Category: News

9th December 2021

Thanks to everyone who entered the Capital Letters “What’s My Rent?” challenge at the ARLA Propertymark show on 7 December 2021. The data has been crunched and we have a winner!

Congratulations to Katie Aherne, senior lettings consultant at Austin Residential in Ruislip, London. She beat off stiff competition, including from her manager, to win a £100 Amazon voucher.

“I had a great day at the ARLA Propertymark show and this is the icing on the cake,” said Katie after finding out she had won. “The property is in an area I know well and the agency does good business there. So it’s good to know I have my finger on the pulse of the market there.”

Entrants were asked to estimate the rent on a property in Earl’s Crescent, Harrow, which was handy as Katie had good local knowledge of the area. She estimated the rent at £1550 pcm.

In fact, Capital Letters recently agreed rent of £1543 with a £4000 incentive payment for a two-year tenancy agreement. 

Susi Stevens, lettings manager at Austin Residential, said:

“I’m not surprised Katie was able to estimate the rent correctly and she even beaten me! She knows that patch very well and has a sharp eye for properties. Our landlords can be assured we know the local market.”

The average estimate for the rent by participants in the “What’s My Rent?” challenge was £1601, which was close to the actual rent of £1543. Exactly half the participants went higher and half lower. So collectively the participants were about bang on.

“We introduced a lot of agents to our free tenant finder service with incentive payments at the ARLA Propertymark show,” said Capital Letters area manager, Jinelle Gannon. “Although the challenge was a bit of fun, it does show the rents we are able to achieve will meet the expectations of many landlords.”

About Capital Letters

Capital Letters works in partnership with London councils and private landlords and agents to homes for families. 

Our free service gives landlords easy and efficient access to suitable tenants across London.  Hundreds of landlords and agents already find tenants through Capital Letters.  

To find out more about our free tenants finder service and incentive payments, go to www.CapitalLetters.org.uk/landlords or email info@CapitalLetters.org.uk

5th June 2020

Capital Letters’ membership now consists 50% (16) of London Boroughs.

Capital Letters, a not-for-profit company, set up to prevent and relieve homelessness across the capital, welcomes Enfield, Hackney and Newham to their membership.

All three London Boroughs joined Capital Letters from April with plans for them to become fully operational by June whilst we work through the implications of COVID-19 on our service.

Chief Executive, Sue Coulson said: “We are delighted that 50% of London Boroughs are now members of the company, giving us a much stronger foothold in the market and therefore the ability to drive benefits for our members. Capital Letters mission is to work in partnership and collaboratively to solve the homelessness crisis in London and working with as many members as possible is how we can achieve this ambition – encouraging new members to join the company is an essential part of this.

“These new members are fundamental to our growth and our plans to procure and manage over 20,000 properties for homeless households over the next three years. One of our guiding principles is to assist member boroughs to reduce the costs of homeless provision – the more members we have, the greater the opportunity to control the market and drive down costs. It also means that our tenancy sustainment service will be extended to more households who need it, supporting more families to stay in secure homes

“We are continuously working to increase our membership and aim to have 26 London Boroughs by 2022 to continue to reduce councils’ costs and keeping families close to their communities and successfully maintaining their tenancies.”

If you are a London Borough and would like to know more about Capital Letters or how you can become a member, please email: sue.Coulson@capitalletters.org.uk or contact us. 

5th June 2020

Capital Letters, a not-for-profit company, owned by 16 London boroughs to prevent and relieve homelessness across the capital, has appointed a new Director of Operations – Elizabeth Harper and a Head of Acquisitions – Roy Dunbar.

Over the next three years, Capital Letters plans to procure over 20,000 properties for homeless households, reducing member councils’ costs and keeping families close to their communities – something which has often been very hard for London boroughs to do.

Elizabeth Harper has been appointed to lead Capital Letters’ operations, including procurement of homes for homeless households and our vital tenancy sustainment service as well as the development of our housing management and customer services. Elizabeth has a background in social and supported housing and joined Capital Letters in March as part of the Executive Team led by Sue Coulson, Chief Executive.

Director of Operations, Elizabeth Harper, said: “Having spent the majority of my career working to deliver excellent outcomes for homeless people I am very pleased to be part of this innovative company and to assist our member boroughs to address some of the intractable issues facing them. I am focussed on leading the team to bring the best experience for our borough members, the landlords we work with and – most importantly – supporting households to sustain their tenancies in our endeavour to house London’s homeless families.”

Head of Acquisitions, which is a new position at Capital Letters responsible for the procurement service, has been taken up by Roy Dunbar. Roy, who joined the team in April, has extensive experience of procuring accommodation for homeless households having worked in this area for a number years and for a range of London Boroughs. We are delighted that he has joined us at an important time in our development as we welcome 3 new London borough members to the Capital Letters family and step up our activities as a consequence. Roy’s timing couldn’t have been better as we are also now supporting our member boroughs to procure homes to enable them to house rough sleepers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Executive, Sue Coulson said: “With Elizabeth and Roy now in post, we will be able to accelerate our procurement activities and provide the best possible service for our members and the people they house. I am delighted to have them both on our team. Both have a wealth of experience which is essential to the growth of Capital Letters and essential to ensure we achieve our targets and that our tenancy sustainment service is best in class, enabling families to successfully secure their future and put down roots in their communities.”

23rd April 2020

We have been working closely with Sukesh on his property that he was keen to let to a family to help with the shortage of affordable homes in London. Sukesh’s property, that was transformed into an amazing family home, was also aired on the infamous BBC One Homes Under the Hammer show.

Check it out here.

Here’s what Sukesh said about working with Capital Letters:

“I have chosen to work with Capital Letters, in directly helping homeless families. The service they offer is head and shoulders above the competition.”

If you have a property that you would like to let with us contact us on: info@capitalletters.org.uk

24th March 2020

Following the developing situation in respect of the coronavirus, and the most recent advice given by the Government, Capital Letters have made some decisions in regard to the services we offer.

We have closed the main office but will continue to conduct ‘business as usual’ and customers can continue to contact us TenancyManagementSustainment@capitalletters.org.uk

What are we doing to protect customers?

Our top priority during this period of uncertainty is our customers and our workforce.

We have begun to implement contingency plans to reduce face-to-face contact in the hope that by taking these actions now we can continue to provide as many of the services we do normally, for as long as we can.

We are still able to handle day-to-day enquiries, but we may deal with them in a different way to how we have done previously.

We thank our customers for their patience during this very difficult period – by being positive and working together we can get through this.

What if I have difficulties paying my rent?

We understand that the coronavirus is likely to affect lots of people in different ways, and we are here to help you where we can.

If you have concerns about your rent or help making sure you are receiving any benefits you are entitled to please call us on 020 3906 7460

or email our tenancy management & sustainment team on TenancyManagementSustainment@capitalletters.org.uk

The Government has posted information on the coronavirus and claiming benefits which may be helpful to you here: https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/coronavirus/

Information

There is a lot of information about the coronavirus online.

If you are concerned you could have the virus or want more information, then please go to see the advice on the NHS website here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

And further information is also available on the Government’s main website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response