Proposed laundry closures could save customers hundreds of pounds a year
Customers with access to seven laundry sites situated alongside their homes, which are owned and managed by local housing provider Trent & Dove, are invited to take part in a formal consultation to close them.
Trent & Dove has launched the consultation to close the laundries located across its housing schemes in Burton and Uttoxeter following a customer survey that showed a lack of usage and unnecessary cost to its customers.
Customers affected have received a letter inviting them to a face-to-face consultation event at their designated laundry site or nearby where they can find out more information. The consultation runs from Friday 26 January 2024 to midnight on Friday 23 February 2024.
Martyn Hale, Neighbourhoods Director at Trent & Dove, said:
As a responsible landlord we want to provide our customers with value for money services and it’s right that we should look to save our customers money where possible.
During 2023, we contacted every customer with access to one of our laundries at least twice by phone, letter, email or in person, to ensure we fully understood and listened to their views. Customers who currently use one of our laundries and don’t own their own washing machine will be offered support. This could be financial or practical, for example with our Helping Hands Fund to help with the purchase and running costs, or via our Repairs team to help ensure a new machine is properly installed in their home.
Trent & Dove received survey responses from 85 per cent of its customers with access to the laundries. Of that figure only 35 per cent said they made regular use of the service. A further eight per cent used them monthly or just occasionally and the remaining 57 per cent said they never used them because they own their own machine.
Currently customers are charged for the use of the laundry as part of their annual service charges cost regardless of usage. Depending on their personal circumstances, they may already receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit to help meet this cost.
Providing the consultation results in customers agreeing to the closure of each site, Trent & Dove will adjust the customers’ annual service charges cost to remove this charge. This adjustment could save customers between £187 and £485 a year, depending on which laundry site they have access to, their personal circumstances and current annual service charges.
Trent & Dove will write to customers in early March to inform them of the consultation outcome and next steps.
Customers affected can contact Trent & Dove via a dedicated consultation email address: laundries@trentanddove.org