Meet our teams 

Welcome to Gloucester City Homes services. This web page gives you details on each of our service teams.

Customer Services

Our Customer Services TeamOur Customer Services Team is your first point of contact for all enquiries to Gloucester City Homes.  

However you choose to contact us, our fully trained and experienced Customer Services Officers can deal with your query. We aim to resolve over 90% of your enquiries straight away.  Where necessary, the team will refer you to the right specialist team at GCH or to one of our partners.  

Contact our Customer Services Team|  

For further information on our general customer service standards, such as how quick do we answer the phones and correspondence please see Our general customer service standards| or if you prefer download our Customer Service Standards leaflet.|

Repairing and improving your home

Our Repairs and Maintenance Team ensures that your homes are properly repaired and maintained.

The team deals with:

• emergency, urgent and routine repairs
• repairing empty homes
• regular maintenance of your home. This includes your annual home safety check, annual servicing of fire safety equipment, 5 yearly outside repainting and 10 yearly electrical checks.

Our Investment Team ensures that your home is regularly improved.

The team deals with:

• improving your home
• adapting your home to help you stay independent.

A copy of our Asset Management Strategy is available online for your information.|  

We work with key partners to provide these services.| Our key partners in delivering your repairs, maintenance and property investment services. 

   Lovell Respond logo    Lovel logo          MitielogoRGBNR|

Please select the logo to visit our partners' websites

Contact our Asset Management and Property Investment Services Team.|

For further information on repairs, maintenance, home improvements, aids and adaptations or decorations, please visit our repairing, maintaining, improving, adapting and decorating| and keeping you safe and secure| web pages. 

Paying your rent and other payments and preventing debt

Our Income Management Team makes sure that paying your rent and other charges is as easy as possible.|

The team can:

• help if you have problems keeping your payments up to date
• tell you about our range of easy ways to pay
• agree an affordable payment plan if you have arrears
• advise you on available benefits and tax credits
• advise you on basic bank accounts, affordable savings and insurance
• provide simple debt counselling,and
• can refer you to local agencies for independent help and advice, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau or support agencies.

In this day and age GCH recognises that every penny counts and that household incomes are subject to many pressures. GCH has a number of actions to support our tenants who have financial difficulty. We work with a range of partners so that our tenants can get the best possible independent advice and support. We also work closely with the City Council's Housing Benefit Service to ensure that we pay benefits promptly to support low income families and sustain tenancies.  In 2009 the Board endorsed an updated Financial Inclusion Strategy .  The purpose of the strategy is to:

• Maximise incomes
• Improve financial capability
• Maximise awareness of debt and access to debt advice services and training
• Promote the use of mainstream financial services
• Tackle worklessness, social exclusion and financial exclusion
• Maximise access to Housing Benefit and other welfare benefits.
  

Looking after your home and neighbourhood

Our Neighbourhood Services Team| works in your neighbourhoods, visiting residents at home and inspecting neighbourhoods to make sure they are well looked after. Housing Officers work with our partners to resolve tenancy and neighbourhood management issues.

The team deals with:

• viewing homes and tenancy sign ups
• change of tenancy details such as assignments, successions, homeswaps, sole to joint and joint to sole tenancies
• advice on taking in lodgers or permission to sublet part of your home
• giving permission to improve your home
• enforcing tenancy conditions
• maintaining and improving your neighbourhoods
• managing empty homes to ensure they are relet as quickly as possible through Gloucestershire Homeseeker.

Anti-social behaviour

Our Anti-social Behaviour Team tackles anti-social behaviour in our communities. The team works closely with our partners to deal with serious anti-social behaviour. These partners include our own Neighbourhood Services Team, Safer Gloucester, and the Police. Where appropriate, it refers minor cases to the Neighbourhood Services Team to resolve them.

Estate Services

Our Estate Services Team| works in your neighbourhoods to keep them clean and tidy. To do this they work in partnership with Gloucester City Council's grounds maintenance, street cleaning and refuse/recycling contractors.

The team:

• clears dumped bulky items
• removes rubbish and graffiti
• cuts back hedges
• clears footpaths, and
• does gardening for elderly and disabled tenants who have no family support.

Help for older, disabled and vulnerable people

Our Supported Housing Team has 10 dedicated Community Scheme Managers. The team delivers a service to older residents living in our sheltered and semi-sheltered housing schemes.| They also visit older residents living in our homes in the community.

The service has a duty manager on call 24 hours a day.

Our referrals officer can refer you to other support agencies we work with. These agencies can provide practical support and advice to help you stay independent. They can help young people, families, older people and people with physical and mental disabilities.

Our Lifelink Team| gives advice and installs alarms fo anyone who need such support in the city such as older, disabled or vulnerable people.

The Lifelink service| arranges help in an emergency at the touch of a button, 24 hours a day through the Hereford Call Centre.

We aim to help you stay independent in your own home as long as possible.

Owning your own home

Our Leasehold and Home Ownership Team| provides services to homeowners or tenants who wish to become home owners.

The team provides:

• free help with Right to Buy applications
• management services for leaseholders and shared owners.

Getting involved

Our Resident Involvement Team| champions resident involvement in our communities.

The team:

• helps to develop joint working in the community to improve everyone's quality of life
• ensures we consult and involve our residents in our decision making
• supports our resident groups and Neighbourhood Partnershipis
• supports our Customer Forum (which develops our policy and strategy and monitors our service delivery)
• manages our community funding scheme which gives grants of up to £500 for local community projects, and
• supports our tenants' role in national debates.