One Voice

Welcome to our latest news round up for residents.

One Housing News

One Housing joins the Riverside Group

Following a six-week customer consultation on a proposed partnership between One Housing and Riverside, we can confirm that One Housing joined the Riverside Group as a subsidiary on 1 December 2021.

We'll be a subsidiary of the new Group for at 2 years and will continue to deliver our services locally as we do at the present time. There are no changes to rents or tenancy terms and services can be accessed through our Customer Service Centre and the housing and property teams in the usual way. We're committed to delivering the priorities in our partnership proposals and will be working together with our residents, local stakeholders and public authorities.

You can now use your online account to buy a fob or key and see any cases you have raised with us. You can also raise a query and check your rent account. These are small steps but over the coming months we’ll be introducing more services that you can access online.

If you would like to get involved in our design and testing, please email us at ask@onehousing.co.uk. Please include ‘FAO Anne Hill – MyOneHousing Residents’ Portal development’ in the subject line.

Christmas opening times

24 December 2021         8am-1pm

25 December 2021         Closed

26 December 2021         Closed

27 December 2021         Closed

28 December 2021         Closed

29 December 2021         8am-6pm

30 December 2021         8am-6pm

31 December 2021         8am-4pm

1 January 2022                Closed

2 January 2022                Closed

3 January 2022                Closed

If you need to report an emergency repair, you can do that at any time by calling us on 0300 123 9966.

Our services

We’re working hard on improving our services following the launch of our Customer Experience Strategy earlier in the year. We’ve been using your feedback from our customer surveys to help us change what we do so we can answer your calls more quickly and respond to more queries right first time.  Getting our services right is our top priority.

We’re really pleased that we are achieving 80% first time resolution but we want to keep improving what we do.   

We’re also getting a higher than usual number of calls and repair requests which can slow down our response times at peak times.

Our busiest time is 8am till 10am so unless it is an emergency you may find it easier to call a bit later in the day. 

This year we have launched our new text surveys which we send when your case is closed or a repair s completed. Please do spare a couple of minutes to tell us how we have done!

Next time we will have a new section in the newsletter called You Said We Did showing how your valuable feedback has been used.     

Looking after your home

Helping you look after your home this winter

The winter months can be difficult for a lot of us. With heating bills increasing and lots of extra outgoings, keeping your home warm can feel like a lot of financial pressure.

We’re committed to giving you and your family a safe, warm and comfortable place to live in. Looking after your home is a joint effort and we’ll work with you to make sure everything we’re responsible for is looked after as it should be. However, you’re also responsible for looking after some things so please check your tenancy agreement to find the rights and responsibilities specific to your home.

If you’re our tenant and your heating breaks down or you don’t have hot water, we will attend your property and carry out an emergency repair within our target of 24 hours.  We’re working really hard to achieve this target and last we met this for 96% of emergency repairs. The cold weather period is always a busy time of year and occasionally getting parts needs another visit. Please bear with us if this is needed and make sure you ask us for extra temporary heaters if you need them. Do call us on 0300 123 9966 as soon as you have a problem to make sure we can deal with it as quickly as possible. You can report emergency repairs at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We’ve also put together some tips to help you minimise the risk of any problems from checking your boiler to managing condensation so you can stay safe and well during winter.

Winter home maintenance tips

Please follow these tips to discover some ways to look after your home during the colder months.

• Check for draughts around windows and doors and fit draught excluders.
• Make sure your gutters and drains aren’t blocked or leaking.
• Check stopcock and isolation valves haven’t seized up. If they’re stiff, loosen them with WD40.
• Protect your pipes. Get in touch with us if any insulation or 'lagging' around external pipes needs replacing.
• Check where your inside stop valve is. This will help if you need to turn your water off quickly in an emergency. Most are under the kitchen sink.
• If your boiler makes a gurgling sound when on, its pipe might be frozen. If you can safely access it, try to gently unfreeze it with a hot water bottle or by pouring hot but not boiling water over it. Once this is done, hold down the boiler’s reset button to switch the system on again.
• If your boiler stops working, check its pressure gauge. If it’s showing a reading of one bar or less, low pressure could be the reason why your boiler’s not working. Follow the steps in your boiler’s manual to top the pressure up.
• If you go away for over 24 hours, switch off your water supply to minimise the amount of water which can escape in the event of leak and leave the heating on a low setting to prevent burst pipes.
•  Make sure you’re on the best energy deal. Check whether you’re on the most cost-effective energy tariff by visiting websites that compare prices from different suppliers – you could save more than you think. View our energy savings tips to learn more.
• Check your home contents insurance. Make sure you’re covered for any winter-related damage.

Managing mould and condensation

 At this time of year, you may experience condensation or damp caused by excess moisture. The problems can be sorted out quickly if you reduce moisture in the air, improve ventilation and use your heating efficiently.

• Put lids on saucepans when cooking.
• Dry your washing outside if your lease permits and it’s practical to do so.
• Open the bedroom window for 15 minutes each morning.
• Ventilate rooms regularly and leave doors open to allow air to circulate unless you're cooking or showering.
• If you're cooking, showering, or bathing, open the window or put the fan on and close the door of the room you're in.

Staying safe when using portable heaters

When strong wind, rain and snow hit, you may be turning to portable heaters to help stay warm. These can present a fire hazard so please use them with care. Please note that portable gas heaters omit carbon dioxide and cannot be used in any cirumstances.

• Don’t move a heater while it’s switched on.
• Don’t place heaters too close to bedding, furniture or clothing.
• Don’t air or dry clothing on heaters.
• Don’t leave portable heaters on if young children or pets are left unattended.
• Turn off portable heaters before going to bed at night.

Keeping you safe

Stay safe in the community

During the winter months, many people with vulnerabilities may require extra support and help. We’re committed to helping protect children, young people and vulnerable adults from abuse and neglect. This includes physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse, as well as discrimination, modern slavery and self-neglect.

If you think you or someone in your community is being abused or neglected, tell us so we can help them. We work alongside our partners in social care, healthcare and the police to keep residents safe and support them to make their own choices.

To report a safeguarding concern, you can:

• Call us on 0300 123 9966
• Email safeguarding@onehousing.co.uk

If it’s not a One Housing property, please contact your local council.

Always call 999 if you or the person is at immediate risk or call the police on 101 if you think a crime has been committed.

Case study: Supporting our residents

Following a report from a concerned neighbour, a resident was temporarily moved to a new home as their property was suffering from an infestation. The Community Safety Team arranged for Pest Control to attend and make it habitable.

They also liaised with Age Concern for extra support and arranged for a grant to replace some of the items in the property that has been damaged such as a bed, sofa, carpets and cupboards.

The resident is now back in their home and was grateful for our support.

Money matters

Managing your rent payments this festive season

Please remember it’s important that you still pay your rent on time. If you’re struggling to manage your finances and pay your rent, contact us as soon as possible rather than worry about it on your own. We’re here to help and to talk to you about ways to manage your payments effectively. We also have a friendly and dedicated team of Welfare Benefits Advisors who can provide support and advise whether you might be eligible for various benefits.

We all know how expensive Christmas can be. As it’s really easy to let your spending get out of control at this time of year, here are our top tips to keep you out of the red this festive season.

• Set your budget ahead of time and stick to it.
• Don’t rely on credit and only buy what you can afford.
• Make a list of items you need to prevent impulse purchases.
• Remember that presents are about the thought, not how much they cost.

Please don’t hesitate to call us on 0300 123 9966 or email us at ask@onehousing.co.uk if you have difficulties paying.

Let's get social 

Did you know you can find us on Twitter? Please follow our Customer Services account @AskOneHousing for the latest updates.

Employment and training

On the job to help you into work

Whether you’re looking to get back into work after a break or are interested in finding something new, our dedicated team of job experts can provide you with personal one-to-one advice and guidance on everything from writing winning CVs and attention-grabbing covering letters, to building confidence when you land an interview and filling in skills gaps for jobs where you might not fit the job description 100%.

With the number of applicants per job getting higher and higher, please get in touch on 0300 123 9966 or ask@onehousing.co.uk so we can help give you the edge and get you that job.

You might also be interested in our innovative Transform & Achieve programme, which involves a one-to-one employment coaching and optional online course, to support your employment, training or simply a state of wellbeing.

Our community

Take part in our Resident Engagement Strategy Consultation

Listening to you and ensuring your voice is at the heart of decision-making is very important to us.

In 2022, we’ll be launching our new Resident Engagement Strategy and we want to hear your views about what this should include. The Strategy will set out ways in which we engage and involve residents so it’s very important you tell us what you think.

Whether you’re looking for more ways to be involved in your local community or want to help us shape our services, this is your opportunity to tell us how we can work together.

We’ll be running a series of online meetings and drop-in sessions at our community centres throughout December and January, so don’t miss your chance to share your feedback.

We’ll also be attending local Tenants and Residents Associations (TRAs) meetings to talk to local residents. For online meeting links, please email residentengagements@onehousing.co.uk.

Check out the table below to find a meeting close to you. We’ll also be sending out a survey to all residents in January so if you live in an area that isn’t covered or you can’t attend the meeting, please look out for the survey link to have your say.

If you would like to make a difference to your local community and help us shape our services, then please email residentengagements@onehousing.co.uk and someone from the team will be in touch to talk to you about other ways in which you can get involved.

Helping your child get to the top of the class

We know that our younger residents can face a range of pressures. This is why we’re delighted to work with Tutors United to provide free weekly lessons in Maths and English to school children aged between 8-11 years old to support their learning.

Tutors United deliver confidence-boosting, attainment raising tutorials. There is a mixture of online and face-to-face sessions available so please do apply regardless of where you live.

Please note that spaces are limited – if your child doesn’t receive a space straight away, they will be put on the waiting list and you will be contacted as soon as it becomes available.

To sign up, please fill in a registration form using the link below or email programmes@tutorsunited.org if you have any questions.