Putting customers at the heart of our cost of living response

In September last year we shared how we’re supporting customers through the cost of living crisis. Over a year has passed since then and our organisation looks quite different.

Silva Homes joined the Abri Group on 2 October 23, meaning that we now serve over 114,000 customers across 50,000 homes and assets. For all that has changed, our top priority remains the same: supporting our customers, many who still have difficulties in making ends meet, to navigate this difficult time.

We’ve always kept our customers at the heart of everything we do, and at the end of 2022 over Abri 4,200 customers helped us to do this by responding to our cost of living survey, letting us know how increasing costs were impacting them. We’ve used this data to double down our focus on cost of living support: exploring new initiatives that meet customer needs and allocating extra resources so that our teams are ready to respond.

How are Abri supporting customers?

Over the last financial year Abri have invested £3.7m in cost of living support directly for our customers and through community investment; here’s how we’ve done that:

Cost of living resources

Although we’re always here to help, we know that some customers might not feel comfortable reaching out for advice. That’s why we’ve built an online Cost of Living Hub that’s just a few clicks away for anyone in need. It’s available to everyone, not just our customers, and signposts practical support either through Abri or our local community. We use our monthly newsletter to remind customers about the Hub, the support services available to them and other useful resources. Our Community Action Days are another way that we engage with our customers on a broad range of issues, including cost of living, employment and general home maintenance.

Tenancy sustainment

Abri means shelter, and ensuring all our customers have a safe and warm place to call home is our purpose. We have teams in place to  keep people secure in their homes, assist those who are struggling to get the support they need, and as always, act compassionately and quickly where people are struggling. We can share advice on welfare benefits, budgeting, and other issues that might put customers’ tenancies at risk. In 2022/2023 Abri helped customers secure over £3.4m in benefits that might otherwise have gone unclaimed. For those in need of urgent practical support we can also provide food and fuel vouchers, with over 1,100 fuel and nearly 1,000 food vouchers issued in the last financial year. Over the same period, a total of 8,700 customers were referred to Abri’s Tenancy Support service.

Employment support

We believe that financial security and stable employment go hand in hand. Our customer centered Employment Service is available to every Abri customer across our geography and focusses on improving life chances and helping people to take greater control of their finances through gaining employment, moving up the career ladder or starting their own business. In 2022/2023 we supported over 570 people into employment or a better job, including James, an Abri customer from Fareham who shared with us that since finding employment he’s now been able to clear his debts and is looking forward to booking a holiday!

Community investment

Whilst we’re always on hand to help, we aim to build communities that empower individuals to thrive independently, too. We do this by listening to our communities to understand their needs and then work together with them and local organisations to make things even better.

For example, our community pantries are a vital service currently supporting over 500 members to access low cost food at a fraction of supermarket prices. We’re also encouraging customers to explore low cost cooking at home. Abri’s free Energy Efficiency Cooking workshops offer guidance on using cupboard store ingredients in slow cookers and air fryers as a healthy, low-cost energy option for cooking. Participants even get to take home their brand-new appliance and the ingredients to cook up each tasty recipe.

It can be particularly challenging to budget for extra meals over the school holidays so in 2018 we set up the Good Grub Club to tackle food inequality. Over the last financial year it has welcomed 123 families, providing them with nutritious free meals whilst helping parents to develop skills around cooking on a budget. And for families preparing for the new school term, we ran uniform and clothing swap shops over the summer, giving nearly 200 people access to clothing and school uniforms for very little or no cost.

Abri Partnership Fund

We believe the best ideas often come from the people who know and live in our communities. Which is why we have a £90,000 Community Fund available to make our community a better place to live. We’ve been prioritising projects that focus on cost of living support such as The Baby Bank in Windsor that help families facing financial difficulties, St Peters Community Centre in Yeovil to support their food pantry and set up toddler activity sessions, and The Cowshed near Reading for Noahs Boxes: a kitchen essentials kit of 35+ items for people going into their own accommodation.

The cost of living crisis won’t disappear anytime soon. Our customers and communities are still feeling the impact of higher living costs. Our colleagues are working hard to support customers but we know that we can always do more. Later this month we’ll be running a refreshed cost of living survey, giving us an opportunity to understand how all of our customers – including those who have recently joined us from Silva – have been impacted by rising costs. We’ll continue to monitor the situation closely so that we can explore further interventions and ultimately ensure that our customers are supported through this difficult time.