Feet on the street – estate walkabout
We’re excited to have recently enhanced our ‘feet on the street’ estate walkabouts for 2025. This activity provides our colleagues a great opportunity to engage with customers within our communities directly.
At the events, we respond to any localised queries and work in partnership with the wider community to further enhance areas for the benefit of our local communities.
Our first quarterly walkabouts took place on Tuesday 1 April and they were a huge success. Many colleagues from across the business stepped out of the office and into the heart of our local communities. We also welcomed many local residents and partner organisations too!
This quarter, we covered a total of 8 locations, including:
- Ayton Drive Estate
- Bankfields
- Boosbeck
- Coniston Road Estate
- Easington
- Eastfield
- Greengates Estate.
We had collaborative discussions, and there were some great improvement suggestions. It was positive to have a visible partnership presence within our communities, including participation from organisations such as North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Services.
Our next ‘feet on the street’ events are scheduled for Wednesday 9 July 2025. Our colleagues will be in Brotton, Dormanstown, East Ayton, Filey, Grangetown, Laburnam Road area, Overfields and South Bank.
Kirkham Close Community Artist Session, Whitby
We’re working with Carers Plus North Yorkshire on a community art project to design and create a large mosaic for the exterior of the Kirkham Close Community Centre and gardens.
The project will make the centre uniquely identifiable to the local community, engage with a wider resident base, and increase awareness of the range of support groups and services available at the centre. There will be four engagement sessions – the first one will commence in April.
Loftus Woodland Action Day
As part of our continued commitment to the Loftus Woodland project delivered in 2021, we held an action day on Wednesday 2 April. In partnership with Loftus Town Council & Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, this action day will help refresh the area ready for summer with new trees and flowers, path repairs, and general maintenance.
Beyond Housing Community Fund
As part of our social value commitments, we launched the Beyond Housing Community Fund last year, and due to its success, we are hosting another funding round for 2025.
The funding provides an opportunity for local community projects and activities to be strengthened with financial support from Beyond Housing – this year’s theme focuses on supporting youth activities.
The deadline for application submissions is 5pm on Friday 2 May 2025. More information can be found on the Beyond Housing Community Fund webpage.
Customer Income Management Letters
We are looking to make some changes to our communication letters when we contact customers about ‘rent income management’. We aim to capture customer feedback particularly on the most frequently used letters, so that we can gauge insight on these changes and review impacts or suggestions from a customer perspective.
Independent Living Forum (Filey)
After receiving positive feedback about our previous Independent Living Forum events, we have now 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 May event will take place at Providence Place Community Centre, Filey on Friday 9 May.
Barrowcliff Residents Association Annual Health Check
We will be conducting the annual health check process with Barrowcliff Residents’ Association, as part of the condition of them receiving the annual revenue grants each year (an agreed commitment upon stock transfer).
The process involves receiving a copy of audited accounts, reviewing the work of the group for the previous year and collaborating to set mutually agreed improvement actions for the next year.
New – Managing Excessive Customer Contacts Policy
We are in the process of creating a new policy around managing excessive customer contacts (formerly called vexatious behaviour). As part of this new approach, we will seek to engage with customers, providing them with the opportunity to influence the policy where appropriate.
Damp & Mould Customer Awareness
To help support our customers, we are looking to create an awareness video to highlight our damp and mould processes. We will collaborate with customers, identifying real case studies, and we will consult with them on the video content to ensure the video meets customer needs.
Hungate Court Communal Garden Improvements
Following the completion of energy efficiency works at Hungate Court in Hunmanby, we consulted with residents about a final project that would benefit their community. Based on feedback, our contractor EON will be working in partnership with us to deliver a day of improvement works to the communal garden area, alongside some funding to enhance these practical changes.
Eastfield Big Clean
We will be working in partnership with various agencies in the Eastfield area to conduct our annual estate-wide community clean-up day. Beyond Housing will provide skip provision funding, resources for the removal of large items and, additional colleague volunteers.
Kirkham Close Community Artist Session, Whitby
The second engagement event for residents who live in the Kirkham Close area will be taking place at the community centre this month. Residents will have the opportunity to take part in designing and creating tiles, which will be formed into a large scale external art installation on the side of the centre.
Dormanstown Review
We will be looking to engage with customers to understand how satisfied they are with our current locality plan for the area – this will allow them to tell us what activities they’d like us to deliver this year. Further consultations will take place in the summer to understand the comparisons between data and ensure we are delivering what is important to people in the community.
