You are invited to a health and wellbeing fair at William Booth College on Friday 10 May.

The fair will be hosted by HACT, and we will have a private room, and it’s a great opportunity for residents living in Southwark and neighbouring boroughs to meet Wandle colleagues from across our teams. There will be fun activities and light refreshments available.

Activities will include art, health checks and advice, chair-based yoga, talks, singing, Chi Kung and even a disco.

The address is William Booth College, Denmark Hill and the fair starts at 10am until 1pm.

We look forward to seeing you there!

We are delighted to share the news that we have won our bid for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Funding.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have announced that £75 million has been awarded to 42 councils and housing associations.

Our ambitious bid means that over the next two years we will be able to retrofit 121 homes. This means we will be improving the insulation, ventilation and adding solar PV panels to these homes.

Andy Arnold, Head of Asset Management at Wandle said, “Winning this bid means we can focus on future proofing our homes, so they are both energy and cost efficient for our residents.

“Our purpose is to support people, across south london, who need a home. We are helping to tackle the shortage of good quality affordable housing, and this includes energy consumption.”

Our energy saving programme aims to reduce energy consumption by 2475 kWh per year and reduce energy bills by up to £325 per year for some of our residents living in the least energy efficient homes. In addition, all 121 homes will achieve EPC Band C.

Central Government will also provide funding of £1,018 million towards the work. The full list of successful applicants have been published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and can be found here Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.2: successful bids – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

On Tuesday 12th March, our Energy and Sustainability Lead attended the Battersea Arts Centre for the ‘Wandsworth Together on Climate Change’ summit.

The partnership event had a focus on net zero and was an opportunity for local stakeholders and partners to come together to talk about the action they have taken and future plans to reach net zero. In addition, there was a discussion about the challenges and opportunities in trying to reach Wandsworth’s target of being net zero by 2043.

As Wandle are one of the largest social housing providers in Wandsworth, we were given the opportunity to talk about the work we’re doing to meet our own targets and to tackle climate change. Our Head of Asset Management also participated in a panel discussion on how the public sector and businesses can contribute towards meeting net zero.

Useful contacts were made, and the team came away with ideas about how they can best engage with you on the topics of energy efficiency and green skills.

The leader of the Council and Chief Executive were also pleased to announce that Wandsworth has been awarded the London Borough of culture for 2025!

We recently received complaints from five Wandle residents and members of the public living in Streatham concerning the behaviour of a resident.

Initially the team thought it was anti-social behaviour (ASB), but on further investigation they realised the behaviour was the result of a serious mental health crisis.

The tenant in question was struggling to remember to take their medication, which was causing their problematic behaviour, and they were in desperate need of additional support.

The situation reached a critical level after a distressing incident outside a local school. Our community safety officer liaised with the police and social services to process an emergency safeguarding referral.

As a result, the resident was taken to a nearby hospital to receive the mental health support they require, and the local community can now breathe easy.

The future is looking slightly brighter for the resident, and Wandle are working with Mental Health professionals to explore the possibility of moving the resident to supported housing so they can be closely monitored and get back on track.

There are often many reasons why someone is behaving in an anti-social way, and it is the responsibility of our Community Safety Team to decide on the best course of action.

If you need to report an ASB case, the most efficient and simplest way of reporting anti-social behaviour is by calling our Customer Service Team on 0300 2000 120 or by emailing customerservices@wandle.com.

The Housing Ombudsman is inviting social housing residents to apply to join its Resident panel and contribute to the work it is doing to improve residents’ lives through landlords’ services.

As a member of the panel, you will be invited to share your experiences as a social housing resident and suggest improvements through regular meetings and virtual discussions with the Ombudsman.

The current panel were appointed in March 2021 for a term of three years and have been an invaluable asset in the work of the Ombudsman. They have also provided feedback on the introduction of the Complaint Handling Code, annual business plans and various projects to improve accessibility and raising awareness of the service.

This is an exciting opportunity for residents to be part of the Ombudsman vision, and to embed a positive complaint handling culture across the sector and have your voice heard.

The Ombudsman is looking to recruit a panel that represents the diverse demographic of residents living in social housing across England.

You do not need previous experience as a member of a scrutiny panel or have used the Ombudsman before to apply. The panel will be made up of residents living in all types of social housing – tenants or leaseholders of a local authority, housing association or co-operative landlord.

Applications are now open and will close on 30 April 2024. You can apply here.

Wandle have recently agreed to acquire 64 shared ownership properties at The HiLight, an upcoming residential project in Battersea.

The homes will be delivered in partnership with Ghelamco, the leading European real estate investor and developer, and form part of the wider redevelopment of the historic Price’s Candle Factory site which will retain three of the former factory buildings.

Attention to detail has been applied to all aspects of the design process with the modern building complimenting its historic setting. The development will provide beautiful interiors, as well as amenity spaces for residents.

The development is set over 23[LJ1]  storeys and provides 177 homes in total with the ground floor allocated for commercial use. In addition, there are excellent transport links to main line stations and London Overground less than a mile away.

Yinka Bolaji, Executive Director of Property & Development at Wandle said: “The regeneration of the Candle Factory is an exciting opportunity for Wandle. We exist to provide affordable and high-quality homes for those who would otherwise struggle to buy their own home on the open market.”

Marie-Julie Gheysens, Head of UK, International Business Development at Ghelamco comments: “We’re looking forward to bringing these exceptional new homes to the market. Every Ghelamco project is designed with the community in mind, and to bring people together to live in a space that works for all, and so our partnership with Wandle means we can welcome more residents to make The HiLight their home.”

The new homes are scheduled to be available December 2025, with more information to follow. You can keep up to date by visiting the HiLight website.

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Mr MB currently works and supports his family of his two children, one of which is disabled and used a wheelchair.  

Due to the increase in cost of living, as well as additional medical expenses, he was finding it hard to pay his rising gas and electricity bills. 

Even though we are unable to provide financial support towards bills, the team awarded him with £250 worth of Sainsburys vouchers to purchase food and £200 in Argos vouchers for home essentials. 

Hopefully, this financial injection will allow him some breathing space to save towards his bill payments. 

He was very grateful for the team’s prompt response and the helping hand fund meant he was able to provide an enjoyable Christmas day for his family. 

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Ms P is a single mother struggling with PTSD, and supporting her son who is undergoing the assessment for ADHD. 

Due to the nature of their situation, the resident liaison team fast tracked her application and awarded her £500 in Argos vouchers to pay towards white goods and £150 in Sainsbury’s vouchers for food shopping.  

We were touched to receive the following email from Ms P, “I can confirm I have received the vouchers. 

“I wanted to say a big thank you for your kind offer to help me. I am still in shock and honestly quite emotional as I felt the walls closing in on me further and further every day. I am incredibly grateful and feel that I can breathe again. 

“Again, my sincere gratitude for fast tracking my case, I understand you must be inundated with desperate families and therefore understand how lucky I am today with your prompt response. I’ll be forever grateful.” 

To find out more, or to make an application, please contact helpinghandfund@wandle.com. You can also download the application form. 

About the helping hand fund 

The helping hand fund is available to all Wandle residents who are struggling financially and aims to support residents by providing vouchers to buy food and other household items from supermarkets, furniture, essential white goods and technology. 

It is available to residents who are on very low incomes. To be eligible you must be a Wandle tenant or homeowner and are able to demonstrate that you need additional support. You can only make one application a year. 

The helping hand fund is also available to new tenants to support one-off costs when moving into your home. It is not to be used to pay your rent, or other debts. 

The residents from Leckhampton Place and Scotia Road met with our customer empowerment team to host their first meeting.

They had previously been part of a joint resident association with Southern Housing but didn’t feel they were being listened to.

The aim of the group is to work with us to resolve ongoing issues in the area, such as fly tipping, bin collections and security concerns.

We encourage all our residents to come together and have their voices heard, and we want to help you make this a reality. Our customer empowerment team can assist with setting up, administrative assistance and agenda setting.

We look forward to working with the residents of Leckhampton Place and Scotia Road and supporting them to improve their community.

About resident associations

Resident associations are usually made up of a group of residents living in a neighbourhood that decide they want to get together to deal with concerns that affect their local community. The group can include tenants and homeowners.

We can provide help and support to residents who wish to set up a formal resident association. Our help can include helping you to develop a constitution, promoting the association to other residents, set-up costs and annual grants.

If you are interested in setting up your own residents association, you can read more information on our dedicated webpage, or email customerempowerment@wandle.com.

We are supporting the Government’s Make Things Right campaign.

We believe everyone deserves to live in a safe and secure home, and that they should know their rights, know how to complain, and trust that we will listen.

If you have an issue with your home, or you need us to put things right, there are ways of making this happen.

The Make Things Right campaign highlights that as a social housing tenant of Wandle, we are responsible for fixing issues involving damp and mould, leaks, and broken locks. We can also install adaptations to your home if you are disabled, as well as support you if you are experiencing domestic abuse.

We want to provide you with a good service, but if we don’t, we want to know so we can fix it and improve our service in the future.

There are ways to get an issue fixed:

• In the first instance, report your repair or concern using the MyWandle app or call us on 0300 2000 120.
• If you are not happy with the service you received, you can email us at customerservices@wandle.com. There is more information on our complaints process on the complaints page of our website.
• Wandle is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. You may wish to contact them for advice and guidance about your complaint with us. You can contact them at any point during your complaint.

Address: Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 1484, Unit D, Preston PR2 0ET (This address changed on 1 May 2024)

Telephone: 0300 111 3000

Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Online: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/residents/make-a-complaint

Wandle residents in Wandsworth were visited by local school children as part of a wellbeing programme.

Anandi House in Wandsworth is a scheme for older South Asian adults, and for many of them English is not their primary language.

InCommon visited residents at Anandi House with a group of local school children, and ran a session based on the theme of mindfulness. Due to the language barrier, the session was designed to use minimal language, instead focusing on art and movement.

The customer empowerment team were supported by a member of the contact centre who lent her language skills to help organise the day. She also kindly created a flyer in Urdu, as well as attending on the day as an interpreter.

We were delighted to hear that the residents enjoyed the session, and spending time with the children felt like spending time with their own grandchildren.