Double or nothing

A problem shared is a problem halved: Tenants Maureen Bristow (left) and Betty Peck have worked with one of the tenant groups to come up with a solution to making Hull Housing’s one-bedroom bungalows more appealing

Few people want to live in the council's one-bedroom bungalows – but tenants might have the answer

There are around 2,600 one-bedroom bungalows across Hull - but some remain empty because tenants feel they are not ideal.
Now a group of tenants have come up with a solution.
After noticing that many of the bungalows had a decent-sized storage room, they suggested turning it into a second bedroom.
"It seemed a simple solution to us," says Maureen Bristow, a member of the Empty Homes and Letting Service Improvement Group, which came up with the idea.
"The conversion doesn't cost a lot of money, and it's a way of the council providing customers with what they want."
By creating a second bedroom, the bungalows could appeal to more people – and the idea is now being put to the test in pilot schemes on Bransholme and North Hull.
Between five and 10 properties will be converted - and the council will use these examples to help make decisions about other properties in the future.
The work also involves taking up part of the hallway to increase the size of the second bedroom and adding a window.
The cost is between £1,500 and £2,000 per property - but not all bungalows are suitable for the alteration, because of their layout.
"It's great that the Council are listening to us and taking our ideas on board," says Betty Peck, another member of the group.
"We do a lot of voluntary hours to help improve the housing service and it makes it all worthwhile to see an end result."
Director of Hull Housing John Hocking said: "We are open to any suggestions for improving homes to make them more attractive to our customers. This has proved to be yet another good idea generated by one of our tenant groups."

Paying the piper

Hull Housing tenants are being urged not to fall behind with their rent payments over the Christmas period.

Each year, rent arrears cost the council £1.5 million in lost income – and this can lead to vital services being cut back and families being evicted.
The run-up to Christmas is the time when rent arrears increase the most, as families on low incomes try to make their money stretch. Tenants think they have two weeks' free rent, say housing officers. But that's only for tenants who have paid regularly throughout the year, and not for tenants who are in arrears.
A group of tenants is now giving up their time to look at ways of reducing rent arrears.
Members of the group – known as the Rent Recovery Service Improvement Group – already have plenty of innovative ideas for cutting rent arrears.
Ideas include providing training sessions for tenants about how to budget their income and producing debt prevention leaflets.
Chair of the group Mr Scrimshaw said: "We have a steep learning curve. We need to understand the policy for recovering current and former tenant rent arrears."
Fellow group member Mrs Johnson said: "We need to continually monitor performance figures and see what other methods the council can use to recover arrears."
The group is not allowed to look into individual cases of non-payment, nor do they have access to any tenants' personal information.
However they will be continually monitoring statistics regarding rent in each of the seven committee areas.
Director of Hull Housing John Hocking said: "Without rent income, we have no service. The better we perform in collecting outstanding rent, the better service we can provide to our tenants. Eviction for persistent non-payers is our last resort."

If you are interested in joining the Rent Recovery Service Improvement Group, and can spare some time each month to get involved, call 300300 and ask for the Tenant Participation Team.

Make a Change

Want to change things where you live? Why not join a tenants' group?

There are many different ways in which tenants can get involved in housing issues in Hull. You can join one of the many tenants' groups – known as Service Improvement Groups – and get the chance to combat problems in your local area and have an impact on decision making.
There's the Empty Homes and Lettings Service Improvement Group (see opposite page), which makes sure homes are let to tenants in a decent standard.
And the newly set-up Rent Recovery Service Improvement Group helps look at new ways of collecting rent and reducing rent arrears.
The other groups cover the following areas: Decent Homes, Antisocial Behaviour, Estate Management, Customer Access, Publicity Monitoring, Tenant Involvement, Rewards Scheme, Leaseholders, and Repairs & Maintenance.
And there's also the Tenants' Forum, a group which looks at many different housing issues across the city.
"If you don't get involved, how can you expect to change things? Our work is about trying to help improve the world we live in," says Tenant Forum chair Maureen Bristow.
"Your expenses will be covered, so you won't be out of pocket. And if you don't like the thought of meetings, then perhaps you could get involved in other ways. You could join one of the many Tenant & Resident Associations (TARAs) across the city."
Watch out for more details about the TARAs in future editions.

To get involved, call 300300 and ask for the Tenant Participation Team.