Rented Housing

Please click on the links on the left for further details about aspects of our affordable rented housing.

Service Standards

Granta Housing Society is a charitable organisation, which exists to serve the community by providing, managing and maintaining quality social housing to the highest standards for those in greatest need.

To show our commitment to high quality services we set and publish our standards and monitor performance against them. Our Customer Service Promise provides a summary of some of the standards you can expect from Granta.

If you are not happy with the service you receive, or have any suggestions for improvement, please inform us immediately. Copies of our Comments / Compliments & Complaints procedure are readily available from our Head Office. In some circumstances compensation may be payable in accordance with specific policies.

 We will be happy to provide you with more information and explain any of our policies and procedures in greater detail upon request.

Customer Care

If you contact the Society you can normally expect Granta staff to:

• Treat you with courtesy and respect, be polite and give you accurate information
• Make sure that if you have an appointment you are seen at your appointment time
• Ensure that if you come to our offices and have not made an appointment that you will be seen within 5 minutes
• Arrange for an interpretation service if you require it and translate documents where it is reasonable to do so
• Give you our names and wear identity badges
• Answer 95% of telephone calls within 15 seconds
• Respond to your written or e-mail enquiry within 10 working days, or we will contact you to let you know when it will be resolved

Repairs and Maintenance

Granta places great emphasis on maintaining and improving the quality of its housing stock to protect and enhance its amenity level for tenants. Granta will:

• Acknowledge in writing all maintenance requests
• Complete all emergency repairs within 24 hours (or make safe until a full repair has been completed)
• Complete all urgent repairs within 5 working days
• Complete all routine repairs within 20 working days
• Carry out satisfaction surveys of all tenants who have received a recent repair to monitor the quality of our service, and let you know the results of this in our newsletters and on our website and report to the Maintenance Service Review Panel
• Make appointments for the work when you report a repair, and offer you an a.m. or p.m. appointment
• Require all Granta staff and contractors to carry identification and introduce themselves before entering your home
• Provide a 24 hour emergency repair service
• Ensure tenants are consulted about cyclical repairs - we will give you details of work that is scheduled for your home, and provide 14 days notice before starting work on your home

Neighbourhood Management

The Society's residents and those who approach it for help are our most important customers. We want to provide all our residents with an excellent housing management service.

Granta will: 

• Consult with residents about improvements to your neighbourhood
• Ensure Neighbourhood Officers carry out estate visits on a regular basis to inspect the area and ensure that the correct standard is in place
• Employ contractors or staff to look after communal areas (including cleaning, caretaking and grounds maintenance)
• If you apply to take over a tenancy or pass your tenancy to someone else, we will contact you within 28 days with our decision or tell you why we cannot transfer your tenancy
• If you apply to do a mutual exchange (to swap your property with a similar one) with another tenant, we will tell you about our decision within 28 days or advise you as to why we cannot allow your exchange
• Reply within 10 working days to all requests to make alterations to your home or tell you why you cannot carry out alterations or improvements to your home. We will not unreasonably refuse permission
• Work with local residents and residents’ groups to address problems of ASB
• Investigate all reported complaints of ASB
• Respond to racial harassment and domestic violence within 1 working day
• Give you advice about giving us notice to end your tenancy, leaving the property tidy, paying any rent or service charges you owe and handing in the keys

When letting the property, we will: 

• Make sure that the property is safe and secure
•  Make sure that the property meets Granta’s lettable standard
• Give you a copy of your tenancy or licence agreement, a sign-up pack and a tenants’ handbook
  
  

Resident Involvement

We wish to give residents a genuine opportunity to influence decisions and improve our services. To achieve this we will:

• Provide a range of opportunities for you to be involved
• Offer relevant training that supports your involvement
• Encourage you to participate in decision-making to help us achieve quality services
• Consult you on any significant change that will affect how we deliver the services we provide to you and your home
• Carry out regular surveys to measure the satisfaction with services and report on the results of these
• Help plan and support meetings and events , and go to your meetings if you ask us
• Provide money to cover your expenses in attending meetings (for example transport and childcare expenses)

Quality Management

Granta is committed to quality and continuous improvement in terms of the standards and costs of the services it provides. We recognise the importance of people and procedures in achieving quality, and will:

• Provide comprehensive induction, to include customer care, for all new staff
• Commit the Society to achieve and retain Investors in People status
• Integrate NVQ's within our corporate training policy
• Focus staff appraisal systems on training needs and personal development
• Regularly up-date Procedures Handbooks and Service Level Agreements
• Continuously improve I.T. facilities and communications equipment
• Measure and publish indicators of performance against targets
• Monitor customer satisfaction through regular meetings and surveys
• Maintain robust internal audit and quality assurance mechanisms

Rent and Service Charges

In providing affordable, value for money housing services Granta agrees to:

• Set rents in a fair and consistent way in line with our published policies 
• Set charges in Care and Support schemes at the minimum needed to meet costs, or in line with the county benchmark figures
• Never increase rents or charges more than once a year without consulting you
• Give at least four weeks notice of any rent increase
• Give you a statement of your rent account every three months and at any other time upon request
• Provide a range of ways in which you can pay your rent (this will include direct debit, an Allpay card, and on the internet via our website)
• Give advice and help on claiming benefits and arranging payments
• Give you information on service charges once a year
• Publish audited accounts each year with details of the service charge for your home

Equal Opportunities

As a housing provider and as an employer Granta is committed to equality of opportunity across all its activities. We will:

• Consider all applicants, residents and staff fairly and equally
•  Treat harassment against neighbours or staff by a tenant as breaking tenancy conditions
• Monitor contractors to ensure that they keep to our equality and diversity policy objectives
• Provide translations and use interpreters, alternative media such as Braille, audio tape and large print where requested, or in advance if we know your requirements
• Provide a copy of our equality and diversity policy statement if you ask us
• Monitor and assess the impact our services to make sure that they comply with our equality and diversity policy
• Report to residents on the progress made against our equality and diversity

Suggestions and Complaints

 Let us know your suggestions and complaints so we can put it right. No organisation gets it right all the time. If things go wrong, we will do our best to correct them as quickly as possible.

When we receive complaints, we will:

• Acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days, and respond within 10 working days of the date the complaint was received, or if this is not possible within a timescale agreed with you
• Deal with your suggestions and complaints politely and effectively
• Review our standards to make sure we get it right and learn from the complaints made

 If you are dissatisfied with how we have handled your complaint you can contact the Housing Ombudsman. The Housing Ombudsman is an independent complaint service and will be able to help once you have completed every stage of our complaints procedure.

Service Standards - October 2009 - download PDF

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