FEDERATION HOUSING/ ACCOMMODATION
(does) MATTER(S) Here’s the Families Federation’s update for you on all things related to housing – asking for your input and what to be aware of. Housing specialist, Stan Brathwaite explains…
Introduction – Now that CarillionAmey (CA) has been delivering Service Family Accommodation (SFA) services to you for six months, we would very much like to hear of your experiences. Please let us know how you rate services such as the SFA allocations process, response maintenance and the Walkaway Cleaning Service. We provide your feedback to DIO each month and raise your concerns with the senior executives at CA so that they can take action. We keep their toes to the fire on your behalf, so your views and experiences matter and will help improve the quality of the service provided to you.
Satisfaction Surveys – Some of you may have been contacted by a company called Measurement Evaluation Learning (MEL Research) to conduct a telephone survey relating to the service you have encountered whilst dealing with DIO and CA. This is a legitimate company commissioned by DIO, to help gauge your satisfaction with their SFA services. You could verify the caller’s credentials by phoning Jack Harper on Freephone 0800 0730348. Around 200 SFA occupants are surveyed each month and the quarterly reports based on these surveys can be found at
www.GOV.UK. The results may be of interest to you and are quite revealing. Together with our own reports, these surveys help provide a picture of the overall performance of the contract. You may also have comments on these and, if so, please let us know
CAAS – The Combined Accommodation Assessment Service (CAAS), which replaces the current 4 Tier Grading (4TG) system of grading SFA for charges is gaining pace towards its implementation on 01 Apr 2016
16 Envoy Summer 2015
and you’ll see an infographic next in the magazine outlining what is going to be put in place.
In summary, all SFA occupants will receive confirmation of their Final CAAS Band in a letter no later than February 2016 – there will be an appeals process if you think they’ve got it horribly wrong. Further information on CAAS can be found on The New Employment Model pages of
www.GOV.UK
Complaints – We know that this can be a really vexing aspect of living in SFA, so you’ll be pleased to hear that the entire DIO Complaints system is under review. We should hear of the changes, hopefully, by the end of the year and we will of course bring you news of the revised process when it is announced.
Your accommodation requirements (beyond your RAF career) – The Joint Services Housing Advice Office (JSHAO) is
an excellent source of information providing housing information and advice to service personnel and their families to assist them in their transition to civilian life. JSHAO was featured in our Spring issue of Envoy.
The JSHAO Civilian Housing Briefings for 2015 can be found by searching JSHAO on the
www.GOV.UK website.
It may also be of interest to you that the Office for National Statistics, among other things, produce House Price Index data.
Some interesting statistics: • UK house prices increased by 7.2% in the year to February 2015, down from 8.4% in the year to January 2015.
• House price annual inflation was 7.4% in England, 1.1% in Wales, 6.4% in Scotland and 14.2% in Northern Ireland.
• Annual house price growth is showing signs of slowing across the majority of the UK.
• Annual house price increases in England were driven by an annual increase in the East of 10.7% and in London of 9.4%.
• Excluding London and the South East, UK house prices increased by 5.9% in the 12 months to February 2015.
• On a seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices increased by 0.6% between January and February 2015.
• In February 2015, prices paid by first-time buyers were 7.4% higher on average than in February 2014. For owner-occupiers (existing owners), prices increased by 7.2% for the same period.
Finally – In the next issue, we’ll focus on Single Living Accommodation (SLA) so please feel free to feed in any issues or concerns in now. Contact us on 01780 781650 or email
enquiries@raf-ff.org.uk
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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