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Have Your Say

At RHA we are committed to listening to and hearing the views of each one of our tenants on all the services we provide.

 

Each year, we carry out a STAR survey, where we ask for your feedback which helps us to make improvements and ensure tour support, activities and services meet your needs.

We know we may not always get things right, so our tenant commitment is to listen and learn from your experience and feedback. We are working with an independent company called Acuity Research to carry out this survey on our behalf.

  • You can complete the paper survey and return it using the enclosed freepost envelope
  • Complete the survey online at starsurveys.co.uk/rha using your personal code sent to you
  • Or take the survey by phone, please call: 01273 287114

All our tenants will soon receive a phone call, letter, text or email and there is a prize draw for a £100 shopping voucher and 4 runner up prizes of £50 shopping vouchers. And by simply completing the survey you will be included in our free prize draw to win Love 2 Shop vouchers – just in time for the (dare we say it!) festive season!

Below you can see what you fed back to us on our last all tenant survey, and how we made improvements:

Reassurance about RAAC

Many of you will have been aware that a number of schools and buildings around Wales and the UK needed to close due to the presence of RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) being discovered.

In the last month there has been an increased focus on the potential for RAAC to be present in other buildings and some homes. RAAC is a lightweight material that has previously been used during the construction of some buildings. It is used mostly in flat roofing, but also in floors and walls.

Although the issues raised have been mainly identified in schools and other public sector buildings, we appreciate that some tenants may be concerned about their homes.
We want to reassure you that as your landlord, we always take a proactive approach to making sure your homes are well maintained and, most importantly, safe, and we do not believe there is any cause to be concerned. Due to the age and development style of our properties, it is highly unlikely that any of our homes would contain RAAC.
We carry out regular surveys and inspections on all our tenants’ homes which also assesses the condition of any concrete properties, and we haven’t found any issues to date and our surveyors are continuing to undertake inspections.

 

If you have any questions about RAAC or any aspects of safety in your home, then please get in touch with us.

We are here to help. 

Thank you for supporting us and making such a difference!

They did it!

We are incredibly proud of our staff, tenants and volunteers who walked massive 21 miles, from Tonypandy to Cardiff on Thursday 20th of July, to raise funds for food donations to help those in need this winter season.

Through your generous support, donations, and sponsorship then we can support even more people this year. A massive well done to our colleagues from Finance, Maintenance, IT, Com Dev, Development and Customer Advice and everyone who helped with our fundraising efforts.

They have raised over £3000, and donations are still coming in! 

We actively support community members and tenants each and every week and now, for the fifth year running we wanted to fundraise to help provide even more food hampers in Winter 2023. In December 2022 we provided 90 food hampers through the money raised by our colleagues who worked hard doing a 24 hour Danceathon. This year, thanks to your generousity we can help even more people in our communities.

 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE &  GET UPDATES ON OUR JUST GIVING FUNDRAISING 

Community Clean-Ups

As a responsible landlord, we balance the needs of our tenants whilst improving our natural environment. Our TENANT COMMITMENT promises to listen to tenants views and plan our services to make improvements that meet their priorities.

Colleagues from our Sustainable Tenancies Team spent the day with our tenants of Ty Bethania in Treorchy as we understood that fly tipping what an issue and we could help them improve the outdoor space.  We took the opportunity to give their garden a clean up, decluttered and got everyone involved whilst chatting about our other services.
Community clean-ups are a great way of disposing of non-household rubbish and ensuring they can feel proud of where they live and enjoy outdoor spaces. We worked together to take action to improve their environment, learn more about recyling and created meaningful change.

We had such a warm welcome and tenants helped us load up the skip and got the opportunity to declutter some of their unwanted (non-recyclable) items. Working together we made such a difference to their outside space.  Gone was all the unwanted clutter and rubbish from their garden and surrounding paved areas and now its back to its warm welcoming and usable space for the tenants to enjoy.

Renting Homes Act (Wales) – Converted Contracts

The Renting Homes Act changes the way all landlords rent their homes to improve how we provide, manage, and live in rented homes in Wales. The new law was applied from 1st December 2022 and affects all landlords and tenants in Wales.

This new law introduced many changes to tenancy laws and will apply to both social landlords and the private rented sector. It simplifies and improves your rights as a tenant, and it improves how some landlords manage rented homes in Wales. One of the biggest changes was the introduction of a new ‘Occupation Contract’ which all landlords must issue in place of the old ‘Tenancy Agreement’. So, if you became a tenant with us after 1st December 2022, you will have signed an Occupation Contract as the ‘Contract Holder’ of your new home. For all tenants prior to the act coming into force, you will shortly receive a new contract, which replaces your old Tenancy Agreement and are automatically ‘converted’ over to the new Occupation Contract.
  • The changes have no effect on your rent and will not cost you any money.
  • You will receive your new Converted Contract in the post, with a covering letter and information shortly.
  • You do not need to sign or return the contract to us, simply keep it in a safe place.

 

Some changes RHA Wales tenants can expect:

  • It’s clearer what RHA Wales is responsible for maintaining (e.g., kitchen units) and what you are responsible for (e.g., replacing light bulbs)
  • It removes the restriction on parking commercial vehicles on drives or in car parks and adds a restriction on parking very large vehicles (commercial or otherwise)
  • It increases building safety by including that RHA Wales conducts electrical safety checks every five years and for access to be provided for this
  • It’s also clearer which alterations you need permission for before doing them
  • You will become known as a ‘contract holder’ and will be issued with an ‘Occupation Contract’ (this used to be called a Tenancy Agreement) by 1st June 2023
  • For Joint contract holders you can ask us to add someone to your contract who you want to live with. You don’t have to start a new contract to request this
  • Succession rights: In some circumstances, you can pass your home onto other people to continue living in. For example, you can ask for your home to be passed onto your partner

Where can you find more information and what you need to do?

To find out more about the new legislation and the impact it will have on both tenants and landlords, have a look at the Welsh Government’s website: Welsh Government – Renting Homes Act (Wales)

Or take a look at the Welsh Government’s Easy Read guide for tenants which is available here: Easy Read Leaflet

We are sending new contracts to all customers between December 2022 and June 2023. You don’t need to do a thing, no need to sign the contract or return it to us. Just keep it in a safe place.

Community gardening project secures funding

We are pleased to have been awarded £9,800 in funding from National Lottery Awards For All Community Fund, to help get tenants involved and more active in their green spaces – sharing gardening skills, growing their own and taking care of our natural environment.

Our Homegrown gardening project started in 2020 during the pandemic and aims to get more people involved in healthy gardening activities and growing their own fruit and vegetables. This recent funding success allows us to expand our partnership with Cambrian Village Trust and offer community gardening session in more communities, which will enable people to get creative with their outdoor spaces, share gardening tips, learn to grow their own and be more active in nature.
We already have several community gardens which are perfect spaces to bring tenants together to plant flowers, trees, vegetables and encourage our local wildlife. So this funding allows us to enhance our offer and further support climate action and better wellbeing through green social and educational activities.
Our Homegrown initiative is part of RHA’s Optimize wider commitment to creating, restoring, our local environment and enhancing nature in the communities in which our tenants live.

Small actions making a big difference

At RHA we know how important it is to keep connected with our tenants and to understand what their priorities are. As a responsible landlord, we balance this with the needs of the local community. Noticing that litter or fly tipping is a problem is the first step in us taking action to create a cleaner environment.

At the end of April, we visited tenants at our Cyncoed scheme in Ynysbwl with our colleagues from our Sustainable Tenancies and Community Involvement (Get Involved) teams. We were grateful to be supported with a representative from the local authority refuse awareness team who got involved and helped us create meaningful change.
It was a lovely community-based day and a great opportunity to meet tenants who we’d not said ‘hello’ to in person before as they have recently joined us.  It’s been a challenging few years with the pandemic so being able to meet face to face and resume normal in person connections with tenants and their housing officers is never underestimated and so important. Taking part in a small community or neighbourhood clean-up like this may not sound significant but it makes a big difference. These initiatives not only help us keep the environment safe and clean but also help in reducing pollution and litter. All of these small actions contribute to us all valuing our communities.

We worked on improving their local surroundings, cleaned up communal spaces and provided two large skips which we filled.  We sorted litter and other discarded materials into three categories: landfill, recyclables and composting. All our tenants were encouraged to use the skips for removing any unwanted household items that they were unable to remove themselves or needed help with. It was a great way to get together and declutter communal and personal spaces.

MyRHA – new online tenant portal launches

At RHA we are always trying to improve your experience as a tenant and make life that little bit easier.

That’s why we’ve created MyRHA.

A brand-new online account which tenants log on to via our website. Accessing their account 24 hours a day to report repairs, pay rent, update their information plus so much more. The online account has been designed to make getting in touch a little easier and we hope you find it useful.

Take a look at our helpful video guide and full information HERE

 

Carbon Literacy Success

At RHA Wales we take our commitment to carbon literacy very seriously and we are proud that 100% of our staff have completed Cynnal Cymru / Sustain Wales carbon literacy training which covers how we can work together on climate change, our carbon footprint and how we can all play a vital part in protecting our planet for future generations. 

Our staff now have an awareness of the carbon dioxide costs of their work habits, everyday activities, and individual actions. They better understand how climate change is affecting them geographically and us as an overall housing sector, as well as the measures we need to take to mitigate this.
In 2022 all 73 of our staff completed the training and 50 of those are now accredited as Carbon Literate, all acquiring the knowledge and skills to lower their carbon footprint.
As an employer and a housing provider we have a responsibility to do all we can to reduce our carbon footprint, and in 2023 we aim to become a Carbon Literate Organisation, working towards achieving the Silver Accreditation by supporting the development of a Carbon Literate workforce and continuing to work with the Carbon Literacy Catrefi Cymru Network.
Climate action is important to all of us and is a globally defining challenge of our generation. As a responsible business we believe we need to invest and act to protect our future generations and the damage being caused to our planet.

Largest stock acquisition in RHA history

We are pleased to announce the acquisition of 272 homes to our portfolio.

The deal represents the largest stock acquisition in RHA’s history and helps with the continued growth strategy of the association. The homes have been purchased from Wales and West Housing Association (WWHA) and are in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Both organisations have been working closely together to complete the transfer process for a number of months.

RHA colleagues have been engaging with tenants to welcome them and ensure they are fully informed of any changes to enable a smooth transition to RHA as their new landlord.

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Get in touch

Got a question? Get in touch! [email protected] 01443 424200 CF40 1BE