A parent forum group in Havercroft held a celebration event last week to mark its success at WDH’s Love Where You Live Awards.

Residents of Horbury’s Manorfields estate can have their say on the future of their local tenants and residents association at a special meeting this Thursday (March 5).

We are holding three ‘Big Events’ in Wakefield to discuss with tenants how we make a difference in communities.

The WDH Community Learning Programme last summer was such a success that it’s back this year – bigger, better and still free!

Two French apprentices swapped Bordeaux for Portobello as part of a work experience exchange programme.

The first of two information sessions on HomeSwapper was held at Pontefract Service Access Point yesterday.

This is News in Brief - a weekly round up of the latest news and events affecting the Housing industry and communities in the Wakefield district and beyond.

Twenty new apprenticeship roles will be handed out to aspiring tradespeople over the coming months as part of WDH’s annual apprentice recruitment campaign, which launches this week.

Pupils went on parade as they donned scaled-down firefighters' uniforms as part of a WDH backed project aimed at boosting their school attendance rates.

This is News in Brief - a weekly round up of the latest news and events affecting the Housing industry and communities in the Wakefield district and beyond.

Participants in a training scheme have helped WDH tenants love where they live after giving some of their gardens a face lift with the construction of new fencing.

WDH kick starts its annual Love Where You Live campaign in Lupset.

To help keep your home as safe as possible, this year we’re encouraging you to allow one of our Gas Engineers access to your property to carry out a legally required annual gas safety check.

Following their decision to disband, the Tenants and Residents Association (TARA) on the Manorfields Estate in Wakefield has decided to use their remaining funds to help other local groups and projects.

We’re currently experiencing problems with our OneCALL telephone system. Please bear with us whilst we work on resolving the issue.

A 30,000 sq ft state-of-the-art construction training centre and trade store has been opened.

If you require a gas servicing appointment or need to rearrange an appointment you currently have, our Gas Servicing Team can now be contacted by WhatsApp on 07901990710.

A free winter energy advice session is being held next T­uesday at WDH’s Service Access Point on Exchange Street in South Elmsall.

Tomorrow marks another important date in our countdown to Universal Credit (UC), with 100 days remaining before its roll out commences in Wakefield.

WDH has successfully secured the continuation of their ISO 14001 certification until February 2017

If you are a Care Link customer, you may receive a call from customer experience specialists, Feedback Market Research , who are calling a sample of customers to gather your views on the service you receive from us.

Throughout the global Coronavirus pandemic, we have been doing what we can to make sure that our tenants are supported to feel safe and secure in their own homes. Many of us have found ourselves spending more time living, working, caring and teaching from home and it has become more important than ever that we feel safe and secure.

We are supporting Tpas (Tenants Participation Advisory Service) Scrutiny Week this week and as always, we are looking for new people to be involved with us.

We’re currently experiencing problems with our telephone system which is causing some delays. Please bear with us whilst we work to resolve the issue. If your call is not an emergency then it may be best to call back later today.  You can still contact us by email at onecall@wdh.co.uk Your patience is appreciated. Thank you  

It was inspiring this week to see our employees recognised, alongside so many other local heroes, as part of 'The Big Thank You' campaign. Local editions of the Wakefield Express praised our employees and those groups and individuals continuing to support the district during the coronavirus pandemic. Our employees have gone over and above to support our communities throughout the crisis in very difficult times, so it is fantastic to see them getting the recognition they so rightly deserve.

Over the next few weeks, we will be reintroducing visits by the Debt Team to provide face to face intensive support to people who need help with their rent account.

As you may already be aware we are pleased to have reintroduced a number of our services over the last few weeks and this is a great step forward for us, marking the return of some normality for you and our employees. I appreciate that many of you will still be nervous about welcoming people into your home but I can assure you we will only do so safely and have introduced additional safety and hygiene measures to keep you and our employees safe. Whilst we may be seeing the opening of pubs and restaurants across the district, we are aware that for many people it will be some time before they feel able to return to every day life. For some this may be down to nervousness around the virus, and for others it may be a result of the impact the pandemic has had on work and finances. For those of you who have been impacted in this way I would like to encourage you to get in touch. We have a range of services available including Employment Advisors who can help if you are currently unemployed, facing unemployment or looking for another job. They can provide great advice and support, whatever your situation. For anyone who is worried about money, we have a number of support services including Cash Wise who can help with budgeting, benefits and accessing financial help or food parcels. Our Debt Team are also available to provide support if you are concerned about paying your rent. If you are worried, please don’t suffer in silence. Contact us and we will discuss which of our services can make life a little easier.  

Housing Association, WDH, has secured funding to build over 5,000 new homes, more than double what was originally planned and deliver its Business Strategy with the help of partners Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Santander and The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC).

For those of you who braved the high street this week, you may have seen that, whilst we didn’t have queues to compete with Primark, our Hubs and Service Access Points (SAPs) were open. As I am sure you can appreciate, this is not a decision we have taken lightly. We put a lot of careful consideration into how we could open safely and ensure that both you, our customers, and our employees are safe.

Firstly, I’d like to thank all of you who took the time to give us your feedback through our recent tenant survey. We are using your feedback to prioritise the remobilisation of our services. As I said in my message last week, we will be starting to reopen our Hubs and Service Access Points across the district shortly, so that those of you who need to speak to us face to face can do so, but in a safe environment. Some of the other things you said were important to you included our grounds maintenance service, which returned last month and is now operating a full service, and our repairs and maintenance service. Whilst we have been focused on carrying out emergency repairs only throughout the lockdown period, we are now looking at how we can reintroduce essential repairs and maintenance services in a way that is safe for both our customers and our employees. We hope to resume essential repairs and maintenance later this month and appreciate the patience and understanding you have shown.