Annual Report 2012—13
Contents
Message from our Chairman and Chief Executive
03
What we’ve acheived this year
04
About East Thames
06
Performance highlights Aim one: To provide good housing services Aim two: To be a strong, valued organisation Aim three: To deliver services which improve lives Aim four: To deliver quality affordable homes Aim five: To maximise Olympic opportunities
08 10 12 14 16 18
Corporate social responsibility Mentoring and employment Fundraising for others Generous donations Going green
20 22 23 24 25
Our people and partners 26 Group structure 28 Senior team 28 Our boards 29 Regulation 29 Our local authority partners 30 Our partners and supporters 31
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East Thames annual report 2012/13
A message from our Chairman and Chief Executive
This last year has been one of improvement and progress for East Thames. We’ve seen our extensive transformation programme draw to a close. It has brough improvements in customer services, reduced our cost base and helped build a stronger business, better able to adapt to the continuing changes of the external environment. As a result of the programme we have entered into a new partnership with Interserve which is now delivering our repairs and maintenance programme. Our residents were involved in helping us chose Interserve and continue to be involved in monitoring performance, carrying out inspections and choosing fixtures and fittings. This new contract, which brings together our day to day repairs and planned programmes, will lead to an improved service for residents as well as significant savings. Overall our change programme has reduced our annual spend by £9.4m, with nearly £2m in further savings identified for the next three years. These savings put us in a strong position to continue to deliver our mission
to make a positive and lasting difference in east London and Essex. Our achievements over the last year include the completion of 653 new homes and the start of another 141. We continue to support residents to cope with welfare reform, having offered advice to over 700 residents affected by the under occupation penalty. Our employment and inclusion team has helped 223 people into jobs and secured £1.3m in grant funding to deliver further employment and training programmes. We continue to support the regeneration of east London and Essex. Our work transforming the Ocean Estate in Stepney has been a huge success, providing new homes, jobs and a strong sense of community. While Triathlon Homes, our joint venture with Southern Housing Group and First Base, will begin moving residents into their new homes on East Village, formerly the Athletes Village, later this year.
Tina Tietjen Chairman of East Thames Group
June Barnes Chief Executive of East Thames Group
Our business is built on serving the community, providing excellent homes and services and helping people to lead better lives. This continues to be our commitment and we will work with our partners and our residents to realise these ambitions.
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Year in pictures
As John Lewis’ Charity of the Year, East Thames’ charitable arm, East Potential, receives a huge £33,000 donation from John Lewis Stratford City. (above)
East Thames’ office is transformed into Kenya House for the Olympic Games. (above)
Applications open for social rented homes on East Village. (right) Tower Hamlets Council grants planning permission for East Thames’ £64m regeneration of New Union Wharf estate. (below)
Foyer residents Troy and Vivian take home the People’s Prize at the Grand Finale of the Lloyds TSB Money for Life competition. (above)
East Thames launches its award winning, 462 home development, VIVO as part of the wider £220m regeneration of the Ocean Estate in Stepney Green. (above) 4
East Thames annual report 2012/13
Residents at Focus E15 Foyer in Stratford transform a disused foyer courtyard into a lush allotment to grow their own five-a-day. (left)
19 east Londoners take a step closer to their dream job in construction after graduating from East Thames’ Construct your Career training programme. (above)
East Thames and Southern Housing get the go ahead to build 741 new homes at Bromleyby-Bow, on the southern fringes of the Olympic Park. (above) East Thames works with the London Borough of Havering to deliver 98 apartments for social rent and shared ownership for residents aged over 55. (left)
East Thames transforms a 1970s housing estate in Walthamstow into 43 new affordable homes at Hammond Court. (above)
East Thames’ mental health football team, ELFC, receives a commendation at the TPAS Awards for excellence in equality and diversity. (left) East Thames annual report 2012/13
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About East Thames
East Thames Group is the largest provider of affordable housing in east London and Essex. Our core activities are the development and management of affordable housing. We own and manage more than 14,000 homes in east London and Essex.
Our mission is to make a positive and lasting contribution to the neighbourhoods in which we work.
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East Thames annual report 2012/13
We do this by: –– Providing affordable homes for people in east London and Essex. This includes social rented homes and a range of affordable rented and home ownership options. –– Building quality new homes in east London and Essex and improving neighbourhoods. –– Providing care and supported accommodation for people with more intensive needs, including young people at risk of being made homeless, elderly people, people with mental health needs and learning disabilities and women fleeing domestic violence. –– Offering a range of programmes to help people get back into work or training, as well as initiatives to strengthen communities. We know that providing a safe and well maintained home is the most important part of our work, but our philosophy has always been to do more than just housing and to help people improve their neighbourhoods and their lives.
Celebrating the Ocean Estate regeneration with a community funday.
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Performance highlights During the past year we have delivered against our five strategic aims to: 1. Provide good housing services 2. Be a strong and valued organisation 3. Deliver services which improve lives 4. Deliver quality affordable homes 5. Maximise Olympic opportunities
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East Thames annual report 2012/13
East Thames annual report 2012/13
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Aim one: To provide good housing services
As the largest housing association in east London and Essex, providing good quality, reliable landlord services remains our top priority. In the past year, some of our key achievements have included:
“It was great to meet Interserve staff at the resident workshops, they were very enthusiastic and it’s clear they want to do a good job. Having a dedicated call centre should ensure enquiries are dealt with quickly and accurately and will hopefully lead to our repairs being fixed on the first visit.”
–– Entering into a long-term strategic maintenance partnership with Interserve which, since April, has been delivering the East Thames resident Mike who has worked repairs and maintenance service to our with Interserve to choose the fixtures and homes with a more strategic approach fittings that will be offered to residents. at a lower cost. The partnership aims to achieve a better balance between reactive repairs and planned maintenance and will bring investment in customer services such as online repairs reporting. –– Helping our residents to deal with the impacts of welfare reform. We have offered free welfare benefits advice; directly contacted more than 700 residents at risk of the benefit cap and the spare bedroom penalty; and offered free employment and training programmes for residents. –– Working with the elected resident scrutiny panel to improve customer services. In the past year the panel has been involved in the selection of the maintenance partner and has scrutinised the complaints service. –– Re-letting our homes as quickly as possible which has allowed new residents to move in faster, but has also maximised our rental income for the year. –– Helping local people find a home that’s right for them by running information days on shared ownership and participating in a range of homeswapper schemes.
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East Thames annual report 2012/13
East Thames’ home ownership event attracted over 100 people
91.1%
The percentage of repairs completed on time. This doesn’t meet our target of 95% but we expect to see improvements over the next year thanks to our new strategic partnership with repairs and maintenance provider Interserve, which started in April.
15.8
This is the net promoter score for landlord services. This measure, often used in the retail sector, looks at how satisfied customers are, identifying both the most positive experiences and the most negative. This score shows that more residents would actively promote East Thames, than are dissatisfied. We are happy to have exceeded our target of 15 which means we are increasing the number of customers who are delighted with our service.
3.58%
Our current rent arrears level remains low, exceeding our target to keep arrears below 4.6%. This ensures we receive as much rental income as possible to invest in our homes, and our residents avoid falling into debt.
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Aim two: To be a strong, valued organisation
We have made good progress in making East Thames more efficient and increasing our surplus. We plan to continue to strengthen our bottom line and create the financial capacity to grow our business, while maintaining our services to customers. In the past year, some of our key achievements have included: –– Reducing operational spend by £9.4m per annum from the start of 2013/14. This was achieved as part of a 24-month transformation project working with PwC. Following end to end analysis of processes, systems and technology, five key projects were created to deliver business improvements. These covered procurement, customer management, repairs and maintenance, staffing costs and back office services. Careful investment, more efficient processes and a more strategic procurement focus have enabled us to reduce staffing and operational costs, not only improving the financial strength of the Group but also improving customer service. –– Continuing to meet the conditions set out by our lenders and putting in place a robust 30 year plan, which will deliver more new homes while maintaining gearing levels of 60% or less. The plan has been stress tested against scenarios arising from welfare reform and changes to the strength of the sales market. –– Maintaining supported people funding at a time of reduced local authority budgets in order to continue supporting more than 2,000 vulnerable people.
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East Thames annual report 2012/13
–– Achieving Best Companies ‘Ones to Watch’ accreditation. A random sample of East Thames staff were asked to complete the Best Companies survey, answering questions on topics such as leadership, pay and benefits and development opportunities. East Thames achieved a Best Companies Index Score of 631 out of 1000, putting the Group in the ‘Ones to Watch’ category. –– Investing in our people by implementing a comprehensive leadership development programme for the Group’s senior managers and a management development programme for all people managers. This ensures East Thames emerges from the transformation programme a stronger organisation, better able to deal with the challenges presented by the external environment.
To read East Thames’ Value for Money statement or our finantial statements 2012/13, go to www. east-thames. co.uk/financialstatements
Sources of income
e charges 64%
Fees for design and build services 6% £6,525,000
%
Sales 16% £14,997,000
ple grants 2%
Supporting people grants 2% £2,246,000 Care grants 12% £13,528,000 Rent and service charges 64% £62,691,000
91
The number of new homes sold. 11 of these were for outright sale, 80 were shared ownership.
101 The number of shared owners who have staircased, 53 of whom staircased to 100% meaning they now own their home and pay no rent.
£2.2m
£9.4m Annual savings achieved by the Improving East Thames programme. £4.6m of savings via reduced staffing costs, £4.2m saved through new strategic maintenance partnership with Interserve and the remaining £0.6m from procurement savings.
£2m Further annualised savings identified.
Surplus generated through shared ownership sales.
£250m
£7.8m
The value of our bond issue which has been used to prepay existing bank loans and fund current and future housing development.
Our surplus on outright sales of new homes, exceeding our target of £6.9m.
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Aim three: To deliver services which improve lives
While housing remains at the core of our portfolio, our other services including care and supported housing and employment support services remain very much in need where we work. In the past year, some of our key achievements have included: –– Helping 223 people to find jobs and 130 people to take part in further education or training. This success was achieved through our employment and training programmes which provide a range of support for people wanting to find a job. It includes short courses, work experience placements, CV and confidence sessions and more specific training courses such as a 12-week construction course. –– Raising £45,000 for East Potential, our charitable arm, through staff fundraising activities and our 2012 charity of the year partnership with John Lewis. The funds raised are going towards home starter packs for our foyer residents, a 14
East Thames annual report 2012/13
programme to combat isolation amongst our care and support residents and a sports programme for foyer residents to encourage healthier living. –– Completing a three year Defra-funded project which helped 765 participants in Newham and Tower Hamlets live greener lives and save money on energy bills. Following the project 33% said they were recycling more, 33% said they were using less water and 23% reported a reduction in energy consumption. We are now offering the home energy savings packs and advice to all our residents. –– Working with our local authority partners to provide quality care and support services for nearly 2,000 people. This includes residential care for the elderly, people with physical disabilities and/or mental health problems, women fleeing domestic violence and young people at risk of becoming homeless.
77%
The percentage of supported residents who have successfully moved on from our care schemes.
£1.3m
The value of grant funding received from councils, central government and others including Business in the Community and Comic Relief, matched by £1m from East Thames to deliver a range of programmes to support employment, social enterprise, families and sustainable living.
72
The number of work experience placements which we supported through our Routes to Work programme. These placements are both at East Thames Group and at a number of partner organisations with whom we work closely and who share our commitment to help people into employment.
94%
The percentage of social enterprises which are still offering services for the community a year after completing their 18-month support programme at Starting Point. Through this programme we offer business support, hot-desking facilities and help to gain new skills.
817 The number of people who took part in healthy living programmes. One of our largest programmes is for older people in Newham. It is enhancing social, emotional and physical health, allowing older people to remain independent, happy and healthy.
“Gaining work experience at such a brilliant, reputable company like East Thames lifted my spirits. When my placement came to an end, my supervisor offered me a permanent job here. I am now proud to say that I am employed as a member of the facilities team. Everyone is so friendly and so supportive. I look forward to coming to work every day!” Dee, a participant in East Thames’ Routes to Work programme.
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Aim four: To deliver quality affordable homes
The demand for quality, affordable homes remains strong in east London and Essex and we have continued to build homes which people want to live in and which enhance the local community. The £250m bond funding gained in 2012 gives us the funding security to deliver our home building programme over the next few years. In the past year, some of our key achievements have included: –– Continuing the regeneration of the Ocean Estate in Stepney Green with Tower Hamlets Council and a range of partners. This £220m regeneration is coming into its final year. During 2012 we completed the refurbishment of existing council homes, started work on landscaping the estate and marked the first residents moving into new homes, of which there will be 800. –– Carrying out energy efficiency upgrades worth £1m for residents as part of the government backed Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). East Thames’ Watermark development in Waltham Forest, made up of 82 mixed tenure homes
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–– Achieving strong shared ownership sales across a range of sites, including the Watermark development in Waltham Forest where 35 shared ownership homes were sold within the first month of launch. –– Being appointed as Epping Forest District Council’s development agent to deliver their council housebuilding programme. Worth £1.6m, the contract will deliver 120 new affordable homes within the next four years. –– Winning planning permission and working with residents to progress the regeneration of New Union Wharf estate on the Isle of Dogs. This is an East Thames estate and the investment will improve homes for existing residents and offer a wider range of tenure options in the future.
“This energy upgrade couldn’t have come at a better time. I used to spend as much as £40 a week heating my home during very cold periods. Since the upgrade I’m spending about £15 a week. My family and I are definitely enjoying being a lot warmer in our home and I’m a lot less worried about what it’s going to cost.” East Thames resident, Angela who benefited from free wall and loft insulation as part of the Community Energy Saving Programme.
Awards Success Over the last year, East Thames’ developments have been recognised at both regional and national awards with wins at the Premier Guarantee Awards for our work on the Ocean Estate and a win at the Affordable Home Ownership Awards for our work with Triathlon Homes on East Village. In addition, we have been shortlisted for a range of developments at awards including: Affordable Home Ownership Awards, UK Housing Awards and First Time Buyer Readers’ Awards.
82.6%
Resident satisfaction with new homes.
“East London is forever changing and I can see signs of that Bohemian east London feel starting here in Stepney. This coupled with excellent transport links means Stepney is one of the next cool places to live in London and I’m happy I was able to afford to buy here.
653
The number of new homes we completed in 2012/13, including 576 we committed to with the Greater London Authority.
Shared ownership definitely offered me good value for money. I did not get any financial help – I was able to do it on my own which was really important to me. Shared ownership is a great option and I would definitely recommend it.” Sam, a new East Thames shared owner who recently moved into one of the homes on the Ocean Estate’s VIVO development.
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Aim five: To maximise Olympic opportunities
The 2012 Olympics has been an enormous catalyst for regeneration in Stratford and East Thames has played a role, particularly through Triathlon Homes of which we are a joint venture partner along with First Base and Southern Housing Group. In the past year, some of our key achievements have included: –– Being on track to deliver 1,379 affordable homes including 675 social rented homes, through Triathlon Homes. The first residents are due to move in from late 2013, with East Thames managing the landlord services for these residents. –– Tackling unemployment by working with people in Newham and Tower Hamlets through our Community Champions programme. This equips them with skills and experience while engaging them in their local communities. Some participants have secured employment as a result and the remainder have received ongoing support to find a job. –– Building on the Olympic legacy to deliver Chobham Farm, a neighbouring development in the process of gaining planning approval. Working with a number of partners, this new neighbourhood will create about 1,000 new homes as well as community and retail facilities.
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East Thames annual report 2012/13
20,000
Expressions of interest in affordable housing offered by Triathlon Homes in East Village. There are 704 shared ownership and intermediate rented homes which launched in May 2013.
50%
This is our target for households in work for Triathlon Homes. We are more than meeting this target for the homes which have been pre-allocated and we are working with a range of local businesses and training providers to help unemployed residents take advantage of the new employment opportunities in the area.
“I was attracted to shared-ownership as I didn’t have a large enough deposit for a purchase on the open market, so this was my only option for getting on the property ladder. I am extremely excited about my move to East Village. The ongoing buzz around the Olympic legacy gives me confidence that interest and investment in the local area will only continue. I am really interested in the focus on sustainability, and the fact that my home will be close to central London. My commute to work will be easier too as I can cycle. The facilities in the area are great, particularly the cycle lanes and local swimming pool, and I’m really keen to be part of the new community and discover what the area has to offer.” Tiro, a future East Village resident who is buying a 25% share in a one bedroom apartment on the Village.
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Corporate social responsibility As an organisation we are determined to make a positive and lasting difference and to see our residents and those living in our local communities reach their full potential. We achieve this by getting people into work, by providing supported accommodation for vulnerable adults and through a whole raft of community programmes that cover carer wellbeing, green living, food growing, arts and culture and much more.
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It’s important to us that we lead by example and we take an active role in supporting our local communities. We offer apprenticeships and work placements, we work with our partners to support employment, we are charitable and love volunteering and we push our green credentials.
It’s not surprising that in recent Best Companies survey, 87% of staff said charitable activity was encouraged and 73% believed the Group has a strong social conscience. Our team resoundingly believe in the work we do, which leads to strong support for our own corporate social responsibility programmes.
Graduates from East Thames’ Construct your Career course
Mentoring and employment
In winter 2012, 20 members of staff signed up as employment mentors to offer guidance and advice to 20 mentees looking to get back into work. Over the course of three months the mentors and mentees met every two weeks in their own time to discuss job searches, interview techniques, CV tips, and anything else that both parties felt would improve the mentees chances of finding work.
“Before I joined the scheme I was working as a full-time carer for my sister. I wanted to make a change, but knew I couldn’t make one by myself, so the mentoring was ideal. It’s hard to find a programme that caters for people who’ve been excluded, but these mentors believe in you.” Alicia, who was mentored by Chris from the East Thames finance team.
“I really enjoyed the mentoring experience. The young lady I was working with was so positive and enthusiastic and just needed a bit of guidance on how she could move into her preferred career path. It was very fulfilling knowing that from our chats and the advice I gave, that it gave her the confidence to ‘think outside the box’ and look at alternative ways to reach the same goals.” Deborah, an East Thames member of staff and volunteer employment mentor
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East Thames staff and their mentees celebrate the success of the Mentoring Programme
Mentoring and employment
Fundraising for others
Many of those taking part in our employment and training programmes go on to find work with our partners, organisations including Trowers and Hamlins, Wates and Bellway. East Thames has agreements with a number of its partners stipulating local employment targets and apprenticeships for East Thames residents. Our new repairs and maintenance partner, Interserve has committed to providing our residents job skills workshops, work experience placements and apprenticeships. Of course many of the people we help come to work for East Thames, in teams across the Group, such as finance, the employment and inclusion team, facilities. In the last year we have employed five people who have previously taken part in one of our employment and training programmes. East Thames also offers work experience placements and graduate trainee placements to help local people get a foot in the door. Our work experience placements come via our employment and inclusion team, who will arrange suitable training to ensure those on a placement have the right skills to make the most of the experience. Graduate trainee placements are offered in our development team, and a number of former trainees have gone on to work here permanently. We also support the Tower Hamlets Council graduate programme, providing participants with six months placements in a range of departments. “I was so happy to be offered the job as admin assistant for the Hub, I’m still pinching myself. It came at a time when I was low, my confidence had been knocked but the team came through for me. It’s great to know I’ll be working with the people who helped me. And I’ll be helping other people find work so that’s fulfilling what I really want to do.”
East Thames staff take part in a number of fundraising activities every year. This year, staff decided to give back to one of the charities that provides East Thames with vital funding – Comic Relief. For several years now, Comic Relief has funded East Thames’ Great Marvellous Cool Living project, which provides supported accommodation for 1624 year olds who experience psychosis and are either at risk of homelessness or would otherwise be forced to return to environments detrimental to their mental health. Staff held a highly popular cake sale raising more than £200 for Comic Relief. A further £1,400 was raised for charity following the annual corporate golf day for industry partners and suppliers, organised by East Thames’ development team. This year, the money was donated to Haven House Children’s Hospice in Woodford Green.
Cynthia, who is joining the team at East Thames’ Workplace Hub, after receiving help at the Hub to improve her CV, interview techniques and confidence.
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Generous donations
We are really pleased our donation will be used for a sports programme in the local area Noel Saunders, Managing Director of John Lewis Stratford East Thames charitable arm, East Potential, was John Lewis Stratford City’s charity of the year for 2012. Together we raised more than £40,000 to fund activities and programmes for some of the most vulnerable people we work with. In December, we received a huge £33,000 donation from John Lewis Stratford City, raised during the Olympic Games when customers paid £2 to enter the shop’s Olympic Park viewing gallery. £20,000 of the donation will be used to set up a brand new Olympics inspired project encouraging disadvantaged young people to try new sports and get active. While the remaining £13,000 will be spent on improving the facilities available at Stratford’s Focus E15 Foyer and on supporting young foyer residents who are interested in starting their own business or community project.
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During East Thames’ transformation programme, a number of contractors were employed by the Group to work on business improvement. Moved by the impact East Thames’ work has on vulnerable residents in east London and Essex, the contractors dug deep to make a generous donation of £2,000 to our Better Togerther Fund. The fund aims to support many of our disabled and elderly residents and those living with mental health problems, who can often feel extremely isolated and struggle to connect with their local communities due to a lack of confidence, skills and resources. The Better Together fund helps these residents to get out and about, have fun, learn new skills, make new friends and play an important part in their local communities through volunteering.
“We are delighted to support East Potential and are grateful to our customers for helping us make this significant donation. We are really pleased our donation will in part be used for a sports programme in the local area. This is a great way to ensure the inspiration the Olympics brought to east London will live on.” Noel Saunders, Managing Director of John Lewis Stratford.
Going green
87%
Percentage of staff who said East Thames encourages charitable activities.
73%
Percentage of staff who believe East Thames has a strong social conscience.
£655
East Thames staff and residents took to the football pitch this summer to raise money for East Living Football Club, an East Thames run football team for residents with mental health needs. All the teams competing raised money, with East Thames matching funds raised by the winning team, bringing the total to £655.
As a landlord and developer of new homes, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously. All our homes are built to at least Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3, with 80% of the homes we have built in the last five years achieving Level 4. We recently carried out energy efficiency upgrades worth £1m to more than 100 homes in Newham as part of the government backed Community Energy Saving Programme. We installed additional wall and roof insulation for residents, saving residents money on fuel bills by reducing the energy needed to heat their home.
We have also helped residents lead greener lives with our green home packs. These have been distributed to residents in Newham and Tower Hamlets as part of a Defra funded project which aimed to capitalise on the Olympics sustainability drive and contribute to its legacy. The packs are chock full of tips, tools and resources to help residents live in a more environmentally friendly way while saving money on their energy and water bills, and they have been a great success. We are now offering the home energy savings packs and advice to all our residents.
“I’ve put in thicker curtains on the windows and a curtain on the door, to keep the heat in. If it’s cold I turn the boiler on until the house warms up, then I turn it off again – the house stays warm for a long time afterwards. The thermometer that came with the green homes pack is very useful - I had an old plastic one before that never seemed to budge and it helps me convert Fahrenheit into Centigrade. The changes have saved me money on bills. It’s not about penny pinching, it’s about being careful.” Rosalind, an East Thames resident who received one of the green home packs.
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Our people and partners We wouldn’t be where we are today without the dedication of our staff and the support of our partners. Together we provide services which are making a difference to our local communities.
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East Thames staff on the pitch to help raise money for East Living Football Club East Thames annual report 2012/13
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Group structure
Senior team
East Thames Group is a registered provider, registered charity and company limited by guarantee. In addition to our parent group we have three main operational subsidiaries.
The group executive consists of the Chief Executive and other members of the Group’s senior management team. They act as executives within the authority delegated by the board.
East Homes owns and/or manages nearly 13,500 homes. We provide quality affordable housing, including social rented homes, supported housing, foyers, shared ownership and homes for outright sale and market rent. East Thames Partnerships and East Place are subsidiaries of East Homes and are established to manage private sale housing and property management respectively. East Living provides care and supported services to just over 2,000 people in east London and Essex. East Potential is the part of the Group which delivers our charitable activities. It provides programmes to help individuals lead better lives and develop communities, through employment and training and community programmes.
During the financial year, Suzanne Forster resigned as Director of Finance in December 2012 with Peter Cleland taking up the role of Interim Finance Director. Steve James, interim Director of Support Operations left the Group in March 2013. Simon Bass joined in February 2013 taking on the role of Director of Corporate Resources and overseeing the former finance and support operations directorates. Geoff Pearce, Director of Development and Property; Pamela Gardner, Director of Communities and Neighbourhoods; and June Barnes, Chief Executive served throughout the year.
East Thames also has the following three subsidiaries: East Treasury, East Regen and East Finance. Through East Place, East Thames is also an equal owner of Triathlon Homes, a joint venture with Southern Housing Group and First Base. It has been established to own and manage the 1,379 affordable homes on East Village, formerly the athletes village.
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June Barnes
Pamela Gardner
Chief Executive
Director of Communities and Neighbourhoods
Geoff Pearce
Simon Bass
Director of Development and Property
Director of Corporate Resources
Our boards
Regulation
The main East Thames boards (East Thames, East Homes, East Living and East Potential) operate within an overlapping structure to ensure board members can make decisions about the future direction of the group as a whole. As of October 2013, a core of four members represents all four boards, with additional independent members on each board.
As a registered provider of social housing, East Thames is regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). On the 24th of April, the HCA announced its regulatory judgement on East Thames. The judgement rates East Thames as a V2 for viability (the second best rating), but a G3 for governance – a rating which states that there are areas of concern, which in agreement with the regulator, we are taking action to address.
In May 2013 Paula Higson was appointed chair of East Homes and John Drew became chair of East Living. We would like to thank outgoing board members Debbie Sorkin, Johanna Holmes, Sheila Lewis and Mehban Chowdery for their service.
This rating was primarily due to a failure to comply with the rent standard which led to 146 tenants being over-charged for their rent. This includes: 126 general needs tenants primarily in Harlow, who have been over-charged an average of £2.90 per week for the past two years; and 20 supported housing tenants, mainly in Essex, who have been over-charged on average £1.40 per week for the last year. This has affected approximately 1% of East Thames’ tenants and has cost the Group £31,000 to reimburse tenants. East Thames has apologised and refunded the over-payments and is now reviewing processes and controls to ensure this does not happen again. We are also working with the regulator to address the areas highlighted in its report around our governance.
All boards 4 core members
Andrew Newell
Marianne Skelcher
Shirley Watson
June Barnes
East Thames group board
East Living board
East Potential board
2 independent members
2 independent members
2 independent members
Tina Tietjen - Chairman
Debbie Sorkin - Chairman
Rohan Hewavisenti
Malcolm Basing - Chairman
Philip Fearne
Dominic Jebb
Ashley West
Alec Dick
East Homes board 2 independent members
3 resident members
Johanna Holmes Chairman
Angela Williams
Terry Price
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Our local authority partners
All the partners listed here have given us the support we need to carry out the work we do, whether that means mentoring a young person, offering work placements to our residents or giving us the funding we need to build new homes and create sustainable communities.
If you would like to help us make a difference by working with local people and changing lives, please call our fundraising team on 020 8536 3982 or email: russ.mclean@east-thames.co.uk.
If you would like more information about East Thames or want to keep up to date with all our latest news: Visit our website at www.east-thames.co.uk Follow us on Twitter @EastThamesGroup Visit our new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/EastThames Sign up for our quarterly stakeholder e-bulletin by emailing marcoms@east-thames.co.uk
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Our partners and supporters
Thank you to our partners and supporters:
FUNDED BY
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29-35 West Ham Lane Stratford London E15 4PH Tel: 0845 600 0830 Fax: 020 8522 2001 Minicom: 020 8522 2006 www.east–thames.co.uk
Registered in England & Wales (4091100) Registered Charity (1084952) Tenant Services Authority Registered (LH4309) Member of the National Housing Federation