Alliance News Issue 5 (1)
Alliance News provides you with an update on what’s happening at Alliance Homes and how we’re helping customers in your neighbourhood.
Helping our customers through winter
It’s been widely reported that the cost of gas and electricity is rapidly increasing and this combined with the cut to Universal Credit is likely to push many of our customers into fuel poverty.
We want to help out our customers who are affected by this. We will be supporting them with help to manage their finances and we’ll be giving them access to the Alliance Springboard Fund. The fund provides one-off grants to help customers improve their longer-term financial situation.
Over the last few months there has been a national focus on the condition of homes and as winter approaches damp and mould is an issue that will arise for those in older housing stock. We’re committed to providing a great service and key to that is listening to what they have to say about the condition of their home. We've developed a new process for reporting and managing damp and mould issues and we're using this to ensure that we support customers in a more proactive way.
Alliance Living Care
Last month, we announced the decision to end the provision of domiciliary care services under Alliance Living Care (ALC).
This difficult decision followed a strategic review of services. As a housing association, we want our focus to be on providing social housing, building more affordable homes and providing support services to enable customers to live independently.
The new care service provider will be the highly-regarded Weston-super-Mare-based Access Your Care. They were chosen following a selection process that was run in conjunction with North Somerset Council.
The new arrangement will begin on 27 October. From that date existing ALC employees will TUPE transfer to Access Your Care and customers will continue to see the same familiar faces.
We're getting Marina Gardens ready
We’re pleased to say that we’ve now completed our purchase of the vacant Marina Gardens development in Portishead. This deal means that we will bring 127 new affordable homes to the area for sale and rent.
The purchase follows planning approval for change of use from retirement living to 100% affordable housing and was supported by grant funding from Homes England and North Somerset Council.
Our plans to develop 2,000 new homes for sale and rent across the West of England have now taken a big leap forward and we’re looking forward to filling the apartments. Click here if you’d like to read more.
Councillor event and tour of Marina Gardens
It’s been more than two years since our last councillor event, and with restrictions having eased we think it's time for another. Look out for an email invitation to our next event which will take place at the the end of November.
The event will take place at Marina Gardens, so you can enjoy a guided tour. We’ll also give you a better overview of what we’ve achieved since we last met and where we’re heading in the future.
Annual General Meeting and Annual Report
Our Annual General Meeting took place on 28 September and was attended by a mix of tenants, board members and other stakeholders. At the meeting our 2021 Annual Report was presented - you can download a copy here.
It’s good to talk
North Somerset mental health CIC, We Are Aware, want to encourage people to talk as a way of helping those facing mental health issues. One of their strategies to encourage conversation is the installation of talking point benches. Our support team has a close relationship with We Are Aware and came up with a way to help them out.
By utilising the social value element that’s built-into our contract with suppliers, we asked Jones Building Group and Crown Paints to help get a talking point bench placed in Nailsea’s Millennium Park. Both suppliers were very pleased to be asked, and you can read more about this story here.
Keeping in touch
We’ve asked the council to issue this newsletter to you on our behalf but it would be great if you could sign up so we can ensure we’re data compliant and able to keep you up to date. Sign up here.
If you need to raise an issue on behalf of one of your constituents, you can get in touch by emailing councillor@alliancehomes.org.uk