A Year in the Life by Bron Afon

A year in the life 2011-2012

Introduction We are now four years into our commitment to bring all homes up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. This last year has seen us looking ahead to answer the question ‘what happens after that?’ One of our Corporate Plan priorities is ‘generating and enabling new business opportunities’. We are now putting in tenders to win contracts for work to secure jobs. Our clear message is ‘we are open for business’. We set up three subsidiaries so we can do this without affecting our commitment to tenants to bring their homes to the standard and keep them there. As our teams have been visiting homes they discovered that more work was needed than the original survey showed. This is good news as more tenants are getting improvements but it will take longer than we first planned. We now aim to complete the Welsh Housing Quality Standard work by November 2013. Our homes are improving the life chances of people. A home that is warm and secure is more comfortable to live in. This means young people find it easier to do homework while their parents are saving money on energy bills. A quality kitchen makes it simple to prepare home cooked food and eat healthily. We have started to encourage other people and groups to become social enterprises like ours as we think it is a successful business model. In this ‘A Year in the Life’ you can see some of the work we have done from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012. We hope you enjoy reading it and would be happy to talk to you more about what we are planning to do next.

Duncan Forbes

Tamsin Stirling

Lyn Weaver

chief executive

chair of the board

chair of the membership committee

Highlights of 2011/12

Talented staff

The big decision of the year was to start looking for new business opportunities. We have been submitting tenders to win new work and are getting ready to start selling services to the public through our subsidiaries.

Bron Afon is one of the largest construction businesses in south Wales so we will be making the most of our talented staff. They are used to working to tight deadlines and to a high-standard. In the coming year 2012/13 we will be looking at using their skills to do work for businesses and homeowners. They will be doing work through Afon Community Services.

Bron Afon Community Housing

Afon Community Services

Afon Community Trust

We can carry out full legal safety checks for:

4 gas 4 electrics 4 asbestos 4 legionella

Afon Community Services has been set up as a commercial subsidiary. During the year it carried out the installation of 771 solar PV panels. It will be used where we identify opportunities for carrying out maintenance work for those who do not meet our direct charitable objectives. Afon Community Trust has been set up to attract and direct charitable funding to support those in distress, support employment and contribute to the regeneration of communities. An application is currently with the Charities Commission for registration as a charity. A third subsidiary, Afon Energy, was established during the year but this is currently dormant.

We employ:

40 carpenters 14 bricklayers 50 plumbers/ gas fitters 42 electricians 11 painters If you want to find more about the new services we will be selling give us a call on 01633 620 111 or 0800 111 42 42.

Saving money We fitted 771 homes with solar PV panels. From January 2012 to March 2012 we gave money advice to 53 tenants. From January 2012 to March 2012 we helped 21 tenants get a Discretionary Housing Payment and 136 tenants save money through the Welsh Water Assistance Fund.

Young people

Our Youth Forum has 108 members and are involved in lots of our work.

Helping new young tenants

Sport that Works Twelve unemployed men aged 18-24 learned new job skills through sport. The ten week course was funded by Job Centre Plus. Visit www.youtube.com/bronafonvideos and watch a video on the project. After it finished we organised a ‘speed dating’ type event with our contractors (May 2012) which led to two men being offered a job and three contractors offering work placements. Four men also found jobs.

Our project to support young people leaving a local homeless hostel saw staff show residents how to budget, learn new job skills and what they need to do to be successful tenants. Before the project many new tenants from the hostel left their Bron Afon tenancy within several months. Since the project started all except one young tenant are still in their homes.

Complaints and compliments We received 117 complaints and 419 compliments.

“Since I’ve left Hales House you have given me more support than anyone.”

“I’ve changed since then, you’ve helped me through. If I wasn’t involved here I would be back in prison.”

“I feel much more confident in interviews.” “It’s motivated me to get up and do something in my life.”

Money news Visit our website to see a full copy of our Group Report and Financial Statements. Here is a five year summary of our accounts. 2011/12 2010/11 2009/10 2008/09 2007/08

2009 2010 2011 2012

Rented Properties

8,036 8,032 8,028 8,020

Shared Ownership

80 80 80 80

Leasehold

915 915 915 915

Garages 2,179 2,169 2,169 2,168 Commercial 16 16 16 16

Group £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000

TOTAL 11,226 11,212 11,208 11,199

Income and Expenditure account Turnover Operating surplus Profit/(loss) on sale of fixed assets

32,937 31,085 30,625 29,962 4,030 5,580 7,658 8,655 5,832

341

269

312

681

Net Interest (payable)/receivable

(1,593)

(1,059)

(690)

Surplus for the year before tax

4,328

8,979

8,277

6,535

Balance Sheet Housing properties Grant Net book value

88,380 59,166 31,617 10,994

(21,594) (15,240) (8,048) (2,247)

66,786

43,926

23,569

8,747

Other fixed assets

7,458

2,759

2,279

2,243

2,247

Total fixed assets

74,244

46,685

25,848

10,990

2,247

3,230

(1,089)

4,682

(569)

2,007

Net current assets/(liabilities) Pension liability Net Loan Balance Share capital and reserves

(7,095) (4,552) (8,058) (3,023) (49,183) (22,123) (14,819) 21,196

18,921

7,653

(3,264)

(4,210)

4,134

“Turnover has gradually increased year on year in line with annual rent increases. Interest payable has increased substantially each year since 2008/09, following loan draw downs used to fund the improvement works to properties to achieve Welsh Housing Quality Standard. There has been an increase in value of housing properties within the balance sheet from zero in 2007/08 to £88m in 2011/12 (see table above), with a corresponding increase in the Net Loan Balance from £4.2m to £49m.”

Bron Afon’s money solutions team

Ensuring Bron Afon is a sustainable business An empty home means no rent is being paid and it is not being used by someone who needs it. When a tenant leaves a home ‘void’ it is important we speed up the time from it becoming empty to someone new moving in. Average time 88.39 days. On 31 March 2012 we had 112 empty homes. Fourteen of these were being used to house tenants who had to move out of their homes while we carried out work. A pilot project in South West Cwmbran saw a new process being tried out that included carrying out minor work during the notice period to speed up the turnaround time. Our current rent arrears on 31 March 2012 were £910,746. This is 2.67% of our total collectable rent compared to £664,507 or 2.02% of total collectable rent 31 March 2011. Total loan balance £50,755,000 (as of 31 March 2012). Waste recycled from Bron Afon’s head office increased from 119kg to 377kg since the introduction of more recycling points.

Doing what we already do to an excellent standard Repairs helpdesk took 106,385 calls. We carried out 34,933 repairs. Our general helpdesk took 112,340 calls. 95% of repairs are fixed during the first time we visit a home. The average time from a repair being reported to it being fixed is 12.89 days. 96% of tenants say they are satisfied with their repairs. 99.7% of tenants said they are satisfied with their home improvements. 89% of new tenants told us they thought their new home was excellent or good. We carried out 6,847 gas safety checks. We did 269 home adaptations.

Meeting our existing commitments

Generating and enabling new business opportunities We employed a new Business Development Manager, Suzanne Sims.

Bron Appétit, our cafe in Llantarnam, is open to everyone. Visit this link http://tinyurl.com/dxggr3u to find out the opening times and more about the lovely food on offer.

“My new role will concentrate on developing some key priorities in our Corporate Plan, especially around making sure Bron Afon is a sustainable business, doing what we do already to an excellent standard and generating new business opportunities.”

Our facilities management team looked at new business ideas as part of the redesign of their service. We looked at our in-house skills to see what services we could offer without affecting our commitment to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. Bron Afon gained these accreditations:

• Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS) approved contractor. • National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC) certified. • NICEIC Microgeneratation Certification Scheme (MCS) accredited for photovoltaic panels, heat pumps and solar thermal hot water.

• Gas Safe certified. • Constructionline approved contractor. • British Quality Foundation member. • We are rolling out the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) across trade staff.

• Information and Communications Technology (ICT) accreditation from the National Computer Centre.

Cwmynyscoy, New Inn and Sebastopol community team

Working with communities to deliver joint objectives

Front row left to right: Jen Brankley, Lorraine Mallory, Kay Oakley, Chris York.

We launched our community teams. This started at the beginning of 2012 and all 17 were set up by June 2012. They mean we have staff dedicated to each community who can find out more about what is important to local people and improve our services.

Back row left to right: Greg James, Bonnie Aherne, Emma Peploe, Ian Simpson, Steve Caddy.

15 hours. The amount of time every member of staff in Bron Afon will spend in their community.

Our Community Caretaking service grew to ten areas. This is how it has helped reduce waste in each area:

• October to December 2011 1.11 tonnes • October to December 2010 3.67 tonnes In just four months our Community Caretakers gave 60 items like bikes and furniture to charity. Our community safety team were the first in Wales to be awarded accreditation by HouseMark.

Nepalese dancers from our Aspire project teamed up with the Rebel Stompers Line Dancing Group to entertain residents in a retirement housing scheme. Blaenavon community team Front row left to right: Anthony Fish, Neville Brown, Claire Dullea, Lyn Priest, Melys Phinnemore. Back row left to right: Shaun Jones, Russ Watkins, Chris York, Paul Dullea, Maria Jones, Jayne Carey, Sarah Davies, Maria Jarvis.

1,677 members. To become more involved in Bron Afon’s work and to help us make decisions call 01633 620 111 and ask for a membership form. Four area forums meet every month. We ran an Urban Design course for residents and staff. The Board approved enclosures for all flat blocks. 50 skip amnesties in 2011. Fairview Court residents were supported to set-up a community garden. Volunteers set up six gardening projects with older residents to encourage exercise and healthy eating in our retirement schemes.

Blaenavon

Money brought into Torfaen £579,000 - The money we got from ARBED to spend on making homes in the Pontypool area more energy efficient. SWALEC gave us 200 home energy monitors to help tenants see how much energy they use.

Pontypool

£12,000 - We worked with Communities First Thornhill to get this Community Economic Development Grant to investigate the possibility of a new social enterprise that could develop jobs skills and training. We had £63,000 funding from organisations including Communities 2.0, Torfaen Voluntary Alliance, Age Concern, Communities First Torfaen and Abersychan School for a digital inclusion officer to show older people how to get online.

Cwmbran

We received £161,996 from the National Lottery for our two year Aspire project. £6,000 - We helped grassroots projects get this cash from the National Lottery. We had funding for a £1.5m project to improve Trevethin Shops.

Providing support and advice to those who need it 44 Nepalese volunteers joined our Aspire scheme and 22 of them started learning English once a week in our office. We have been helping older people use computers and the internet. In a year 265 people took part and we involved 52 young volunteers to help run the sessions. The Tech New Age project used 21 retirement housing schemes and community halls. Fairer Futures started in 2011/12 and continued into the next year. We ask guest speakers to come along to encourage staff and residents to learn and debate inequality and social justice issues. Our support service team won a new five year contract with Torfaen Council to provide a free service to over 50s in Torfaen including tenants, homeowners and leaseholders. We fitted a new kitchen to Trevethin Workmen’s Hall which helped the older people’s luncheon club avoid closing. Bakery Fields (The pigeon club) in Garndiffaith - We repaired leaks and improved the changing rooms. The club is used by a pigeon club and football club.

Building skills and capacity Up to December 2011 15 jobs had been created and 288 people received training as a result of our contracts with contractors. Since 2008 90% of completing apprentices have secured employment either with Bron Afon or other organisations. On average 95% of those who start complete their apprenticeships. In 2011 we received 250 applications for 10 apprentice positions. Three out of four staff live in the local area. 84% of volunteer befrienders signed up for confidence building and basic skills courses with partner agencies. Eight out of ten volunteer befrienders have become members of Bron Afon.

156 in-house trade staff. 41 apprentices. 7 trainees. 112 people had work experience. 219 new jobs have been created in Bron Afon since 31 March 2008. 120 volunteers got involved with the Aspire Befriending Project. 23,040 hours donated by volunteers to the community. 12 volunteer befrienders have got jobs and training.

Maximising the use of our assets for the benefit of the Torfaen community Our Aspire Allotment project has been growing food on land in Trevethin. One of our community caretakers has been working in retirement housing to encourage residents to use their gardens to grow food. We surveyed our land to identify suitable allotment sites. Fairview Court - Work to the inside and outside of the block of flats was completed.

Fairview Court

“I can’t believe how much warmer the bedroom is”

Here is some of the work we have done to repair and renew our homes for the benefit of the community.

Pre WHQS measures

Post WHQS measures

• Old boiler - no hot water insulation • Single glazed windows • Badly fitting doors • No loft insulation • Inadequate wall insulation • Old heating system • No wall or radiator thermostats

• Combi boiler • Double glazed windows • Proper fit for purpose doors • 270mm loft insulation • External wall insulation • Efficient heating system • Thermostats on radiators and wall

If you would like this document in an email, large print, braille, audio or any other language, then please let us know. Visit www.bronafon.org.uk or call 01633 620 111 for a copy of our annual monitoring report to the Welsh Language Board.

Bron Afon Community Housing Limited, Ty^ Bron Afon, William Brown Close, Llantarnam Industrial Park, Cwmbran, Torfaen NP44 3AB Tai Cymunedol Bron Afon, Ty^ Bron Afon, Clos William Brown, Parc Diwydiannol Llantarnam, Cwmbr芒n, Torfaen NP44 3AB Tel/Ff么n: 01633 620 111 Freephone/Rhadff么n: 0800 111 42 42