Issue 56 Autumn/Winter 2018 The newsletter for Incommunities customers making great homes Find out more about our retirement living options inside page 17 plus! fantastic prizes to also be won in this issue... gas safety managing need help - give us your finding access money work? page 7 page 14-15 page 15 WelcomeMessage from Geraldine Howley A warm welcome to your latest @home. Whilst we continue to live in the To help ensure it continues to uncertainty of life after Brexit, be a great read please take a it is business as usual as your few minutes to complete our landlord. We, as a group, are readership survey on page 6. continuing to press on investing Your views are important to us and in local homes and working to you never know you could win a improve lives. shopping voucher for taking part! There’s lots of news to share with you following another busy summer. We are delivering homes on eight sites right now, increasing Geraldine Howley our support for job seekers with Incommunities Group more job clubs starting and Chief Executive encouraging more young people to take up apprenticeships. It’s been great to celebrate with Sadeh Lok residents the silver anniversary of their sheltered scheme in Dewsbury and see older customers making the news at other local schemes, whether through fundraising or getting together to improve where they live. Your latest issue of @home aims to keep you in the picture about what’s happening across the group. “We continue to invest in building new homes and modernising existing properties for the benefit of our residents.” Contacting us There are lots of ways of getting in touch with our teams. As well as phoning us, you can email or text us or go to our website www.incommunities.co.uk Please recycle your @home newsletter Our main email enquiries address is: [email protected] Our main customer telephone Incommunities Limited is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Society Act 2014. Registered in England with the Financial Conduct Authority No. 30178R. number is: 01274 257777 2 Registered address: The Quays, Victoria Street, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD17 7BN. We will continue to support customers who are moving onto Universal Credit and give Looking ahead them the right advice to help them through the benefit changes. I was also delighted to see Sadeh Lok retain with Jan its Customer Excellence Service Standard and The shorter days and darker nights achieve its best marks ever. may be upon us but we are looking Our streamlined board structure involving two main boards – Common Board and Operations forward to a bright and Committee – is now settled in. One of their key positive end to 2018. roles is to monitor our services, however you Housing continues to make the have an equally valuable role in giving us your news not least with reports of feedback on our work. housing shortages and benefit If you would like to get involved in what we do please changes. I am delighted to click: www.incommunities.co.uk/get-involved see we are delivering more or ring 01274 257905. homes and starting to work with developers on schemes in North and South Jan Ormondroyd Yorkshire. Common Board Chair New homes set for fire station sites Diggers and brickies are transforming cleared housing New homes taking shape at sites into smart new affordable homes across Bradford. Bolton Woods and Shipley Twenty-two family homes are being built on two Rupert Pometsey, Director of Lumia Homes, former fire station sites at Saltaire and Idle. The said: “We are really excited to be delivering more two and three bedroom homes are due to be homes for local people and offering a choice of completed next year and will be available for tenures.” shared ownership and through the national Rent “We are on track to deliver nearly 100 new homes to Buy scheme. for local people this year.” At Bolton Woods, the first of 64 homes being built on a site of outdated flats are due to be released in the coming weeks. More homes for rent are taking shape in Shipley and Baildon, whilst diggers will start to create another 14 homes at Green Lane in Manningham. At Parkside, all 22 newly completed homes have been snapped up by delighted families. All these developments are managed by our Lumia Homes team – part of Incommunities – and supported with funding from the national regeneration agency, Homes England. IMPROVING LIVES INCOMMUNITIES 3 Making the most of a “It’s proved a real summer hit and a popular spot to Glorious Summer! relax as well as a nice Our enterprising older residents and sheltered staff have shaded spot for barbecues and get togethers.” been making the news improving where they Liz Kelly from the live and the lives of others in lots of ways. social club Northcliffe View In Windhill, social club members at Northcliffe View raised funds to create a smart new patio so fellow residents could sit out. It came complete with outdoor seating, parasols and colourful planted borders. Maple Court “The garden At Maple Court, residents have also been able looks wonderful and ideal to sit out to relax in their new communal garden. They with neighbours.” organised a coffee morning to pay for all the plants and applied a small grant from our Neighbourhood Jess Spencer from Maple Court Services towards the paved area and seating. Farish House Northdean House At Farish House residents spotted Finally, new a great way of raising money for scheme Yorkshire Air Ambulance. They coordinator held a dominoes marathon. Mark Fielding Afterwards, Alan Dobson and Anita greeted Hall were delighted to handover residents at a cheque for £250 on behalf of Northdean the ‘Farish fundraisers’ to the charity’s patron Gaynor Barnes. House with a Meanwhile, 83 year old ‘Magic Mavis’ Richardson made a splash barbecue. Mark donned his best for another great cause, raising an amazing £3,200 for Dementia chef’s apron to serve up lunch Friendly Keighley. for everyone. Welcome Mark. fellow residents. He Residents in fond was also treasurer of its busy social farewell to Jeff committee. Committee member Residents and staff at the Doris Sunter said: “It Wellesley House sheltered scheme was so sad to lose got together to celebrate the life of Picture shows Pat (Jeff’s wife) front right Jeff who was very one of their own. with residents at the celebration lunch much at the heart Jeff McLaughlin sadly passed of life at Wellesley. He would get involved in running away in April having lived at Wellesley House, with lunches, organising get-togethers’ as well as run his wife, Pat for over 15 years. The couple had been errands for neighbours. married 43 years. “Pat was determined to honour Jeff’s wish to put At Wellesley House Jeff was well known as the on a nice celebration lunch in his memory. It was luncheon clubs ‘resident chef’ serving up a lovely day which brought everyone together to delicious home cooked meals alongside Pat for remember Jeff.” 4 Magnificent seven start their apprenticeships Last month we were delighted to They are Anas Ahmed, Mark Parrott, Sam welcome seven young apprentices Taylor, Matthew Shaw, Rashid Hafejee, Mark Riches and Paul Falkingham. into our ranks. Each trainee will be mentored by experienced trade professionals on different building and repair work. They will also attend college one day a week and work towards their NVQ qualifications. This brings our total construction apprentices with Building Services 21to Carrying out repairs – important customer information As part of our commitment to provide value for money to all our customers, our Repairs Service will only carry out work that we, as a landlord, are responsible for. This means that we will no longer be able to carry out small repairs that are the customers’ responsibility (except when a customer is considered to be vulnerable), such as; • replacing a toilet seat or towel rail • light bulb • making a lock change In the past we have carried out some repairs which we were not accountable for. However, due to budget pressures we now need to focus on providing a responsive repairs service in line with our legal obligations. We would advise all customers to consult their tenancy agreement before reporting a repair to us. IMPROVING LIVES INCOMMUNITIES 5 @home readership survey CUT HERE - We want your views We would like your views and feedback on your customer newsletter as part of our review. To complete the survey go to www.incommunities.co.uk/survey or fill in below, detach from your @home and post to ‘FREEPOST Incommunities’ 1. How do you view your @home? (please tick relevant answer) Online Posted copy Copy picked up at my sheltered scheme Pick up a copy from one of our offices Other, please specify .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2. Do you read @home? Yes No If yes do you: Read all of it Read most of it Flick through it 3. Do you find @home interesting and informative? Please indicate below – 1 being very interesting and 5 being very uninteresting 1 2 3 4 5 4. If you find @home interesting what do you particularly like? 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