Housing Matters - November 2025
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Read the latest edition of Housing Matters.
Opportunities to talk to us!
Upcoming events for our tenants – get involved!
Join us at our second open day for tenants
This is your chance to meet Tony Keaveney, Service Director of Housing Services, and Heads of Housing Services to share your thoughts and have your voice heard. You can join us at All Saints View, Sapphire Place, Houghton Regis, LU5 5LP on Saturday 15 November from 11am to 1pm.
Talk to us about cleaning
We’re kicking off our first communal cleaning event, and we want to hear your views about the cleanliness of your communal and shared areas.
Over the next month we will be asking tenants to complete a short survey and inviting tenants to have an honest chat with us about your communal areas and the standard of the service you receive. These will be both online and in-person.
The in-person event will be held at All Saints View, Sapphire Place, Houghton Regis, LU5 5LP during the week of 24 November (time to be confirmed).
Keep an eye out for posters and leaflets on your notice boards for further details on these events.
Come to one of our Housing Information Hubs
Get housing advice, share your views or just find out more about the services available to you. Think of them as your one-stop place for all things housing. They are relaxed, welcoming spaces where you can drop in anytime to get the support you need. Come and see us in:
- Leighton Buzzard: Tuesday 4 November from 10am to midday at Teenage Advice & Information Centre, LU7 1EZ
- Houghton Regis: Monday 10 November from 2pm to 4pm at The Farmstead, Linmere, LU5 5GX
- Dunstable: Wednesday 19 November from 10am to midday at Dunstable Library, Dunstable Centre, LU5 4JD
- Shefford: Thursday 27 November from 3pm to 5pm at Priory House, Monks Walk, Shefford, SG17 5TQ
Stay connected and make a difference
Visit our website for information and updates about getting involved as a tenant
You can be involved as much, or as little, as you like. Join our Tenant Involvement Register to take part in focus groups and discussions that shape the housing services you use.
Email tenant.involvement@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk to find out more.
Christmas market at Priory View
A festive day out
Join us for a festive day out at our Christmas Market on Saturday 29 November from 11am to 3pm at Priory View, Church Street, Dunstable, LU5 4FG.
Enjoy browsing a wonderful selection of market stalls, visiting Santa’s Grotto, and discovering unique gifts and crafts while soaking up the festive music and delicious seasonal food.
Entry is free, so bring your family and friends along for a cheerful community celebration. For more information, please email prioryview@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.
A new way to manage your home online
Housing One is coming soon
We will soon be launching a new online customer portal, called Housing One. This system will make it faster and easier for you to manage your home, and it will be available 24/7 to help you raise items outside of regular office hours.
You’ll be able to take care of important tasks online, without needing to call or wait for office hours. At a time and place that suits you, Housing One will let you:
- pay your rent instantly and keep track of your payments
- book and track repairs so you know exactly what’s happening
- report tenancy issues, like anti-social behaviour, quickly and easily
This is a big step forward. Our old system has been in place for around 10 years and hasn’t allowed tenants to self-serve. With Housing One, you’ll have 24/7 access from day 1, meaning less time waiting on the phone, fewer forms to fill out, and more time for the things that matter to you.
We have built the system with the future in mind, so it’s designed to grow with your needs. And while the online portal is the fastest way to get things done, other methods of contacting the Housing team will still be available if you need them.
When Housing One launches, you’ll need to sign up to start using it. You’ll need your tenancy number and your registered email address to set up a password, but we’ll share more details soon.
We’ve carried out extensive work behind the scenes to get Housing One ready, including training and testing to make sure the system works the way you need it to. But, as with any big change, there may be a few hiccups in the early days.
We will keep you updated, but please bear with us should there be any issues, and if something doesn’t quite work as expected, please let us know. Your feedback will help us make improvements quickly.
Share your views on how you contact us
Help us continue to improve our housing service
We want to make sure you can contact us in the way that works best for you, and your views are essential to this process.
Take our short survey and tell us how you prefer to communicate. Whether you're happy with how things are now, or you think we could do better, we want to hear from you. Take part in the survey.
We’re always looking for ways to improve, but we can’t fix what we don’t know about. Your feedback helps us make things better for everyone.
Action against landlord following unlawful eviction
We will investigate reports of unlawful landlord behaviour
A landlord has been fined following a successful investigation into an unlawful eviction in Leighton Buzzard by our Private Sector Housing team.
The investigation, launched in April 2024, focused on a property on North Street and uncovered serious breaches of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.
The case was brought before Luton Magistrates' Court on 1 August 2025, where the landlord, Mr Stuart Lance Kellman, pleaded guilty to two offences: unlawfully depriving a tenant of access to their home and unlawfully removing the tenant’s belongings.
Mr Kellman was sentenced and fined and now carries a criminal conviction for these offences. The outcome sends a clear and powerful message: unlawful behaviour by rogue landlords will not be tolerated.
Meadowsweet Place, Red Kite Meadows
Apply now!
The affordable rents have now been set for this 88 unit development comprising 83 affordable rented and 5 shared ownership one and two bedroom apartments.
Care is Central, who will be the care provider for the scheme, the Housing Demand Team and Adult Social Care are now accepting applications and allocating apartments to those who have already applied. We will arrange for viewings to commence shortly.
Every home features its own private balcony, while communal areas include inviting shared spaces and a ground-floor café that opens onto a landscaped communal garden, with gated access to the nearby Leisure Centre. Residents will also be able to enjoy relaxing views from the roof terrace and garden.
If you're interested in a property, please call 0300 300 5080 or email housingregister@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
You can also apply online. If you require support to make an application, please contact us directly using the details above.
Give us your feedback
Comments, compliments, complaints and service requests
Having your voice heard and providing your feedback is valuable to us. There are lots of ways that you can have your say about our Housing service.
Comments
Often people want to suggest improvements to services. If you make a suggestion, we will record this as a comment.
Compliments
If you tell us about a service that has been good or a member of staff who has been helpful, we will record this as a compliment and share your praise with those involved.
Service requests
A service request is a request by you for us to take action to put something right. Service requests are not complaints, but we record them, monitor, and review them for learning and improvements. If we consider the issue raised to be a service request, we will ask the relevant team to reply to you directly.
Complaints
You can complain if you are affected by the way we provide services. Common examples of complaints are delay; poor record keeping; failure to act; failure to follow procedure or the law; poor communication; behaviour of our staff (also called officers); or giving out misleading information.
You can provide any of the above feedback by contacting housing.feedback@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or by completing this online form.
Did you know?
We have many other opportunities for you to be involved and to have your say on how we shape our services. You can visit the Tenant Involvement webpage to register your involvement, or to see what events we have coming up.