Annual Report to Tenants 2012 by City of Lincoln Council

HOME! CITY OF LINCOLN COUNCIL Annual report to tenants 2011/12

FIND OUT HOW WELL WE’RE PERFORMING! ONLY IN HOME!

New homes, rent, repairs and services - it’s all inside...

G N I K A M WE’RE ANGES! SOME CH

IVE

HOME! EXCLUS

FOREWORD Welcome to our third annual report to tenants which will allow you to find out more about the range of services we provide and how well we are performing. In April 2012 a new regulatory framework came into effect, which replaces the 2010 framework. The changes are shown below:

Last year the Tenant Services Authority (TSA)

monitored and regulated us. The government is now changing this. The TSA closed in 2012 and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) took over

We have a new investment framework which

will allow us to manage our own finance and investment, similar to housing associations

We can also use fixed-term tenancies for new tenancies

The HCA will not get involved in service

delivery, but will take account of a new test of ‘serious detriment’, which is explained later in this report

Also there is much greater emphasis on tenancy scrutiny

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The common principles of the framework are: Co-regulation Tenant leadership Access to all and fairness Effective structures and transparency

Social landlords should mAKE SURE that tenants are given a wide range of opportunities to influence and be involved in: The formulation of their landlord’s housing related policies and strategic priorities The making of decisions about how housing related services are delivered, including the setting of service standards The scrutiny of their landlord’s performance and the making of recommendations to their landlord about how performance might be improved

It is more important than ever that we work closely with our tenants and tenant groups and we will be looking at how we can improve this over the coming year. In the last year we saw the retirement of Kevin Scott, Head of Housing, after 37 years of service and Robin West, Tenancy Services Manager, after 28 years of service. Sadly, Councillor Bud Robinson, the former chairman of the Housing Committee for many years, died this year. We should like to thank Kevin and Robin for their dedication to our service and pass on our condolences to Bud Robinson’s family and friends. We have divided the report into sections to reflect the standards and included some performance information so you can see how we are doing. Over the next year we intend to continue to improve our services. John Bibby Director of Housing and Community Services

The management of their homes, where applicable

Councillor Peter West Housing Portfolio Holder

The management of repairs and maintenance services

Tony Higgs Chairman of Lincoln Tenants Panel

Any comments? Contact us at customer.services@lincoln.gov.uk or call 881188. Alternatively write to us at: Directorate of Housing and Community Services, City of Lincoln Council, City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln. LN1 1DE

Our vision

Our delivery plan The council has a number of initiatives underway to deliver these priorities. More details about these are shown throughout this report.

Our new vision is:

“A city with a strong sense of history committed to sustainable growth and social justice” We have also developed five new strategic priorities: Reduce poverty and disadvantage We will work hard to support people living on a low income, help people out of worklessness, reduce educational disadvantage and improve our residents’ health and leisure opportunities. We will also work hard to improve community cohesion and tackle issues at a local level. S eek to increase the supply of affordable housing We will use our role as housing provider, strategic housing authority and strategic planning body to increase the supply of affordable housing to rent or buy and to improve housing standards within the city. Improve the council’s housing l andlord function We will improve all aspects of the council’s landlord function. We will also secure a more financially sustainable future to help better maintain council homes.

Reduce Lincoln’s carbon footprint We will reduce the council’s carbon footprint and make financial savings by reducing energy use. We will lead the drive to reduce the city’s overall carbon footprint. In particular, we will focus our efforts on reducing the fuel bills of the poorest people in the city. Develop a fit for purpose council We will redefine the shape and purpose of the council to ensure it is financially stable, meets the needs of our customers and is well prepared to meet the challenges of local government and leadership.

To support these priorities the housing vision sets out its aim that ‘All Lincoln residents can access a decent suitable home which they can afford in a community where they want to live with the support they need to live independently.’

The regulatory framework for social housing in England from April 2012 There are five national standards that apply to local authorities who own social housing which are divided into two sub areas – consumer standards and an economic standard:

Consumer standards

Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Home Tenancy Neighbourhood and Community

Economic standard Rent Details of how we are meeting the standards are shown throughout this report. If you would like a copy of the Regulatory Framework for Social Housing 2012 you can get one from www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/ ourwork/regulatory-framework

HOME! EXCLUSIVE Any comments? Contact us at customer.services@lincoln.gov.uk or call 881188. Alternatively write to us at: Directorate of Housing and Community Services, City of Lincoln Council, City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln. LN1 1DE

Developing the annual report to tenants We have developed our annual report in consultation with tenants through our service focus groups, our Homelink Editorial Panel and the Lincoln Tenants Panel. These groups have looked at customer feedback on services, complaints, performance, service reviews, mystery shopping and reality checking alongside the standards.

How we have assessed our performance We have included information in this report about our performance, local offers and new and ongoing initiatives. Through the Lincoln Tenants Panel and service focus groups tenants have given their comments and suggestions for improving our service.

Benchmarking We have compared our performance with other social landlords so you can see how well we are doing: Excellent is ‘top quartile’ of Housemark’s benchmarking service Good is 2nd quartile of Housemark’s benchmarking service Average is 3rd quartile of Housemark’s benchmarking service Not as good is ‘bottom quartile’ of Housemark’s benchmarking service We have also provided information about local offers and service standards we have agreed with you.

Investment in your homes Self financing As a landlord we will work hard to improve all aspects of the council’s landlord function, while maximising the opportunities to secure a more financially sustainable future to look after council homes. Through the Localism Act 2011, English councils took control of their housing rental income enabling them to plan effectively for the long term management of these key assets. With a move to self-financing we are now fully in control of our housing stock and the rental income derived from it. We have borrowed the necessary money to ‘buy out’ of the previous system of paying a significant proportion of rental income to government. This independence now offers us tremendous potential to invest in both the stock and service moving forward, for the benefit of tenants. Self-financing allows us to plan for the next 30 years. Difficult decisions lie ahead on how the funds available will be allocated.

Results of the Lincoln Standard consultation A survey was distributed in December 2011 to ask you about how you would like us to invest in your homes. We asked you to allocate pennies in a pound for how you would like to see your rent spent.

Just over 13 per cent of you responded to the survey and the results were as follows: 1st Building more council houses

£0.34

2nd More home improvements

£0.29

3rd

Improving services

£0.21

4th

Improving the estate environment

£0.16

Further information about the findings of the survey are shown throughout this report.

New build We would like to build more council houses and have already started doing this. work has started on a small development of five new homes in Wellington Street. These will be completed in December this year.

Our ability to borrow does give us some ability to continue a small building programme. A number of small infill and garage sites have been identified, some of which already have planning approval which will be brought forward for development in 2012/13. Using this borrowing opportunity and topping up with other available funding, we propose to develop a small scale building programme of six or seven new homes each year.

t involvemen t Tenan and empowerment standard We aim to improve tenant involvement and empowerment and provide tenants with a range of opportunities to influence how we meet national standards by: Keeping all customers informed and ensuring that information is comprehensive, customer approved, in plain language and timely

Customer service, choice and complaints

Customer satisfaction

We have: M ade and agreed a number of targets last year with the Lincoln Tenants Panel and the results of our performance are shown below

Last year we told you about customer satisfaction from the survey we carry out every two years. We are doing the survey again this year, but the results will not be available until 2013.

E ffectively using tenant feedback to improve service delivery and meet customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs Providing sufficient financial support to make sure that tenant involvement is effective and encouraged Embedding and ensuring compliance with the national regulatory framework of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;local offersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that gives tenants more say and involvement in decisions that affect their homes.

How you can get involved You can: J oin one of our focus groups B ecome a member of the Lincoln Tenants Panel J oin in one of our estate inspections Complete our surveys G et involved in a community group C ome along to events we hold B ecome a mystery shopper

What we said we would measure

How did we do? 2010/11

How did we do? 2011/12

Answer telephone calls within 30 seconds

56 per cent

49 per cent

See visitors at the contact centre within 20 minutes

11 minutes average waiting time

Answer letters within 10 working days

81 per cent

77 per cent

Answer complaints within 15 working days

91 per cent

90 per cent

Answer complaints within 10 working days

New for 2011/12

62 per cent

How we rate our service

Compliments and complaints about our service

Understanding and responding to diverse needs

We received 176 complaints from tenants during the year, 76 of these were upheld.

We aim to deliver services fairly and recognise equality of opportunity and choice.

The remainder were withdrawn, overturned or resolved once the tenant had met with the appropriate officer to discuss the problem. The majority of the complaints made were about repairs.

The City Council is committed to providing information and services fairly and without discrimination to meet everyone’s needs. It recognises a broad range of people with differing requirements, such as, race, religion, culture, nationality, ethnic background, colour, disability, sex, sexuality, age, literacy and income level.

We received one official compliment about our service.

Changes to the way we handle complaints The Localism Act 2011 specifies changes to how we deal with complaints. The new national standards support co-regulation with tenants in agreeing, monitoring and scrutinising services. As with our current complaints procedure, tenants who wish to make a complaint should contact us in the first instance. Only if the complaint is not resolved can you approach the Housing Ombudsman. Tenants panels can be set up to investigate complaints and the ombudsman will only get involved if there is what is termed “serious detriment”. “Serious detriment” is not defined but failures in services provided that have a serious risk to health and safety, loss of home, unlawful discrimination, loss of legal rights and financial loss would almost certainly be included.

We will do this by: Ensuring that all tenants are able to participate at a level that suits them while recognising the needs of particular groups such as young people, older people and other minority and special needs groups Introducing a ‘sub-regional’ choice based lettings system in collaboration with North Kesteven and West Lindsey District Councils to allow people in neighbouring areas (and vice versa) to bid for a wider range of social housing U ndertaking equality impact assessments in-line with our equality and diversity policy We often ask you to provide personal information about yourself. It is important that we have information about our tenants in terms of their sex, age and ethnic origin (etc). This enables us to provide more targeted services to our customers. We also might ask you to tell us how you’d prefer us to communicate with you. All this information is kept strictly confidential.

Initiatives agreed through local offers and our strategic plan for 2012/13 R e-design the website, allowing residents to self-serve C ontinuation of the development of our customer access strategy

On-going local offers from our previous report I ncrease satisfaction with the overall service to 88% by 2012

Home standard Quality of accommodation We aim to deliver the Decent Homes programme and improve the quality of all council properties by: Keeping the stock condition survey information up-to-date through an annual review which will help provide a clearly defined standard of property that can be delivered beyond the Decent Homes Standard Reviewing the process for how we award contracts and managing the Decent Homes programme Improving the security of communal areas in flat blocks and reducing the incidents of anti-social behaviour by installing new security doors Piloting a one year handy person service to offer a quick, effective repair service. This will tackle a wide range of support for older, disabled and vulnerable people to maintain independent living

What we said we would measure Percentage of homes that fail the decent homes standard

We have: Carried out extensive consultation to review the Lincoln Standard and find out how you would like us to invest in your homes. We are currently looking at how we will invest any additional money we may have. Our investment programme for the next five years is shown at the end of this report Provided choices within our major replacement programme Published information on our future programme of work on our website

How did we do? 2010/11

How did we do? 2011/12

4.1%

2.03%

How we compare to others

How we rate our service

Average

Repairs and maintenance We aim to provide an effective responsive repairs service by: Reviewing the potential to establish a minor works team, if current arrangements don’t achieve the efficiencies required Implementing latest technology for onsite operations to increase efficiencies

We have: C onsidered the needs of vulnerable customers when carrying out urgent repairs and will continue to do so B een as flexible as possible with a ppointment slots Made second or follow up appointments while carrying out repairs and report any other repairs you may have

What we said we would measure

How did we do? 2010/11

How did we do? 2011/12

How we compare to others

Average repair cost per property per week

£17

£18

We do not have a comparison

96 per cent

Good

15 days

12 days

Good

Tenant satisfaction with repairs surveyed after work complete

97 per cent

98 per cent

We do not have a comparison

Getting repairs right first time

New for 2011/12

81 per cent

Not as good

Keeping appointments first time

88 per cent

92 per cent

Not as good

Homes with a gas safety certificate as at 31st March 2012

99 per cent

100 per cent

Average

Urgent repairs completed on time Average number of days to complete a repair

How we rate our service

Introduced a number of new targets including: 1. Getting 75% of repairs right first time 2. Keeping 90% of appointments made We have also taken a prominent role in assisting the Chartered Institute of Housing in the design of the National Repairs Charter. We were the first social landlord to sign up to the new repairs charter developed in partnership with Mears and the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Charter Advisory Group.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY The Lincoln home energy strategy is being reviewed and will also form part of the tenant consultation throughout the summer of 2012. Three pilot schemes were completed during 2011/12 solar panels were installed in the common rooms at three supported housing schemes. The five new properties being built will have high-spec insulation, windows and doors and will be built to Code 4 of the Sustainability Homes Code, lowering the carbon footprint of the houses and reducing utility bills for tenants. Solar PV panels on the roofs will provide electricity for the properties and state of the art heating systems will heat them.

How did we do?

What we said Energy we would measure efficiency rating How did we do? 2010/11

75/100

How did we do? 2011/12

74/100

How we compare to others

Excellent

How we rate our service

We advise all new tenants of the energy efficiency rating of their home by providing an energy performance certificate. We are also looking at how we can improve the energy rating of our worst affected properties as one of our local offers (SAP ratings below 35).

Dedicated aidS and adaptations service We carry out aids and adaptations to our properties for people with disabilities.

Asbestos awareness We have an asbestos management policy to manage asbestos in homes safely. We also have an information leaflet about asbestos.

On-going local offers from our previous report Review the Lincoln standard (consultation on the Lincoln Standard has been carried out and we are currently looking at your priorities and how these can be delivered) Offer more flexible appointment slots for repairs Keep 90% of repair appointments

Initiatives agreed through local offers and our strategic plan for 2012/13

Measure average construction periods during void periods

We aim to:

Monitor the level of rent lost as a result of having properties unavailable to let, with the aim of minimising rent loss to 1%

Free up money for maintaining our own housing stock to the decent homes standard and continue to work to that standard

Review average time properties are left empty every three months

Improve energy efficiency ratings on our worst offending properties

Investigate development and redevelopment opportunities within existing housing sites and garage sites Complete the building of five council houses on Wellington Street Implement a handy person service for older and disabled tenants Re-develop our sheltered housing schemes Improve council energy use by reducing fuel poverty and carbon footprint Evaluate the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s housing stock with a limited lifespan Implement a new IT system to more effectively support the housing responsive repairs service Seek accreditation of service excellence for the responsive repairs service Work towards achieving national Customer Excellence Award for our maintenance and investment service Review responsive repairs policies

Tenancy standard Allocations, mutual exchanges and empty properties We have: Carried out a lean systems review of our empty properties and have commenced a new tenant satisfaction survey

How did we do?

What we said we would measure Average time to re-let a property Average rent loss for empty properties Average empty property cost Offers accepted first time

How did we do? 2010/11

How did we do? 2011/12

How we compare to others

37 days

36 days

Not as good

1.12 per cent

0.98 per cent

Average

ÂŁ1,984

ÂŁ2,108

We do not have a comparison

70 per cent

80 per cent

Excellent

How we rate our service

Customer satisfaction

Customer service Satisfaction with the empty property letting standard

2010 survey

2012 survey

New local for 2011/12

Tenure We have reviewed our tenancy policy setting out the different types of tenancy we use, such as introductory tenancies, flexible tenancies and secure tenancies.

Initiatives agreed through local offers and our strategic plan FOR 2012/13 We aim to: Free up larger council houses for homeless applications and residents of over-crowded properties Review the staffing structure within the housing landlord function Develop and implement service improvement plans which demonstrate continual improvement Co-ordinate and monitor different methods of involvement effectively so that tenants can be involved in delivering high standards of service

91 per cent

How we compare to others

How we rate our service

We do not have a comparison

On-going local offers from our previous report Provide a clear re-let standard which new tenants are satisfied is being delivered

Changes to social housing The government is improving access to social housing which will mean there will be changes to the amount of rent that some people pay and also changes to the length of time that they can live in a property.

Changes in the length of tenancy Councils have the freedom to grant two different types of tenancy. If a person has a secure tenancy (home for life) they can live in it for as long as they want. If someone has a fixed term tenancy their tenancy will be for a shorter period with an end date. At the moment we have not introduced fixed term tenancies; but our tenancy policy allows us to do so in the future in certain circumstances.

Implement a replacement housing rents IT system Upgrade mobile working Instigate a management skills development programme for front line supervisors and team leaders Improve our performance by seeking out good practice by other registered providers and benchmarking our services

Neighbourhood and community standard Neighbourhood management

Estate services

We aim to:

We HAVE:

Seek accreditation to the Chartered Institute of Housing’s ASB Respect Charter Set minimum standards for how we will deal with anti-social behaviour Offer greater support to tenants who are victims of anti-social behaviour as well as enforcement against perpetrators

We HAVE: Increased the number of estate inspections being carried out and have planned 40 inspections for 2012/13

HOW DID WE DO? We have reviewed the way in which we carry out estate inspections and now publish the results on our website. To find out when we will be looking at your area visit our website at www.lincoln.gov.uk/housing/counciltenants

Consulted garden service users and involved tenant representatives in the specification and selection of our new contract. This consultation and involvement has been invaluable in developing a new and improved garden service for recipients

Local area co-operation Support those most affected by the recession to manage their finances by working with other social landlord partners and the voluntary sector

We HAVE: Started to develop estate investment plans

Initiatives agreed through local offers and our strategic plan for 2012/13 All new tenants will be provided with a voucher for the Lincoln Credit Union entitling them to an account with a £10 initial balance deposited by the council Support the Citizens Advice Bureau in a bid for external funding to support new social housing tenants to maintain their tenancy and manage their money Extra support for repeat or vulnerable victims of anti-social behaviour Part funding of a community development worker in Abbey Ward to capacity build the residents group within Shuttleworth House

Developed a neighbourhood agreement in conjunction with the neighbourhood management team in Abbey Ward

Anti-social behaviour We HAVE: Provided you with a supportive response which keeps you informed of progress Started a review of our ‘out of hours’ service Retained our mediation services Published the successes we have had in reducing anti-social behaviour

What we said we would measure

How did we do? 2010/11

How did we do? 2011/12

How we compare to others

Satisfaction with our caretaking service (internal areas)