Serve

• We spoke to five customers an hour on average; abandonment rates (customers unable to wait to speak to one of our team) continued to fall
• We responded to half of all service charge queries within 10 days and 87% within 30 days
• Our Homeowner Service Centre supports homeowners’ specific enquiries, including communal repairs, ASB reports and leases
• Rent arrears for Hyde customers was 4.8% this year, a slight increase on 2024/25 (4.5%). Arrears for Tower Hamlets Community Housing customers was 10.8%, down by 3% on the previous year. Hyde Group arrears (Hyde Housing and THCH) was 5.25% as a result.

We reduced complaint response times through better customer communication and more thorough investigations. Internal audits, monitoring and spotlight reports highlighting trends in complaints are helping us further improve our approach.

As a result, fewer determinations from the Housing Ombudsman related to our complaints handling than in previous years.

We changed how we manage our neighbourhoods this year, based on what customers told us would make the biggest difference. Our Antisocial Behaviour, Tenancy and Neighbourhoods teams have been joined to create one team, to give clear ownership, quicker action when issues arise.

Customers are now supported by a Neighbourhood Officer and a Tenancy Management Officer; neighbourhood officers make sure communal spaces and buildings stay safe and compliant; Tenancy Management Officers focus on tenancy‑related needs and antisocial behaviour cases.

We’re supporting customers with rent and benefit checks, signposting them to debt advice charities, and offering affordable payment plans for those in arrears.

We secured £151k for customers and rent arrears fell. We also offered financial help through Hyde Charitable Trust’s Helping Hand Fund, including vouchers for food and daily essentials, white goods and furniture, and wellbeing services.

• Our Customer Involvement team is focused on fewer, more meaningful customer engagement activities. This ensures customers directly influence decisions, policies and service improvements.
• Customers helped us to improve service adjustments for vulnerabilities; mutual exchange; damp, mould and condensation; mobility scooter management; service charges; and energy retrofitting of homes.
• Ying Wu and Tim Sanders joined Group Board in December 2025. Both are Hyde customers. Tim is a member of our Group Investment Committee and Ying has joined Debbie Ellison, a Group Board member who’s also a customer, on our Group Housing Services Committee.
• We launched Customer Collective, a new group to support a flexible and inclusive approach to customer involvement. Customers receive updates about opportunities to get involved, supporting wider and more responsive engagement.
• Young people living in Hyde, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing and Clarion Housing homes published their recommendations to strengthen youth participation in housing policy and practice in March 2026. Young Residents in Partnership aims to ensure young people’s perspectives are considered in shaping housing services and neighbourhoods.

We’re a supporter and friend of the Stop Social Housing Stigma campaign, to help challenge how people think about social housing residents.

We’re working with involved customers to review our policies and procedures to ensure all our customers are respected and treated equally, regardless of where they live.

We’ve joined the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge, established by HouseProud and delivered by Stonewall Housing.

The pledge provides a framework for housing providers, focusing on amplifying LGBTQ+ voices in communities, increasing representation in organisations, and delivering staff training.