Annual Report to Tenants 2013/14 by City of Lincoln Council

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September 2014

Foreword Welcome to this year’s annual report to tenants which sets out how we have performed as your landlord in 2013/14. This report has been put together jointly by the council and tenant representatives on Lincoln Tenants Panel (LTP). This year has been an exciting year and we are proud to have been awarded Customer Service Excellence, which is an independent validation of our achievement in providing excellent customer service. There are still some improvements we can make and we are working hard with LTP to do this. Over the next 12 months we will be working towards getting similar awards for our tenant involvement and anti-social behaviour service. 2

We have already reviewed our tenant involvement and empowerment strategy and changed the way in which the Lincoln Tenants Panel operates.

Colin Herbert Chairman of Lincoln Tenants Panel

In previous years we have kept you updated on the services we provide, how we spend your money and how we are performing against the standards you expect from us. We hope that you find this report a helpful snapshot of how we are doing.

Our vision ‘All Lincoln residents can have a decent, suitable home which they can afford in a communit y where they want to live, with the support they need to live independently’.

John Bibby Director of housing and community services

Councillor Peter West Housing portfolio holder

What’s it all about? The Homes and Community Agency sets out national housing standards that social landlords are required to meet. Each section of our report sets out the standards against which we measure ourselves. We involve our tenants in scrutinising our performance and tenants can challenge any aspect of our service and make recommendations about how we can improve things. We also publish our service’s standards and local offers that we have agreed with you on our website.

How we have assessed our performance We have included information about how we have assessed our performance, including local offers and service standards. At the time of writing our annual report very few social housing landlords had submitted their performance information therefore it was not possible to include any reliable comparisons with other organisations. We do however use this information when it is available to assess our performance and review our services.

This year’s highlights Customer Service Excellence Earlier this year the council’s housing service team was awarded the Customer Service Excellence Award. This award recognises our commitment to ensuring we deliver the highest standards to our customers and is an independent validation of our achievement in providing excellent public service. 3

Tenant involvement and empowerment

customer choice and complaints

‘All Lincoln council tenants and leaseholders can have an influence in shaping housing services through a range of involvement opportunities in partnership with the council’: • To ensure that all tenants are able to participate at a level that suits them while recognising the needs of special interest groups • To co-ordinate and monitor effectively different methods and areas of involvement so that tenants can be involved in delivering high standards of service • To keep all tenants informed to ensure that information is comprehensive, customer approved, in plain language and is timely

• To effectively use tenant feedback to improve

service delivery and meet customer needs • To provide sufficient resources to make tenant involvement effective The HCA says we should: • Provide choices, information and communication that is appropriate to the needs of our tenants; • Have a complaints process that is clear, simple and accessible and which resolves your complaints promptly, politely and fairly • Enable you to influence decisions and set service standards • Develop and agree local offers of service with you • Involve you in developing our annual report to tenants

What you can expect from us

We will: • Answer your enquiries professionally and at all times we will treat you with courtesy and respect • Notify you of changes in our housing officers • Listen to your views and seek to improve our services • Consult and involve tenants and leaseholders about decisions affecting the management of homes • Aim to resolve complaints efficiently and effectively to your satisfaction

What we expect from you

We would ask you to: • Treat all staff politely, courteously and with respect • Provide any information we ask you for when we ask for it or as soon as possible

LAST YEAR WE: • Reviewed and launched our new tenant involvement and empowerment strategy 2014 -17 • Have involved tenants in some areas in developing local offers, in particular at Hermit Street where we worked with tenants in designing a scheme to improve security and reduce anti-social behaviour • Have reviewed our new tenant satisfaction survey and have introduced satisfaction surveys to find out why people move out of their home, how well we deal with mutual exchanges and how satisfied tenants are when we have resolved a case of anti-social behaviour • Re-launched our mystery shopping scheme • Have encouraged people to make comments through Facebook and Twitter

We received more than 54,000 calls at our Customer Service Centre about gen eral housing issues. Last year we received 218 complaints of which 115 were uphel d and our original decision changed.

Lincoln Tenants Panel highlights Last year our tenants panel: • Revised its constitution to improve transparency and accountability to all tenants. You can now view all agendas and minutes on our website www.lincoln.gov.uk/yourcouncil/committees • Set up a designated complaints panel. The role of this panel is to allow tenants to have their complaints considered by tenants locally if they are unhappy with the response made by the council. Tenants can also go to a designated person, such as a councillor and still have the right to have their complaints considered by the housing ombudsman. For more information please visit our website www.lincoln.gov.uk • Was involved in the procurement of our painting and gas contracts • Was involved in developing our new tenant involvement and empowerment strategy

• Supported the implementation of our tenancy fraud strategy

• Set up two tenant scrutiny reviews • Supported the development of our new pets policy and tenancy agreement which will come into force later this year • Attended training events and seminars to increase their knowledge and to meet tenants of other social landlords to compare services

ntS Panel Vacant seats on Lincoln Tena

the We still have some vacant seats on Lincoln Tenants Panel in following areas:

• Birchwood • West End

• Moorland • Newport / Burton Road

If you would like to represent your area on Lincoln Tenants Panel please contact us by phone on 873333 or email us at customer.services@lincoln.gov.uk

What we said we would measure

How did we do 2012/13

How did we do 2013/14

Answer telephone calls within 30 seconds

46 per cent

65 per cent

See visitors at the contact centre in 20 minutes

10 minutes average waiting time

Answer complaints within 10 working days

82 per cent

85 per cent

How we rate our service Our target is 80% for 2014/15

What are we doing to improve our tenant involvement service? This year: • We hope to gain an independent accreditation for our tenant involvement service to demonstrate that we are working together as tenant and landlord to drive up standards • We want to encourage more tenants to join Lincoln Tenants Panel and help us to shape our housing service

• Tenants will carry out scrutiny reviews of two areas of our service, these will be about: • The maintenance of gardens • The customer experience of our allocations and mutual exchange service • We will promote the work of Lincoln Tenants Panel

Home Standard The HCA says we should: • Make sure your home meets the decent homes standard

What you can expect from us: • Ensure that all our properties will remain at the decent homes standard

Last year we: • Built five new council homes at Stapleford Avenue on a disused garage site

• Provide a cost effective repairs and maintenance service which offers choices to tenants

• Provide all tenants with information on the future programme of works

• Signed a new planned maintenance contract with Kier Services for all major works programmes

• Complete repairs right first time • Make sure that your home and any communal areas meet all health and safety legislation

Last year we fitted 460 kitchens and bathrooms and 285 boilers. We spent £9,907,000 improving you r homes. We carried out 30,792 repairs to homes

• Keep appointments for repairs • Complete repairs right first time • Prioritise repairs for customers who are vulnerable

• Signed a new gas contract with Aaron Services • Involved tenant inspectors to check that we let homes in accordance with our empty property letting standard

What we said we would measure Average repair cost per property per week Repairs carried out within timescale

How did we do 2012/13 £18

How did we do 2013/14 £20

How we rate our service We have not set an improvement target for 2014/15

97 per cent

95 per cent

Urgent repairs completed on time

95 per cent

Our target for 2014/15 is 98% Our target for 2014/15 is 99%

Average number of days to complete a repair 10 days

12 days

Tenant satisfaction with repairs surveyed after work complete Getting repairs right first time

96 per cent

99 per cent

67 per cent

66.5 per cent

Keeping appointments first time

86 per cent

Homes with a gas safety certificate as at 31 March 2014 Homes that don’t meet the decent homes standard

100 per cent

3 per cent

2 per cent

Our target for 2014/15 is 75%

cent

Average Average

y c n ie ic Eff y g r e n E

Energy Efficiency Rating rgy Efficiency Rating

2011/2012

2011/2012 2012/13 2012/2013

2012/2013 2013/14

Vary energy —cost lower running cost y energy efficient —lowerefficient running

What we said we would measure: How did we do in 2012/13 – 76/100 How did we do in 2013/14 – 76/100

2 -100) (92 A -100) A B 1 -91) (81B-91)

9 -80) (69 -80) C 5 -68) (55 -68)D 9-54) ( 39-54) E

1 -38) (21 -38) -20) (1 -20)

74 76

D E

F G

England directive 2002/91/EC England & Wales& Wales EU directive EU 2002/91/EC

What are we doing to improve our home service?

New energy-efficient council homes ready for first tenants

This year we: • Are looking to start a major ongoing new build development programme and committing up to £15 million into new homes

Five new eco-friendly council homes have been completed in Lincoln – bringing the total to ten new homes in the last two years.

• Will be carrying out energy efficiency works to improve the thermal comfort at Shuttleworth House. This includes fitting a biomass heating system and installing new windows • Will be starting on works to provide selfcontained bathing facilities at the council’s sheltered housing schemes

The first tenants have moved into the new properties in Stapleford Court, off Stapleford Avenue. In June, the city council’s Executive Committee agreed to earmark £15 million to provide more than 150 new council homes over the next six years.

Last year we re-let 75 5 of our properties includ ing 148 mutual exchan ges.

Tenancy standard The HCA says we should: • Let our homes in a fair, transparent and efficient way • Take into account the needs of tenants and make the best use of homes available • Develop and provide services that will support tenants to maintain their tenancies • Support tenants who want to exchange through our mutual exchange scheme • Offer tenancies that meet legal requirements What you can expect from us. We will: • Provide comprehensive housing advice • Carry out lettings in accordance with our allocations policies • Provide information on our anticipated waiting times for property types • Provide new tenants with information on their new home and provide a new tenants handbook • Let our empty homes as quickly as we can • Ensure all our properties meet our empty homes lettings standard • Direct new tenants to other support agencies Last year we: • Reviewed our tenancy agreement which will come into force shortly • Developed a pets policy • Introduced a strategy to tackle tenancy fraud

What we said we would measure Average time to re-let a property Offers accepted first time

• Increased the range of tenant satisfaction surveys we carry out • Introduced tenant inspectors to carry out estate inspections • Launched our new cross-boundary choice-based lettings scheme (March 2013) • Introduced changes to the Lincoln Tenants Panel What are we doing to improve our tenancy service? This year we: • Actively promoted mutual exchanges particularly where tenants were under-occupying their homes and subject to the under occupation charge introduced by welfare reform • Considered how we could give more assistance to tenants who were under-occupying their home • Reduced the time it took us to relet empty properties • Considered the redevelopment of our housing office at Markham House • Adopted a discretionary and selective buy-back policy for former council housing where properties are of the size and are located in areas of high demand How did we do 2012/13 35 days

How did we do 2013/14 35 days

81 per cent 84 per cent

How we rate our service Our target for 2014/15 is 20 days

Neighbourhood and community standard

The HCA says we should: • Keep your estate and communal areas clean and tidy • Work with you and other organisations to make your neighbourhood a better place to live • Work with the police and other organisations to tackle anti-social behaviour What you can expect from us. We will: • Provide you with a supportive response which is consistent and keeps you informed of progress • Clean and maintain all communal areas regularly and to a high standard • Work with tenants to ensure they uphold the terms of their tenancy • Hold an annual programme of estate inspections and carry out estate improvements Last year we: • Carried out a pilot scheme to improve our estate and multi-storey caretaking service • Carried out a clean-up day on Birchwood to help tenants clear rubbish from their gardens and sheds

Last year we dealt with 344 cases of anti-social behaviour. Unfortunately two tenants were evicted for causing anti-social behaviour. What we said we would measure Closed cases of anti-social behaviour that were resolved

How did we do 2012/13

How did we do 2013/14

Not known as new for this year

89 per cent

Average number of days to resolve cases of antisocial behaviour Customer service Satisfaction with the overall estate services

Not known as new for this year

How we rate our service

We have not set a target for 2014/15 98 days

How did we do How did we do How we rate 2012/13 survey 2013/14 survey our service 77 per cent 90 per cent

What are we doing to improve our neighbourhood and community service? This year we: • Are formally putting in place a new estate and multi-storey caretaking service following the success of our trial scheme. 95 per cent of our high rise flat tenants and 88 per cent of low rise flat tenants receiving this service during the trial were satisfied with the overall service. The new service has improved the flexibility and frequency of the service • Are working in partnership with the council’s neighbourhood working team to carry out estate and security improvements in some areas of the city

RENT Last year we collected almost £27million in rent. Unfortunately 21 tenants were evicted for not paying their rent. The HCA says we should: • Set our rent in line with government guidelines What you can expect from us. We will: • Provide advice on whether you may be able to receive assistance with your rent • Help you to complete a housing benefit claim form • Ensure that we do everything to prevent you from falling into arrears • Give you four weeks notice of any rent increase

• Provide you with value for money

What we said How did we do we would 2012/13 measure Rent collected 97 per cent against rent due Level of arrears 3 per cent against total rent due

What are we doing to improve our rent service? This year we: • Are encouraging tenants who will be affected by universal credit and will have their housing rent payment sent to them directly to set up banking accounts for their rent with the East Midlands Credit Union How do our rents compare with other rented properties in the Lincoln area? In our tenant satisfaction survey

How did we do 2013/14

How we rate our service

100 per cent 3 per cent Our target for 2014/15 is 3.3per cent

in 2012 some of you felt that your rent did not represent good value for money. The table on the right shows a recent sample of properties advertised, through Zoopla, for rent in the Lincoln area. Our rents are much lower than in the private sector and we believe we do provide a high quality service in return for your rent as set out in our annual report. The corresponding rents relate to the average rental of properties of the same size and area converted to a monthly rental basis.

Area St Giles

Property type House

Bedrooms Privately rented 3 £550pcm

Council equivalent £324.25pcm

City Centre

House

£525pcm

£352.08pcm

St Giles

House

£500pcm

£291.00pcm

City Centre

House

£430pcm

£306.92pcm

Birchwood

House

£595pcm

£336.33pcm

City Centre

House

£475pcm

£352.08pcm

City Centre

House

£350pcm

£279.29pcm (bungalow)

City Centre

House

£525pcm

£306.92pcm

City Centre

Flat

£425pcm

£263.25pcm

City Centre

House

£495pcm

£352.08pcm

City Centre

House

£368pcm

£279.29pcm (bungalow)

Our housing investment programme for 2014/15 This table shows the number of properties and type of improvements we expect to carry out in 2014/15 External works (boundary/path) 699 Soffit and fascia replacements 718 Roofing works 289 Replacement doors 436 Replacement kitchens 153 Replacement bathrooms 175 Rewires 71 Replacement boilers/systems 250 External decoration 933

Asbestos This article is to provide information to you about asbestos-containing materials that maybe present within your home and to explain what the council is doing about it. The council has developed an asbestos management policy to manage asbestos safely within its properties. We have further information about asbestos awareness on our website or alternatively we have an information leaflet which is available on request. Some typical locations for asbestos to be present within a domestic property are; • Water tanks • Pipe lagging • House insulation • Fuse boxes • Heater cupboard • Floor tiles • Textured coating • Soffit boards (roof overhang) • Bathroom (toilet cisterns, bath panels) • Rainwater items (roof gutters and down pipes) • Asbestos can sometimes be found as external wall cladding and internal wall panelling particularly around windows Is asbestos dangerous? If asbestos remains undisturbed and is in a good condition then it does not present a health risk to people. It is sometimes safer to leave the material in place than to remove it. The risks from asbestos occur when the material becomes damaged or disturbed and asbestos fibres become airborne. Your health and safety (your responsibilities as a tenant) There are certain steps you should take to help prevent exposure to asbestos: ! Be aware of the places that asbestos may be in your property 14 and avoid disturbing it

! Think before you start any works in your property: asbestos may be present in the areas you are planning to work in ! If you are unsure about a material used in the construction of your property seek advice from us ! If carrying out DIY work inside your property, avoid any suspected asbestos-containing materials and seek advice from Customer Services ! If any of these materials become damaged or disturbed then contact Customer Services and advise them of the situation as soon as possible ! Do not attempt to clean up or repair any damaged asbestos or debris. Using a brush or vacuum cleaner will potentially make the asbestos fibres airborne Steps to take if you have disturbed asbestos If you have disturbed or damaged a suspected asbestos-containing material in your property you should take the following steps: 1. Stop what you are doing and isolate the area by closing the door (if possible) and go outside. Contact Customer Services to advise them of the problem 2. If you have debris and/or dust on your clothing remain where you are, isolate yourself from others and wait for an officer to arrive. They should be with you within an hour of you calling us If you have any further questions/queries regarding the asbestos information please contact Customer Services on 01522 873333 or email asbestos@lincoln.gov.uk

n io it t e p m o c n e d r a g f o s lt Resu During the summer we held a gardening competition. We received several entry forms, but these entries were only for the Best Garden category. The winner is: Mrs Rose of Wickenby Crescent. Many congratulations on your success. The £25 “love to shop” gift voucher will be on its way to you shortly. We are hoping to continue with competitions throughout the year. If you have an idea, please let us know. We’d love to hear your suggestions. Please contact Chris Morton on 01522 873333 or email at customer.services@lincoln.gov.uk

Credit union savings Lincolnshire Credit Union moved into City Hall in September. The organisation will be having a counter near to the property shop so that people can speak to them about affordable credit and find out more information on the services they can provide. The credit union can give people access to more affordable credit, rather than people having to turn to high-interest lending. Please keep an eye out for future articles on the credit union.

Housing officer up d

ate

To find out w ho your housing offic er is please visit our web site, www.lincoln.g ov.uk/ tenants and u se the link at the top of the page.

The new tenancy agreement Over 99per cent supported the new tenancy agreement After nearly two years’work, the new tenancy agreement was approved by the council’s executive in August 2014. Because the new agreement will apply to existing and not just new tenants, by law we had to consult existing tenants on our proposed new agreement and have regard to comments made. We had an extremely good response: out of the 7,815 tenants consulted, 1,213 tenants responded, making a response rate of just over 15½per cent. Nearly 97per cent of those who responded were in full support of the new agreement, with more than 2.4per cent in partial support. You said; we did... We received a great many comments and suggestions on how we could improve the new tenancy agreement. We read every comment carefully and, as a result of

that, made further changes to the agreement. For instance, some tenants thought it would be a good thing for us to make a legal commitment to treat our tenants with respect and courtesy at all times, although we hope we do this at all times anyway. This was on the basis that we make it a condition of someone’s tenancy that they do not abuse members of staff. We thought that was a really fair point to make and so we have added that in our obligations to tenants. Next and final steps We are now sending the new tenancy agreement to be printed. Once that is done we will be serving what is known as a “variation notice”to all existing tenants, telling them that their new tenancy agreement will come into being four weeks after the date on the notice. This gives anyone sufficient time to end their tenancy if they do not want to be bound by its new terms and conditions. We should like to say a big “thank you”to everyone who participated in the consultation exercise and who worked with us on this major piece of work.

Obtaining copies in alternative formats If you have difficulty in understanding anything in this document, please go to City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln or any other council office, and an interpretation service will be provided. French Si vous avez besoin d’éclaircissements au sujet de ce document, veuillez vous rendre au City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln ou tout autre Council office, où nous pourrons faire appel à un interprète par le biais du National Interpreting Service. Polish Jezeli masz trudnosci ze zrozumieniem tego dokumentu, zgłos sie do urzedu miasta w City Hall, Beaumont Fee w Lincoln lub do innego urzedu nalezłcego do rady miejskiej, w którym wezwiemy tłumacza z National Interpreting Service. Portuguese Se tiver dificuldade em compreender qualquer coisa neste documento, por favor dirija-se à City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln ou qualquer outra repartição do município, onde poderemos chamar um interprete para si através do Serviço Nacional de Interpretação. Turkish Bu belgeyi anlamakta zorlanırsanız, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln Belediyesi’ne ya da herhangi baska bir belediye meclisi ofisine gidin. National Interpreting Service aracılıgıyla size bir çevirmen saglanacaktır.

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