Dear Residents
A very warm (at last) welcome to my Summer Newsletter.
Before I give you your monthly update about CHISEL, I thought that I should share our support and solidarity to anybody who has been affected by the recent far-right and racist demonstrations, which have been taking place across the country. As an anti-racist organisation with a proud history of providing homes to people from every background, this unlawful behaviour is abhorrent and against all our beliefs. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our residents who are facing unfair discrimination based on actual or perceived difference.
CHISEL has always included a paragraph in our annual report and audit about our approach to diversity and inclusivity, and this is what our board and shareholders signed off last Monday:
- CHISEL champions diverse groups in society and aims to go beyond the limits of statutory requirements to be inclusive, specifically (but by no means limited) to being an anti-racist organisation, to demonstrate understanding and take action to deliver gender equality, to be inclusive of all strands of the LGBTQ+ communities, become disability aware, be inclusive of the neurodiverse, and ensure that all ages, ethnicities and nationalities of people feel at home in our homes and our organisation.
If you have been affected or feel uncomfortable with the current situation, there are some good resources on the Citizen’s Advice Bureau page here:
You can of course talk to somebody on a 121 basis, 24 hours a day with the Life and Progress Service that we commission for all CHISEL residents. This offers free and confidential advice and support sessions for you. You can reach them through our website here: Life & Progress – CHISEL Housing .
Annual General Meeting
CHISEL held its AGM online this year, to prevent some of the more unfortunate events of previous AGMs, and to save money on premises and security guards. It was heartening to have shareholders attending from our homes in Colchester and Brighton in particular, and a great mix of shareholders were in attendance.
The shareholders were presented with the audited accounts for CHISEL from 2023-24, which showed a surplus and some positive commentary from the auditors about the changes that we’ve been making. Louise (our chair) and I both gave presentations on the strategic direction of CHISEL.
Most importantly, and with the help of our friends at the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, we were able to change the ‘rules’ that CHISEL abides by, to the most recent set issued by the National Housing Federation.
Although these changes won’t affect you as residents very much, it was an important and overdue move to ensure that the organisation is compliant. There will also be more definition over who can be shareholders, which the board will be able to determine, in line with the focus of the organisation.
We’ll be sharing the audited accounts on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website very soon, and submitting all the paperwork to close off last year.
Stock Condition Survey
This momentous piece of work continues, and a big thank you for letting the surveyors into your homes. We will be surveying 100% of our homes, so don’t worry if you’ve not heard from us yet – you definitely will. This will determine the programme of improvements we need to get funding for, and the order we hope to start on completing these works. The main work we have been completing since Christmas are emergency works, compliance work related to the new electricity inspections we’ve rolled out, and the backlog from our previous repairs contractors.
Help with Rent Payment
Our new accountancy software has helped us pinpoint rent accounts that have fallen into arrears incredibly quickly, and we’ve found that a lot of these have been as a result of Universal Credit issues. If you’d like advice on benefits, you can call Life and Progress as outlined above, and if you have any enquiries about your rent account, don’t hesitate to give your Neighbourhood Managers, Jordan in London and Neil in Brighton a call.
Focus Group on the website
We had a very productive focus group last week with some enthusiastic residents looking at our website. We’re just working through all the suggestions, but we should have a really focused and useful website very soon. They also liked our archive plans, and our new logo, which you can see above. The new logo represents our new approach at CHISEL with a nod to our amazing past of self-builders and co-ops – we hope you like it too!
Enjoy the summer.
Miles
