Bankfields communal areas consultation
We hosted this consultation following comments from customers about their waste bins being regularly removed from their communal spaces. We gained valuable feedback from customers, which explored different ways for their communal bins to be secured. The outcome will be run as a pilot project, with the potential to be rolled out across other communal areas.
Digital inclusion community events
Our local Reach & Respond Responders hosted a roadshow of community events to introduce the benefits of modern technology, in a supportive and engaging way, to foster digital inclusion.
By encouraging residents to access and enjoy the benefits of tools such as an Amazon Alexa, we hope to reduce social isolation and hopefully make people’s lives a little bit easier.
Following on from our four successful community sessions which took place in February, we held a further three session in March, engaging a further 75 local customers. These took place at:
- Beck Hole Community Centre in Cayton – Thursday 6 March
- Glaves Close Community Centre, Ayton – Friday 7 March
- Bell Close Community Centre in Seamer – Tuesday 11 March.
Rent To Buy Policy review
The Rent To Buy policy sets out our approach for the allocation, reservation, sale and management of rent to buy homes. Our low-cost home ownership scheme allows working households to rent a home at an intermediate rent, providing them the opportunity to save for a deposit over time to purchase their first home.
Our policy document is currently undergoing its three-year review, and as part of this process, we engaged with our current rent to buy customers to ensure their feedback and experiences are considered within the review process.
Pre-tenancy checks
This consultation was organised following changes to the new digital approach to ‘pre-tenancy affordability and support checks’ for prospective customers, with our Income Management team. We captured customer feedback on these changes and reviewed how they impacted customer from their perspective.
We reached out to 79 customers to gather their thoughts on the new process and found that:
- 86% felt very satisfied with their recent interactions with Beyond Housing providing comments such as
- ‘It was very helpful, keep up the good work’
- ‘The were very helpful and informative staff’.
As part of the new procedure, one of the key improvements we made was to send customers a digital copy of the pre-tenancy check document to reinforce the conversation and keep them fully informed. We asked the same recent lived experience customers if they found the pre-tenancy check document helpful:
- 82% agreed, expressing high satisfaction.
From this positive feedback, we will now continue with the implementation of this new approach going forward for the benefit of future customers.
Castle Ward community clean-up event
Following our successful clean-up day held in November 2024, we recently hosted another event in the Castle Ward area of Scarborough on Friday 28 March.
Supporting North Yorkshire Council’s ‘Sprucing Up Scarborough’ events (28 & 29 March), skips were placed at East Mount Flats and Cross Street to encourage residents to have a spring clean. Our neighbourhoods team was also on site to support with removing fly-tipping and large items.
Safer Streets’ engagement sessions – Redcar
During February and March, we worked with local partners, such as Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, to host several community engagement sessions at Westfield Farm.
Loftus Woodland Action Day
As part of our continued commitment to our Loftus Woodland project delivered in 2021, we are held an action day on Wednesday 26 March.
These action days, in partnership with Loftus Town Council & Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, will help refresh the area ready for summer with new trees and flowers, path repairs and general maintenance
Digital inclusion community events
Our local Reach & Respond Responders hosted a roadshow of community events to introduce the benefits of modern technology, in a supportive and engaging way, to foster digital inclusion.
By encouraging residents to access and enjoy the benefits of tools such as an Amazon Alexa, we hope to reduce social isolation and hopefully make people’s lives a little bit easier.
There were four community sessions which took place in February at:
- Marton Court Community Centre in Whitby – Friday 14 February
- Gatesgarth Close Community Centre in Newby – Friday 14 February
- Danes Dyke Community Centre in Scalby – Tuesday 18 February
- Kirkham Close Community Centre in Whitby – Thursday 20 February
- Three more events were organised for March.
Whitby localised engagement
We are exploring ways to provide more community-based services in line with our customer promise. To understand how customers would prefer to engage with us locally, we created a short survey for customers residing in Whitby and surrounding villages.
Approximately 60% of respondents stated ‘yes’ to an interest in drop-in events, so our Whitby team has listened to this feedback and is planning to trial community drop-in sessions in the near future.
Customer Alterations & Improvements Policy review
We welcome how important it is for customers to be able to make alterations and improvements to their homes. With this in mind, we contacted 148 customers who had experienced our customer alterations process within the last year, and asked them for feedback, as part of the Customer Alterations & Improvements Policy document three-year review process
The consultation contained five questions which focused upon
- Clarity of understanding from the information given to them at the tenancy sign-up process
- Our dedicated webpage on the Beyond Housing website for customer alterations.
- The webpage also contains an online form for customers to request an alteration or improvement to their home.
Overall, the feedback was positive, with customers stating that the information was clear and accessible. They highlighted the importance of effective communication during the sign-up process and spoke about the impact it had on their experience.
The feedback also emphasised that the current content on the alterations webpage is information that customers need, and they understand what it means.
An improvement suggestion highlighted the need for more promotion of the webpage and its useful content to customers. In response to this feedback, we will look to raise awareness through our various customer communication channels.
Whitby community clean-up event
To support the local community in the Rohilla Close area of Whitby, we held a community clean-up event on Thursday 27 February. Our team and vans were on-site to support customers in removing and disposing of unwanted household items, and we also provided free community skip provision.
The event was a great success! Not only did residents make good use of the large skip we provided, we also took 3 tipper vanloads to landfill. A general litter sweep was conducted, team members noted some external jobs and general repairs that were required, and took time to chat with residents in the area.
The event was really beneficial and will help keep the local area a safe, clean space for the community to enjoy.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
This month, our independent research partner, IFF Research, recently gathered information to inform our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs). These measures feed into our performance under the Regulator of Social Housing’s TSMs standard (which came into effect in April 2023), emphasising the importance of tenant voices.
‘Safer Streets’ engagement sessions – Redcar
We worked with local partners, such as Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, to host several community engagement sessions at Westfield Farm this month.
Our FREDIE 2025 priorities
As part of our Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement (FREDIE) Annual Report, we sought input from our involved customers into our 2025 action plan, to further support our work for the year ahead.
We provided customers with the seven key actions that supported our 2025 FREDIE aims and asked them which ones they felt were most important. They were also given the opportunity to tell us if any actions were missing.
These were the top three actions customers wanted us to focus on:
- Colleague training
- Data collection and refresh
- Campaigns and policies.
These have now been prioritised and we will ensure feedback on progress with each of these actions within updates to all customers, in next year’s report.
Independent Living Forum – Whitby
In response to positive feedback for our previous Independent Living Forum events, we have established a regular, quarterly session. This involves our team visiting community centres in a variety of locations, so they can actively engage with local customers.
Our January event took place at Kirkham Close Community Centre in Whitby on Friday 31 January. We shared warm winter giveaways like cosy hoodies (funded by our Travis Perkins social fund) and some lovely handmade knitted blankets and headband warmers, donated by our generous community members.
Residents provided us with valuable feedback about our Reach & Respond service, helping us to shape our plan for the next five years.
Our next Independent Living Forum event will be in the Filey area in May.
The Green – Ugthorpe, Whitby
A customer consultation took place with local residents regarding the use of the large green space to the front of their properties, giving them the opportunity to provide ideas for improvement and enhancement.
Feedback suggestions included:
- Improving vehicle access to their homes and
- Adding fencing to protect the green space and local children
These key customer priorities are now being investigated for potential neighbourhood improvement options.
Bridlington community clean-up event
We held a community clean-up event on Thursday 20 January 2025 to support the local community at Salkeld Meadows in Bridlington.
Our colleagues were on hand to dispose of large unwanted household items and helped to clear garden spaces, ensuring the local area is a safe, clean space for the community to enjoy.
Our team and vans on-site were given great, positive feedback and were thanked by local customers for the event.
