Terms and Conditions – our proposal to you

There are no changes to the payments Sanctuary currently make for bank holidays. Employees will continue to be paid for the full day at normal time (single rate) and payment for any call-outs will continue to be paid at single time on top of this, resulting in receiving double time for time called out. What is new from this review is that for employees who are on-call on a bank holiday, they are also able to take the whole day back at another time (as paid leave at normal rate), irrespective of whether they have been called out or not. Arranging to take this day back can be done informally with your line manager. This change came into effect in line with the August Bank Holiday 2024.

We are committed to reviewing service days for annual leave for those who currently don't receive them, as part of the future phases of the terms and conditions review.

No, the purpose of the terms review is to move to align terms across Affordable Housing. Any employee who has enhanced benefits such as holidays will not lose this entitlement.

We will be reviewing pension arrangements as part of the next phase of the terms and conditions review.

For this phase, we are proposing for everyone to start on the same level of annual leave (25 days). We will be reviewing service-based leave for those who currently don't receive it (up to 5 days, based on length of service) as part of a future phase of the review.

As part of this review we are aligning Property Services operational terms to 3 waiting days (working days) and both Property Services operational terms and the Customer Hub, to move to 13 weeks full sick pay. We are committing to reviewing sick pay and waiting days further for Property Services operational terms and the Customer Hub in 2026/27.

The proposed car allowance is intended for frontline customer-facing roles who are required to regularly drive to visit customers in the community, who don't qualify for a company car and are required to use their own car. This would likely include roles in Housing such as most Housing Officers, Income Officers, Homeownership Officers (but is not restricted to these). Consideration is being given as to whether it may include other roles such as Scheme Managers who regularly work at more than one scheme, or Area Managers for example. Feedback received during the consultation period will be considered before a final decision is made on the criteria for being eligible to receive the car allowance.

Consideration will be given as to whether the car allowance may apply to other roles such as Scheme Managers who regularly work at more than one scheme.

Consideration will be given as to whether the car allowance may apply to other roles such as Area Managers who regularly visit customers and don't qualify for a company car.

If you meet the criteria for a car allowance in relation to your role, you would receive £600 per year if you do less than 3000 miles per year, and £1200 per year if you do more than 3000 miles per year (but do not qualify for a company car).

Your mileage rate remains unchanged at £0.45 per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and £0.25 per mile thereafter.

The car allowance is designed to help employees who regularly use their car for work purposes to visit customers. The allowance is not paid for the use of public transport as these costs are reclaimed as work expenses.

No, the allowance is only payable to employees in Housing England and Scotland who use their own car for work and who do not receive a car buy out allowance or have a company car.

No, the allowance is only payable to employees in Housing England and Scotland who use their own car for work and who do not receive a car buy out allowance or have a company car.

No, the allowance is only payable to employees who use their own car to regularly visit customer homes.

You can qualify for the allowance if you regularly visit customers at their home. This typically means using your own car every week to visit customers.

Yes, up-to-date details of your car and appropriate driver documents must provided and approved by Fleet Services to get this allowance.

We plan to begin the new arrangements from 1 April 2025.

Yes, the allowance will be subject to income tax and national insurance deductions, in line with normal payroll processing.

We appreciate the feedback and will be reviewing bank holiday premuims at the Customer Hub as part of future phases of the terms and conditions review.

No, the car allowance will not replace the company car scheme and is in addition to the company car scheme. The car allowance is intended for employees in Housing England and Scotland who use their own car to visit customers regularly, but do not do enough mileage to qualify for the company car scheme.

If you are eligible for a company car, the company car list includes a number of electric vehicles that staff are able to choose from. Recently an electric vehicle (EV) salary sacrifice scheme through Tusker was set up which is an additional benefit and is separate to the company car scheme. Staff need to meet the eligibility criteria to be able to take up the EV salary sacrifice scheme, which includes a salary of at least £25,000 to ensure we meet the National Minimum Wage requirements. This scheme is an additional benefit the Group offers but has not been created to replace the company car scheme. If you are eligible for a company car, you are able to have a company car and make use of the electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme separately if you wished. More details on the EV salary sacrifice scheme can be found on Solis under the Fleet Services pages.

We are committed to considering a tool allowance and will be looking at this as part of the next phase of the terms and conditions review. We are currently exploring any tax implications around this.