PCH InTouch newsletter - Spring 2015

InTouchIssue 22 Spring 2015

make it happen

Inside this issueCoffee and cakes raise charity moneyPage 4

Is Right to Buy still fit for purpose?Page 12

PCH staff go the extra milePage 5

Taking care of our environmentPage 7

Plymouth Housing Summit

People power worksFind out more on Page 5

Inside3 Top Story4 Coffee and cakes raise money

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After the excitement of our fifth anniversary, it’s business as usual in this edition. If you did miss any of our anniversary activities, there’s a short round-up on page 7 and you can see all the stories in full on the PCH website.

We’re still working hard across the community – you can see how the Money Tree Fund helped to transform the communal gardens at Morley Court on page 3, what new businesses have moved into some of our commercial properties on page 13 and

Hello! Elaine Pellow

Chair of the Board

Elaine Pellow Chair of the Board

Hello InTouch Call us on 0800 694 3101

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what you told us when we asked what you thought of our vans on page 8.

As well as that, we’ve been raising money for Macmillan (page 4), making sure we’re up to scratch environmentally (page 7) and finding out what happens when someone moves out of their home by spending a Day in the Life of James Tasker from our Voids Team (page 10).

There are lots of ways for you to get involved in what we do, however much time you have – there’s information

about becoming a tenant board member on page 6, news about our Resident Scrutiny Team on page 4 and we’re looking at what you’ve been saying in just 140 characters on Twitter on page 15 – there’s everything from new homes to apples.

I hope you enjoy reading and I look forward to hearing what you think,

Welcome to the latest edition of InTouch.

5 Plymouth Housing Summit6 Keep stairwells clear7 Taking care of the environment

8 Universal Credit9 Keep safe from Legionella12 Right to Buy

13 PCH Shops14 Noticeboard 15 #OurPCH16 Contacts

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Top Story InTouch

Morley Court Roof Garden OpensThe newly refurbished roof garden at Morley Court has been officially opened at a community event. It should be the first of many in the newly revitalised communal space.

started to look tired and the residents agreed that it was due for a refurbishment. The garden now has seating areas, a table tennis table, a soft play area with bouncy balls and play ‘road’, wigwams and a play house which all proved popular with the children. There are also lots of places for the community to grow plants including a pergola, raised beds, a greenhouse and planters.

Doreen Edwards sits on the Money Tree Fund panel, which is designed to help improve areas and bring people together. She said: “The fund is good because it helps the community. Here it gives freedom for the kids to play safely and it acts as a sun trap. All the people are so friendly; it must be a happy place to live.”

The garden is a safe, quiet and relaxing area for residents and their children to enjoy. As outside space is limited in the city centre, the shared communal garden is a focal point for the community and the perfect place for community events.

The project was funded by our Money Tree Fund as Housing Officer Steph Russell says: “We consulted residents and designed a roof garden based on what they wanted the garden to be. It’s a garden for the residents to ’sit, play, grow and gather’. It was funded by the Money Tree Fund and with continued involvement from the residents, I hope it will continue to grow and evolve for years to come.”

In recent years the garden had

plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk

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Coffee and cakes raises £5,850 for cancer charity Macmillan

InTouchplymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk

Staff and residents came out in force to support Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and raised £5,000 for cancer care.

The event at our head office, Plumer House, was boosted by a further £850 from Housing with Support schemes in the city as residents held their own events at Innes House and Brock House for the cancer support charity.

At Plumer House, staff dug deep for homemade cakes to rival The Great British Bake Off.

Organiser Jacqui Small, HR Services Coordinator, said: “Many people at PCH, both staff and residents have been personally affected by cancer, including several just within our own team. Macmillan is such a great charity, making such a difference to so many, we wanted to do something to help.”

Fellow organiser Danni McCullough, Learning and Development Coordinator, said: “We were completely overwhelmed at the response at our office and people even came in from leave to support the event.

Elsewhere, residents at Innes House and Brock House organised their own events, making and selling cakes and holding raffles and white elephant stalls to raise a total of £850 for the cancer charity.

Debbie Kay-McPherson, Housing with

Learning about the inner workings of PCH A group of PCH residents and leaseholders have been learning more about what goes on behind the scenes of PCH.

They make up our newly formed Resident Scrutiny Team and will be given ongoing training and guidance so they’re able to properly scrutinise the work PCH does and offer recommendations as to how we can do things better.

To make sure they give the best advice they can, they spent a day hearing from senior managers who explained what their team does and how it impacts on the organisation.

RST member Diana Hill said: “I was very impressed, the focus really is on getting it right for tenants, there’s an understanding that getting it right for tenants helps everything else. The main thing I took from it was the enthusiasm from the staff and from us as a group – now we’re really eager to get on with the rest of the process.”

We take the recommendations made as a result of scrutiny seriously, so it’s important that the people chosen to take part in the team are fully trained and understand the impact of the actions they’re suggesting.

They’re getting more training to learn how to use information about how we perform in different areas and will meet the Executive Management Team and the Board so they can learn even more about how PCH works.

For more information about resident scrutiny, please contact Jay Vickers on 388480 or email [email protected]

Support Officer, said: “The tenants were very involved and organised it themselves. For many of them, Macmillan Cancer Support is an organisation they are very close to. It also proved a really lovely morning where people had the chance to sit down and socialise.”

Thanks to the organisations and individuals who donated money and raffle prizes to the coffee morning:British GasWurthCity College PlymouthSW ShopfittersCreative HairLTCSSGAlec HendersonJohn CrockfordPlymouth Argyle FCQuaestusPlymouth PavilionsPlymouth AquariumPlymouth Golf CentreTannersCutting CornerThe TamarTheatre Royal PlymouthAngie Edwards-JonesThe Village


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InTouch

PCH staff go the extra mileDealing with anti-social behaviour, helping residents back into their homes after a hospital stay and making blocks of flats nicer places to live in are just some of the things PCH staff have received Beacon Awards for.

The awards are run by PCH to recognise employees who have gone out of their way to provide an excellent service, whether they’re out and about on estates or working behind the scenes.

We want to hear from you if you think someone deserves an award -

as a resident or leaseholder, you can nominate any member of staff.

The winners will be chosen by our Executive Management Team and we’ll let you know about the winners in the summer edition of InTouch as well as on our website and on social media.

If you’d like to make a nomination, contact David Jory, Customer Experience Manager on 01752 388386 or email [email protected] by Friday 29 May.

You may remember us telling you about how we’re working towards TPAS accreditation, which is a marker of how we put residents at the heart of what we do.

We’ve been busy working behind the scenes and with residents, so keep your eyes peeled for more information soon about how you can get involved.

Plymouth Housing SummitPeople power was the name of the game at the Plymouth Housing Summit in February. Tenants, home owners, PCH staff and other housing folk including our Resident Scrutiny Panel got the chance to question local MP candidates at the event called ‘Where will our children live?’. It was organised by PCH, the National Housing Federation, the

Chartered Institute for Housing and the Plymouth Housing Development Partnership to raise the issue of the need for more housing with politicians. It was our way of taking part in the Homes for Britain campaign which is calling on people in power to end the housing crisis within a generation. Find out more at www.homesforbritain.co.uk

Keep stairwells clear and your neighbours safe


Leaving things in shared areas could be putting you and your neighbours at risk as well as looking untidy.

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Part of our fire safety policy asks you not to leave items in the shared stairways and hallways because of the fire risk it causes to you and your neighbours. The items themselves could catch fire or be targeted by arsonists.

Thankfully, incidences of fires in our stairwells don’t happen often, but when they do, they can block the exit route for lots people, create huge amounts of smoke and leave damage behind.

PCH Fire Safety Manager Bill Grantham said: “We understand it can be difficult to find somewhere to store things like mobility scooters and pushchairs, but they can pose the greatest risk – no one is expecting a

fire (or expecting someone to set light to things) but there is still a chance. We want to make sure there’s a fire door between potential hazards like this and the escape route for all the residents of the block.”

Every PCH resident who lives in a flat has been offered one of our fire doors. We make these ourselves and they can stop a fire from spreading for up to an hour – giving everyone in the block a chance to get out safely.

Housing Officer Dave Walley said: “It’s common sense really – we don’t want to stop people doing things to brighten up their block, but we do need to ask ‘Is it causing a hazard, is it causing an obstruction?’”

If you have any concerns, you can read our Mobility Scooter Policy, check your Tenancy Agreement or contact your Housing Officer.

All of the details can be found on our website.

We’re looking for a new tenant board member – could it be you?

The Board makes decisions which affect our homes and community. It is made up of 12 people from a range of backgrounds, including at least two tenants.

We’re looking for someone who has some experience of taking part in community groups or with knowledge of local communities and their needs.

In return, we’ll support you to expand your skills, knowledge and experience through training and other learning opportunities. We pay our board members an annual fee of £5,500 to reflect the responsibilities of the role.

Chair of the Board Elaine Pellow (pictured) said: “As a tenant, I know how important it is that we are represented on the Board, making sure tenants’ priorities are at the centre of the future plans of PCH.”

To find out more about being a part of this, contact Jill Kinder on 01752 388152 or email [email protected] before Friday 24 April.


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Committed to taking care of our environmentOur commitment to the environment in the city and more widely has always been important to us.

With a Manufacturing Unit, a fleet of vehicles, over 600 staff and more than 14,000 properties to manage, this is no mean feat, but now you have confirmation we’re getting it right.

We’ve achieved ISO 14001, an internationally recognised standard for environmental management. It identifies the work done at every level of the organisation to make sure our environmental performance is always getting better.

In practice, this means the British Standards Institution (BSI) have looked at everything from how we work with contractors to make sure they deal with waste in the right way to staff attitudes towards environmental issues. Our processes influence the

way we approach our work, from how we buy goods and services to what we use in our Manufacturing Unit and how we deal with our empty properties.

Director of Corporate and Manufacturing Services Gill Martin said: “Very few organisations do as well as we did first time around, and the assessors were genuinely impressed with the culture within PCH. We didn’t do this just to get a badge; we are doing this because we see the benefits, both to PCH and to our local and wider environment.”

We’ll be re-assessed in three years, but in the meantime the BSI will continue to look at what we’re doing every six months.

Five years of #OurPCHThank you to everyone who helped us mark our five year anniversary.

In your last edition of InTouch, you will have seen 15 stories from staff, residents and partners, all describing their experience of PCH over the last five years and the positive changes they’ve seen in the local and wider community.

If you missed it, it’s not too late to read their stories and submit your own on our website – visit plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk/five

Have your say about homes for the futureResidents from Housing Associations from across the South West are being invited to give their opinions about the design of housing schemes in the future, and you could be involved too.

It’s a chance to help housing providers improve the homes they build and to find out how you can become more involved in the development process.

The Source Residents Development Conference will be taking place on Thursday 16 July in Dorchester and is open to anyone who is a resident of one of the housing associations which is part of the Source Development Partnership – which includes PCH.

PCH resident Mel Leonis went last year and said: “It was interesting, it allows you to have an input and see what’s in the pipe line for future housing and you can give your feedback. It was good”

If you’re interested in coming to this year’s event, contact Regeneration Officer Jo Maddick on 01752 388263.

Protect your possessions from as little as 84p a weekHome Contents Insurance may be the last thing on your mind, but how would you replace your belongings if you were burgled, or if they were damaged by fire or flood?

As a PCH tenant or leaseholder, you can take out the National Housing Federation’s My Home Insurance.

There’s no excess to pay if you need to make a

claim, it’s quick and easy to apply and you can choose a payment option to suit you.

You can get additional cover for accidental damage too and if you’re over 60, the cost could be even lower.

For more information visit: plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk or call Jean Rogers on 01752 388333, Dave Byworth on 388335 or speak to your Housing Officer.

InTouch

Finding out what you think about our vansWe asked some of you what you thought about our vehicles and you’ve told us they help you feel safe.


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Nine members of PCH staff focused on vehicle branding and the effect it has as part of a training project.

They spoke to 78 of you and also heard from 115 members of staff about topics from what information should be on our vehicles, to how seeing them makes people feel.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive, with over half of people saying seeing a PCH van makes them feel looked after or happy.

Other findings show that you notice our vans before our uniforms and that it helps you feel safer as you know the person coming to your door is from PCH.

Kevin Obbard was involved in the research and said: “The branding is reassuring to people and residents have said they like the fact we’re out with the vans, especially as the local housing offices have closed.

“Some residents have asked for extra information to be put on the vans, like our social media details or alternative phone numbers, so we’ve passed those responses on so they can be considered in the future.”

“They make me feel looked after

and happy”

Have you heard about Universal Credit?

If you get Job Seekers Allowance, Housing Benefit or some other benefits, it’ll be replaced by Universal Credit. We now know that Plymouth will be included in the national rollout from December 2015. You will need a bank account for your

Universal Credit to be paid into and instead of paper forms, claims will need to be made online. We know this will be a big change for some of you, so we’re doing all we can to help you prepare. The first people to make the switch to

Universal Credit will be people who live on their own and to make sure everyone is ready, we’ll be contacting you if we think you’ll be affected. In the meantime, if you have any concerns about Universal Credit, setting up a bank account or making claims online, get in touch with the rents team on 0800 0280350. We will be telling you more about Universal Credit and how it could affect you in the Summer edition of InTouch.


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Keeping you and your family safeThere are on average 400-500 cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported each year in the UK. The Legionella bacteria will cause flu and pneumonia-like illness and can be found in all kinds of water sources including domestic plumbing.

People who are particularly vulnerable include:

■ People aged 40 upwards■ Anyone with a compromised immune system (such as people having cancer treatment)■ Anyone suffering from diabetes, heart or liver problems■ Smokers■ People who are alcohol dependent

The bacteria can develop in places where water is left standing in temperatures of 20°c - 45°c. You can contract Legionnaires’ disease through breathing in contaminated water droplets, so it’s important to clean and disinfect your showerhead regularly and keep the thermostat on your water heater set to at least 60°c. Any unused taps should be flushed through at least once a weekly and if you’ve been away from your home for a week or more, you should flush all the taps for a few minutes.

PCH has been praised by Woodside Animal Welfare Trust for encouraging responsible pet ownership and not imposing a blanket ban.

Trust Founder Carole Bowles MBE said: “Since the recession started, we’ve inevitably had a significant increase in the number of calls for us to take in unwanted pets. The vast majority of these requests are due to repossessions, where families are moving into rented accommodation. With few private landlords willing to accept pets, the situation for many such owners is heart-breaking.”

Moving into social housing can be triggered by lots of things including job loss, eviction and even relationship break-ups; having to part with a much loved pet can be the final straw for some.

If someone does have to give up their pet, Woodside has a Quiet Room for anyone needing to take time to come to terms with

Encouraging responsible pet ownership

Chris Gove, PCH’s Deputy Responsible Person for Legionella Control, says: “Thankfully, cases of Legionella are rare and we are already in the process of completing Legionella risk assessments on all of our homes. We also carry out monitoring and sampling at some of our larger schemes to cut down the risk even more.”

To find out more, visit our website plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk/legionella

their loss. People are welcome to call and ask about their pet’s wellbeing, although Woodside doesn’t encourage visits as it can cause more distress for the animal.

Carole said: “Before a pet is released for adoption, we insist on written landlord approval. Home-checks ensure, as much as we can, that our pets will be safe and well cared for, and we always arrange neutering if not already carried out. In fact, stopping the birth of unwanted young is so important to us that we offer a low-cost neuter scheme to owners on any form of benefit. This is only made possible through grants, specific legacies and a partnership with the RSPCA Plymouth Branch.”

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A day in the life...James Tasker, Voids Repairs Supervisor


Communications officer Joanne Cochrane spent a morning with Voids Repairs Supervisor James Tasker to find out what PCH does to prepare a home for new tenants when someone moves out…

If there’s one person who knows what goes on behind closed doors at PCH, you could say it’s James Tasker.

Voids Repairs Supervisor James is responsible for checking over empty homes once residents vacate them, a role that gives him a good insight into how people live.

James has seen it all. “We went into one home where the tenant had done their own DIY and it had gone badly wrong,” he said. “They never asked PCH for permission to carry out the work. We had to get structural engineers in.

When someone decides they want to bring a tenancy to an end, they need to give us four weeks’ notice.

As soon as PCH receives this notice, James springs into action. He goes out to visit the home to survey it for any repairs, organises asbestos, gas and electricity works and decides if a new kitchen and/or bathroom is needed.

He also determines whether heating upgrades are necessary and organises for the locks to be changed and the gas turned off.

It’s not just the inside of the home that gets the once over – James examines the outside for guttering and rendering upgrades and whether new steps are needed.

“Someone else had a lot of animals which they never looked after. Another tenant was a hoarder – that took us six days to clear up.

“You get to see everything. Some homes are really well looked after and others need a lot of work to get them up to a good standard.”

James and his team are the first stage in the process of bringing PCH homes up to this good standard before they are re-let – and with thousands of people on the housing waiting list in Plymouth, the pressure is on.

“It’s nice at the end to see the finished work,

especially when there’s a new kitchen and bathroom in

place.”

InTouch

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James’ day begins before all this, at his desk at Plumer House, where I met up with him. He tells me he joined the city council straight from school at 16 where he trained as a carpenter. He transferred to PCH and last year moved in to his current role, where he is one of five voids repairs supervisors.

Every morning, he gets a list of properties that need to be visited that day.

First up is a home in Ham. This home requires little work doing to it. It’s in good order and mainly needs decorating. However, although it had a new bathroom a couple of years ago, the kitchen needs upgrading so James makes a note of that.

Many of our empty homes can be turned around within 10 days and sometimes even in just a few days. If a new kitchen and bathroom is needed, it will be longer.

This is an improvement to two years ago, when our average turnaround time was 17 days for an average void.

As of the middle of this February, we had 67 empty homes on our books. Last year, we had around 175 at any one time.

After all works are completed, the rangers come in and clean the property before putting in welcome packs for the new residents.

James added: “The new system is better and it helps by having everyone based at Plumer House. If you want to speak to someone we are all together in the same building. We sit near Housing Choices and the repair teams are nearby too.”

But James’ job isn’t just about doing the initial survey. He acts as a ‘project manager’, overseeing the property until it’s handed over to the Housing Choices team, as I discover on our next visit.

This time we’re going to view a flat in Lipson. It was abandoned by the tenant and is not in a great state. We’ve got some internal contractors in to paint and decorate and James wants to check everything is okay.

Part of his visit is making sure the workers have all their necessary health and safety equipment and that the relevant forms are filled out. For example, paperwork detailing asbestos checks must be kept on site.

James is pleased with the progress and is hoping for a ten-day handover. He admits the handover is one of the nicer parts of his job.

He said: “It’s nice at the end to see the finished work, especially when there’s a new kitchen and bathroom in place.”

Many residents don’t want to have new kitchens and bathrooms when they’re offered, so it’s only when the property becomes vacant that PCH is able to renovate them. This means an asbestos survey will also have to be carried out.

James enters all this information onto his tablet, which he also uses to take photos. He explains what happens next: “I’ll send a report to a planner who books in all the works. A facilities report goes to Housing Choices so that they can begin marketing the home for prospective tenants. I’ll also email the kitchen and bathroom team and the asbestos team.”

Receiving the information so swiftly means the work can be booked in sooner rather than later – meaning the home is lying empty for as little time as possible.

This is important for PCH – and all housing associations. Empty homes mean no rent is coming in which means we are losing money – money which gets ploughed back into important services for residents.

It’s vital that our vacant homes – which we call ‘voids’ – are turned around and let out as soon as possible. A few years ago, PCH completely changed its ways of working to ensure this happened more quickly.

Previously, survey visits would not have taken place until the tenant moved out. Now we do them as soon as we receive notice, which means we can get works booked in and any supplies ordered.

We can also start advertising the property sooner too. In some cases, we can even begin showing prospective tenants around the home before the current tenant leaves.


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As a landlord responsible for 14,649 properties across the city, we are warning if the current RTB policy continues we will be left with a shortage of affordable housing to support around 10,500 households on the city’s waiting list.

“We’re joining the RTB debate because we are genuinely concerned the scheme is threatening the existence of social housing” says Clive Turner, Chief Executive.

“I’m a real believer in people owning their own homes and being given the opportunity to get onto the property ladder, but the current RTB scheme is no longer fit for purpose. Whilst we are determined to build and invest in the city on one hand, we are practically giving away our precious homes with the other! It takes the combined total of around four homes sold under RTB to cover the costs of just one new build. If we continue at this rate we’ll have far fewer homes but increased demand – the numbers don’t add up. It’s an extremely frustrating situation that quite simply can’t continue without challenge.”

The RTB debate is a national campaign to alert decision-makers about the issues surrounding the scheme, with the ultimate goal of prompting its review and radical overhaul.

Last year we sold 76 properties under the RTB scheme. The market value of those combined properties came to £7,291,000. The amount tenants paid under the RTB scheme came to £3,387,960.

However, the cost of rebuilding those same homes at today’s construction and land prices would come to £12,388,000. That is a shortfall of over £9,000,000 which we have very

We have joined the debate about whether the Right To Buy (RTB) scheme is still fit for purpose 35 years after it was first introduced

few options of recouping, giving us little chance of maintaining the same level of housing stock.

The Government says housing associations can replace sold RTB properties on a one for one basis.

Clive continues: “The issue we are raising is not about home ownership, we’ve got a fantastic Shared Ownership scheme that helps people to own their own home. We’re firm believers in helping to support our residents to become home-owners.

“What we are saying is that if we continue to hold a fire sale of social houses, we’ll be left with a dwindling number of homes with no means to rebuild new ones. The more RTB sales, the more pressure we are put under as an organisation and a city to find suitable homes for people most in need. It’s simple – every social house sold from our stock is one less for someone to live in.”

For more information about the RTB debate you can follow PCH on Twitter at @PlymCommHomes and check out #RTBdebate or visit our Facebook page.

“...every social house sold from our stock is one less for someone

to live in.”

O Tuga 130 Cornwall Street, City Centre

O Tuga is a Portuguese coffee shop near Frankfort Gate serving coffee, hot chocolate and specialty Portuguese sweet and savoury pastries. They also have a deli and frozen goods section and can supply specialty cakes for all occasions.

Eva’s World 146 Cornwall Street, City Centre

Full of clothing and specialty toys for 0-3 year olds, the majority of which can’t be found anywhere else in Plymouth. With locally produced and fairtrade goods, and using local knitters the shop offers something special and different at competitive prices.

Parisian Sweet15 Looe Street, near the Barbican

This shop will cater to all your fashion needs, with vintage and contemporary clothing from luxury brands like Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney. There is also a wide range of designer accessories, jewellery and handbags.

Eden on the Green 4 Ham Green, North Prospect

Selling vintage and shabby chic furniture, Eden on the Green is the ideal spot to find something to brighten up your home. You can also find mirrors and soft furnishings, or take part in workshops to get more ideas to transform your living space.

Food 2 Go65 Delamere Road, Eggbuckland

Selling hot and cold food, drinks and confectionary, Food 2 Go can fulfil your catering requirements whether you want to pop in to their café or order food for an event. They can also offer sandwich deliveries and children’s parties with activities.

Devonport LiveGeorge Street, Devonport

This former empty space has been brought back into use as a community café. The space also includes a studio and activities area and Bikespace. Local artists exhibit work there and there are children’s activities and workshops every Saturday morning.


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PCH ShopsCommunities are about more than just homes. As well as providing homes across the city, we rent commercial properties too. Here are some of the latest businesses to move into our shops…

If you’re interested in finding out more about our commercial properties including spaces to rent, visit our website or call 01752 388182/388110.


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See us face to faceYou can visit us at Plumer House in Crownhill (opposite Farm Foods) or at our City Centre Shop in Frankfort Gate.

Opening times:Monday – Thursday: 8:30am until 5pmFriday: 8:30am until 4:30pmYou can also visit the City Centre Shop

on Saturdays between 9am and midday.We know it’s not always convenient for you to come and speak to us, but we

still want to hear from you - we’re happy to come and visit. Contact your local housing team to arrange a time, their details are on the back page.

Are you on the

electoral register?

If you haven’t registered, you won’t be able to vote and your

credit score will be affected.

Registrations takes 5 minutes – go to plymouth.gov.uk/voting

If you need help using a computer, you can

get help through our Learn for Free

programme. Call 0800 917 9457 for

more information.

We’re Dementia FriendsWe’ve signed up to become a Dementia Friendly Organisation. Some of our staff have taken part in Dementia Awareness training through the National Alzheimer’s Society to help spot the symptoms of dementia and understand the small changes we can make to help.

Email sign up

You can get InTouch delivered

straight to your email inbox. To sign

up, look for the red bar on

the Home page of our website,


Soon, even more of our staff will have the training – we’ll tell you more in a future edition of InTouch. If you want to know more about Dementia Friends in the meantime, visit dementiafriends.org.uk

Contact us online?There are lots of ways to contact us, you can call, visit us or ask us to visit you.

But you can also contact us online:Visit our website plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk, tweet @PlymCommHomes or ‘like’ our Facebook page,

facebook.com/PlymouthCommunityHomes

W

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#OurPCH

If you’ve got something you’d like us to include in InTouch, email [email protected],

write to:

InTouch NewsletterPlymouth Community HomesPlumer HouseTailyour RoadPlymouth PL6 5DHWe reserve the right to edit contributions. Views published are those of the contributor and may not be

those of Plymouth Community Homes.

What have you got to say?or contact us via social media using #OurPCH.If you write or email, please include your name and contact details – we won’t print them in full.

Lots of you have been telling us what you think on Twitter...

Plymouth SE Network @PlymSocEnt Great to see lots of local social

enterprises at meeting with

@minforcivsoc today. @MemoryMattersSW@PlymUni @devonsse

@PlymCommHomes

Jenny Allen @natfedJenny Off to Plymouth, excited to discuss plans for #homesforbritain campaign with @PlymCommHomes and @CIHsw tomorrow.

Ted the lost dog has been seen by over 30,000 people after we found him and put his picture on our Facebook page. He’s now been safely reunited with his owner.

Angie Scott @angiescottcomms Fab first week @PlymCommHomes.

Really lovely welcome by people

who genuinely care about the work

they do and #Plymouth

All Ways Apples @All_Ways_Apples Fun in North Prospect y’day at community run Xmas Fair @PlymCommHomes Beacon Hub. Over 60 apples peeled & eaten!

Charlotte Edwards @jamsarnie

Was great to hear about the

work of the @samaritans today

at a talk hosted by @PlymCommHomes Truly inspiring & special

people, thank you.

Richard Tomkinson @WhyNotRichard Great end to a long, productive week @PlymCommHomes 14 residents trained in

working together as a

group @Tenant_Central

100% satisfaction

AlisonSeabeckMP @alisonseabeck Out in #Ham with @CouncillorTudor and

@PlymCommHomes to celebrate start of new

house building on brown

field site. Much needed

homes.

Little Miss Bossy @Lmb61Little Just visited @PlymCommHomes Shared Ownership home at Nrth Prospect..SO impressed wth wht buyers get 4 their £ more bang 4 yr bucks with PCH!

Newsletter Translations

Plymouth Community HomesPlumer HouseTailyour Road, CrownhillPlymouth PL6 5DH

0800 694 3101 [email protected] plymouthcommunityhomes.co.uk

Contact numbersRepairs 0808 230 6500/01752 237990Out of hours repairs: 0800 917 9459 (5pm to 7am)

Debit/Credit Card Payment Line0844 557 8321

Head Office 0800 694 3101

City Centre Shop01752 389778 Estover Team 0800 917 9496Devonport Team 0800 917 9497Whitleigh Team 0800 917 9498North Prospect Team 0800 917 9499

Anti-social behaviour out of hours hotline 0800 028 7377

Housing with Support Team0800 917 9452

Communities Team0800 917 9457

Leaseholders 01752 388094

Environmental Services0800 917 9455

Gas Servicing 01752 388028/388030

Printed using materials from sustainable sources

Plymouth City Council contacts Enquiries (including waste and out of hours)01752 668000

Report fly tipping01752 304147

Housing options01752 305496

This document is suitable for recycling

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Community Benefit Society registration No: 30637R

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PCH InTouch newsletter - Spring 2015

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