Your September In Focus Newsletter

Hi, I’m Tracy, your Involvement Officer.

Welcome to your September In Focus - this edition is all about rent and service charges. There are articles about the upcoming annual affordability survey, the Cadarn Scrutiny Team’s review of service charges; the Scrutiny Team’s new ‘Straight Talking’ sessions; question of the month and the latest TPAS Cymru Tenant Pulse report on rent and affordability!

If you would like to get involved or have any enquiries relating to tenant involvement- please contact me at tracy.james@newydd.co.uk.

COMPLETE OUR SURVEY FOR A CHANCE TO WIN £50 VOUCHER! YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY ON RENTS AND SERVICE CHARGES COMING SOON!

Every year, we consult with all our tenants on the affordability and value for money of your rent and service charges. We will again be sending everyone a survey to complete on 3 October and there are 10 chances to win a £50 vouchers too. We’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete the survey. Your input is vital as it helps us improve the services we provide to you. In the meantime, you can find out more about rent and service charges here and how we spend your rent here. Please note that Newydd does not provide contents insurance as part of your contract agreement – you can find out more about home contents insurance here.

SCRUTINY TEAM’S FIRST REVIEW A SUCCESS!

Your Scrutiny Team recently completed their first review of services charges. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Scrutiny Team then met with managers to discuss and agree the Team’s recommendations for improvements. Here are some of the key recommendations that were agreed:

• Ensure tenants are involved in contract tendering, decision making about where community benefits funding is allocated, and the monitoring of service standards
• Review bin store provisions across the housing stock and improve signage where possible and financially viable
• Run a PR campaign on rubbish disposal and recycling and explain what action could be taken if they fail to dispose of responsibly
• Work in partnership with local authority Waste Management Teams, Keep Wales Tidy and Fly Tipping Wales where appropriate
• Standardise the approach to communal cleaning and grounds maintenance and take photos before and after
• Ensure regular and consistent monitoring of service provision and standards
• Run a PR campaign explaining what service charges are, how they are calculated, and which are covered by Housing Benefit and Universal Credit 
• Improve the annual rent and service charge letters to ensure tenants know what they are getting for their money and provide details of the frequency of services
• Design out costly service chargeable items in new housing developments where possible
• Improve the website content to increase understanding of rent and service charges and include an explanatory video

FUTURE TENANT SCURITY FORMATS

Moving forward, we are changing the way we undertake tenant scrutiny. We need to ensure that we comply not only with WG’s regulatory standards but our corporate vision and objectives by ensuring our customers have a say on all aspects of our services.

The new plan is for managers have topical ‘Straight Talking’ online sessions every month with the Cadarn Scrutiny Team to talk openly about a specific area of service that needs improving to better meet tenants’ needs.

The new scrutiny format will enable us to:

• make it easier for all managers to work with tenants on service improvements across the business;
• be more proactive and achieve quicker, more meaningful and impactful results;
• increase openness, transparency and accountability, and;
• further strengthen the tenant voice; keep things fresh and increase tenant satisfaction with the scrutiny process.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS

We will soon be launching a ‘question of the month’ to enable us to gain valuable customer insight to help us make informed decisions about future services and ensure we meet our customers’ needs.

Keep an eye out for an email asking you to share your opinion on a ‘hot topic’ by completing a short survey. We will also share the ‘question of the month’ in your monthly e-newsletters. Everyone who replies will be entered into a £50 prize draw too!

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

TPAS Cymru’s 2025 Tenant Pulse report sharing the tenant voice on rent affordability is now live! To find out more about what tenants across Wales have said about their rents and service charges click here: Tenant Voice on Rent and Affordability