The ‘Cleaning Academy’ has been one of One Academy’s most successful recent training and employment support projects, just ask Ivan.

Ivan was being supported by Crisis, the charity for people experiencing homelessness, when he was offered a place on one of our day courses designed to provide people with the knowledge and confidence needed to apply for and be offered work in the cleaning industry.

He successfully passed the one-day course and so impressed our training team that he was later offered an interview. Successful at interview, Ivan has since been working for Churchill Cleaning at the Stratford Centre.

“I was desperate to find a job, not only for the money but for my sense of self-worth,” say Ivan. “When you have experienced having no fixed abode and no job, the world feels so bleak.”

You can read more of Ivan’s story on the Churchill Group’s website.

During the colder months, we all want to keep our homes warm. But damp and mould can appear if you don’t keep a small amount of fresh air flowing throughout your home.

As we’re committed to giving you and your family a safe, warm and comfortable place to live in, we want to reassure all residents that we take the issue of damp and mould extremely seriously and investigate every report of damp and mould thoroughly.

Please download the special newsletter that was sent to all residents.

If you receive Universal Credit to help you pay your rent, please don’t forget to update your Universal Credit journal account on Monday 3 April 2023, with your new charges.

You will receive a ‘to-do’ action notification through your Universal Credit account (called the ‘journal’) that will be titled ‘Confirm Your Housing Costs’. Please log in and confirm your housing costs.

If you pay service charges, please ensure you let the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) know which charges are eligible for housing costs support and which charges are not eligible. You can find the details in the Service Charge and Rent Review booklet sent to you last month.

Please don’t submit the verification more than once as this will cause issues with your claim. If you have any questions, please contact Universal Credit through your online journal account, or through the Universal Credit Helpline on 0800 328 5644.

Please note that the Gas Safe Register released Safety Alert 030 relating to Belling, Stoves and New World gas range cookers with gas grill (110, 100 and 90 models) manufactured by Glen Dimplex Home Appliances Ltd.

It has been identified in the above models, that if the gas grill is used with the door closed, there is a risk that this may result in extremely dangerous levels of carbon monoxide (CO) being produced which could pose a significant risk to your health.

To ensure that the appliance works in a safe manner, the manufacturers advice is to always use the grill with door fully open.

Please note that the use of the gas oven and hob are not affected by this safety alert.

If you’re one of our tenants, your home should have at least one carbon monoxide detector, and it will activate with an alarm, if there is too much carbon monoxide in the air in your property. If the alarm activates at any time, please call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 immediately.

If you’re a leaseholder or shared owner, it’s your responsibility to make sure that a carbon monoxide detector is fitted in each room where a gas appliance is used. We recommend you get a gas safety check once a year, too. If you want to arrange a gas safety check in your home, you can check the official list of gas registered engineers on the Gas Safe Register https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk.

As a landlord and/or landowner, we have a legal obligation to ensure that trees don’t cause harm to members of the public and our residents and don’t damage any properties.

We must be able to access our properties/land to inspect trees periodically and make management decisions on these trees.

This means that:

1. Where residents or resident management groups have previously managed trees belonging to One Housing, they will no longer do so.
2. We will ensure that the tree inspector can access gardens or other external areas to identify tree problems. We will contact you if we need to request access to your property.
3. We will undertake tree work that is identified to mitigate any significant risks. We will contact you if we need to request access to your property.

We all agree that trees are precious, and for that reason we will always engage with our residents over necessary tree works. We will also avoid unnecessary tree works or removals.

However, where we identify trees requiring work, we must be able to undertake these works in a timely manner. Where trees are removed, we will seek to replace them where it is practical to do so.

If you have any questions regarding these arrangements, or concerns surrounding the safety of any tree in your property, please contact us at ask@onehousing.co.uk.

Please note our Customer Service Centre is closed today due to training. To report emergency, please call us on 0300 123 9966.

Otherwise, if you need to speak to us, please email ask@onehousing.co.uk or use your MyOneHousing account. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

We are committed to giving you and your family a safe, warm and comfortable place to live in and want to reassure all residents that we take the issue of damp and mould extremely seriously and investigate every report of damp and mould thoroughly.

Following our partnership with Riverside, one of our key pledges was to invest an additional £2.5m in tackling issues like damp and mould. To support our work, we’ve created a new policy which outlines how we deal with this. You can download the copy here.

We’re also training all our teams – not just repairs people – to spot signs of damp, mould and condensation so, if they visit your home and spot a warning sign, they can report it. This helps us ensure we put in place a plan to tackle any issues at an early stage to prevent the situation getting worse.

Please report damp and mould issues

We ask that you contact us as soon as you notice any signs of damp and mould so we can visit your property. Please send us photos and videos with your report so we can assess the extent of the issue. We’ll then attend within 10 days to carry out immediate treatment known as a mould wash. We’ll also provide practical advice for dealing with damp and mould.

If we need to investigate further, a surveyor will visit your home. They will identify what remedial works are needed and will put together a treatment plan to make sure the damp and mould problem has been fixed.

To report damp and mould, please use your MyOneHousing account or email ask@onehousing.co.uk. Alternatively, you can call us on 0300 123 9966.

If you need information in another language or if you require an interpreter to be present when we visit your home, please let us know.

Following your feedback during our Resident Engagement Strategy consultation, we were pleased to be supporting residents to create a new Scrutiny Panel which will review customer-facing services and recommend improvements.

The resident Panel Members have chosen to review the services provided by the Customer Contact Centre for their first inspection. They need your help to learn more about how residents experience our services. If you're interested in mystery shopping or feeding back about services, please contact us via residentengagements@onehousing.co.uk.

One Housing joined The Riverside Group as a subsidiary in December 2021. As part of our integration to become one single housing association, we recently held a seven-week consultation with residents. We sought your views and feedback on the proposal that we complete the “Transfer of Engagements” process – the formal name for the integration of the two organisations – on or before 31 March 2023.

This consultation period closed on Wednesday 1 February 2023. Thank you to all those who took the time to share with us your views.

Our Board is currently reviewing the findings. We will write to all residents again soon with the results of the consultation.

If the process continues as proposed, from April 2023 your landlord will be The Riverside Group Limited. As stated previously, we believe that this transfer is the best option for our residents and our local communities. Local services will continue to be provided by the teams you know, and your tenancy or lease will be unaffected.

Read the Frequently Asked Questions

The February 2023 issue of our Resident Newsletter has been sent to our residents via email. If you missed it, you can now read it here.

This issue has lots of stories and updates for you including Transfer of Engagements to the Riverside Group, opportunities to get involved to help us shape services and changes to rent and service charges.

We hope you enjoy the read.

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