What did tenants say in our Money Talk?

We understand that this is a very stressful and worrying time for everyone when it comes to finances and the increased cost of living. For #TalkMoneyWeek, Elizabeth Lendering, Finance and Resource Director, and Oonagh Lyons, Housing and Communities Director, met virtually with tenants on Zoom to talk about rising costs and the effect on future rents and service charges. They explained how rents and service charges are set and outlined the financial and digital support that Newydd offers. David Wilton from TPAS Cymru also joined the conversation and shared findings from their latest Pulse report on affordability.

The areas of concern raised by our tenants included:

• fear that there will be budget cuts that will affect the services and support they receive
• increased fuel and material costs might mean that smaller repairs would stop being done
• that rents and service charges for single bedroom homes may become unaffordable
• the effect on families with low incomes or who are in work poverty
• the effect of high council tax bandings for tenants living in an area where there are very affluent pockets within their local authority
• that rising fuel costs will result in tenants not using their heating at all and the harmful impact this would have for more vulnerable tenants

What’s next?

We will take into account tenant feedback when reviewing our rent setting policy and developing a rent affordability strategy. We are waiting for an announcement from Welsh Government about the percentage increase to social housing rents that we are allowed to apply. This will be one of the major factors we consider when setting our budgets and your rents and service charges for next financial year in December.

Newydd are also looking at energy and cost saving options for communal areas in our independent living schemes such as installing timed switches, so lighting and heating only comes on when needed and fitting solar panels where appropriate.

To improve efficiency, the prioritisation of small repairs is being changed to ensure that the same operative deals with the repair from start to finish.

We promise that we will be open and transparent and give reasons for any increases made to your rent and service charges. We will continue to keep the conversation going with tenants about rent affordability. We will keep tenants up to date about the help that is available to them and ensure that any tenant who is financially or digitally excluded gets the help that they need. We will also continue to run community pop up events to talk to our tenants about their financial worries.

Cath Kinson, Chair of the Tenant Scrutiny Group, who attended the Money Talk discussion said, “We trust you with our homes and that you will do the best you can for all your tenants.”

For more information about the cost-of-living crisis and what Newydd can do to help, please our Cost of Living page on our website.

If you would like to get involved in focus groups looking at rent setting, affordability and value for money, please contact Tracy James, Involvement Officer: tracy.james@newydd.co.uk or 02920 00 5477.