Neighbourhoods
Our Neighbourhoods, Tenancy and Resolution teams handled almost 8,500 cases in 2023-24, making a difference with individual customers and communities alike.
Cases handled in 2023-24
Here are some of our highlights
Taking action on your ideas
Our colleagues that work across our Neighbourhoods services work hard to make sure your community remains a safe and pleasant place to live.
We know how important things like bins, pets, fly-tipping, communal spaces and others are to everyone who lives in your community, and that's why our specialist teams work with you to keep things on track.
We handled around 8,500 of your cases in 2023/24, listening to what you're telling us about each and every one.
We’ve also made it easier for you and your neighbours to submit petitions and suggestions for improving their community, making sure we’re engaging with you throughout the process. In 2023/24, we looked at customer petitions involving communal energy, staffing arrangements, parking and more.
This work has gone hand-in-hand with our work to encourage everyone to help us keep communal areas clean and tidy with posters and signage that highlights the problems caused by fly-tipping and waste left irresponsibly.
Community days
With the help of our partners, Bell Group, we delivered a series of Community Days at various schemes around the country, just like this one in the West Midlands:
Neighbourhood partners
Our Neighbourhood Partners (formerly known as Mobile Associates), have been growing as a team and in the amount of support they offer to customers.
Listening to your feedback about wanting more face-to-face contact with us, our Neighbourhood Partners have been going out to help customers with issues such as gas capping, meter readings, welfare calls, estate inspections, anti-social behaviour visits, risk assessments and more.
They’ve also been helping us to make contact with those customers who we feel might need some more help.
Visits to schemes completed by our Neighbourhood Partners
Somewhere to relax
We’ve been working with several communities to create new seating areas for customers to come together and enjoy being outdoors.
These projects have been funded through our Community Investment Grants, and we’ve partnered with Idverde Garden Maintenance Contractors to get them made and installed.
“‘It’s so, so nice to see the communal space that has been made, it seems all the residents and myself are so happy with it. Again it’s made so much difference to our us all having a space in the garden to sit, so happy”
~ a Stonewater customer
Area improvement projects completed
Including car park marking, bin store revamps, updated signage, bike rack installations, garden clearance, resident workshops and more.
Happy to Chat benches
Last year we installed around 10 Happy to Chat benches in our communities, giving everyone a place to relax, watch the world go by and get to know other people in their communities.
Happy to Chat benches are made from recyclable material and feature special plaques that encourage anyone sitting on them to have a conversation with someone else, just like this one that was installed in Exeter.
“The bench is a really good idea and helped (me) to meet new people when (I) first moved in”
~ Exeter Forum customer
PRIDE
Our LGBTQ+ staff networking group, Spectrum, went on the road again to celebrate PRIDE.
Take a look at some photos and videos from our trips to the Birmingham and Swindon festivals.
Community Action Days
Working with our contracting partners, our Community Action Days are a chance for us to bring communities together, listen to customers and to lend a helping hand.
In Dixons Green, Dudley, Wates joined us to carry out some repairs, and our digital training partner, We Are Group spent some time speaking with customers at the scheme to find out how we might be able to help them gain vital skills.
The fire service also joined us to help spread the word about keeping safe at home.
Community projects
Our Community Investment Grants are designed to help create long-lasting, sustainable improvements to our schemes, helping the people who live there to connect with each other.
Our funding at Shepherd Lodge, for example, is helping to increase engagement in group activities. In 2023, funding helped customers to host events such as a coronation party, flower arranging sessions, coffee mornings, and fish and chip Fridays. Customers have also met regularly to play Scrabble, and bingo, which was boosted by the addition of a brand new, electronic bingo machine. All of which are crucial in tackling social isolation.
A scheme coordinator for Shepherd’s Lodge said:
“Scrabble has already become a great success! It is in our communal lounge for anyone to use and it turns out Scrabble is way more competitive than imagined. We have been talking about having a quiz night in the future as this has been such fun. Weekly bingo now takes place, TV is well used in the evenings and weekends and hopefully Movie afternoons in the new year.”
Taking a closer look at anti-social behaviour
Our Scrutiny Panel have been helping us to review our approach to how we handle anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the last year, making several recommendations about how we can improve.
The panel looked at how Stonewater can better engage customers when they have an ASB issue, alongside how they can better communicate with customers about what tools are available to resolve reports of ASB.
Following their review, we’re refreshing lots of the information we have on ASB, and have produced a glossary of terms which explains the language we might use to describe different types of ASB or related behaviours, and the steps we can take to help resolve them. It also makes clear where you might need to go to other agencies, such as the police or the local council, for help.
The panel recommended that we continue to develop, use and share clear, consistent and bespoke action plans with all reporters of ASB detailing what has been discussed and agreed.
They also found that we needed to be clear where we do not have the powers to resolve an issue, and that more resources are needed through MyHome and our website to support customers to report and keep track of their ASB cases – features which are now in development.
The panel also recommended we produce a ‘Good Neighbour Guide’ to encourage communities to work together so that instances of ASB can be avoided.
Pest control
We know that having pests in your home and garden can be stressful and worrying, and we wanted to make sure you know how we can help.
We re-written our pest policy and created a brand new guide for customers which lists the most common pests you might find in your home, and what to do if you find them.
