in the know - autumn 2015

Facing the future together – make your voice heard

In the KnowOur quarterly round-up of all the good things happening through RBH members, tenants and employees working together

Introducing St Alban’s House p8

Also Inside: election results, tenant survey, waste collection update

Putting customer service first p10

Autumn 2015

Annual Members Meeting success p6

In the Know Autumn 20152 3In the Know Autumn 2015

Welcome to In The Know.

Welcome to the autumn edition of “In The Know”.

I’m Andrew Johnson, RBH tenant and Deputy Chair of the Representative Body.

When the Chancellor introduced his summer budget, we were all interested to see how it would affect RBH. What no one anticipated was that he would reduce rents by 1% for each of the next four years. Whilst this is good news for tenants who don’t receive any housing benefit towards their rent, it creates huge challenges for social housing providers, and of course, for everyone who receives their services. Why? I’ll explain.

The implication of the rent reduction for RBH is as follows: we will receive millions less in rental income than we had anticipated and this of course massively affects how we conduct our business. We know that we will have to make substantial savings – to the extent of around £6 million per year for the next 4 years - which will undoubtedly mean changes to our services.

I believe that because we are a member-owned mutual society committed to co-operative values this will help us meet the challenges that are ahead of us. It has never been more important to have your say - there’s more information about how we face the future together on pages 4 and 5, and details on how to make your voice heard.

Andrew JohnsonTenant Representative

Page 3 Latest News

Pages 4 and 5 Facing The Future Together

Page 6 Annual Members Meeting 2015

Page 7 Representative Body Election Results

Pages 8 and 9 Introducing St Alban’s House

Page 10 National Customer Service Week

Page 11 Listening to your views

Page 12 Waste collection – important information

Page 13 In The Community

Page 14 Our Grounds Maintenance service

Page 15 Are you ready for Universal Credit?

Page 16 Join RBH today!

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We’ve given a very warm RBH welcome to our 2015 cohort of trainees and apprentices, who joined us at the end of August - they have already settled in well and are working hard to improve our homes and communities.

Of the 14 successful applicants, we’re very proud that five are RBH tenants and 11 live in Rochdale borough, building on our commitment to provide new opportunities for our tenants and for those who live in our neighbourhoods.

RBH tenants and employees tucked in across the Borough to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support by taking part in the world’s biggest coffee morning.

Residents at RBH independent living schemes in Milnrow, Rochdale and Middleton raised over £1000, and RBH employees from the New Tenants Team served coffee and cake at our Customer Service Centre at St Alban’s House, raising a tasty £124.89!

Diane Cooper, Chair of the Sheriff Street, Chadwick Close and Royd Street Tenants and Residents Association, who held one of the coffee mornings, said:

“Thank you to everyone who came along or helped out for their generosity – we’re delighted to have raised so much money for such a worthy cause”

Tucking in for Macmillan!

RBH has received a £25,000 grant from the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner’s Youth Aspiration Fund to enable us to continue our work with the Prison Me No Way Trust.

Hundreds of young people from across the Borough have benefitted from the Prison Me No Way programme which cuts crime and anti-social behaviour by engaging and interacting with young people and schools. The kind and generous grant will enable this work to continue for a further two years.

£25,000 grant to continue Prison Me No Way

The Latest

new trainees and apprentices


Savings on postage and printing

Printing and posting this magazine is expensive. You can help us save money to invest in homes and communities by having information by email instead. We will be trying to send out more information by email in future. If you’d like to receive ‘In The Know’ by email, please email [email protected] with ‘email please’ in the subject line or complete the form on our website www.rbh.org.uk.

Government and budget announcements have included some big changes that affect all housing providers (housing associations, mutuals and Councils) including RBH and their tenants. These included;

• Reducing rents by 1% for four years (some good news if you are a tenant and not receiving any housing benefit)

• A series of changes to welfare benefits

• Pay to stay – households with income over £30,000 a year to pay the full market level rent

• Extension of Right to Buy – for housing association tenants to receive the same discount as council tenants

These will have a big impact on our tenants, on our communities and on RBH and how we work. Taken together they mean that RBH will have less money coming in than we had expected and planned for. From April 2018 this combination of changes means we have a £6m per year gap to fill.

As a mutual we are in a stronger position to respond to these than some other housing providers. We know that by employees and tenants influencing decisions we will make better choices. We know we play a really important role in Rochdale, in providing housing and supporting jobs and the wider economy. We will work together with our members, tenants and employees to respond to this massive challenge in ways that will help us to keep this role.

facing the future Together - Our mutual response to the Government budget

On 30th September the Representative Body and the Board came together to discuss these challenges and to agree a new business plan which had £6m per year less to spend.

The revised business plan includes:

• Funding to support our response to these challenges - Facing the Future

• Water commission (from United Utilities) to support the Green Team and Repairs apprentices

• Continuing to deliver newly built homes where we already have grants

It also sets out some areas where we need to look at making savings or finding extra income. These include:

• Raising money from disposing of some land and shops

• Reducing our borrowing costs

• Improving our performance on reducing empty homes and collecting rent

• Agreeing what our core purpose and core activities are for the future and collaborating with others to deliver services

• Reviewing how we can maintain and repair homes more efficiently and the improvements we carry out

• Reviewing RBH employee terms and conditions

The RBH Board agreed that agreed that the areas we look at will not include our offer document promises. It is critical that we continue to deliver these. We also know from our member feedback that the quality of our homes and how they are repaired and maintained is really important. Board and Representatives were also clear that working in line with our values was a priority and protecting our local and mutual approach.

Ways you can get involved

• We want our tenants, employees and members to help us shape Facing the Future

• There are 12 different projects and lots of employees have already volunteered to help with these

• If you have suggestions for how RBH could make savings you can email: [email protected] with your ideas

Members – information, voice, influence, vote

Our members are already being invited to help us shape our future in a range of different ways. If you are not yet a member you can sign up here and make sure you help us face the future.

Finding £6m each year is a huge challenge. We are working through a range of ways to do this, including making savings and generating additional income. We are also looking carefully at our future purpose – what are the really important things that we do and that we need to protect for the long term.

Government has also suggested that housing providers are not doing enough to support two key areas that are important to them; helping more people own their own home and helping more people into jobs.

We have been asking our members for their thoughts on these questions, through a survey, at the annual members meeting and by involving member representatives.

At the annual members meeting we asked what were the core services we needed to protect, how we could help people to own their home, how we could support more people into jobs and who our future customers would be.


The event is the most important in our membership calendar and reflects our status as the UK’s first social housing provider to be owned by its tenants and employees. Those attending the meeting had the chance to hear of the challenges and achievements of the last year and to help shape our future plans.

In addition to voting to approve the annual report and accounts and the Representative Body’s annual report, members also learned the results of the recent Representative Body election.

With six tenant places available, the successful tenant candidates this year were Sue O’Donovan, Tony Heaford, Frank Altham, Pam Radcliffe, Filza Fawad and Clive Jones. 800 tenant members cast their votes, a turnout of 19.8%

The three successful employee candidates were Lesley Dobson, Bramly Scott and Sean Landsborough. 319 votes were cast by employees, a high turnout of 59.4%

They will be hitting the ground running in the coming months as they help to ensure that the society’s mutual values are put into practice to benefit neighbourhoods around the borough.

Meet Your New RepresentativesThe new tenant and employee members of the RBH Representative Body were welcomed into office at the 2015 Annual Members Meeting, held on Saturday 5th September at Middleton Arena.

Making Our Mutual Voice Heard

Another highlight was a series of one-minute presentations which saw employees and tenants stand on a soap box and provide valuable information on topics including switching energy suppliers, dealing with debt and IT training.

As with previous years a popular feature was the afternoon question and answer session which offered the chance to raise issues with members of the RBH Board and Representative Body.

The event also included a series of feedback sessions which saw members give their views on what our future priorities should be.

Away from the serious business there was wonderful musical entertainment from Middleton Youth Band and 2014 X-Factor contestant Danny Dearden from Littleborough.

Everything from voting to an X-Factor star was on the agenda as around 150 members attended our Annual Members Meeting at Middleton Arena.

noel chambers, Chair of the RBH Board, said: Once again the Annual Members Meeting proved both a celebration of our mutual values and an opportunity to put them into practice. By using their vote and providing valuable feedback our members have helped us to identify our priorities and ensure we are well placed to meet further challenges.

Lynne Brosnan, Chair of the RBH Representative Body, said:Our borough has a proud tradition of finding new ways of bringing people together for the benefit of all. I’m confident that the passion and commitment shown at the meeting will continue to drive us forward as we seek to improve lives and communities.

Edward Carpenter, RBH Governance Manager, said:

“Congratulations to our successful election candidates who will play a key role in shaping the future of RBH. Our democratic elections are at the heart of our mutual society. We’re extremely grateful to everyone who voted in the election, and to all our candidates – successful and otherwise – for giving our members the opportunity to participate. We’d also like to thank our retiring Representatives for all their hard work during their terms in office.”


Customer service has a new home!

The centre is currently open Monday to Friday from 9am until 5pm with a later opening of 10.30am on a Wednesday morning to enable employees to have team meetings and training.

In keeping with our mutual values the new facility was designed in partnership with tenant and employee representatives at four workshops in March last year.

The feedback we received enabled us to draw up a Top 10 list of features which people believed the centre needed to provide.

These were:

• A reception desk with RBH employees to provide advice

• Private meeting spaces• Toilets, baby change facilities and

disabled toilets• Disabled access to the building and

facilities• Computers for customers to use• Freephone access to RBH services• Paying-in machine• Refreshments (e.g. water)• Comfortable seating• Clear, visual signage

We are delighted to say that all of these features are either already in place or will be shortly.

Teams based at St Alban’s House are:

Homelessness Team Homechoice TeamNew Tenant TeamBetter Living TeamCustomer Experience Advisor Team

Services available

The homelessness team offer advice, guidance and assessments for customers who are facing homelessness.

Ways in which the team may be able to help people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless include:

• Mediation work with your landlord or who you’re staying with so you can remain there until you find somewhere else to live.

• Explaining your legal rights as a lodger or tenant.

• Housing options advice to help you find somewhere else to live.

• Help with debt or mortgage problems. • Assisting you through the Housing

Register or other housing agencies. • Help with applications for Housing

Benefit to cover your rent shortfall. • Help if you are experiencing domestic

abuse. • Referrals to supported housing

or housing related support.

Our New Tenancy team offers support and a tailored service to ensure the prospective tenants are ‘tenancy ready’.

Our advisors have regular contact with prospective tenants to discuss their requirements and ensure they are offered suitable homes in the right locations.

We carry out Affordability Assessments, show customers around prospective new homes and discuss local amenities.

The advisors also make any relevant referrals and discuss tenancy responsibilities. The team will continue to be the first point of contact for two weeks after the start of a tenancy to help with any issues.

Neighbourhood Housing Officers then arrange a Welcome visit to make sure tenants have settled into their new home and community.

Our HomeChoice team provide housing options advice and guidance to customers wishing to rent a home from RBH.

They also assess all new applications for rehousing and help to promote our homes to ensure that potential tenants are aware of opportunities.

Our Customer Experience team are on hand to help you with your enquiries and to offer advice on a variety of services including:

• Applying for services online

• Rent and payment enquiries

• Reporting matters to RBH teams and services

• Advice on other issues including tenancy/ neighbourhood/ rent and anti social behaviour matters

• Tenancy issues (eg amending your details, assignment of tenancy issues, changing the name on tenancies)

• Arrangements when ending your tenancy

• Handing in your keys

There will shortly be a cash machine that will enable you to pay money directly into your rent account. Our team of customer experience advisors will help you with this.

We look forward to welcoming you to St Alban’s House soon.

This summer saw us take our commitment to customer service to a new level with the opening of our new centre at St Alban’s House, Drake Street in Rochdale.

In the Know Autumn 201510

We want to know what matters most to you about the services RBH provide and how we can improve what we do.

This year we have asked The Leadership Factor, a specialist research company, to conduct our customer satisfaction survey. Their expertise will provide us will clear recommendations for how we can get better.

The Leadership Factor is a leading UK supplier of satisfaction and loyalty research based just down the road in Huddersfield. They complete thousands of surveys every year and work to strict guidelines around handling personal data and confidentially.

11In the Know Autumn 2015

Finding out what matters to you

RBH put its mutual values into practice as customers and employees came together to further improve the quality of its services around the borough.

RBH customers helping to raise standards

National Customer Service Week saw many tenants work with teams across RBH to gain an insight into the mutual housing society’s activities.

A highlight of the week was a series of shadowing sessions where customers saw at first hand the work of teams including customer access, repairs and homelessness.

Among the tenants taking part was Alwyn Smith who shadowed Rents and Payment Manager Vincent Jennings.

In addition RBH directors and senior managers took part in Back to the Floor exercises where they also saw how the society’s frontline employees work to improve lives and communities.

Among those taking part were Chief Executive Gareth Swarbrick, who spent time with the

team at RBH’s new customer centre at St Alban’s House, and Deputy Chief Executive Nickie Hallard, who went on a number of calls with joiner Martin Main.

Joanne Hill, Contact Centre Manager, organised the week of events.

They will be aiming to speak by telephone to around 1,250 tenants, ensuring that people from all neighbourhoods and age groups are included.

The surveys will take place during the period Monday 12th October to Friday 20th November.

If you would like to know any more about this work or have any concerns then please contact Glynis Hanson, Business Intelligence Analyst (01706 273838).

So if they call you – don’t worry! The questionnaire is short and shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to complete.

Of course this isn’t the only way you can let us know what you think. We welcome compliments, comments and complaints at any time. This can be done at any time via our website (www.rbh.org.uk) or by contacting your local Neighbourhood Housing Officer.

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If you’d like to know more about The Leadership Factor and the work they do, then have a look at their website (http://www.tlfresearch.co.uk/)

alwyn Customer Service Week provides a facility for tenant representatives to gain some experience of the day-to-day workings of RBH, and of some of the problems handled by RBH colleagues - experience which is very useful in monitoring RBH functions and offering pertinent suggestions.

joanne National Customer Service Week is a great way of recognising the support that employees provide for customers - and looking at how we can provide an even better service.

We would like to thank all our customers who took part and provided valuable feedback.


Well done to the Ravendale Tenants Association who have successfully bid for £9,518 in Big Lottery funding to provide social activities and new furniture for their communal lounge.

Our RBH Response team took part in the 2015 Rochdale Business Exhibition at the Town Hall. For more information about our response service, please call us on 01706 273932.

Our tenant and employee representatives spoke up for our mutual model and values at the recent Confederation of Co-operative Housing conference.

Kirkholt resident Tony Smith has been using digital training provided by RBH to rekindle his childhood memories with old slides. To find out more about our digital workshops, contact Nasreen Akhtar on 01706 274195.

Changes to the council’s waste collection service

In The Community

Our new RBH website makes it much easier to find out what is going on in your community – why not visit us at www.rbh.org.uk and let us know what you think?

For more information on the new waste collection service and the caddies please visit www.rochdale.gov.uk/recycling or contact Rochdale Borough Council on 0300 303 8844

While it is the council, not RBH, who are responsible for waste collections a number of people have contacted us with concerns about changes to Rochdale Borough Council’s waste collection service, so we thought it would be helpful to let tenants and employees know about these council changes.

The new service started on 20th October and is being phased in across the borough over a four-week period. The new arrangements will mean:

• Food and garden waste is collected every week. The council will provide a silver kitchen caddy and free compostable bags. Households without a brown food and garden bin will receive a small brown kitchen caddy to be kept outside with the other bins

• General waste is collected every three weeks

• Paper and card are collected every three weeks

• Plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, cans and tins, foil and aluminium trays are collected every three weeks

Flats with communal areas will remain on the current weekly collection system.

As a Rochdale-based society the council is a key partner for us. It is in all of our interests to help look after our communities and the council has asked us to work with them to ensure that the service is as efficient

and effective as possible. We would really appreciate your help with this.

The council have explained that it is becoming more and more expensive to dispose of waste and this is affecting the amount of money that the council has available for other frontline services. To improve our recycling rate it is important to make sure that the correct items are put in each bin and that these are left for collection on the right days.

All affected households will receive an information pack from the council with details of the new service and a calendar with bin collection dates. Households should read the calendar carefully as your bin day may change.

Sarah Robinson, RBH Head of Community Investment, said:

“As part of our mutual values we are committed to working with partners such as the council for the benefit of our customers.

“We are aware that some people have concerns about the council’s new policy on bin collections but by working together we can improve our recycling rate to help the environment and help the council free up vital funds that can be spent on other services.”

As you will know RBH has been a separate mutual society and no longer part of the council since 2012.


Don’t forget, we’re here to help if you need any help or advice to adjust to the new Universal Credit (UC), or if you think you might be affected in the future. We can help you to set up a bank account, set a household budget or get online, so do get in touch!

Universal Credit is a new way of receiving benefit payments being introduced by the Government for people of working age – pensioners are not affected.

New claimants are already receiving Universal Credit, which incorporates six of the main benefits for people of working age; Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Employment and Support Allowance and Housing Benefit.

This means that that housing benefit will now be paid to the tenant as part of their Universal Credit payment rather than direct to their landlord. The new benefit is also paid monthly so it is important that people plan their budgets accordingly to avoid getting into debt. It’s important that you pay your rent so that RBH can continue to provide services; your home could be at risk if you don’t pay.

If you are already in receipt of benefits, you won’t be affected yet, but it is never too early to be prepared. You’ll need to have a bank account and get up to speed with using the internet, as this is the only way you’ll be able to apply for Universal Credit.

Questions about universal credit? We’re here to help.

Need more info?

We don’t let the grass grow under our feet.

For advice on Universal Credit call 0800 027 7769, email [email protected] or visit www.rbh.org.uk

Universal Credit_

The new RBH Grounds Maintenance team has been working hard across the Borough all summer to deliver the service that our members, tenants and employees expect.

The Grounds Maintenance team are responsible for a million square metres of open space, and their roles include grass cutting and strimming, clearing paths, hedge cutting where appropriate and clearing litter in RBH neighbourhoods and on communal land.

To see how they are getting on, we caught up with RBH Grounds Maintenance Manager, Peter Bamford, and residents from across the Borough.

Peter Bamford, said: Bringing Grounds Maintenance in-house has made a real difference. We’ve been listening to our members and we’ve had some great feedback. We want to make sure that the service we deliver is a quality service.

Jenny McAffrey, resident:They take pride in the job and what they do, which makes everyone happier and gives us something to talk about as a community.

Kieran Dunn, resident and RBH Young Voices member: You feel pride now. I’d like to thank RBH for all that they have done for us.Sandra Plowman, resident:

It’s lovely now, even the roses seem happier, everyone seems happier.

Find out more: log on to www.rbh.org.uk to view our short film about our Grounds Maintenance service.

This information is available in audio, large print and community languages. Please phone: 0800 027 7769 or email: [email protected]

4,500 members and counting!

RBH Services 24 hr Repairs Contact Centre

Telephone Rent Payments

HomeChoice

Money Advice and Support

Formal Complaints

0800 027 7769

Council and other contactsCouncil Tax 0300 303 8870

Council Switchboard 01706 647 474

Refuse Collection and Recycling 0300 303 8884

Street Lighting 0300 303 8881

Highways 0300 303 8879

Street Cleansing 0845 226 1800

Grounds Maintenance 0845 226 1800

Environmental Health – eg Drains, Noise, Graffiti, Pollution 0300 303 8871

Libraries 0300 303 8876

Social Services (office hours) 01706 647 474 (the Council switchboard will help you find the Social Services section you need)

Forced Marriage Helpline 0800 5999 247 (9.30am to 9pm – 7 days a week)

Get in touch

Email me at [email protected] or speak to me on 0800 027 7769 Alternatively visit rbh.org.uk

RBH Sandbrook House, Sandbrook Way, Rochdale OL11 1RY – postal address only.

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We’re proud to be the UK’s first tenant and employee co-owned mutual housing society - and membership is what makes RBH special. Our members are our shareholders, with each member owning one share in RBH in line with the principle of one member, one vote!

As we face our future challenges, being a member of RBH has never been more important. You can join online at www.rbh.org.uk or call us on 0800 027 7769. If you are a tenant, live with a tenant or work for RBH and are 18 years of age or older, you can become a member of RBH.

We’re delighted to announce that there are now over 4,500 members of RBH, and over a quarter of our tenants have now chosen to sign up to become a member.

Well done to Debra King from Middleton who was the lucky winner of £50 in shopping vouchers in our prize draw for reaching 4,500 members.

Remember, it’s never been more important to have your say and make your voice heard as a member of RBH - join today!

in the know - autumn 2015

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