Financial Wellbeing Strategy

Preparing tenants for their new home

Incentives
We will reward tenants for completing pre-tenancy training. The training is in place, so new tenants are aware of the costs of setting up and running a new home.

Pre-tenancy training
Provide good quality training on managing a home so that tenants are less likely to fall behind on their rent, and other costs.

Younger people
Educate and discuss with younger people living in Runnymede of their housing options by reaching out to secondary schools in the area.

Supporting tenants to grow their income

Getting online
Having basic digital skills has many benefits, for example improving the chances of finding work, reducing costs by shopping online, faster access to government services and online banking. By supporting tenants to safely use the internet, they will have the opportunity to save money. We will work with qualified individuals/organisations to reach out to tenants who are digitally excluded and train them on using IT and the internet safely.

Training and Education
We want to help our tenants get training and education that supports them to access employment opportunities and gain the skills that could increase their income. We will work with the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Education to understand where we can help our tenants to identify opportunities that will increase their financial stability.  

Clear Support
Tenants will have a clear idea of the benefits of the services we offer and their success in preparing people for their new home. We will also support tenants with problem debt, to avoid tenants from turning to high-cost loans (particularly loan sharks). This will help people keep their existing home and enable older people to live independently.

Maximising our tenant’s disposable income

Heating your home
We are working to improve the energy performance of our homes, such as replacing tenants’ boilers with ‘A’ rate efficiency ones and offering solar panels. We will also educate and support tenants to use their heating systems as efficiently as possible. This will reduce heating bills and mean our tenants will have more disposable income.

Weekly shop
The council would like to support those tenants who spend a larger proportion of their budget on food – our support would include helping tenants to reduce their food budget, which can often mean buying more nutritional food and reducing the myth that fresh food is more expensive.

Rainy day savings
We will seek to establish a ‘saving culture’ to ensure that Runnymede’s tenants are prepared for ‘life shock’ that could impact their finances. We know that many of our tenants are not insured, so should they be a victim of a major event (such as a fire or flood) their ability to financially bounce back is difficult. Therefore, we want to support and direct our tenants to access the right insurance, by directing them to suitable products and highlight payment terms.