Support rent flexibility briefing – available to book now

Supported Rent Flexibility pilot is a project designed and delivered by the Centre for Responsible Credit, management consultants – Well Thought Ltd and Optivo.

The project is based on the observation that many tenants on very tight budgets find certain times of the year more difficult than others, for example, the pressure to buy presents for Christmas, or the need to provide lunches for children over the school holidays. As a result, many may resort to high cost credit to try and get by, with the repayments contributing to further problems of indebtedness further down the line.

The briefing will look at the Supported Rent Flexibility Pilot run by Optivo Housing Association, which manages 44,000 properties in England and the Centre for Responsible Credit. The purpose of the pilot gave an opportunity for tenants in work but also dependent on benefits, who had fallen into arrears of less than £500 in the past year, to set up an agreement to vary the amount of rent paid over the course of the year to help avoid them getting into debt of having to take out high cost credit.

Damon Gibbons, Director of the Centre for Responsible Credit, will explain how the scheme helped tenants reduce arrears and avoid having to use expensive credit. It relieved them of stress and anxiety while at the same time strengthened their relationship and engagement with the landlord, which benefited from improved rent account management.

Exclusively for SFHA members, this briefing is aimed at senior operational staff who set their association's rent management policy and their organisation’s financial inclusion strategy.

Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. In order to ensure that as many organisations as possible get the opportunity to attend, we are only accepting a maximum of two bookings per member organisation.

For more information or to book your place, please visit the events section of the SFHA website.