RESIDENTS in sheltered housing accommodation have lost their battle to stop the landlord imposing controversial new charges on them.

Social housing landlord Aster is going ahead with its plans to introduce its new ‘enhanced housing management’ service (EHMS) at Wakeford Court in Romsey – despite bitter opposition from the 39 elderly residents who live there.

They will have to pay up to £7.66 a week for the service which begins in April or move out.

Many areas of the new service are included in existing charges and this sparked outrage from the residents. This includes routine health and safety checks, equipment inspections, testing smoke alarms and organising day-to-day repairs at the block in the The Hundred

Chairman of Wakeford Court tenants panel Peter Penrose, who organised a petition last autumn in a bid to stop Aster introducing the scheme, declared that average bills for residents will rise by nine per cent in April to £136 and that is without an expected rent increase the same month.

Mr Penrose said: “This EHMS is only being introduced to employ Aster Living staff. None of them have any medical training to actually help our residents. These people only attend once a week for an hour. What they do is knock on a separate door once a week to check if they are okay. This Government has said on many occasions it is better to look after the elderly at home than in hospital. So therefore, if Aster is so concerned about us, which I doubt, let them get in touch with the proper authorities. Aster will try anything to extract more money from tenants.”

Continuing his attack on his landlord Mr Penrose added: “Aster will try anything to get back at Wakeford Court because we are the first and only independent tenants panel it has.” Aster claims its present ‘Floating Support Service’ is being axed at the end of March and replaced by the ‘enhanced housing management service’ because the plug is being pulled on financial support it gets from Hampshire County Council due to a reduction in central Government cash which helped pay for the scheme.

An Aster spokesman said: “As we’ve stated previously HCC will be stopping the funding it provides to offer a floating support service. This means that we’ve had to look at feasible alternatives to ensure our elderly and vulnerable customers will continue to receive the high-quality support they need and deserve.”

He added that Aster consulted its tenants in Hampshire including those at Wakeford Court about the EHMS scheme and asked them for views on the proposals and concluded the best way forward was to go ahead with it.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers is always our top priority. We believe introducing EHMS in these schemes, is the best way to ensure this continues. Customers would deal with one specialist member of our team allowing them to build a rapport with a familiar face, whilst also reassuring them over the quality and consistency of service provided.

“At Wakeford Court, 88 per cent of our customers living there currently receive floating support – nine of whom are aged 90 or above. We don’t believe we’d be fulfilling our duties as a responsible landlord or care and support provider if we didn’t introduce this scheme,” said the spokesman who confirmed that the EHMS is being introduced at other properties it owns in Hampshire. But there are a couple of exceptions to this.

He said: “However, in two schemes where smaller numbers of customers currently receive floating support – including Gainsborough Court in North Baddesley – we’ve decided it wouldn’t be worthwhile to introduce the service.”

Pointing out that Aster had worked “hard” to ensure EHMS will be as cost-effective as possible for tenants, he added: “Costs to provide EHMS will start at £7.07p per week, depending on what type of tenancy a customer is on. If they are in receipt of housing benefit, the cost will be included in their housing benefit award. For customers who pay for the service themselves, we’re offering them financial assistance for a maximum of three years.

“We’ll continue to offer support to anyone who wishes to move from one of our schemes where EHMS will be introduced, including paying all reasonable removal costs. TVBC has also agreed any customers who would like to move will be given priority on the transfer register.”