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.

February is the British Heart Foundation’s Heart Month.

There are lots of ways you can support your heart and the hearts of loved ones. Below are a few ideas to get you started. 

1. Learn CPR in fifteen minutes. 

Many of us will witness a cardiac arrest, and we can be ready by taking the time to learn CPR with this free and easy-to-use online training course. 

2. Check your blood pressure 

Blood pressure is a key indicator of your health and is important to monitor to avoid heart attacks and failure. You can buy an affordable blood pressure monitor from your local pharmacy. As a general guide, ideal blood pressure is between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg. If you have a high reading, book an appointment with your GP and they can discuss how best to manage it. 

3. Make some healthy food swaps 

Small changes to your diet can make a huge difference to your heart health. Cutting back on salt and sugar and swapping ultra processed foods for whole foods will make a big difference to your health and energy levels. You can read more about eating a balanced diet on the British Heart Foundation website. 

4. Book your dental check-up 

Maintaining good dental hygiene has far-reaching benefits, as gum disease can lead to tooth loss and has also been linked to an increased risk of developing heart or blood vessel problems. Make sure to book regular dentist and hygienist appointments. 

5. Sneak exercise into your day 

Staying active can keep you happier and healthier and is key to maintaining good heart health. Read about small ways you can become more active here. 

6. Quit smoking 

Smoking is very harmful to your health, and seriously increases your risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases. The chemicals in cigarettes make the walls of your arteries sticky. This causes fatty material to stick to the walls. The fatty material can begin to clog your arteries and reduce the space for blood to flow properly. 

The NHS website has a lot of information and support on quitting smoking, and your GP will be able to support you making this healthy change. 

We are pleased to announce that we have acquired 21 new homes in Silwood Street, Bermondsey.

The development by Featherstone Homes is a mix of eight shared ownership and 13 general needs and scheduled to be completed by December 2024.

There are 61 apartments in total, as well as a commercial space and the development is set to transform a vacant site next to the historic railway arches, kickstarting a wider regeneration of the new Bermondsey neighbourhood.

Yinka Bolaji, Executive Director of Development & Property at Wandle said, “Wandle exists to provide affordable and high-quality homes to those who may not otherwise be able to afford a home at market rent or price.

“It’s an exciting time for us to be involved in the regeneration of South Bermondsey, as there is Government funding for a new underground station – New Bermondsey, which will be located between Queens Road Peckham and Surrey Quays, with the first journey scheduled for 2025.”

The New Bermondsey regeneration masterplan will transform a 30-acre industrial site into a new neighbourhood of new homes, shops, sports facilities, a sociable piazza and cycle paths.

Rowan Stewart, Director at Featherstone Homes said, “We are really pleased to have exchanged contracts with Wandle Housing Association. At Featherstone Homes we like to work with likeminded companies who are always looking elevate to the next level. This is our second scheme with Wandle, and we are looking forward to more in future, thank you to everyone for their efforts to get this exchanged”. 

We will be posting updates about the development throughout 2024.

Congratulations to the winners and runners-up of this year’s gardening competition.

Suzanne Horsley, Executive Director of Customer Services at Wandle visited the winners and was impressed by the creativity on display.

First place:

Community garden – Soul food garden

Outdoor garden – Fiona Allen

Runners up:

Community garden – Queen Elizabeth House

Outdoor garden – Michelle Roche

Outdoor garden – Glen Bottomley & Christina Marquez.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their garden, your entries were colourful and a testament to the joy of being outdoors and connecting with nature.

We are pleased to share the published version of our annual report for the year ending March 2023.

The report gives an overview and insight into what we have been doing over the last twelve months. Throughout the year we have focussed on our customers feeling safe in their homes, including our understanding of damp and mould in our homes.

We continue to learn from complaints and have included a number of case studies to highlight were we have improved.

We have also created a short video that expands on what we are doing to improve our customer service offering.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but we are committed to driving continuous improvement, and deliver against our vision ‘homes to be proud of and services you can trust.’