Coronavirus update on services during the latest lockdown

When we wrote to you two weeks ago it was in the hope that 2021 would be a year when we’d be able to spend more time with our friends and loved ones and that our lives would return to normal. Now just seven days into the year we have entered our third lockdown and are once again facing challenges to our daily lives.

However, I’m pleased that we will continue to offer most of our key services to you again throughout this latest lockdown.

Repairs and maintenance

We will continue to carry out repairs to your home that have already been reported to us, taking steps to ensure the safety of you and your family. Before we come out to your home, we will contact you to check that you are still happy for us to visit or if you need to rearrange the appointment. When our colleague arrives at your home please maintain social distancing throughout their visit, ideally by waiting in another room. Although its cold at the moment please also ventilate your home by opening windows. By doing this, you will allow our engineer to safely carry out the repair to your home. Our customer and colleagues’ safety is really important to us so If at any time any of our engineers feel unsafe in a property they will have to leave.

Find out more, watch our video showing the measures we take to keep you and your family safe when we visit, and report a repair online

You can continue reporting repairs, but unless you are reporting an emergency repair, it may take us longer than usual to book an appointment and complete the work. I hope you understand the reasons for this and would like to thank you for your patience over the weeks ahead.

As well as continuing our repairs service, we also want to continue our improvement programme of planned works to homes wherever possible. If the work is to the outside of a property, such as work to a roof or painting we will continue this as normal. If we were due to start work on internal improvements to your home, we will contact you about this.
We will also continue to clean communal areas and carry out landscaping work.

Health and safety

We will also continue to carry out all the work that ensures the safety of you and your family, such as gas and electrical inspections and repairs and fire safety assessments. It’s really important that we are able to carry out this work.

Paying your rent

We know that the past few months have been financially tough for many people and that entering into another lockdown may cause further money worries. If you think you are going to have trouble paying your rent at any time, please let us know as soon as possible so we can work with you to find an affordable solution.
We have several ways to pay your rent including by Direct Debit and making online payments.

Learn how you can set up an automatic Direct Debit payment and make an immediate online payment.

More information

The Coronavirus information page on our website has lots more information to answer any other queries you may have about our services during this time. We regularly review and update the information on here to ensure we’re providing you with up-to-date advice. Your neighbourhood coach is also available for you if you need specialist help.

Find contact details for your neighbourhood coach.

Please continue to stay safe and follow the government advice. We have been, and continue to be, extremely grateful for your patience and goodwill as our colleagues work to provide services for all our customers.

Many thanks and take care,

Rohini Mehra
Chief customer officer

<sent to customers with a registered email address 7 January 2021>