Consultations

Every year, we consult tenants on options for rent and service charges. Civica Election Services is administering the rent and service charge consultation for 2025/26 on behalf of Loretto Housing.

You will receive your consultation brochure in the post detailing our rent and service charge proposals for 2025/26. This will include an instruction sheet telling you how to select your preferred option and give feedback via post, online, call or text.

If you have told us that email or text is your preferred contact method, you will receive an email or text from Civica with a link to the consultation brochure.

You have until 5pm on Wednesday 27 January 2025 to tell us your preferred option and give feedback. All feedback is independently checked and reported.

If you have any questions about how to tell us your preferred option, or if you need the brochure in a translated or alternative format, please contact the support team at Civica Election Services on 020 8889 9203 (weekdays 9am – 5pm) or email: support@cesvotes.com

You can also contact TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) for independent advice by emailing Eveline Armour at eveline.armour@tpasscotland.org.uk or by calling 0800 9159 551.

if you are struggling to keep on top of your rent, please get in touch with our Customer First Centre or your housing officer . There are lots of ways we can help, including with benefits, fuel advice, jobs and training, bursaries for students, free furniture, support to get online and more.

The Loretto Housing Board will consider all feedback from the consultation before approving the rent and service charge increase for 2025/26. We will write to you to confirm this before any increase is applied.

Wheatley Group landlords consulted customers on three proposed changes to the existing Housing Information Advice and Letting Policy Framework, following recommendations from an independent review commissioned in 2021.  The consultation took place over a six-week period during June and July 2022.

Throughout the consultation period, over 71,000 consultation documents were sent to customers with links and QR codes to an online survey.  There was also an option for customers to receive a hard copy of the survey if needed  There was a six-week social media campaign, with 43 posts on  Facebook and Instagram reaching over 41,000 people.  Links to the survey were also added to the Wheatley Group website and all subsidiary websites.

Wheatley Group held 13 customer focus groups, both online and face-to-face.  A total of 235 customers booked on to these sessions. Customers who preferred not to participate were also offered individual phone calls.

A total of 2455 customers from all categories responded to the anonymous online survey. The breakdown of those completing the survey was:

The survey was made up of 25 questions based on the recommendations from an independent review commissioned in 2021.  There were three key questions:

• We have homes in 19 local authority areas, do you think we should have the ability to reflect circumstances in local areas where this would support localised housing need?
• During the pandemic we moved to a new process for homeless applicants, where we worked with local authorities to provide a streamlined service for our most vulnerable applicants.  You told us during the review last year this new process was working well.  We plan to continue with this service providing additional support for our most vulnerable applicants, do you agree with this?
• As part of the review last year, you told us that Band E has too many different types of applicants.  Do you think we should separate our properties with an age restriction (i.e Livingwell) into a separate band?

The response from those who expressed an opinion:

Stakeholder responses
Wheatley Group contacted over 50 stakeholders, local authorities and Registered Tenant Organisations with a separate consultation. Four stakeholders responded to the survey, two were from local authorities, one from RTO and the other from a housing advice charity.

Next steps
All comments were analysed and the Housing Information Advice and Letting Policy and Framework updated to reflect the outcome of the consultation.  An updated framework was presented to Wheatley Group Board for approval in August 2022 and  RSL subsidiary boards in September 2022.

The new Housing Information Advice and Letting Policy and Framework will formally launch in Spring 2023.

We’re always keen to hear your views on our services and how we can get better. One way we do this is by carrying out consultations.

All of our consultations follow these seven principles:

• Integrity – each consultation has an honest intention, that we will listen to and be influenced by what our tenants tell us
• Visibility – affected tenants and other affected stakeholders are reasonably aware of the consultation
• Accessibility – affected tenants and affected other stakeholders have reasonable access to the consultation. We will use digital means of ensuring access to consultations where appropriate
• Transparency – it is clear when the consultation closes, who is collating the responses and whether responses will be published
• Disclosure – any appropriate information applicable to the consultation is made available
• Fair interpretation – consultation responses will be collated and analysed objectively
• Publication – it is made clear of where and when the consultation report will be available.