Annual Report 2015/16 A year of change and improvement
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ALWAYS WORKING FOR YOU We hope our Annual Report will be an interesting read and will show some of the things we have been working on over the last year and how we’re focused on improving our services to you. The last 12 months have been a year of real change for housing associations across the country. The Government continued to make welfare changes and introduced a 1% rent cut. Whilst this was good news for you as a customer it did reduce the amount of income we receive by almost £1.2m. But, we were determined to make sure these changes affected you as little as possible, whilst at the same time delivering the best services possible, based on the things you told us were important to you. We know how important your home is to you. It provides shelter, safety and warmth but, even more importantly, it gives you a secure future. It doesn’t matter whether you are renting or buying your home, we want you to know that you made the right choice in becoming an Accent resident and we want even more people to make Accent their landlord of choice in every community where we work. We know that we won’t be people’s landlord of choice simply by building and renting more homes. We are always working for you and we have been for the last 50 years. We will do our utmost to make sure we continue to provide the services you need, when you need them and that you are happy in your home.
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Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
In 2015/16 we opened our new contact centre etc‌ experunt, totam veritatis dolestrum santem iuntur, commoluptat quis es estia seque aut aut odita pa con eum eosant, omnimi, tem apidusa isqua.
A year of change and improvement
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Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
MAKING A DIFFERENCE NATIONALLY We appreciate that times are difficult for many of our residents. This is why in 2015/16 we invested more time in the things that we felt could make most difference to your lives, like our tenancy sustainability service…
Residents supported by our tenancy sustainability service
Average days our homes are empty before re-letting
2014/15
2014/15
871
28.6 days
2015/16
2015/16
1041
Overall satisfaction with responsive repairs
25.3 days
Overall satisfaction with anti social behaviour case outcome
2014/15
2014/15
94.3% 2015/16
82.6% 2015/16
91.9%
83.2%
NATIONAL PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
81.3
%
(previous year 81.0%)
1977 94
%
of our residents are satisfied with our services
homes let to new families
(previous year 6.7)
103
£12.9m (previous year £14.9m)
of repairs fixed on the first visit
(previous year 91.4%)
8.6
600,000
93.95
%
calls received by our new contact centre since it opened in January 2016
invested on replacing 3284 elements in your homes (bathrooms, kitchens and boilers)
of repairs appointments are kept by our contractors
(previous year 93.0%)
the average days it took to complete a repair
new homes built across the UK
(previous year 291)
A year of change and improvement
23 secs 20
%
the average time it takes our contact centre staff to answer your calls
the amount of staff (surveyors and housing officers) who are no longer office based
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Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
2015/16 has been a year of change. We launched our new customer contact centre, introduced mobile working for housing officers and surveyors, launched our online customer portal and our three landlords joined to become Accent Housing. To promote these achievements we made a short film, which you can watch here: bit.ly/accentfilm
A year of change and improvement
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE LOCALLY We are one of Accent’s five regions. We provide homes to rent across the East of England. Most of these are in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire. We have performed well over the last year, here are some of the key figures:
Residents satisfied with the services we provide 2014/15
82.0% 2015/16
84.0%
Repairs fixed on the first visit by our contractors 2014/15
94.9% 2015/16
91.8%
298
Appointments kept by our contractors 2014/15
homes let to families
92.2% 2015/16
93.1%
£428,000
owed in rent arrears
(a reduction of £92,000)
£1.3m 99.9%
Residents satisfied with our repairs service 2014/15
94.3% 2015/16
spent on 364 new kitchens and bathrooms in our planned programme
90.9%
Residents satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live 2014/15
79.0%
of gas safety checks completed
2015/16
78.0%
(a very important health & safety requirement)
Residents satisfied that we listen to their views and act on them
97
%
99
%
208 57
%
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of our homes meet the Government’s Decent Homes Standard resident satisfaction for our tenancy sustainability service
2014/15
60.0% 2015/16
64.0%
Residents satisfied that their rent provides value for money 2014/15
75.0% 2015/16
complaints received 187 informal and 21 formal
81.4%
Residents satisfied their service charge provides value for money 2014/15
of informal complaints resolved within 24 hours
55.0% 2015/16
61.0%
Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
WE WORK CLOSELY WITH A RANGE OF ORGANISATIONS INCLUDING THE POLICE, SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE FIRE SERVICE, AS WELL AS AN INDEPENDENT MEDIATION SERVICE.
Working with communities We responded to 122 reported cases of anti-social behaviour this year. We believe in protecting individuals and communities and taking speedy action to resolve problems when they occur. We work closely with a range of organisations including the police, social services and the fire service, as well as an independent mediation service.
356 referrals were made to our tenancy support service this year. The service receives over 99% satisfaction from the residents it helps. This year, we secured £140,000 in income and goods for households in need which were referred to the service. We also spent £18,000 of our own money to support residents in need.
Value for Money Our ’patch’ based housing staff, supported by our specialist anti-social behaviour and tenancy sustainability officers, are here to work with residents when criminal or anti-social behaviour affects safety, security or tenancies. Our housing manager and tenancy sustainability manager regularly review all our anti-social behaviour cases to help us learn valuable lessons for future cases. Not all cases of anti-social behaviour are clear cut, so we use the best possible approach in each case to support both victims and perpetrators, using enforcement where necessary. We have a number of good neighbour agreements on some of our estates. But we make full use of the powers available to us and take action where necessary.
Across Accent, making sure we deliver value for money services is very important, so we focus on improving certain services each year. This year, we looked at high tenancy turnover and long term empty properties. These have a direct impact on our business. By focussing our work in these areas, across the whole of Accent we have: • Reduced the number of residents leaving their tenancy by 225. • Reduced our rent loss from voids by £200,000. • Collected £600,000 more income. The savings and improvements we have made this year will help us to make even more next year. This means we can build more badly needed new homes. Damian Roche Regional Housing Director
A year of change and improvement
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KEEPING IN TOUCH National Contact Centre
Mobile Working
Our new state of the art national contact centre opened in 2015 to answer your queries about your home and tenancy. We already know the services it provides are appreciated by residents. It’s open longer, works more efficiently and our staff are expertly answering your calls and resolving any issues you have. We have dedicated numbers for residents (0345 678 0555) and homeowners (0345 678 0588). You can ring the contact centre between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 12 noon on Saturday. These numbers are charged at a local rate from a landline, and if your mobile contract has ‘free minutes’ then these will be used at no extra cost to you. Outside these hours we offer an emergency repairs service.
As your housing officer and surveyors are now also out and about more, they can visit you in your home. You can also join one of our estate inspections. They are a really good way of letting us know of any issues in your community and talking to us about how we can improve services. We’ll let you know when we are visiting your neighbourhood.
Accent Customer Portal Nearly 4,000 residents have activated their customer portal account and you could join them. This new on-line service gives you immediate access to your rent and service charge accounts, enables you to report repairs, anti-social behaviour or complaints and update your personal details. It’s quick and easy to use and there when you need a service. So, if you haven’t already, we would encourage you to set your account up as soon as you can. Please contact us to find out how.
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Accent News We have continued to produce our regular newsletter, Accent News. Almost 1350 of you now receive this via email. This has helped us to make a big saving on both print and postage costs which we can then invest in other services. If you’d like to receive future editions of our newsletter via email, you just need to provide us with a valid email address.
Social Media We use Twitter and Facebook to inform you of events in your community and region – do you follow or like us yet? If not, it’s quick and easy! Follow us on Twitter (@accentpb) and like us on Facebook (Facebook.com/accentpb).
Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
In 2015/16 we opened our new contact centre etc‌ experunt, totam veritatis dolestrum santem iuntur, commoluptat quis es estia seque aut aut odita pa con eum eosant, omnimi, tem apidusa isqua.
A year of change and improvement
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“IT’S REALLY INTERESTING AND GOOD TO KNOW HOW MY LANDLORD WORKS” CSC MEMBER
Gordon Perry, Accent Group Chief Executive (right) chats with CSC member, Derek Thorn, before the annual conference in November 2015
GETTING INVOLVED This year we launched our new approach to working with residents. We know you are the best people to comment on our services from the grassroots. In each of our five regions we have formed compliance and scrutiny committees (CSCs) made up of local residents and independent experts. Focused on improving performance, the CSC investigates aspects of our services to make sure that we’re always improving, delivering the service in the best way and giving value for money. If you would like to know more about your local CSC, or even get involved, contact Damian Roche, Regional Housing Director through our contact centre. We are always interested in hearing from potential CSC members, particularly if you are a homeowner or leaseholder. CSCs meet in the evening and we train and support our members so don’t be put off.
There are other ways to can help us too
We launched our new independent living service following a review of the service we provide to our older residents. Our scheme managers are now trained to provide a full advisory and lettings service, and we are offering an advisory service to people over 60 who are living independently in their own general needs homes. Please contact us to find out more about this. We have continued to engage with the residents in our independent living schemes offering opportunities for them to meet their housing officers to discuss, for example, service charges. We have also carried out local engagement exercises to address certain issues. For example, anti-social behaviour or to connect with groups of residents where contact has been low. By getting involved, even a little, you can make a real difference in improving the services we provide for the benefit of all residents. If you would like to get more involved, contact Keith Bowman, Tenancy Sustainability Manager.
Our local residents’ panel helps us to improve our local service. The panel meets informally and manages its own affairs. Staff attend meetings as required to respond to specific issues.
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Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
YOUR HOME IS IMPORTANT TO US TOO Getting the basics right We are determined to make sure we provide the best homes possible. 97% of our homes have reached the Government’s Decent Homes Standard but our aim is to deliver an even better ‘Accent Standard’. Now, when we make planned improvements we include showers over baths and double glazing wherever possible. This year we spent £12.9 million across Accent on replacing 3,284 different elements in your homes like kitchens, bathrooms and boilers. We spent a further £109,000 on 571 minor adaptations and £769,000 on 233 major adaptations to help our disabled residents stay in their homes. Our repairs service in the region has been reasonable but not at our target levels. Our main contractor, Fosters, has gone through changes in ownership and management over the last couple of years, and we have kept in close contact with them to make sure performance improved. It is improving and Fosters are keen to work with us to make sure it continues to. On average, we completed repairs in 12.43 days. 93% of residents who received planned improvements were happy with our service. Our gas safety record stands at over 99%. We have also completed 100% of our asbestos surveys and our legionella assessments. These are also very important health and safety aspects landlords must follow.
A year of change and improvement
Letting our homes Letting our homes is the most fundamental service we provide. We are now letting our homes on average within 10.5 days. This is a reduction of over six days per property – our best ever result. We had just nine empty homes (voids) at the end of the year. We have also signed up with House Exchange to promote mutual exchanges. We have started to review all our nomination and choice based letting agreements to make sure they allow us to make the best use of our available homes. With some schemes, we can let a number of our homes directly. In Pierson Court, March and Yarwell Court, Kettering, we have local lettings plans in place to help tackle anti-social behaviour. Following a review of our letting agreement with Kettering Borough Council, we have decided to remain a member. We have launched a ‘pilot’ scheme to offer advice and support to help residents keep their independence and stay in their homes for longer. In deciding which schemes to use, we chose Shrewsbury Court in Peterborough and Yarwell Court in Kettering.
But what if something goes wrong? Although we’re always working to provide excellent services we know that occasionally things do go wrong. If you’re not satisfied with any aspect of our service you can complain to us and we promise to treat you fairly and with respect. Improving our complaints service is a very high priority for us. Our staff are trained and we hold regular complaint review meetings. An Accent wide review will be carried out next year to help us improve how we manage our complaints process.
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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE The next few years will continue to be a challenge for all housing associations. More people will need our homes, the general population is getting older, public finances will continue to be tight and the welfare reforms will continue. But we are a strong and secure organisation willing and able to take on these challenges.
New technology will become increasingly important as we develop and improve our website, customer portal and communications with our residents.
Over the next few years we plan to build 1,000 new homes in our key target areas across the country. These new homes will contribute to the Government’s target of one million homes by 2020.
• Completing repairs in 7 days • Ensuring 96% of repairs are fixed first time • Raising repair satisfaction levels to 95% • Ensuring 94% of repair appointments are kept • Letting our properties on average within 10 days • Reducing the rent owed to us by residents to £396,000 • Increase complaint satisfaction handling to 80% • Resolve 75% of ‘phone queries at the first point of contact • Achieve 85% satisfaction with our call handling
We will continue to make sure our poorest or most challenged residents can keep their tenancy, develop more services to support our older residents and improve our services dealing with anti-social behaviour.
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Nationally this year our focus will remain on improving our services to you by:
Annual Report for residents 2015 – 2016
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK DAMIAN AND HIS TEAM IN PETERBOROUGH FOR DELIVERING A STRONG PERFORMANCE IN WHAT HAS BEEN A PARTICULARLY CHALLENGING YEAR FOR HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS. THE TEAM’S COMMITMENT TO LOWERING RENT ARREARS HAS SAVED US £92,000 THIS YEAR AND THE WAYS IN WHICH THEY ARE ENGAGING WITH LOCAL RESIDENTS WILL HELP TO IMPROVE SERVICES FOR ALL RESIDENTS ACROSS ACCENT. GORDON PERRY CHIEF EXECUTIVE
We welcome your views on how we’re doing so please get in touch‌ 0345 678 0555
customerservices@accentgroup.org
@accentgroupltd
Registered Office: Charlestown House, Acorn Park Industrial Estate Charlestown, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD17 7SW
/accentpb