Why we developed this Charter
We know that having a safe place to live is really important. When a tenant rents a home, their landlord must take responsibility for fixing and preventing problems. Whether a landlord rents out a single room or many properties, it is a home, and the landlord should ensure residents are safe and comfortable.
We are serious about this responsibility.
We want everyone who rents a home from us to feel secure and know that help is there when it’s needed. That’s why we developed this Charter. In developing it, we listened to the views of our tenants by asking them what they wanted.
We’re not just thinking about now – we’re planning for the future. We want to keep improving by listening to tenants, focusing on their priorities, and involving them in what we do.
Our promises to you
To make this happen, we have made three significant commitments to our residents:
Quality Homes
We promise to provide you with a safe and quality home
Your safety is most important to us. If you live in one of our Council homes, we will:
- Follow all the rules regarding home safety, such as, gas, electricity, and fire.
- Work with you to ensure we access your home at a time that is convenient for you.
- Let you know how well we’re performing.
- Fix things quickly and tell you how long it will take.
- Continue to invest in keeping your home in good condition.
- Give advice to help you take care of your home.
- Support sustainability and the environment as an example to other landlords and homeowners.
Help and support
We promise to support you when needed and make strong communities
We want to make it easy for you to talk to us about issues in your home and find solutions. Most people can care for themselves, but we understand that everyone is different. We aim to support you and help you stay in your home or find a new one if needed.
Dealing with crime and anti-social behaviour is our priority because it affects you and your family. We want you to know what’s expected of you and your neighbours.
To help and support you, we will:
- Ensure our services are easy to use and respond to your needs. We’ll quickly address your questions.
- Help you stay in your home by involving partner agencies early on to help prevent eviction or homelessness.
- Help you access the care and support you need to remain in your home or, if necessary, find an alternative home.
- Understand your needs as a resident, starting when you become a council tenant and during annual visits.
- Work with other organisations that can support you when necessary.
- Partner with agencies like the Police and our Community Safety Team to improve safety.
- Regularly review our tenancy agreements so they meet your needs.
Engage and be responsible
We promise to engage with you and be responsible for our actions.
We want to communicate with you in ways that suit you best. Having easy and direct contact routes is crucial to building strong relationships.
We also want you to be aware of our performance by providing you with information to assess if we’re meeting our commitments.
To help us meet this goal, we will:
- Encourage your feedback and participation in our decision-making processes.
- Make our performance data accessible using “You said, we did” messaging.
- Ensure you know how to make a complaint. If you do, we’ll follow the proper procedure. If mistakes are identified, we’ll learn from them and look to share these lessons.
- Have our staff able to resolve more issues when you first contact us.
- Review rents and service charges for the upcoming year transparently, considering all specific factors.
- Establish new service standards for responding to your issues.
- Ensure you understand what you can expect from us.