Your rent
The cost-of-living crisis has meant that we’re all watching our finances much closer, and in 2022-23, we made sure our customers knew that, if they needed some help with paying their rent, we were here.
Due to the rising costs of providing services such as repairs and maintenance of our homes, we made the difficult decision to increase rents. We know that for many people, this was unwelcome news as the rising cost of energy, food and other essentials was already putting pressure on finances.
Ahead of the rent increase, we reached out to all of our customers to let them know how we can help, acting early when we think customers need some support. For those who responded, we worked closely with them to understand their unique circumstances, referring more than 1,000 customers to specialist support providers and our charity partners such as Clean Slate, Longleigh Foundation and more.
We also helped our customers to get almost £140,000 worth of discretionary housing payments to help with their rent.
Dedicated support
During the rent increase, we set up a dedicated rent phone number, email and web form to help customers get in touch and understand how we could help if money was tight.
Facebook live event
In April, 2022, we held a special Facebook live event, inviting customers to join us for a special Q&A session. 387 customers watched this event, either joining us on the night or watching later.
Reaching out
Using technology, we’ve been able to gather useful insight around how our customers are doing and spot when something unusual is happening, We’ve then been able to contact customers directly to see how we can help.