CUSTOMER ANNUAL REVIEW 2014
14
Value for
For those of you who rent, we are often asked how we use the rent we collect and also how we ensure service charges are value for money. Our rents are set under government guidelines but we do review them to check their affordability for our working customers, and for the most part, our rents don’t exceed 30% of average incomes for family homes or 50% for single person flats.
When we are buying in services covered by your service charges we balance getting the best price with the quality of the service. Recent buying successes include saving £128,000 per year on our communal cleaning contracts, so the cost savings can be passed on to you via your service charges.
For shared owners, whilst rent increases are again largely dictated by lease terms, we are going to complete an affordability review of rent levels on our older homes before the rent review in October 2015. During the last year we have negotiated better rates for customers seeking valuations linked to staircasing and introduced fixed fee charges for the services we provide to help you sell on your home.
How we use your rent…
One of the most frequently asked questions we get is: "What does our rent pay for?" Well, now you can find out.
Your rent helps to pay for the services you receive as a Bromford customer and to maintain your home. It also allows us to repay the loans we have used to build your home and to also partly fund the building of new homes.
On the chart below, we have broken down what each pound of your rent went towards in the last year:
Money
Customers have rated us between 7 and 8 out of 10 when it comes to the value for money of our homes and services. We set ourselves the target of 9 and we still haven’t achieved that, so we need to do more.
22p
16p
22p
21p
9p
10p
Colleague costs and offices
Interest on our loans
Repairs and Servicing to homes
Left to invest in new homes
Services to your home and communal areas, for example grounds maintenance
Improvements to your home for example new kitchens