What is a Social Landlord?
In the East Midlands there are 300,000+ social housing tenants. Landlords can be one of the following;
- Local Authorities such as Leicester City Council
- Arms Length Management Organisations, such as Nottingham City Homes
- Larges Scale Stock Transfer such as Rushcliffe which transferred its homes to Metropolitan Housing Association
- Housing Associations such as Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA)
Housing Association usually have homes which are dispersed across a number of Local Authority areas. NCHA has homes in 22 Local Authority areas.
Most social housing tenants have tenancies for life, however some new tenancies are fixed term tenancies. Rents are set by the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), a government agency. Standards for Housing Management have been set by the HCA.
Social landlords usually find new tenants by advertising vacant homes in Local Authority Lettings schemes. For example, in Nottingham, HomeLink and in Northampton Homechoice.
Social Landlords employ staff to make sure that tenants get the following services:
· Allocations
· Estate Services
· Tenancy Management
· Rent Account
· Arrears Control
· Anti-Social Behaviour
· Tenant Involvement
Why Social Landlords want to Work with Credit Unions
About two thirds of social housing tenants are in receipt of benefits, including Housing Benefit because they are either unemployed, retired on a low income, or working in a job which pays low wages. This means that many tenants struggle to pay rent, council tax, other bills and pay for everything else. Well over half of tenants have rent arrears.
Some tenants have debts with doorstep lenders such as ‘Provident’, high street lenders such as ‘Pay Day loans’ or places like Brighthouse which sell white goods. These tenants are paying too much for those loans.
Landlords offer help and advice for tenants to help them to deal with rent arrears and other debts. Advice is given about the services Credit Unions can offer to assist tenants who are struggling financially. These services are:
· Savings and loans at competitive rates.
· Rent payment and budget accounts to help tenants pay rent and other bills.
· Current account to pay benefits and income into to help manage income.
Social landlords strongly believe that the services offered by Credit Unions can help tenants to manage their money, savings and any borrowing. By supporting the Credit Union Project. Social Landlords are helping Credit Unions to improve their services for the good of Social Housing tenants in the East Midlands.
For a list of which RSLs are part of this project go to the
About us page