Neighbourhood and Community Information

We want you, our customers, to love your community as much as they love your home.

To help you feel connected to your local area we have developed a series of policies and initiatives and you can read more about these below.

Heylo Together

We're proud to have launched Heylo Together, an initiative that helps you, our customers, get involved with the community organisations and charities that matter to you.

Heylo customers can nominate local voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations for grant funding. These are groups working to make their communities better and stronger, places people are proud to call home. Once a customer has nominated an organisation they feel deserves a grant, Heylo's Customer Committee will consider each nomination and award funding to the successful organisations.

Whether it's more books for book clubs, more toys for toy libraries or new Christmas lights for a local high street, Heylo Together exists to help ease the financial pressures these vital groups face every day, so they can get on with the important work of bringing their communities closer together.

What will we fund?

We are excited to be offering funding for projects and initiatives that benefit our customers and their local communities. We will provide funding to Heylo residents; local voluntary or community groups, resident groups, charities, social enterprises or other not-for-profit organisations that are nominated by our residents for initiatives that will have a demonstrable benefit to our residents and are aligned with the below aims of the programme.

Community wellbeing and engagement

Projects that are designed to support the health and wellbeing of the local community, be that through specialised support, initiatives to encourage exercise and participation in sport or delivering community events to engage and bring together local people and reduce isolation and loneliness.

Diversity, inclusion and community cohesion

Initiatives and events that celebrate diversity in our communities, promote inclusion and equal opportunities and support community cohesion.

Sustainability, nature and place

Projects that aim to support nature and biodiversity, reduce emissions, enhance local green spaces or encourage community members to make the most of outside spaces. For example, community gardening or tree planting initiatives.

Food access and security

Projects that provide access to food for those in financial hardship or support the work of food initiatives

Opportunity, skills and support

Initiatives that support access to education, training or work experience to build skills and increase opportunity in the community.

What will be required?

Successful applicants will be required to:

Report on the impact of the project as it progresses and at the conclusion of the activity that the funding was given for. The method and format of reporting will be agreed with the applicant as part of the review of the application and process of awarding funding. For smaller projects, this could be as simple as reporting the number of community members that benefited from the project and/or providing photos. For larger projects, reporting could include participant surveys and other forms of impact assessment and reporting. The reporting will differ according to the project which is why this is something that will be agreed as part of the application review process.
Agree that the project will be featured in Heylo communications, including our Customer Report and/or ESG Report and newsletter/blog pieces, engaging with the Heylo marketing team to provide information including photographs as appropriate for Heylo publications.

Who can apply?

Current Heylo leaseholders / shared owners who are living in a Heylo home are invited to nominate local voluntary or community groups, resident groups, charities, social enterprises or other not-for-profit organisations to receive funding for projects and initiatives that benefit Heylo resident(s) and the local community. We are open to applications across a broad range of initiatives and particularly those that are aligned with the programme aims set out above.

Applications must be made by a current Heylo resident that is living in their Heylo home. Customers that are not living in the home that they have with us, such as those that are sub-letting their home, are not able to submit applications.

How can you apply?

Please complete the application form, providing the following information:

The name of the organisation / initiative that you are proposing
An outline of the project/initiative that you are bidding for funding for
The amount of funding requested
The project’s alignment with our above programme aims
The anticipated impact of the project on the local community and Heylo customer(s)
What support there is for the project from our customers and/or the local community
An overview of the ability of the nominated organisation to deliver the proposed project
How you propose reporting to us on the impact of the project

Selection process and timescale

Once we receive your application, you will receive an acknowledgement email from us within 10 working days confirming the anticipated timescale within which your application will be reviewed and processed.

Your application will then be assessed by a panel. It will be assessed on the following basis:

The initiative’s alignment with the aims of the Heylo Together community fund
The amount of support (financial or otherwise) Heylo needs to provide
The anticipated impact of the project on the local community and Heylo customer(s)
What support there is for the project from our customers and/or the local community
The ability of the nominated organisation to deliver the initiative
Other dependencies which will impact the success of the project / initiative over which Heylo / the applicant has no / little control

The panel will aim to meet approximately every three months to review applications, after which point the funding awarded will be confirmed to applicants. You will be made aware of when it is anticipated that the panel will assess your application in the acknowledgement email. However, please note, Heylo is not able to confirm that your application will be reviewed within any three month period, the date of the panel review being dependent upon the number of applications it has received, availability of the panel and availability of the Heylo Together fund. Applications will be considered in order of date received unless urgent review is required for any other reasonable reason (e.g. the project being applied for is time dependent / sensitive such that it needs to be prioritised to achieve maximum impact).

Apply for a Heylo together funding

Ideas for you to stay connected to your neighbourhood

We’re keen to share new ideas and ways for you to stay connected to your neighbourhood and we keep you updated on these ideas via articles that are available on the Heylo Homeowner section of the website and that are also promoted via our Customer Newsletter. To catch up on some of our recent articles, click on the links below.

Communities in the cloud:
4 great ways to stay connected to your community using digital technology

Read the article

Neighbourhood Watch:
A great way to connect with your local community

Read the article

What to do if you are in dispute with a neighbour

If you find yourself in dispute with a neighbour, then it’s important to try and resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Allowing a dispute to continue can cause unnecessary distress to both parties.

Often, neighbours find themselves in dispute over issues like car parking, boundary / fence maintenance issues, and noisy pets. It’s entirely possible to resolve these issues through friendly and reasonable dialogue and we would encourage you to do this in the first instance.

Minor neighbour disputes should be resolved directly between neighbours and we do ask and expect our customers to try to resolve such disputes directly where they can.

If you have exhausted all attempts to amicably resolve the issue with your neighbour and they are either not willing to listen or compromise, then you may consider escalating your complaint to your local council, or taking a legal route. You should be aware that taking legal action can cost a significant amount of money and cause lasting damage to the relationship you have with your neighbour.

What to do if your experience anti-social behaviour in your community

Anti-social behaviour damages our local communities. While we often think of anti-social behaviour as being dog waste left on paths, or noisy teenagers hanging about local parks and high streets, there are many other forms of anti-social behaviour and, at best, anti-social behaviour causes inconvenience and irritation to residents, and at worst, it can cause residents to withdraw from their local community, or move away and therefore real and lasting harm.

If you experience anti-social behaviour in your local community then it’s important you tell us and we’ll do our very best to support you.

If you are causing anti-social behaviour and are a Heylo leaseholder or shared owner, then you may be in breach of the terms of your lease agreement and liable to action against you under the lease. We expect and ask our customer not to commit anti-social behaviour and will take action if we have to under the lease.

To help you understand what we define as anti-social behaviour and the support we can provide, please read our Anti-Social Behaviour Policy, available on the Policies section of our website.

Anti-Social Behaviour Policy

What to do if you have a safeguarding concern?

It is important we take care of others in our communities. If you have a concern about the welfare of someone in your neighbourhood, you should report your concerns to the police or Crimestoppers. If you choose to report via Crimestoppers, you can do so anonymously. For more information, click the link below to visit the Crimestoppers website.

Visit Crimestoppers website

Likewise, if you are experiencing domestic abuse at home, or have left your home due to domestic abuse, you can call us and we’ll do our very best to support you. We have a Safeguarding Officer you can speak to, and we can discuss further support that may be available to you.

For more information on how we support customers experiencing domestic abuse, please read our Domestic Abuse Policy which can be found on the Policies section of our website .

Domestic Abuse Policy

Heylo Customer Charter

Read our Customer Charter to understand more about our commitment to delivering best in class customer service, and how we'll monitor performance along the way.

View the Customer Charter