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Coronavirus

We're currently following the current government guidelines in relation to coronavirus

Our priority is to ensure our customers and colleagues are kept safe and well as much as possible. 

With this in mind, you may experience increased delays contacting us by phone in the coming weeks. If your query is not urgent you can send us an email at info@karbonhomes.co.uk and our team will respond as soon as they are able to.

If you’d like to check your current balance or make a payment to us you can do this via the MyKarbon portal.

We will continue to keep you updated via our website as the situation develops but please be assured our teams are working tirelessly to deliver our service as best we can. 

Thank you for your patience and support. 

Posted 25/03/20

As you know, the coronavirus situation is developing quickly and this week, the Prime Minister outlined much stricter measures to help reduce the spread of the virus. At Karbon Homes, we want to ensure we follow these guidelines to protect the health and safety of our customers and colleagues as much as possible.

To remind you, the guidance explained that you can only leave the house for the following reasons:  

  • Shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible
  • One form of exercise a day - for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household 
  • Any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person 
  • Travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home. 

Our priority continues to be the health, safety and well-being of our customers and colleagues. As a result of the latest government guidance, at the moment we will only be offering emergency repairs to ensure that no one is left in danger, comes to harm or is left homeless. This includes the following:

  • Any repair that needs to be undertaken in order to prevent a risk of death or injury to customers
  • Any repair that needs to be undertaken to prevent serious damage to your home e.g. a major leak.

We're also following the latest directive from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and meeting our legal responsibilities by continuing to undertake gas servicing in customers’ homes. 

We are trying to use our limited teams in the best way possible so we are minimising callouts in the evenings, particularly after 8pm. Please only call us after this time if it is an absolute emergency that can’t wait until the following morning. This will allow us to provide the best service we can to those in most need.
 
Any non-urgent repairs that have already been booked in will be postponed until we are able to resume normal working practices. Please call us when services return to normal to re-book your repair. 
 
When undertaking emergency repairs, we will ensure we follow social distancing guidelines. Our repairs staff will ask all members of your household to wait in a different room while they undertake the repair so that they can protect you and themselves.
 
Our housing teams will continue to support customers over the phone where possible. We will be carrying out health and safety checks once a week at our retirement living and extra care schemes and making daily welfare phone calls to our residents in those schemes.

All our office receptions have now been closed. If you want to get in touch with us to find out what support we can provide you with, please contact info@karbonhomes.co.uk or call 0808 164 0111.
 
We are also looking at how we can best help our local communities during these difficult times while keeping to the Government’s current guidance. We will continue to keep you updated as the situation develops.
 
Thank you for your understanding and support at this time and please ensure you follow the latest government guidance at all times.

Posted 18/03/20

Following the latest government communication from Monday 16 March 2020 regarding the Coronavirus pandemic, we wanted to update you again on Karbon’s current position. 

These are unprecedented circumstances and we appreciate this is a worrying time for everyone.  As the situation around us evolves, we will do our utmost to deliver essential services.  

Protecting the health and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues is our top priority in the current circumstances and we are committed to prioritising this in the months ahead. 

Karbon’s dedicated response team continue to meet daily to discuss the latest government guidance and adapt our response.  With this in mind, please bear with us, we will aim to update you as quickly as possible.   

What has changed from our last update? 
  • We will now be prioritising emergency repairs and defects work only.  We will work with you to assess each situation to respond appropriately. All non-essential work will be postponed.   
  • We are continuing to work through our existing jobs that are already booked in line with both available resources and priority activities. However, if your appointment is no longer essential, or you are self-isolating, please can you email us on info@karbonhomes.co.uk to cancel. 
  • Please consider whether your repair/request is essential before calling us. We will ask you about your circumstances when you call us to help us determine the urgency. 
  • Our team will also ask you about your health prior to undertaking any activity in your home. 
  • To ensure the safety and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues, we have now scaled back our reception presence and will only have colleagues on reception at Gosforth, Bowes, Greengates and the Spetchells in Prudhoe. But you can still get in touch with us over the phone on 0808 164 0111, email info@KarbonHomes.co.uk, website and social media channels.  
  • We want to reassure you that no one will be evicted because of coronavirus. If you are worried about paying your rent because of Coronavirus, please call us so that we can talk to you about how we can help you with this. We can also put you in touch with our Money Matters Team who can provide you with a range of advice and support. We have produced a number of Questions and Answers to help deal with customer queries which we will amend regularly based on advice from Government. You can access these here or at the bottom of this update.
  • Please remember that you can also pay your rent, see your account status, and update your contact details on-line at MyKarbon. 
  • Our housing teams are currently still available to deal with your enquiries. We are minimising home visits and face to face conversations and if we do visit you, we will need to ask you some health questions beforehand.  
  • As this situation develops it is possible that we will also have fewer colleagues available to take calls, deal with housing enquiries, or do repairs. We will do our utmost to maintain as good a service level as possible, but please bear with us if it takes us longer to respond, we will get to you as soon as we can. 
To reiterate, the latest government guidance says: 
  • Ensure that if you or anyone in your household has either a high temperature or a new and continuous cough then you should stay at home for 14 days. If possible, you should not go out, even to buy food or essentials, other than for exercise, in which case, stay at a safe distance from others. If necessary, you should ask for help from others for your daily necessities, and if that is not possible then you should do what you can to limit your social contact when you leave the house to get supplies. 
  • Even if you don’t have symptoms, and if no one in your household has symptoms stop non-essential contact with others and stop all unnecessary travel. 
  • Work from home where you possibly can, and you should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues. 
  • Only use the NHS when we really need to and go online rather than ringing NHS 111. 
  • Advice about avoiding all necessary social contact is particularly important for people over 70, for pregnant women and those with some health conditions. 
  • By this coming weekend, those with the most serious health conditions should be largely shielded from social contact for around 12 weeks. This includes those who are: 
    • Aged 70 or older (regardless of medical conditions) 
    • Under 70 with an underlying health condition listed below (ie anyone instructed to get a flu jab as an adult each year on medical grounds): 
    • Chronic (long-term) respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or bronchitis 
    • Chronic heart disease, such as heart failure 
    • Chronic kidney disease 
    • Chronic liver disease, such as hepatitis 
    • Chronic neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), a learning disability or cerebral palsy 
    • Diabetes 
    • Problems with your spleen – for example, sickle cell disease or if you have had your spleen removed 
    • A weakened immune system as the result of conditions such as HIV and AIDS, or medicines such as steroid tablets or chemotherapy 
    • Being seriously overweight (a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above) 
    • Those who are pregnant 

We hope this update was useful and you appreciate our commitment to keeping you updated as quickly as possible, as the situation changes. We will continue to keep you updated via our website but please be assured our teams are working tirelessly to deliver our service as best we can.   

Thank you for your patience and support. 

Questions and Answers - Money Matters

Posted 13/03/20

The coronavirus situation is evolving rapidly right across the world and the government is releasing information on a daily basis.  Karbon has set up a dedicated internal response team who has been monitoring the position closely over recent weeks to ensure we have been able to provide our customers and colleagues with relevant advice and guidance from the government as it arises.

We appreciate this is a worrying time and an unknown for everyone, but please be assured we are working hard to develop agile plans that can adapt as the situation changes. 

The health and safety of our customers and colleagues is our main priority. We want to ensure that we are supporting all efforts to prevent the spread of the virus so please inform us if you, and/or anyone in your home are self-isolating or diagnosed with coronavirus.  This will help us protect our colleagues and fellow customers.

We would ask that you call us at the earliest opportunity to inform us so we can assess the situation and provide you with the most appropriate advice.

We are also asking colleagues to ask if anyone in the property is displaying the relevant symptoms, self-isolating or has tested positive for the coronavirus before booking appointments.

Please click the button below to read our customer Q&As. 

Karbon Homes Q&As - Coronavirus

Posted 12/03/20

What is coronavirus and Covid 19?

Covid-19 is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways.  It’s caused by a virus called coronavirus. 

Potential symptoms include:

  • A cough
  • A high temperature
  • Shortness of breath

Clearly these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness.  The symptoms are similar to other illnesses that are much more common, such as cold and flu. 

The government is expecting that coronavirus cases in the UK could rise significantly and has reminded everybody of the importance of washing our hands and following good hygiene measures.

If you need to cough or sneeze ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ is still the best way to help to prevent the spread of diseases.

Current situation

As you will be aware, the coronavirus situation is evolving rapidly right across the world and the government is releasing information on a daily basis.  The most recent announcement is that the UK has moved into the ‘delay phase’ of its response to the virus. 

There is a lot of news and other sources of information out there and it can often get confusing and difficult to know what is rumour and fact.  It’s important that you keep an eye on the Government and NHS websites for trusted, accurate and timely information.

What is Karbon doing?

We are closely following the official government guidance as it is released and have set up a dedicated internal team to react quickly to this and plan and deliver our response. 

We appreciate this is a worrying time and you will have a lot of questions. We’re now in the process of developing answers to these questions and will publish these on our website as soon as possible. 

We’ll continue to update this page as new information becomes available, so please keep checking back.

We want to assure you that:

  • We are planning how we will maintain our essential services to customers if the virus escalates and more cases arise
  • We will look to support customers as much as we can with information and advice and will continue to keep our website updated
  • We are developing specific plans for customers who live in our sheltered and extra care accommodation and those with greater support needs
  • We are communicating with and supporting our staff on what they need to do to take the necessary actions and precautions to keep everyone safe.

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