Why your data matters

The Grenfell tragedy and the death of Awaab Ishak in Manchester highlighted the poor knowledge of some housing associations as to who lives in their homes. In turn, this often can mean that the landlord fails to listen and respond to their customers appropriately.

Since then, the social housing white paper has: ‘Set out the actions the government will take to ensure residents in social housing are safe, are listened to, live in good quality homes, and have access to redress when things go wrong.’ The detail requires us to build a better understanding of, and hold accurate data about, our customers. So we are now going to be asking you to complete any gaps we have.

What we need to know

We hold fairly good data already in terms of dates of birth, gender, ethnicity and more, but there is still a way to go. This means you may increasingly be asked in your MyAccount, by hub advisers on the phone or email, to update any gaps we still have relating to you and your household.

Why?

We aim to make sure the customer data we hold is as full and accurate as it can be and then to use this data alongside customer feedback to shape our services. 

If we can see where our services are being positively or negatively experienced by people of a particular gender, age or ethnicity, we can then spot areas where we need to make changes.

Security

At Westward we are extremely vigilant around our responsibility to our customers regarding your personal data. We want to reassure you that we are thorough in only collecting data that is relevant and needed for a purpose. We store it very securely with significant cyber security defences to protect it and we only hold it as long as we need to. 

Any concerns

We understand that it can feel uncomfortable sharing personal information which you are used to keeping private. You may be reluctant to share this with us. That is why we want to reassure you that the information we hold about you is held responsibly according to GDPR legislation and using strong cyber security measures. It is very important to hear our customers’ voices and we want to continue to improve how this helps to shape overall service. If you have any concerns please contact haveyoursay@westwardhousing.org.uk 

Please now fill in the form below with any missing or incorrect details we may hold for you. Thank you.

You can read our privacy policy at the foot of this page.