Throughout the pandemic, we have strived to deliver vital services in Sunderland to keep our tenants safe, secure and supported. We have continued to monitor the COVID-19 situation daily, however, like many other businesses and services, the virus continues to impact our workforce and our ability to deliver services.
The North East of England has experienced a sharp rise in the COVID-19 infection rate in recent days and weeks.
The sharp rise in positive cases has also had a significant impact on the number of people in the region and nationally requiring to self-isolate for 10 days if they have had close contact with someone who has tested COVID positive.
This situation is currently impacting colleagues and our ability to perform business as usual. Until the government guidance on isolation changes on 16 August this situation is likely to get worse. The data also suggests that we will see more positive COVID cases which is likely to result in further colleague absence.
Regretfully, we have had to make some difficult decisions and will be making several temporary changes to our services. This includes:
- Focusing our resources on emergency and urgent repairs as a priority, triaging repair requests from tenants in order to do this
- Unfortunately, this means routine repairs are likely to take longer to resolve
- Potentially experiencing longer waiting times when attempting to contact the Group via telephone
- Reduced estates services, impacting services such as grass cutting
- Delays to various investment schemes, including intercom and window replacements
We will continue to deliver gas servicing and other critical services.
If tenants are self-isolating, we are still able to complete these essential visits by following existing safe systems of work.
We anticipate this situation may impact our service for at least six weeks, however, this could be longer depending on the COVID situation.
Our resource challenges could also impact our telephone waiting times to report a repair. Where possible, we encourage you to use our My Gentoo and My Repairs online reporting systems.
If you do not already have a My Gentoo account, you can easily create an account here.
Please note you will need your tenancy number to hand when creating an account.
Or you can report repairs to us via email at cscenquiries@
gentoogroup.com
Please include as much information as possible in any email you send to us.
We are very disappointed to be in this situation and have not taken this decision lightly, however, we have been left with no other choice, due to staff shortages.
Please be assured we are committed to resolving your issues as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience this situation may cause.
In the meantime, we will continue to remain accessible and continue to connect with tenants as much as possible.
Should you wish to speak to your Neighbourhood Coordinator, you can find the names and contact details of all Gentoo’s Neighbourhood Coordinators here.
Please take care, stay safe and continue to follow the Government’s COVID-19 guidelines.
