Here's an idea

The B&N Group has a lot of high-quality housing in Colne, Lancashire, but we were having problems with low demand and had no idea why. So we did a survey of two streets in the area to find out what was wrong.

It turned out that the main problem was the cost of heating the properties, which are large family homes. So, last November, we started a pilot scheme to give residents £50 each towards their winter gas bills.

To reward our long-standing residents, we said they would only receive the payment if they had lived in the house for 12 months or more. Of the 42 homes in the pilot area, 27 qualified.

Three refused to hand over information from the gas supplier and we had to give up after persistent enquiries, so only 24 have received the payment.

We're hoping the scheme will act as an incentive for residents to stay with us. It's worked well so far – we've only lost one person in the few months the scheme has been running, compared to three a month before it started.

The total cost was £1200. We paid the money to tenants in two ways: for those who pay by direct debit or cheque, we sent the money directly to the gas supplier and it was deducted from the resident's gas account. For the others, we put it on their swipe cards and it was credited to their meters.

If the pilot works, we'll expand it into other areas.