already been to court this year and have several cases lined up, we have also been able to recover unpaid PIP allowance for one resident, and found a posting error on our systems for another.
We have a duty as a social housing provider to collect rent, and you have a duty under your tenancy to pay it.
Meet Jayne….
If you live in one of our homes in Brighton, we’re more than pleased to announce that Jayne Hazelden has joined us on a part-time basis as Neighbourhood Manager for you.
Jayne works various days in the week, so you should always call our contact centre as your first point of call on 020 8692 5258.
CHISEL Colleague Neil is still with us though – our exciting Supported Housing Partnership with Stonewall Housing, providing rooms for young LGBTQ+ people at risk of homelessness will be expanding in the year ahead, and he will be focussing on that work, and the CHISEL website – and his new job title is Supported Housing Manager
Jose Ospina, the founder of CHISEL!
One of the most exciting partnerships we have made in the past 12 months is our renewed friendship with the founder of CHISEL, Jose Ospina.
Jose developed the CHISEL model of self-build housing back in the late 1980s which were developed from Walter Segal’s original approach.
It’s an absolute honour to be able to say Jose has been advising us on our potential new self-build scheme at Drakefell Road, and will be joining CHISEL Chair Louise Owen and CEO Miles Lanham on stage at the International Social Housing Festival in Dublin later this year.
A brighter hope for the future with Dan
The CHISEL Board made the strategic decision to support the senior leadership’s proposals to grow the organisation last year, and we are looking at four distinct ways of carrying that out. New Self-Build (see our outline design above for a inter-generational self-build scheme in Lewisham), expanding our Supported Housing Partnership with Stonewall Housing, moving into Temporary Housing provision and managing homes and estates for other providers.
In the six months since then, we have met with an overwhelming positive response from potential new partners – some of our plans are at advanced stages, and should be ready to share with you further later in the year.
In the meantime, supporting CHISEL to deliver our ambitious agenda we have our final new member of the team for now, meet Dan Thwaites, who has just joined as Director of Compliance, Operations and Growth. Dan will also be ensuring that our services are fully compliant with the Regulator’s standards.
