We recognise that how we manage your tenancy and neighbourhood is important to you. Neighbourhood Plans continue to be developed and reviewed on a regular basis to help inform investment priorities and target services in areas most in need.

You can find out more in the ‘what’s happening in your area’ section of this Annual Report.

Collecting rent

We know the financial impact the pandemic has had on some of our customers. We launched the “Let’s Talk Rent” campaign, which was our way of highlighting all of the support available to our customers and to help customers keep up with their rent payments. Between December and March we reduced our rent arrears by £600,000.

Thanks to the Let’s Talk Rent campaign we have:

– Completed over 54,000 rent conversations
– Achieved over 63,000 outcomes such as payment plans
– Sent over 60,000 Let’s Talk Rent emails containing links to our online support pages.
– Generated more than 160,000 visits to our Covid-19 website hub which features our Let’s Talk Rent offer.

We’ve also incorporated this messaging into all of our main Covid-19 communications that has created many tens of thousands more customer views.

Riverside Foundation

We want to work with you to ensure you can pay your rent, and as part of this we provide a range of extra money advice and training and employment support services.

These services are part funded by our Riverside Foundation charity.

During 2020/21, the Foundation funded Riverside to deliver projects which:

• Supported 614 people towards employment, delivering 221 people into jobs, 147 into formal training or volunteering and 6 into apprenticeships
• Delivered £3,179,737 in cash gains/savings to people through welfare benefits advice and £385,048 through affordable warmth advice, helping 1,987 people.
• Helped 171 households facing multiple challenges to sustain their tenancies.
• Provided 74 people with professional training to help them achieve their ambitions through the Ladders of Aspiration scheme.
• Provided grants to 254 households in crisis through our Helping Hands Fund

You can read more about how Riverside Foundation supports customers here