Shaping the Future of Pennyburn - Riverside

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Welfare
Reform
Since our last newsletter, the
Welfare Reform Act has received
Royal Assent. This happened on
8 March 2012. It marks the biggest
change to the British welfare
system in over 60 years.
The main changes that the Act will
bring are:
• The introduction of one, single benefit
called ‘Universal Credit’. This will be paid
each month and replace Working Tax
Credit, Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit,
Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance
and Employment & Support Allowance.
This means that anyone who’s rent is paid
directly by Housing Benefit will now have
to pay rent directly to their landlord from
their Universal Credit,
• The housing element of Universal Credit
will be reduced for those who underoccupy
their home by having bedrooms
they do not need (this does not affect
pensioners).
• An increase in the working families tax
credit threshold from 16 hours to 24 hours
per week.
What has the Association done in
response to these forthcoming changes?
• We recently commissioned a survey of
The first Scottish Social Housing
Charter was approved by the Scottish
Parliament on 14 March 2012 and
came into effect on 1 April 2012.
Scottish Ministers consulted the
Scottish Housing Regulator, tenants,
social landlords, homeless people and
other key stakeholders about the
Charter’s content.
The Charter will help to improve the
quality and value of the services that
social landlords provide, and supports
the Scottish Government’s long-term
aim of creating a safer and stronger
Scotland. The Charter sets the outcomes
that all social landlords should achieve
for their customers. The Charter will also
provide the framework against which
the Scottish Housing Regulator will
assess a landlord’s performance.
The Charter has seven sections
covering: equalities; the customer/
landlord relationship; housing quality
and maintenance; neighbourhood and
community;
some of our tenants. The results of this
survey highlighted that 15% of our tenants
could be affected by under-occupying
their homes and, on average, these
affected households would need to pay
us an additional £12.99 per week in rent
no longer covered by Housing Benefit.
• We are creating a new post which will
look at providing advice to our tenants
with a focus on reducing the negative
impact of Welfare Reform. This will allow
us to assist those tenants who are in most
need of advice in relation to benefits and
budgeting.
• We are working closely with 1st Alliance, a
local Credit Union, to find ways to assist
tenants. For example, by encouraging
tenants to start saving schemes, to
sign-post them to affordable loans, and
to set up manageable ways to pay
household bills and payments.
• We are speaking to our local authority
and agency partners to plan ahead for
these changes.
The Scottish Social
Housing Charter
access to housing and support; getting
good value from rents and service
charges; and other customers. It
contains a total of 16 outcomes and
standards that social landlords should
aim to achieve.
Phyllis Rodgers, Senior Community
Involvement Officer will be consulting
with tenants on how we will be
monitoring ourselves against the charter.
“The Scottish Housing Regulator is
launching a consultation around the
Performance Measures against the
Charter in June, which will run until
August. During this period we will be
consulting with tenants on our Count
Me In consultation register and forming
tenant scrutiny groups to monitor and
analyse our performance against the
various outcomes of the Charter.”
If you would like to get involved in the
consultation around the Charter, please
contact Phyllis Rodgers, Senior
Community Involvement Officer on
01294 316760.
• We are looking to review our allocations
policies to help those people who may
need to move house.
How will I know if I am affected?
• Don’t worry. Once the detail of the Act is
known, we will let our tenants know who
is likely to be affected and where they can
get personalised advice.
Nicola Thom, Executive Director (Operations)
at Irvine: “We are very aware that this major
change to the benefit system will affect many
of our residents. We have started working
closely with a range of other organisations
to make sure that advice, support and
practical assistance will be available to our
communities in plenty of time to prepare for
the changes. We will continue to work with
our local tenants and residents groups and
provide up-to-date information to all of our
communities on a regular basis.”
New
Community
Groups
Three new tenants and
residents groups have recently
been established in our areas.
• The newly registered Fullarton &
Harbourside Tenants and Residents
Association will be holding 6 meetings a
year at Fullarton Community Health
House, Irvine. For further information
contact Mary Marks, Chair on 01294 311701.
• Taiglum TARA is a newly formed group
representing the Drongan community.
Taiglum will be holding quarterly meetings
and is looking for new members. For
further information contact Bill Gibson,
Chair on 01292 591581.
• Irvine Housing Action Group (IHAG) has
recently formed in Dumfries. IHAG will be
holding meetings at Steel Avenue
Community Centre. If you are interested
in coming along to the next meeting
please call Carol Cave or Grace Hume
01387 270200.
Awards
Season
As they say in Los Angeles ‘Awards Season is upon us!’
It’s been a successful start to 2012 for the Association.
In February we were named as one of the
Sunday Times Top 100 Not-For-Profit
Organisations to Work For 2012. We were
awarded a one star accreditation and
announced in 59th position on the list of
Britain’s top employers. More than 250
companies competed for a place. Mairi
Martin, Executive Director (Resources)
collected the award with the Association’s
Staff Representatives at an award
ceremony in London, “To achieve
recognition at this level is not only a
fantastic reflection of our investment in
our staff, but also a positive indication to
customers that our staff are passionate
about delivering an exceptional service to
the communities we work in. Our
continued growth is rooted firmly in the
quality of our staff and ensuring they are
engaged and motivated is fundamental to
the success of the Association.”
We exhibited with Riverside at The
Chartered Institute of Housing’s Scottish
Conference and Exhibition at the SECC,
Glasgow in March. Tenant and Community
Representatives joined staff at our stand to
represent and promote the Association. At
the end of the 3 day event we were
awarded ‘Best Small Stand’ – as voted by
delegates. Tenant, Michael Fullerton was
there when Senior Community
Involvement Officer, Phyllis Rodgers
collected the award. “What a great
conference and chance to network with
tenants from other associations. To win
the award just added to the day – we were
all delighted!”
We’ve nominated Pennyburn
Regeneration Youth Development
Enterprise (PRYDE) for the Chartered
Institute of Housing’s ‘Community
Initiative of the Year’ 2012 UK Housing
Award. The awards showcase innovation
and best practice in housing. Phyllis
Rodgers, Senior Community Involvement
Officer at Irvine Housing Association said,
“The young people of PRYDE are a credit
to their community and should be really
proud of themselves. The transformation
of The Playz is incredible and it is an
invaluable community asset.”
The winner will be announced on 27 June.
PRYDE were also shortlisted as finalists
from over 140 entrants for the North
Ayrshire Community Group Award at The
Provost’s Civic Pride Awards in March.
6 House & Home Summer 2012 House & Home Summer 2012 7