The closing date for the Rent Increase survey is approaching fast! Tenants have until 30 September to vote for one of the options below:
|
Option 1 Recommended by the Tenant Rent Setting Group |
Option 2 | Option 3 |
| 3.5% | 3.75% |
4% |
Please let us know what you think by clicking one of the options here.
Due to the stormy weather, the #ScottishHousingDay event in Forfar was moved inside. The Communities Officer managed to get a space in Tesco where the group spoke to some council tenants and focused on the rent setting options. Two tenants representatives, Tom O’Brien and George Addison, volunteered to help during the event.
Landlord Accreditation Scotland (LAS) provides information for private landlords in Scotland based on legislation and best practice within the industry. Becoming accredited with LAS, along with regular attendance at courses and information events, provides landlords with knowledge on key issues and how to implement change when required, ensuring they have the confidence to conduct their business in a professional manner.
It can be very difficult to keep track of the changes to legislation which affect landlords’ and agents’ responsibilities. The courses that are available cover all of these responsibilities and are updated in line with ever-changing legislation.
This course goes through the process of property management covering topics such as minimum property condition, repairing standards, statements and inventory and health and safety.
This course is suitable for all private landlords and letting agency staff regardless of length of time within the industry.
How to Book?
Booking can be made using the links above or by visiting the LAS website.
For further information on courses or accreditation, please call 0131 553 2211 or
email: info@landlordaccreditationscotland.com
A Tenant or Resident Group is a group made up of local volunteers who work together to represent and promote the interests of everyone who lives in the area. The groups provide a collective and strong voice for tenants/residents in their community and can help us shape housing policies and influence decisions.
Most groups offer advice to local people and represent their communities when working with us and some provide other services such as special days, or activities.
Tenants and residents groups hold regular meetings, which are open to everyone who lives in the area.
If you’re interested in joining in to one of the groups in your area, please contact the Communities Officers who can provide you with the right information and advice on local group activities.
Graeme Hodge – Communities Officer Brechin/ Montrose Communities Team Brechin Community Campus, Duke Street, Brechin, DD9 6LB. Tel: 01356 627441 Mobile: 07557 758637 hodgeg@angus.gov.uk
Jennifer Anderson – Communities Officer Forfar/ Kirriemuir Communities Team Montrose Road Centre, Montrose Road, Forfar, DD8 2HT. Tel: 01307473662 Andersonj1@angus.gov.uk
Liz Begg – Communities Officer Arbroath Communities Team Community Wing, Arbroath Academy, Glenisla Drive, Arbroath, Angus. DD11 5JD. Tel: 01241 438050 Email: beggl@angus.gov.uk
FORFAR GROUPS
Wellbraehead and Goosecroft Action Group – next meeting 30 October at 7pm at Montrose Road Centre, Forfar.
Lordburn, Restenneth and Pitreuchlie Action group – next meeting 16 October at 7pm at Montrose Road Centre, Forfar. See the latest post with the video.
Glensview Community Group – Monday 24 September at 6pm at Glensview Community Flat.
Springfield Sheltered Housing Residents Group – next meeting 4 October at 10.30am at Springfield Complex Community Lounge.
Viewmount Voices – next meeting 6 November at 6.30pm at Glensview Community flat
Forfar Community Network – Thursday 27 Sept at 7pm at Montrose Road Centre – all residents of Forfar and surrounding area welcome. See below.
ARBROATH GROUP
The Warddykes Community Group was formed several years ago, as a result of a neighbourhood walkabout, organised by the Arbroath CHT and the Arbroath Communities Officer. The group has both tenants and homeowners who live in the Warddykes community. They regularly have between 15 – 20 people coming to meetings, including young people. They meet in Warddykes Primary School, every 4 – 6 weeks.
To date the group have had many successes, and have a programme of clean-ups organised, which always prove to be very popular in attracting more local people who would not necessarily come along to meetings. They have attracted support from members of the Arbroath & District Youth Council, who attend the clean-ups as well as the meetings.
The local Housing Team has paid for the installation of 3 community noticeboards in the area, for the group to advertise their events and updates of actions from meetings.
During the summer there was another successful walkabout, and this attracted many more members. The local Waste Management Inspector attended this walkabout, and helped to answer lots of queries from local people. Many concerns, issues and ideas for future development were raised at this walkabout, which the group will address at their next meeting on Monday evening of 24 September 2018.
Other partners include Police Scotland. The local Community Police help answer police related matters at the meetings, when they are available to come along. Councillor Lois Speed is also a regular attender, and has been very supportive of the group since its inception.
Below are photographs of some the Warddykes group’s activities.
Rent Increase. Have your say!*
Are you an Angus Council tenant? If so, we need your views on the proposed rent increase for 2019/20 and options on how your rent money will be spent.
All three options will keep your rent amongst the lowest in Scotland and well below what the Scottish local authority average for 2019/20 is likely to be.
Why are we proposing to increase the rent?
We need to make sure the rent we receive is enough to pay for improvements needed to tenants’ homes and to help build new homes.
Rent increases will help protect housing services, build new homes and help us to continue to invest in our homes that meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. Rent increases will also allow us to work towards meeting the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing by 2020.
The rent rise is partly based on the inflation measure of CPI (Consumer Price Index), as well as an additional set percentage of 1% which has been agreed between the council and tenant group. CPI+1% is the minimum rent increase required to allow us to deliver our current plans and manage inflationary rises. We need to increase the rent at least by inflation because that’s what it costs us to run the business. If we were to increase by more than 1% we could increase investment.
How is the rent increase measured?
Following feedback from tenants during the rent setting consultation last year, we have decided to use the July CPI figure of 2.5% rather than September CPI as used in the past. This allows us to outline true percentages, so that tenants have a clearer idea of how each option will affect their weekly rent charge. The council’s budget setting arrangements need to be in place for October 2018 so that everything is ready for the next financial year which starts in April 2019.
How we decide on the Increase
We’re carrying out a consultation to help tenants consider the rent increase options so they can clearly see how their rent money will be spent.
The results of this survey will be presented at the communities committee in February 2019. At this meeting the final decision on a rent increase for 2019/20 will be made.
Rent Increase – the options
The tenant Rent Setting Group has agreed three options which the members feel will bring benefits to tenants while keeping rents affordable.
The three options are:
| Option 1 – Recommended by the Rent Setting Group | Option 2 | Option 3 | |
| Rent Level |
3.5% |
3.75% |
4% |
| Capital spend (this is money invested to buy or upgrade fixed, physical, non-consumable assets, such as buildings and equipment) | £18 million capital spend over the year | Additional £850,000 capital to spend in addition to Option 1 | Additional £1.7m capital to spend in addition to Option 1 |
| How many new builds? | 70 new homes over the year | 70 new homes – any additional funds will be used to improve existing stock | 70 new homes – any additional funds will be used to improve existing stock |
| What stock improvements can tenants expect? | 450 Gas & Electric Heating installations;
600 properties receiving external wall insulation & energy efficiency measures; 700 bathrooms.
|
In addition to planned improvements listed in Option 1, for example:
39 Gas Heating installation (including loft insulation); 13 Electric Heating installations (including loft insulation); 37 Kitchen Replacements; 58 Bathroom Replacements; 7 External Wall Insulation; 42 Window & Door Replacements. |
In addition to planned improvements listed in Option 1, for example:
78 Gas Heating installation (including loft insulation); 26 Electric Heating installations (including loft insulation); 73 Kitchen Replacements; 117 Bathroom Replacements; 14 External Wall Insulation; 84 Window & Door Replacements. |
The tenant representatives recommend that tenants choose Option 1 (the lowest option), which would mean a rent rise of 3.5%. This option is considered to be the minimum level of income needed to deliver the current Business Plan. It, along with Scottish Government grant funding, would enable us to build 70 new homes in 2019-20, as well as these improvements to existing stock: 450 Gas & Electric Heating installations, 600 properties receiving external wall insulation & energy efficiency measures, 700 bathrooms.
The graph below shows the average weekly rents of Angus Council over the past five years compared to other neighboring local authorities (figures from Scottish Housing Regulator). All three options would keep rents affordable, keeping average rents in Angus amongst the lowest in Scotland, and well below what the Scottish local authority average for 2019/20 is likely to be.
How the rent increase of 3.5% would affect average Angus Council weekly rents
| Average weekly rent 2017/18 | Average weekly rent 2018/19 | Average weekly rent 2019/20 | |
| Bedsit |
£51.47 |
£53.52 |
£55.40 |
| 1 Bedroom |
£58.86 |
£61.21 |
£63.36 |
| 2 Bedrooms |
£65.63 |
£68.25 |
£70.64 |
| 3 Bedrooms |
£75.44 |
£78.46 |
£81.21 |
| 4+ bedrooms |
£90.98 |
£94.62 |
£97.93 |
| Angus Average |
£64.64 |
£67.22 |
£69.58 |
To have your say on the rent options,
please complete the survey online by 30th September*.
*Please note this consultation is open to current Angus Council tenants only
Tenant voices do matter. We’re keen for tenants to share ideas and suggestions across and work with us so we can provide a housing service that works. There are many ways you can be involved, and you can get involved as much and as often as you want.
One of the tenants groups is called Scrutineers, and it gives us valuable feedback about the services we provide.
To find out how the group works, watch the Scrutineers video.
For more information on getting involved in Tenant Participation in Angus please contact tenantparticipation@angus.gov.uk or get in touch with your local Housing Officer or Communities Officer, or call ACCESSLine on 03452 777778.
The Vision for Restenneth is a short movie about the Restenneth Drive area in Forfar.
The film was produced and edited by our Modern Apprentice, Millie Burgin. The community were asked what they liked about living in the area, what changes they would like to see and what the Vision for Restenneth could look like.
This film is a result of a series of Pop Up Consultations and Summer Fun Sessions in the area over the summer, led by the Communities team and supported by the local housing officer and the Lordburn, Restenneth and Pitreuchie Action Group.
The video was recently premiered at a LRP Action Group meeting at Montrose Road Centre to invited community members, representatives from different Council departments and local elected members.
The next meeting of the LRP Action Group is on Tuesday 16 October at 7pm at Montrose Road Centre in Forfar and we look to prioritise the emerging themes and look at the way forward.
Each year all social landlords in Scotland provide a wide range of information about Housing performance to the Scottish Housing Regulator for the Scottish Social Housing Charter.
We have prepared our latest Charter Report Card working in partnership with our Tenants Steering Group, and the information is grouped into the areas which are contained in the Charter.
The Report Card is available online now and shows what performance our tenants think is most important.
We haven’t included details on all the Charter outcomes and indicators but you can find these on the Scottish Housing Regulator’s website
Rapid Rehousing is a new approach to help those who experience homelessness.
Our Housing Service, along with Angus Health & Social Care Partnership and other housing providers and stakeholders, have started work to develop a 5 year Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan.
The Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) was set up by the Scottish Government in October 2017 to produce recommendations to end homelessness and rough sleeping.
70 detailed recommendations were published in June 2018 and set out a vision of an approach whereby prevention of homelessness is vital and the responsibility lies not just with local authorities but with all parts of the public sector.
When homelessness occurs, rapid rehousing should be the default position. Rapid rehousing is about making sure people who experience homelessness reach a settled housing option as quickly as possible rather than staying in temporary accommodation for too long.
The Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan in Angus
The Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan is a new planning system for local authorities and their partners to transition to a rapid rehousing approach.
Each Local Authority is required to develop their plans in partnership with stakeholders over a planned and costed phase of 5 years (2019/20 to 2023/24) by 31 December 2018.
We are currently running engagement sessions to develop the plan with the Angus Health & Social Care Partnership, Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), support agencies, communities teams and other partners.
Here are few photos from Monday’s awareness-raising session at the Webster Theatre in Arbroath:
We are starting to review our tenant participation strategy to produce a new one for 2019 – 2021. We would like as many tenants as possible to give us feedback on our current strategy.
Please tell us what you think is good about the current strategy and if there’s anything you don’t want to see again. This will be your strategy so please feel free to make comments about what you would like to see in it.
We will be discussing the current strategy with our Tenant Steering Group. If you want to become involved in this group please contact TenantParticipation@angus.gov.uk.
If you’d prefer not to attend the group, please comment by
We hope to get as much feedback as possible by 30 November 2018. We will then pull together all the comments and prepare a new draft strategy. Once again, the draft strategy will be posted on our blog and other social media platforms to give as many tenants the opportunity to give their comments.
If you want to be part of a proof reading group, please contact TenantParticipation@angus.gov.uk and we will organise with you the best way for you to participate. Again, this can either by social media, email or post or in a meeting setting.
Please get involved in shaping the way we engage with you as our tenants. Tenant Participation is not all about coming to meetings, it can mean getting involved in the conversation by whatever way suits you best.
Angus Council Housing News 