Connect news, spring 2012 [TEST]

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Welcome to the spring edition of our ezine.
What a season it’s already been for the housing sector. We’ve bid goodbye to the TSA and are busy working with the Homes and Communities Agency to ensure we are ready for the fresh opportunities of localism and reduced regulation. We have discussed the future of the green deal and what this means for us and our customers and we’re considering and planning for the prospect of welfare reform.

With all this going on, we have also, of course, continued business as usual, conducting our vital work of providing homes and good services for our customers.

At Family the past few months have seen a number of exciting changes coming to fruition. We have welcomed a new chair to our board and brought our debt and money advice service in-house. We have also embarked on an exciting project to help our tenants save money. Last year was one of enormous change for the housing sector. With our plans and projects in good order we are looking forward to continuing to meet the challenges of the new financial year.

New board chair
We are delighted to welcome Angela Parks as the new chair of our board of management. Angela brings a wealth of experience in the housing sector, having served as chair of Gloucestershire Housing Association for the past four years and vice-chair for two years prior to that.
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Go green money-saving pilot

Together with Digital Birmingham, we have launched the first scheme of its kind for Birmingham which helps residents save money while they watch television.

The project, which is aimed at tackling fuel poverty, provides continually updated energy-saving advice tailored directly to each household. Residents can then access this information via a variety of digital devices, such as a television, games console, mobile phone, or computer.

We received £60,000 from the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF), to run the venture. The ongoing project is being administered by the Energy Saving Trust. At present this is a pilot project, but if it is successful, upon its completion we will expand and roll-out the scheme to all of our tenants.

We selected 60 residents, to receive a home visit from our energy advisor, to provide them with information and tips on how to save money by making their home more energy-efficient.
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Debt advice service brought in-house
With welfare benefit changes on the horizon, we’ve stepped up our financial inclusion resources for customers by bringing our debt advice capability in-house. We have recruited a money advice and support officer to provide a full-time service.
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Appointments complete Family re-structure

Ringing the changes for residents
It’s said that the proof is in the pudding, and we have just celebrated sweet success as our latest customer satisfaction figures have shown a seven per cent satisfaction increase in our services.
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Financing the future
We are pleased to announce that we are currently securing £7.5m for the benefit of our current and future customers.
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Job fair success
More than a hundred job seekers visited us last month to enquire about five skilled trades vacancies. We were delighted when 117 people responded to an open invitation to attend our jobs fair for four multi-trade operative positions and an empty homes surveyor role.
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Bordesley House, 44/46 Coventry Road, Birmingham B10 0RX
Tel: 0121 766 1100 Fax: 0121 766 5115
Email: post@family-housing.co.uk.

Family is a charity (No. 16763R) registered in England under the Industrial & Provident Societies Act 1965-1978 and under the Housing Associations Act 1985 (No. LH 0713).