Home > About SACHA > Our Priorities

About SACHA

2. Our Priorities

Our priorities are providing and managing good quality, affordable accommodation, relevant ancillary services and working in accordance with our regulatory commitments.

SACHA is a not-for-profit organisation which owns, lets and manages a wide range of housing. As there is a shortage of decent affordable social housing in the UK, we usually accommodate eligible people and families referred by local authorities with an immediate need. Being a not-for-profit organisation means that any financial surplus made is ploughed back into maintaining existing homes or providing more accommodation as well as related services and support where required.

Additional benefits come from dealing with a large, registered and audited company, rather than an individual landlord, which provides stability and increased peace of mind. This is combined with an effective and established complaints procedure to deal with any that may arise.

Who do we provide accommodation for?

Simple answer really; Anyone who is eligible, as Housing Associations were developed with the aim of making accommodation available and affordable for all. In the recent past they have been perceived as an option for those in the lower-income brackets or in particular need.

As housing becomes increasingly more expensive, housing association rentals often provide the best opportunity for many people to find a home in any given area and may also offer financial assistance for people buying their own property who, for a variety of reasons, would be unable to obtain a mortgage deal.

Housing association accommodation is often utilised as an alternative to council-owned housing and the majority of tenants are still referred to housing associations through their local authority, generally because when they initially apply for council housing they are assessed as not being eligible. The referral might also be made because a housing association provides something which is specifically tailored to their needs (for example, younger single people or those with mental health problems).

Regulation and Monitoring

Another major priority of SACHA is in being compliant with the regulations and following our agreed policies and procedures. One of the key characteristics of all housing associations are that they are overseen by a regulatory body, which in our case is The Tenant Service Authority (TSA). The TSA regulates nearly all housing associations to help make sure they are run properly.

All housing associations that are registered with the TSA must offer homes to their tenants that meet certain standards. The monitoring of policies and procedures, combined with ample opportunities and means of submitting comments, complaints and compliments, ensures housing associations are a truly democratic form of housing management, by giving tenants the chance to be directly involved in the how their housing association and associated services are managed.