Annual Review 2011

www.east-thames.co.uk

Annual review

2010-11

Contents Chair’s message ................................. 3 Our work, borough by borough ........... 4 Supporting people .............................. 6 Case study: All in a day’s work ....10 Building communities ........................12 Case study: Transforming the Ocean .............18 Providing quality homes ....................20 Case study: Railway Meadow ......26

Our people and partners ...................28 Case study: A plan for the future ..... 31 The future ..........................................32 Case study: Triathlon Homes ........36 Governance .......................................38 Our Board members........................ 40 Our funders .......................................43 Performance ......................................44 East Potential performance ................46

About us East Thames is a registered social landlord and social regeneration charity with over 30 years experience of providing affordable homes. We are the largest housing association operating solely in east London and Essex and among London’s top 15. We build and support sustainable neighbourhoods through different parts of our business:

Our mission is: “To make a positive & lasting contribution to the neighbourhoods in which we work”

We provide support and accommodation in over 80 schemes for people with a wide range of needs, including: older people, younger people at risk of becoming homeless, people with a learning disability or mental health needs, and women escaping violence.

We manage and/ or own more than 13,250 affordable homes for: social rent, intermediate rent and affordable home ownership.

We give people a chance to succeed through community programmes that include: children’s centres, employment and training, art and culture, sustainable living, and health and wellbeing.

Find out more at www.east-thames.co.uk or call 0845 600 0830.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Chair’s message Maximising our impact During my first year as Chair I recognised very early that, although housing has always been East Thames’ core business, it’s not the whole business. I saw firsthand the full package of services East Thames brings to its developments and communities. These services include providing specialist care and support, building quality and sustainable homes, and delivering community programmes that have a real impact.

The value-added support services we provide is what sets us apart and enables us to build sustainable neighbourhoods. However, as resources and funding get harder to come by, we need to ask ourselves ‘SO WHAT?’ when evaluating these services and planning for the future. What is our impact?

We know that the impact of our programmes is critical to our local authority and business partners, particularly in this economic climate.

With an increasing number of people competing for a diminishing pot of funding, the spotlight will be on those who can deliver the services that have the biggest and most tangible impact on peoples’ lives and local issues.

That’s why this year’s annual review focuses on the achievements which made a real difference to the people we serve. And to continue to make a difference, we’re working hard to be a stronger business and to create more surplus. We’re in the business of being a charity. Therefore any efficiencies and savings we achieve will directly benefit the communities we serve.

Tina Tietjen, Chair of East Thames Group

To help us make East Thames stronger, we’ve also improved our resident involvement approach, including establishing a Resident Scrutiny Panel. The Panel members are tasked with representing their neighbourhoods and with putting our services under the microscope to find improvements. We’re also excited to have three new resident Board members. They will be involved in the strategic development of the business. These moves will give our residents a bigger voice and the opportunity to help shape the future of their East Thames.

My first months as East Thames’ Chair have been both challenging and inspiring.

Following on from the work of my predecessor, Bob Chilton, I’m committed to seeing East Thames grow to become a leaner, stronger organisation. Most importantly, I’m driven to ensure we continue to provide the value-added services that produce a positive and lasting impact for our residents and communities.

We’ve continued to build and support sustainable neighbourhoods in east London and Essex

...but what’s the real impact of this work?

Find out what our chief executive has to say about the future of East Thames on page 32.

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Our work, borough by borough Visit www.east-thames.co.uk/ar11/map to find out which projects had the biggest impact, borough by borough.

TOTAL 1,949

WALTHAM FOREST

Stock owned and/or managed, 31 March 2011

279 1405 227 372

Shared ownership

3,053

Social rented & key worker

8,037

Supported housing

1,633

Rent Now, Buy Later & market rent

439

Temporary stock

163

TOTAL

3

35

TOTAL 5,247

NEWHAM

13,325 TOTAL 2,047

632

1192

715 3699

73 116

145

TOWER HAMLETS

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

TOTAL 195

Other usage and elsewhere in UK 184

6

2

3

TOTAL 1,605

REDBRIDGE TOTAL 544

HAVERING 930

217 26

60 TOTAL 901

282

189

46

27

0

BARKING & DAGENHAM

250 662

55

435

169

46

1

TOTAL 837

ESSEX

339

73

185

233

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Supporting

people At the heart of it, we’re a people business and to fulfil our mission to make a positive and lasting difference to our neighbourhoods, we need to consider the needs of the diverse individuals that make up our communities in east London and Essex.

This includes people of different ages, ethnicities, and household make-up, along with people with support needs caused by disability or homelessness.

Our passion to respond to the needs of our different residents is something that cuts across all of our services. Our work to provide care and support services is one of the best ways we can help and protect vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our communities. Our care and support is delivered in many different ways, such as supported accommodation, outreach and floating support, and programmes designed to empower individuals to improve their life and wellbeing.

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Our biggest challenge over the past few years

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Geoff Pearce, director of development and asset management

has been to continue providing this quality support, while reducing the cost of what we do to prepare for funding cuts in the care and support sector. Despite the cuts becoming a reality, we’re in a better position than most thanks to the efficiencies and savings we’ve already achieved. At the same time we’ve adapted our support services to a new, more personalised way of working that gives people more choice and control over their support.

As our supporting people services have evolved, we’ve become more resilient and robust, and ensured that we remain competitive without sacrificing the quality of a service which is really important to us.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Care and support schemes We have over 80 care and support schemes providing high quality and life-changing services to over 1,800 people in east London and Essex.

They provide support and accommodation for people with mental health needs and learning disabilities, also for older and young people, and women escaping domestic violence.

It is our ongoing commitment and breadth of experience in providing these services that has helped us secure new support business and keep our existing support contracts.

We won

£3.5 million

in new support contracts and retenders for existing support contracts so we can continue supporting vulnerable people.

Our expertise and track record was instrumental in being chosen by a partnership of three local authorities in Essex to deliver Railway Meadow, the first dedicated supported living scheme for young parents in Essex.

To make our care business more efficient, we’ve taken back in-house the management of ten of our agency managed support schemes.

In this way we can provide our quality housing services such as customer accounts and financial guidance, alongside our accredited support services.

We have also embraced a new way of helping our older residents re-learn some of the skills and functions they may have lost with age, illness or injury. This new approach is called reablement.

We focus on helping older residents regain some of their independence with daily tasks, so they can live a more meaningful life. For example, at our Paines Brook Court scheme in Essex, we offer respite and immediate care for those who are well enough to leave hospital but need rehabilitation or support before moving on to independent living in their own home.

Brian received re-ablement support at Paines Brook Court.

Brian said: “Coming here has turned my life around. After losing my leg I didn’t know what was in store for me. I’ve got a new leg now and I’ve got the old me back. I’ve been here for over a year now and I’ve come a long way. I go to the hospital by myself, I go out to get groceries, the only thing left for me to do now is get a job and find permanent accommodation.”

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Progressing personalisation The move towards more personalised care across the UK has given more people personal support budgets and control to choose the support they get. To respond to these changes, we developed a new personalised support product. We also trained our staff to offer our existing residents support planning that focused on giving them more choice and say in their support.

Through our new personalisation product, we now offer anyone with support needs the chance to come to us for a package that can include: personalised support planning, arranging support funding, a brokerage service to help choose a support provider, or actually delivering their support. We can provide this service to people that live around our four service hubs in Newham, Tower Hamlets and parts of Essex.

500 0

of our staff are providing personalised support planning and we have over 80 personalised plans in place.

Support and accommodation for young people Central to our services for young people, we run six foyers which provide accommodation and support for around 600 people aged 16-24, who are also at risk of becoming homeless.

This is a vital service as it provides a home and the chance for young people from difficult backgrounds to get back on track and make a better life for themselves.

78%

of all foyer residents who moved on had successfully met all the goals in their support plan.

As well as a place to live, our foyers help young people back into education and employment and address some of the underlying problems they may have via one to one support and awareness sessions.

In our experience, this is a support model that works. We have seen some fantastic results with many of our young residents going on to university or to paid employment.

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Of the 408 residents that moved on last year from our foyers, 160 were in education or training and 71 were in employment.

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Board member Alec Dick cycling to raise money for First Step Foyer.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Preventing domestic violence Providing support for people affected by domestic violence is a sensitive and vital service. We have three supported living safe houses that provide women and their children with help to rebuild their lives and move on from the trauma.

We’ve also recieved £120k funding from Comic Relief to run a programme for our foyer residents who have been affected by, or are at risk of being affected by domestic violence. The programme consists of one to one counselling and preventative education workshops. The workshops help young people identify potential violence, improve personal safety and maintain healthy relationships.

The programme funding has been extended for a further year to focus on helping young mothers understand the impact domestic violence has on their children, challenge attitudes towards the issue, and develop a willingness to change the abuse cycle.

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young residents received support to recover from the trauma of domestic violence.

Healthy living A key part of our people services is delivering healthy living programmes to help residents of all ages to think about their lifestyle choices and take up fun activities to keep fit and get healthy.

A few of our initiatives include: • Our Stay Well service is offered in partnership with Newham Council, and targets older people in Newham using a network of 50 healthy living organisations across the borough. It encourages residents to take part in activities such as cooking, yoga, salsa, dancing, flower arranging and opera singing.

• Our Great Marvellous Cool Living (GMCL) programme at our First Step Foyer provides specialist mental health support to young people aged 16-24, in partnership with the NHS. In 2010 we recieved £75k of Comic Relief funding to run a series of life skills workshops to help residents learn new skills to enable them to live healthier and independent lives.

• Another initiative, Barking Foyer’s Master Chef saw young foyer residents compete in a healthy eating competition. Residents came together over the course of a few weeks to learn about healthy eating and have their meals judged by a panel of willing participants.

Barking Foyer Master Chef winner Vivian.

49

businesses joined our Stay Well network of lunch clubs to provide nutritious meals for residents aged over 50 in Newham.

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CASE STUDY:

All in a day’s work Employment and training are some of the most important programmes we provide, giving people the skills and confidence to find a job. These programmes are important to housing associations, as it’s estimated that around 41% of working age housing association tenants are in receipt of benefits. They also allow people to break the poverty cycle and use social housing as a springboard to improve their life.

Our employment and training programmes are providing practical skills and experience to people in east London and Essex, along with opportunities for local employment and work placements. In spite of the recession, we have enjoyed one of our most successful years to date in helping 234 unemployed people in east London and Essex find a job, which equates to almost a job for every working day.

This was achieved through our comprehensive range of support and short courses to help prepare people for the workplace. The courses cover skills in IT, presenting, communications, group working and CV development. We also provided professional help for people to apply for work and prepare for interviews, along with opportunities to gain work experience through local employers.

A key ingredient to our success involved working in partnership with employment agencies and businesses. Working with Bovis Lend Lease, we created 50 apprenticeship opportunities on the Olympic site over the last four years. A close partnership with Newham Council’s Workplace

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initiative and Westfield Stratford City has given our residents first access to 8000+ upcoming jobs at the new shopping centre. We are also working with our construction partners on the Ocean Estate to secure local employment and apprenticeships.

The services offered at our Workplace Hub, which we deliver on behalf of Newham Council, have also been instrumental in finding jobs for local people.

This dedicated neighbourhood employment hub in Winsor Park covers everything from job searches to training courses and a job broker to link candidates with local employers. The hub has engaged with over 400 people and assisted an impressive 95 people into employment since opening in July 2010.

234

We helped unemployed people get a job last year.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Supported employment Most people with support needs struggle to find the confidence to pursue employment due to a lack of available training, support and employers willing to take them on.

We have been helping residents in our care and support schemes to improve their chances of gaining employment and to take part in supported work experience. In December last year we held an employment fair for our residents with learning disabilities. Over 100 people turned up to talk to local employers such as London City Airport and Westfield about job and training opportunities.

We are also running a supported employment programme called Work Ready which provides eight supported residents with training and a work placement at our offices or care schemes.

The roles cover areas like catering, cleaning, post room management and support work in our schemes.

Craig is an East Thames resident who came to know about our construction training course through the Newham Workplace Hub. The course gave him the skills training, on-thejob experience and qualifications to secure an apprenticeship and land a job on a construction site.

Craig said: “Construct your Career offered me much more than a training course. I wanted to learn a trade. The way the course challenges you to demonstrate your learning in competition with other graduates, you soon learn very fast. Starting work experience on the Olympic site in Stratford is a great moment for me. It is my first stepping stone to my ideal construction job, a real chance to show my ability and I also feel a part of history.”

“Having the right opportunities is key to helping people get a job and turn their lives around. I am very proud of the team’s efforts to engage with more people than ever this year. This success breaks our record for the number of people we’ve helped into employment. It is one of the best results ever achieved by a housing association.”

- John Bryson, East Thames employment programmes manager

Supported resident Jimmy gained a work placement at East Thames’ head office.

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Building

communities In times of austerity, communities can grow stronger if they’re equipped to tackle the challenges and make the most of new opportunities. As a housing provider operating in some of London’s most deprived areas, we’re in an ideal position to deliver programmes that bring our communities together and enable people to improve their lives, help their neighbours and give back to their local area.

During 2010–11 we’ve worked with our many partners to provide a wide range of programmes covering arts and culture, local business, neighbourhood safety and family support. At the core of this work is our aim to underpin the social and economic fabric of our neighbourhoods and help people achieve their aspirations.

To ensure our programmes deliver the outcomes our residents need, we’ve changed

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Francesca Okosi, director of support operations

our approach to resident involvement and consulted with over 1,000 residents to understand their different local issues.

By continuing to provide services that help our neighbourhoods help themselves, we are supporting the next generation of budding social entrepreneurs, young filmmakers, volunteers and community leaders to build a stronger east London and Essex.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Starting Point At a time when local services are facing cuts and unemployment rates are rising, we’re seeing significant increases in applications for our business support service, Starting Point.

Allowing residents of Barking and Dagenham to set up social enterprises, Starting Point has become the embodiment of the Big Society.

The service offers local community groups and social enterprises access to hot desk facilities, meeting areas, business support and guidance, start-up funding and networking opportunities.

We’ve recently received new grant funding of £250k from the Oak Foundation which covers at least 50% of the funding required to run the service over the next three years, along with the opportunity to potentially replicate Starting Point in a neighbouring borough.

New Shoots Green fingered Newham residents have been taking part in our New Shoots project, which helps local residents grow their own food.

We’ve set up three food growing sites across the borough on previously disused land.

Working with OrganicLea, we ran workshops to teach people how to grow their own organic fruit and vegetables and then supported them to put this knowledge into practice.

542

Newham residents have participated in our food growing sessions and learnt gardening and healthy eating skills.

120

social organisations have been supported to set up through Starting Point delivering services to more than 10,000 people.

In 2010 Trevor Palmer decided to start his own community based sports development programme to help young people get active and motivated.

Trevor said: “Coming to Starting Point has helped in many ways. I come here twice a week to hot desk, have meetings and run the business. After coming here I received training, advice and useful contacts within the industry. Without Starting Point I would not have been able to run the business professionally and effectively.”

Julia Weedan, who attends the New Shoots workshops and runs an allotment at her children’s school, said: “It’s a success because it’s all about the group and people’s enthusiasm.

It’s been really positive. Having your fingers in the earth breaks down the barriers between people.

You get to meet your neighbours, be outside, have a laugh and learn something new.”

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Arts and culture In 2010–11 we ran a variety of projects that bought people together and enabled them to express their creativity and learn new skills.

Three of the key projects were: • Our Film East course for aspiring young film makers, gave 37 young people the skills they need to work in the media industry. The course has been running for four years in partnership with Circus Media, with funding from London Development Agency, The Arts Council, London Councils and Merchant Taylors.

• Residents at our Taylor Place development in Tower Hamlets benefited from a project borne out of our partnership with the Bow Arts Trust.

Together we ran Mapping Spaces, which enabled residents to come together and creatively map their area with a local artist. The project culminated with their works being exhibited in Bow Art’s local gallery, The Nunnery.

• Blue Train bought together over 100 foyer residents and local students to lead on a project inspired by the V&A Exhibition Diaghilev and Ballets Russes. Working alongside professional artists, performers and curators, participants created their own artworks and performance which was showcased at the V&A. Blue Train was delivered in partnership with the V&A and AK Arts, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.

We’ve also continued to showcase impressive local talent through our East Gallery space at our Stratford head office. Residents, local schools and arts groups have wowed our customers with creative and interactive artworks. Some of the highlights were: • Focus E15 foyer resident Rasheed Bushra’s Exploring Spirituality exhibition.

• The Story of Stratford project and exhibition was supported by the new Westfield Stratford City. It consisted of interactive artwork and media, based on the work of local school children who took inspiration from the regeneration of the area.

• The Blue Train exhibition displayed a variety of ar twork from our youth-led ar ts project, including costumes, poetry, installations and theatre backdrops.

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Sarah, a proud parent of one of the children who participated in our Mapping Spaces project, said: “My son Charlie got an insight into a different way of being creative which will help him with his learning and development. To be part of a local community project is truly rewarding.”

308

residents took part in our arts and culture programmes in 2010-11.

Newham foyer participant Rasheed Bushura said: “Blue Train enabled us to start our own artistic revolution, taking the concept of evolution and power and coming together to perform our own work- designed to blow away not only the V&A but our own perceptions of ourselves.”

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Children’s centres innovate Our seven Sure Start Children’s Centres in Epping Forest play an important role in providing parents with children under five with support to improve their family’s wellbeing and financial stability.

Since we opened the centres in 2009, they have grown into thriving community hubs where parents from all backgrounds benefit from the tailored services.

The community needs vary throughout the area, however one key target we worked hard to reach is increasing the take-up of new mothers breast feeding. We developed the breastfeeding volunteers scheme in 2009 and trained numerous volunteers to go out into the community and support new mothers to breastfeed. They do this through professionally supervised support groups, hospital sessions and home visits.

Local breast feeding rates have increased by 77% since our volunteering project started. We’ve also introduced an innovative new service for families with children with disabilities, called Tacpac. We’ve worked with the creator of this method to deliver sessions that encourage multi sensory interaction through touch and music. This helps the baby develop communication, sensory, neurological, and emotional skills. The service has proven so popular, that we now have a six month waiting list for the sessions.

1479

families are now registered with our seven children’s centres, which is almost 70% of our catchment area.

Local parent Robin Strickland took up a work placement at our Sunrise Children’s Centre. This led him to complete an NVQ level 1&2 qualification in childcare. In 2010 Robin registered with one of the agencies we use for our crèche provision and has started working in his area of study. Robin said: “The children’s centre has been great for me. They have really helped me turn my life around and give my child a better life. It’s because of them I’m still working and I plan to stick at it to show my appreciation.”

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Volunteering service Since 2006 our volunteering service has provided numerous hours of valuable assistance to our residents with support needs, helping them to live more independently, gain confidence in learning new skills, or just being available to talk to when they are lonely.

The programme has also given volunteers new skills which improve their chances of gaining paid employment. These new skills were developed through their volunteering experience in roles such as housing, administration, training, and fundraising.

In February 2011 our volunteering service achieved the Investor In Volunteers accreditation. This was a year-long assessment involving a review of the policies and the management processes used to recruit volunteers, find suitable opportunities for them and support them in their role.

In 2011 our volunteering service was also shortlisted for a National Housing Federation ‘What we are proud of’ award.

After arriving in the UK as an immigrant from Cameroon and endless searching for jobs, Alain decided to volunteer to improve his employability. Alain said: “Volunteering gave me the confidence and the practical exposure that I really was looking for to find a job in my qualified field. It opened my eyes to various opportunities that exist in housing and related organisations. Using the skills and experience that I gained at East Thames I applied for a job at Metropolitan Housing Partnership and I got it.”

156

volunteers took part in volunteering activities and gave 7,710 volunteering hours

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residents have been elected to our new Housing Scrutiny Panel to put our services under the microscope.

Resident involvement With big changes underway to housing industry regulation, the focus is shifting to enable residents to scrutinise services and to hold their landlord to account. Resident involvement is an essential part of our own service improvement and in the past year we’ve changed our approach to get more residents involved in monitoring and improving our services.

The approach provides a number of new ways for residents to get involved, ranging from becoming a scrutiny panel member or Board member, to being a mystery shopper or resident inspector.

We developed the approach after residents told us they wanted a wider range of opportunities to get involved, catering to their varying availability.

Their views emerged during a consultation in late 2010. We literally went round the houses and spoke to over 1000 residents. This consultation also gave us valuable information about residents’ priorities at a local level and from this, we created local offers for 13 of our estates. The local offers are similar to a local action plan.

They set out actions to address the top local issues residents told us were important, such as maintenance or antisocial behaviour.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Tracey McGurl, manager of Focus E15 Foyer, was been awarded a commendation by the Metropolitan Police in recognition of her work to reduce antisocial behaviour around the Foyer.

Creating safer neighbourhoods Our resident’s safety is of paramount importance to us. From time to time we need to take action to prevent or tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB).

Tracey McGurl, our foyer manager at Focus E15, was recently awarded a special commendation from the Metropolitan Police for her partnership working which successfully tackled ASB issues in the area around the Stratford foyer.

Neighbours of the foyer had expressed concerns over large groups of young people congregating outside. Tracey started a problem solving group with representatives from the Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team, residents who live near the foyer and members of East Thames’ neighbourhood management team.

The group developed a joint action plan, which has delivered positive results.

Our Time for Youth programme is funded by London Councils and uses creative projects to divert young people from antisocial behaviour.

Almost 500 young people have taken part in the programme. One example is a film making course we delivered in partnership with Homes for Havering.

A group of 22 young residents worked alongside professional film makers to write, direct and shoot a short film that explored local issues on their estate.

Overall crime around Focus E15 foyer has fallen by

43%

. Police call outs to the foyer are down by 77%.

One of the budding directors from our Time for Youth Havering film making course, Connor Tilbury, aged 15 said: “We all had great fun showing what everyday life is like for people living here on the Waterloo Estate – and being filmed doing so. It’s definitely made me want to do more film-making.”

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CASE STUDY:

Transforming the Ocean

Residents on Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets have seen big changes in their community over the years, from its industrial past as a gas works, to a vibrant multi cultural neighbourhood.

However over time the community has also seen a decline in the condition of their homes, which were built in the 1950s and an increase in the levels of deprivation in the area. Regenerating the estate and providing more opportunities for residents is a top priority for the borough and East Thames has been playing a leading role in the £200m programme to transform the Ocean.

We’re just one year into this three-year programme and the changes are already showing.

Hundreds of existing council homes have been refurbished and renovated; work has started to build more than 800 new homes; and the local community are taking advantage of employment and community development opportunities.

The partnership Tower Hamlets Council selected East Thames Consortium in early 2010 to deliver the Ocean regeneration programme.

The East Thames Consortium comprises of the East Thames Group, Spitalfields Housing Association, and Bellway. Wates Living Space are the main contractor.

The existing homes on the estate will continue to be owned by Tower Hamlets Council and managed

by Tower Hamlets Homes. East Thames will be the landlord for the new affordable homes.

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The funding arrangement The Homes and Communities Agency has provided £41m of funding for this regeneration programme. There is also £9.5million provided through a combination of New Deal For Communities funding and Council funds. The sale of the land for the new homes for private sale has helped to fund the refurbishment programme for existing homes.

Building new homes Over the next three years more than 800 new homes will be built across five sites in Stepney Green, almost half of which will be affordable.

Work has already started on two of the sites and the first new homes are due to be finished in 2012.

The homes vary from luxury canal-side apartments, stylish school house conversions and modern apartments and maisonettes, ranging in size from one to five bedrooms. All the homes are designed to a high specification and will be spacious and energy efficient. The tenure mix will be: • 296 affordable rented • 100 intermediate (shared ownership) • 423 private sale

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Residents John and Irene Kew who have lived in Tower Hamlets for 55 years were delighted to receive a new kitchen and bathroom just seven months after moving to the Ocean. John said: “I’m very happy with the work. Our bathroom and kitchen is now a lot more spacious and the fridge is now in the kitchen where it should be. What has been done in the 20 days is amazing and I want to thank everyone for their hard work.”

Employment and training Working with our partners in the Consortium, we’re providing opportunities for local residents to access employment and training programmes, including construction apprenticeships, work placements, volunteering and support to find and apply for jobs.

One of our most successful programmes on the estate is Community Champions, which is for resident volunteers who want to learn new skills, improve their work prospects and take part in community work. Participants conduct research on the estate which they are trained to analyse and present. Resident feedback from the research is then used to shape the services and changes as part of the regeneration.

A number of residents are currently taking part in Construct your Career courses to gain skills in construction. We have a target for 20% local employment across the entire programme, including offering local apprenticeships. We are currently on track to meet this target.

Transforming the existing homes In the past year more than 400 existing homes on the Ocean Estate have received new kitchens and bathrooms. The exterior of the buildings are also being repaired, including new windows, roofs and balcony repairs. Lastly, the landscaping on the estate is getting a makeover, with more than £10m to be spent on making the landscape greener, safer and more useful for residents.

Ocean resident and Community Champions graduate Mohammed Al-Inaze said: “The community champions programme has been a god send for me. Already I have an interview, I am more confident than ever and feel that I can do anything I put my mind to. I’d advise anyone looking to get back in to work to sign up as it’s a life changing experience.”

6

recent graduates of Community Champions have found permanent jobs.

Many others are in further education and training.

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Providing

quality homes With housing in short supply across the UK, we’re working hard to deliver new homes, make best use of our existing homes, and help families find a home that suits their needs.

During 2010–11 we completed some of our most diverse and exciting developments to date. With additional grant funding from the Homes and Communities Agency, we’ve also been able to carry out our development programme without borrowing additional funds, which puts us in a stronger financial position. Best of all, these new developments have regenerated communities and delivered much needed affordable homes.

What’s more, we’ve been working with local authorities on innovative projects to deliver more homes on empty sites; ensuring our existing homes are of a decent standard; and trialling new

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Suzanne Forster, director of finance

ways to improve the sustainability of our older homes.

Central to all of our work is understanding our residents views, and improving our services to respond better to their needs. So it’s essential to support the bricks and mortar we provide with effective housing management and opportunities for people to access other housing options. The improvements we’ve made to how we deliver and manage our homes over the past year have generated a variety of benefits and savings, which we are happy to pass onto our residents and use to build more sustainable communities.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

New homes The diverse expertise of the teams delivering our new homes enables us to overcome any challenges, make sure developments work financially, and provide quality affordable homes. Our 2010–11 development programme exceeded all targets set by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). We completed a total of 250 homes - 104 more than we targeted for - and we started onsite to deliver 645 more homes in the coming year.

Our development highlights include: • 13 flats at Railway Meadow, Chipping Ongar, Essex These flats offer specialised support for vulnerable young parents aged 16-25. Three local authorities - Epping Forest, Brentwood and Uttlesford districts - came together to create this shared service. East Thames developed the 13 flats with the Barratts Group and is providing ongoing support and management.

• 7 new homes at Hughes Court Leytonstone, Waltham Forest The demand was so high for these seven affordable apartments for shared ownership,

that first time buyers snapped them up within weeks of them coming onto the market. In fact, the flats were over subscribed by 4:1.

• 241 new homes at Paper Mill Place, Waltham Forest This successful partnership involved East Thames, Telford Homes, L&Q and Waltham Forest Council. We own 107 of the homes for affordable ownership and rental. A further 82 homes are planned to be complete in 2012.

We’re also progressing well on some of our larger regeneration programmes, such as Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets (see more on page 18) and the Athletes Village, post 2012 Olympic Games (see more on page 36).

Giving empty homes and land a new lease on life We’ve been looking at new and innovative ways to deliver more homes, including working with local authorities in Waltham Forest and Havering to turn disused garage sites into quality family homes and renovating empty and dilapidated homes in Newham. Already we’ve completed four new family homes on two disused garage sites in Havering as part of a pilot project run by Havering Council.

We’re also due to deliver up to another 63 homes on other sites in the next phase which will be completed in late 2011. In Waltham Forest we’re developing 64 new homes on disused garage sites.

Before and after: garage sites in Havering

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new homes for social rent are now available in Newham, thanks to two initiatives – one which renovated long-term empty homes and another which bought and repaired homes for sale.

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Sustainable homes In the UK housing accounts for 25% of carbon emissions, and we’ve been playing our part to help reduce this by designing more sustainable developments and looking at ways to turn our older housing stock into greener homes that are cheaper and more efficient to run.

We build all of our new homes to a minimum of Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4. We’ve also delivered two retrofit programmes which each transformed older homes with new green technology and improvements that reduced the homes’ carbon emissions, saved energy and water and should reduce household utility bills.

Each of these programmes will be monitored over the next two years to assess the energy and water savings achieved, and the effects of residents’ behaviour on each home’s carbon footprint. We will share the lessons learnt to help the industry understand the most effective methods of improving the sustainability of older homes.

As part of the Greener Homes for Redbridge project we retrofitted 19 homes with green technologies and rented them to people on

Housing options Making best use of our properties means ensuring our residents live in a home that suits their needs.

This is especially an issue with family-sized homes where there is big demand and short supply. To address this we’ve continued working with our residents who are under-occupying their larger home, to help them downsize to a more suitable home, which may enable them to save on tax and utilities costs.

In 2010–11 our housing options advisor visited 185 of our overcrowded residents to discuss their housing options such as exploring space saving initiatives like bunk beds and folding furniture, or even creating a loft extension for more space.

We’re also working with our partners to help residents find homes in a more suitable location through mutual exchange, private sector rental, or a move through a mobility scheme such as the new G15 London moves.

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the social housing waiting list. The project was delivered in partnership with Redbridge Council, and was awarded the Architect’s Journal Retrofit Award and also received a Highly Commended in the Inside Housing Sustainable Housing Awards in recognition of its contribution to housing sustainability best practice.

We also received funding from the Technology Strategy Board, as part of Retrofit for the Future programme. We retrofitted three of our older homes in east London and our work on these homes will also provide insight on how retrofit works impact residents who remain living at home during the works.

62-82%

was the reduction in carbon emissions we achieved at 10 homes in our Greener Homes for Redbridge project.

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overcrowded families were re-housed and 23 under occupying households were helped to downsize

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Our 2010 housing options event saw over 300 people attend to find out more about home swap, private rentals and shared ownership. We also held a home swap event in November where 120 residents signed up to try and directly swap their home with another household in their desired location.

Stairway to home ownership Our shared ownership homes are one of the best ways for first time buyers to get their foot on the property ladder. It enables them to purchase a share in their home and pay a subsidised rent on the remainder. The aim is for buyers to purchase additional shares in their home until they own it outright, which is called staircasing.

In 2010–11 we saw a large increase in the sales value we made through staircasing, which highlights that first time buyers view shared ownership as a viable option to help them eventually own their own home.

Our 2010-11 staircasing sales reached

£3.337m

, almost double our target of £1.87million. This surplus will enable us to invest the extra funding back into developing new affordable homes.

Ian Killion first moved into his East Thames property in Romford in 1997. To begin with, Ian owned 50% of the property as a shared owner.

Now over 13 years later, he has bought the remaining 50% to own it outright. Ian said: “Property prices were dropping so it seemed like a good opportunity to buy. And the service I got from East Thames while staircasing was really comforting and a huge help. Home ownership is important to me, I have an asset now, I can improve it if I want to and it gives me more flexibility.”

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Housing management 100% decent homes Since 2005 we’ve invested £37m making improvements to around 3,000 homes to bring our older housing stock up to the Government’s Decent Homes Standard.

This involves things like new kitchens and bathrooms; loft and wall insulation and central heating; and improvements such as new windows and roofs. Delivering good quality and achieving value for money is important.

When we re-tendered for our 2010–11 decent homes programme we saved more than £500k.

Maureen Reynolds, an East Thames resident for over 20 years, had work carried out at her flat last December. She said: “They tiled and painted my bathroom and it went absolutely fantastically. They did a really good job. They also replaced my windows which were really old. The new windows have made such a difference. It’s quieter now and the difference in the heat is unreal. I used to have my central heating on all day and it cost a fortune but now I’m warm at home.”

100%

of our homes now meet the Decent Homes Standard. This means our tenants can enjoy a safe and comfortable home, that is cheaper to heat.

Repairs and maintenance We reduced the average cost of our repairs from £130 to £93 and reduced the time it takes to complete routine repairs by

10 days

.

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Our residents have told us that a good repairs service is their top priority, and we’ve been focused on getting more repairs done on time, right the first time and completed to a high quality.

We launched a new repairs handy van service for our foyers to respond more quickly to repairs needs. By speeding up our repairs we’ve also managed to reduce our re-let times so new residents can move in faster.

And we achieved 100% gas safety compliance across our homes, ensuring our residents are safe from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, which kills 50 people in the UK every year.

We’ve still got some work to do, but in 2010–11 we delivered some solid results.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Customer satisfaction In early 2010 we set up a new customer advocacy approach to dealing with complaints, which enables us to address the underlying needs of our residents, and better capture and respond to complaints.

Our response times to complaints has improved significantly and we achieved our best ever performance with 93.6% of complaints being responded to within our target of 21 calendar days, with an average response time of 18 days.

During 2010–11 we saw a large improvement in our net promoter score, which seeks to weigh up the difference between our least and most satisfied customers. Our net promoter score increased from -11.6 in quarter one up to +50 in quarter four. This is a positive indication that our services are valued by more of our customers.

Rental arrears at an all time low A new approach to customer account management focusing on improving the processes and providing quality case management saw our rental arrears reach their lowest ever levels. We also made sure residents had access to services to help manage their money and overcome financial difficulties, such as our welfare and debt advisors and floating support service.

Tackling housing fraud We take housing fraud very seriously and in 2010–11 we created a new tenancy enforcement service which coordinates our efforts to identify and bring action against any tenant unlawfully using one of our homes.

We developed a targeted list of properties that we checked during the year to ensure the tenants were not illegally subletting or mistreating the home. Our neighbourhood managers verified 110% of our targeted tenancies, visiting over eight homes each per month.

With the help of these checks, information from neighbouring residents, and our involvement in the National Fraud Initiative, we had some success in our fight against tenancy fraud.

Final rent arrears in 2010-11 was just 3.7% of our rental income, down from 4.3% in 2009-10.

15 homes

were found to be unlawfully used or sublet- these were taken back and given to households in need.

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CASE STUDY:

Railway Meadow A helping hand for young parents.

With the number of homeless 16-24 year olds increasing year on year, many local authorities are starting to look at new ways of addressing the needs of vulnerable young people. At Railway Meadow, a new partnership is delivering accommodation and ongoing support for young parents at risk of being homeless.

The partnership

The service

Three neighbouring district councils in Essex Epping, Brentwood and Uttlesford – have pooled their resources to deliver this specialist service.

Pooling resources led to a stronger service for young parents.

The purpose built scheme provides supported housing for 13 young parents from the Epping Forest, Brentwood and Uttlesford districts. The flats are self-contained to allow parents their privacy before and after the birth. The communal play room, kitchen and garden allow parents to socialise, learn and support each other.

With our experience in providing mother and baby units in our foyers and our links to local family services through our seven Epping Children’s Centres, East Thames was selected to deliver this project. Working with David Wilson Homes (part of the Barratts Group) on the construction, the homes were opened in early 2011.

The funding arrangement The scheme has been funded through the three councils and with a grant of £835k from the Homes and Communities Agency.

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The scheme provides mothers and fathers with a safe and secure environment for the first few months of their baby’s life, as well as support, education and training. The aim is for parents to move into a permanent home after about nine months.

The support focuses on developing good parenting skills, general life skills and finding work. The scheme works closely with services offered from the local Children’s Centre and the onsite support staff are shared with our local women’s refuge.

ANNUAL AN A NN NU U UAL ALL R A REVIEW EVIE EV IEW 2 20 2010-11 01 10 0-1 - 11

Railway Meadow resident, Samantha, 17 said: ‘‘Coming here has given me and my daughter Michaela a new life, I feel like I have a bond with her and I’m amazed at the change I have seen in myself. Staff here support me in every way and I can’t wait to get back in to college. I am forever thankful, I couldn’t be happier’’.

“As those of us with children will know, alongside the joys of parenthood, there are lots of challenges in looking after, and bringing up, a young child. Imagine, therefore, how much more difficult this enormous responsibility must be for young people - especially if they have no support from other family members. Now that Railway Meadow is here, all the partners are confident that the support and skills the young parents receive during their stay at Railway Meadow will set them up for the rest of their lives, to live independently, and to build a brighter future for their family.”

– Epping Forest DC Housing Portfolio Holder, Councillor David Stallan

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Our people and partners

One of the most exciting things about East Thames is the variety. As a social landlord, we may be best known for the homes we build and the neighbourhoods we create, but we do so much more, as you’ll have seen in these pages.

Employment and training programmes, care and support, creative programmes to keep youngsters safe and engaged, children’s centres, healthy eating programmes, the list goes on. The reason we’re successful in such a range of services is because our staff live and breathe our corporate vision. We really are passionate and committed to making a positive and lasting contribution to the neighbourhoods where we work, and we believe in the products and programmes we provide.

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Pamela Gardner, director of communities and neighbourhoods

In 2010–11 we launched our five year strategic plan, which brings together all the East Thames elements, distils them into five clear aims and then sets out how we’ll achieve these aims. You can read more about the plan in this section, but what’s key, is that every single member of staff will be focused on achieving these aims over the next five years, driven by a commitment to the contribution East Thames makes.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

East Thames’ people

Resident Board members

Recruiting and retaining excellent people who share our vision and values is crucial. We’ve started work on an East Thames People Strategy so we can be sure we’re getting the best from our employees and they’re getting the best from us as an employer. We want to make sure that people working for East Thames are supported to do their job, have opportunities for advancement and feel that it’s a good place to work. Getting this right improves the quality of services we provide and our effectiveness.

We want to make sure our residents are well represented on our Board so they are involved in decision making at the highest level. At the beginning of 2011 and following a rigorous recruitment process, we appointed three residents to the East Homes Board – Philip Fearn from Tower Hamlets and Angela Williams and Dominic Jebb from Newham.

One way of gauging staff mood and understanding how we can be a better employer is our staff survey which takes place every two years. Over 70% of staff completed our last survey in 2009, and that really helped us understand what we’re doing well and what we need to improve.

83%

of staff said they were committed to the organisation’s goals in the 2009 staff survey.

Supporting employment, training and small business We live and breathe our mission and we support our own programmes. For instance, we believe in the quality and effectiveness of our employment and training programmes so much that for many years we’ve offered work placements and permanent jobs to many of the residents who come through them.

We’re grateful to have the support of our corporate partners who provide mentoring, jobs, apprenticeships and work placements. Some of the partners who have done this include Trowers and Hamlins, Barclays, Durkan and London City Airport.

Housing Scrutiny Panel Another way of getting residents involved in strategic decision making is through our new Housing Scrutiny Panel. Seven residents have been elected to the Panel representing fellow residents in the boroughs of Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest and we’ll be holding elections soon for representatives in Barking and Dagenham, Tower Hamlets, Havering and Essex.

The Housing Scrutiny Panel meets every three months to examine our performance and services. Panel members can look at our budgets, identify good practice and areas for improvement, and hold East Thames accountable for the services we provide. They will decide which service areas they want to scrutinise and can commission resident inspectors and mystery shoppers to gather independent performance information.

Scrutiny panel member Melinda Ashby said: “The new resident involvement approach is a good way for us as residents to feel like we have a say in what goes on within our communities.

It’s all about team work and I am looking forward to being a part of making the boroughs we live in a better place.”

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Strong industry partnerships We have a wealth of knowledge and experience at East Thames on regeneration, community cohesion, the housing sector in London and employment and training. Working closely with our partners enables us to both share and build on our knowledge to the benefit of our residents and the wider community.

As a member of the Stratford Renaissance Partnership, we’re working with other local businesses in Stratford to help the Partnership tell Stratford’s story to the wider world and defining, developing and promoting Stratford’s economic role.

We also work closely with the National Housing Federation, London Development Agency and Homes and Communities Agency in an advisory and steering capacity. This helps these organisations better support and develop the industry, which is especially important during the current reforms to housing policy and funding.

A number of our team work with our partners in the G15, a group of London’s 15 largest social landlords. The G15 work together on a range of topics facing London’s social landlords and tenants, most recently tackling homelessness and improving social mobility.

Working with the National Housing Federation, Aster Group, Midland Heart and New Charter, we have developed a new tool which assesses the impact and effectiveness of community programmes. The Community Impact Tracking Service gives organisations the ability to monitor and evaluate the impact of projects and benchmark against others.

We’re also helping National House Building Council Foundation, which is chaired by Nick Raynsford MP, do their work to fund valuable research into housing development, focusing on sustainability, customer experience and risk.

Giving something back We receive so much fantastic support from our funders and it’s great when we can give something back.

Last year Comic Relief provided much needed funding to Great Marvellous Cool Living (GMCL), a mental health project for young people run from our First Step Foyer in partnership with the NHS. The charity gave us a grant of over £75,000 as part of their drive to support local projects that help young people with mental health needs. With the fantastic support we received from Comic Relief, staff decided to give something back by arranging fundraising activities on Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day in March 2011.

Staff decorating the house to raise money for Shelter

Our partners helped us raise at our annual charity golf day.

The money has been donated to: East Living Football Club who compete in the Positive Mental Attitude league; Starting Point to support social entrepreneurs; and a mothers and toddlers club at Ocean Estate.

£6,000

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

CASE STUDY:

A plan for the future The East Thames Strategic Plan 2010 -2015 sets out where we want the business to be in 2015 and how we plan to get there. It’s a challenging time with major changes in the industry and less public investment.

There’s a lot of work to do over the next few years, but we’ve started this work, including a programme of significant change and improvement to help us deliver outstanding services in a sustainable and effective way, making sure our customers are at the heart of everything we do.

1. Deliver good housing services By 2015 we will have worked with our residents to establish and meet agreed standards on housing service delivery and as a result will have improved the services we provide to them.

2. Be a strong business By 2015 we will have ensured that we remain an independent organisation valued by our stakeholders and focusing our activities on making a real difference in east London and Essex.

3. Improve lives By 2015 we will have delivered a range of services to our residents and other local people which will improve their life chances

by providing care and support and by accessing training, employment and a range of community development opportunities.

4. Build quality developments By 2015 we will have contributed to the physical regeneration of the neighbourhoods in which we work and will have provided well designed and cost effective new homes to local people on low and modest incomes.

5. Maximise Olympic opportunities By 2015 we will have contributed to the creation of a new and successful community at the Olympic Village and helped to ensure that the 2012 Olympics and its legacy has provided real benefits to local people.

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The future A message from our chief executive 2010–11 has been a year to celebrate. We have continued June Barnes, to make a positive difference to the lives of our residents, Chief executive, East Thames Group and the neighbourhoods where we work. But we know it’s going to be more difficult to do this over the coming years and we have already started to focus on how we can make every pound we have to spend really count.

The continued tough economic climate and the impact the Comprehensive Spending Review has had on local authorities and other public bodies, means that over the next five years, many of our residents and other people on low incomes are really going to be hard hit. We’ll see essential living costs increase, jobs get scarcer and many more changes as a result of

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welfare and housing reform.

In this context our focus is on supporting our residents and others through this difficult time.

We are doing this in part through a major change programme that will look at our service offer to all our customers. The programme will reduce our costs, make us a more effective and efficient organisation, while retaining the enthusiasm and

commitment of our staff. It will build a stronger East Thames, allowing us to continue to build much needed homes, keep our existing homes in good order and provide a range of vital care and support services. It will also enable us to continue our successful community programmes, which have grown out of the needs of our local communities. These include helping people access training and find employment; supporting people to develop social enterprises that deliver local services; and bringing our neighbourhoods together to tackle local issues.

Essential programmes like these help us build sustainable neighbourhoods in areas impacted by high levels of deprivation and unemployment. For instance at the Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets, a major regeneration project, we’re working with project partners to deliver new and improved homes, and community programmes around employment, health and engagement.

Our other key project is through Triathlon Homes, our consortium with First Base and Southern Housing which will own and manage almost 1,400 new affordable homes on the Athletes Village after the 2012 Olympic Games. With our partners, we’re gearing up to help deliver the important Olympic legacy to east London. It’s a bold and ambitious project and no understatement to say we’re part of creating a completely new community. Success for us will be seeing new families moving in to the Village after the Games and helping them make the most of the new employment opportunities in the area and really enjoy their new homes.

So times are going to be tough, but there are still opportunities to do what we believe. We are absolutely committed to maximising our investment in our neighbourhoods and making that positive and lasting difference which is what we are about. It’s key to our future that we do this, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be East Thames.

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Looking ahead In looking ahead to what we want to achieve over the next year, the ‘so what’ question will be ringing in our ears as we continually push ourselves to deliver better and cheaper services for our customers, remain focused on community regeneration and deliver more affordable homes.

Better and cheaper services for customers Our approach to training our staff to deliver excellent service has been recognised with an industry award. For us the challenge over the coming year will be to do even better, but for less money. We’re looking at how we can reduce the costs of repairs to homes while also improving performance, especially first time repairs fixes.

We’ll also be looking into more self-service options which will bring down the costs but also meet the growing demand for online services.

Innovation to improve mobility With reform underway to housing and welfare arrangements, we’ll also be focusing on adapting our services and finding innovative ways to help our residents find and maintain the right home for their family. One project we’re looking forward to progressing over the next year is G15 London moves, a scheme that aims to improve the mobility of social tenants in London. This pilot project involves 15 of London’s biggest social landlords who will each give 5% of their void properties over the next year to enable eligible residents to bid for G15 homes in other boroughs through a bespoke website www.g15londonmoves.org.uk. The scheme is currently helping G15 residents move to be closer to their work, or to downsize their home, but we also aim to eventually roll it out to enable any move, for any reason, within reason. The lessons learnt from the scheme will support the Mayor’s plans to roll out a London-wide housing mobility system, and the two schemes may eventually be combined.

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Still developing new homes Over the next five years we plan to build up to 1,000 new homes in east London and Essex, this includes existing developments that have already started onsite and new homes we plan to build as an approved development partner for the Homes and Communities Agency.

Regeneration Over the next year we will continue to work on four regeneration projects - three in Tower Hamlets (two on the Isle of Dogs and one in Stepney) and one in Waltham Forest.

In Tower Hamlets we are re-building two of our existing estates and increasing the density of the housing to offer more affordable homes in this borough where overcrowding is a significant issue.

We are also the lead partner in a consortium working on the Ocean Estate in Stepney, where we are refurbishing existing council homes and building new homes.

In Waltham Forest we are building a new 43-home scheme to replace an existing poor quality block of flats.

Construction work in Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Regeneration is a big undertaking and can be unsettling for residents. On New Union Wharf, an estate of just under 200 homes on the Isle of Dogs, we took a different approach. We gave residents a deciding vote on whether they wanted a complete regeneration or decent homes works. By a narrow margin the residents voted in favour of regeneration.

The current estate is poorly designed, there are structural issues which will be very expensive to fix and communal areas are not well used. We have been working with a residents’ group and architects Jestico & Whiles on designs for the new homes and will be submitting a planning application at the end of 2011, with the aim of starting building the new homes in mid to late 2012.

Not only will the existing households get new homes that are warmer and cheaper to run, we’ll also be able to offer many more affordable homes in this area.

New Union Wharf: view from the courtyard podium looking towards the Thames.

GO GREEN AND

save UP TO

£150 a year

Greener communities Another project we’re looking forward to delivering over the next two years is our Inspired to Sustainable Living project which received £200k funding from Defra. We’re using the inspiration of the 2012 Olympics to motivate our residents in Newham to adopt greener lifestyles by recycling more and saving energy and water in their home.

Participating residents will receive a resource pack of tools and tips to help make their household more environmentally friendly. We’ll also be training environmental volunteers to support their community in taking up the new environmental behaviours.

A key part of this project is understanding our residents’ environmental behaviours and seeing which tools and methods are the most successful in bringing about household behaviour changes. What we learn from this will be incorporated into a final home environmental resource kit, rolled out to our homes on the Athletes Village and shared with the industry.

In the business of charity We’ve made good progress in reducing costs and increasing our surpluses. But there is more to be done and we have embarked on a two-year programme to make savings and improve customer services and our business controls – it’s all about making East Thames a better business. We see ourselves as being in the business of charity. That means offering value for our funders, driving a hard bargain with our own contractors and partners and only doing things which are important to our customers. We want to make greater surpluses each year to fund more investment decisions, whether it’s building more homes or community regeneration.

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TRIATHLON HOMES:

Delivering a successful legacy for Stratford Completely new neighbourhoods are rare, especially in London where the built environment has been shaped and changed over many hundreds of years. Likewise, the people who live and work in an area also change more subtly over time.

But in Stratford in late 2013 a completely new neighbourhood will be emerging in the E20 postcode next to the Stratford Westfield City and adjacent to the new sporting facilities in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The Athletes Village which will house athletes and officials during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be converted into 2,818 quality new homes. Just under half of these – 1,379 – will be affordable homes owned and managed by Triathlon Homes, a partnership between East Thames, Southern Housing Group and First Base.

The London 2012 Games were won on the premise of legacy, and the high quality new homes and neighbourhood will deliver a major part of that legacy.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

The partnership

Who gets the homes?

Triathlon Homes is a joint venture company established by East Thames, First Base and Southern Housing Group.

A lettings plan is in the final stages of development, covering the 675 affordable rented homes. The majority of these will go to households on the Newham housing register.

Other London boroughs will also get a small allocation. The intermediate and shared ownership homes will be available for people registered through First Steps and will help people get a start on the property ladder.

The funding arrangement Triathlon Homes entered into a purchase agreement with the Olympic Delivery Authority for 1,379 homes at the 2,800-home Athletes Village.

Triathlon Homes is funded by external funding facilities from Barclays Commercial Bank and the European Investment Bank of £158.7 million. In addition, the Homes and Communities Agency is investing a housing grant of £110 million.

The tenure mix There will be a mix of tenures and home types to ensure that a vibrant community is formed with housing opportunities for a range of residents, particularly for people from the local area.

There will be: • 675 affordable rented homes • 354 intermediate rented homes • 350 shared ownership and shared equity homes Nearly a third of these homes will be three bedrooms or larger.

The neighbourhood With first-class transport connections, shops, leisure facilities, spaces and architecture, it is a new neighbourhood packed with choice. The area will be serviced by the Chobham Academy and a polyclinic and will be next to parklands, wetlands, nature trails and leisure facilities. It is a place that will feel established right from when the first residents move in.

The features The homes will all be finished to a high quality specification with exemplary design and sustainability standards. The buildings within the Village have been designed by a number of different architects, giving each block its own personality and style. Based around courtyards, the homes will have access to shared gardens and benefit from excellent natural lighting. The latest hi-tech features have been incorporated in the building design, including energy saving insulation, glazing and ventilation.

Our vision for the Olympic Village is to deliver a new and complete London neighbourhood that delivers more time, space and rewarding experiences to all who live there.

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Governance East Thames Group is a Registered Provider. It is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. The Group is the strategic arm of the organisation, setting overall strategic direction for its subsidiaries.

The Group also provides governance, human resources, marketing and communications, ICT, business support, internal audit, risk and compliance and financial services to each of its subsidiaries to ensure consistency of approach and to achieve effective economies of scale.

All subsidiaries are wholly owned and mutual agreements ensure their independence.

In 2011 the Group concluded a review of its governance. This has resulted in us pursuing a ‘virtual collapse’ of the boards of East Thames Group, East Homes, East Living and East Potential.

Under these arrangements there is an overlapped board structure consisting of a core group of six members who sit on each board plus a number of independent members.

Audit and risk management issues are considered in detail by a Group Risk Management and Audit Committee. Chaired by Ashley West, the Committee also consists of the Treasurer of the Group plus four independent members.

Governance (including standards and ethics) and remuneration issues are considered on a Groupwide basis through the Group Governance and Remuneration Committee. Chaired by the Core Member (Human Resources), Marianne Skelcher, the Committee also consists of the Group Chair, and the Chairs of the main operational subsidiaries.

Customer issues are considered through a Customer Experience Committee of the East Homes Board made up of members of the East Homes Board together with independent members.

Development and asset management issues are considered through a Development and Asset Management Committee made up of members of

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the East Thames Group and East Homes Boards, together with independent members.

Operational subsidiaries in the Group are: East Homes owns and/or manages more than 13,325 homes and is the largest multi-tenure landlord operating across east London and Essex.

It is a resident-focused organisation that offers a wide range of affordable housing options. East Homes provides a ‘one-stop shop’ that offers low-cost rental accommodation, intermediate rent and home ownership options. East Homes is a charitable registered Industrial and Provident Society.

East Place, the Group’s commercial arm specialising in homes for outright sale and market rent, and running various management companies, is a subsidiary of East Homes.

Another East Homes subsidiary, East Thames Partnership, was established in 2011 to deal with housing for sale arising from the redevelopment of the Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets.

East Living is a charitable registered Industrial and Provident Society and provides residential and respite accommodation through more than 80 care schemes and floating support to about 1,630 people with particular needs. This includes supported living, registered care and housing management services, as well as floating support to people living in their own homes.

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

People benefiting from East Living’s services include people with mental health needs, people with learning disabilities, older people, women fleeing domestic violence and vulnerable young people. East Living took over the management of our foyer accommodation in 2011.

East Potential is a social and economic regeneration charity which works to empower local people to create a brighter future for themselves and make a contribution within their communities. It does this through a broad range of programmes for young people, families and adults, including, employment and training services, arts and culture initiatives, children’s centres, and health and sustainable living projects. It aims to raise aspirations, promote community pride and cohesion, and give people a chance to succeed.

As well as the operational subsidiaries listed above, East Thames has two more subsidiaries: East Treasury and East Regen. As part of our attempts to rationalize governance, East Foundation and EH Street Properties are currently in the process of being wound up.

Independent Housing Ombudsman Scheme IHOS is available to all housing association residents. During 2010–11 the IHOS concluded two investigations in to East Thames, with the ombudsman finding maladministration in both cases.

Governance East Thames has adopted the National Housing Federation’s Excellence in Governance Code for Members and Good Practice Guidance.

This is reviewed annually and a statement on compliance is available from our website, www.east-thames.co.uk.

Shareholder and board recruitment Copies of our recruitment and selection procedures, along with the obligations, skills, qualities and experience required by members, can be obtained from our website www.east-thames.co.uk.

Auditors Our auditors are Grant Thornton LLP, Bryon House, Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 OWZ

Principal bankers Our principal bankers are Barclays Bank PLC, Business Banking, PO Box 544, 1st Floor, 54 Lombard Street, London EC3V 9EX

Annual reviews and accounts Detailed accounts for all parts of the East Thames Group are available as separate documents by visiting our website www.east-thames.co.uk.

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Our Board members Up to date details of all our board members can be found on our website, www.east-thames.co.uk.

Tina Tietjen (Independent Group Chair) – appointed 2010 ETG Tina has a broad based portfolio at chairman and non executive director level in the public, private and voluntary sectors including the Air Transport Users Council, the Willow Foundation and Women’s Royal Voluntary Service. She is a consultant for Business in the Community.

Ashley West FCCA, FCMA (Independent) – appointed 2010 ETG Ashley has held a number of senior finance positions in the private sector including Kingsway Group plc and J Henry Schroder Limited.

He currently holds several non-executive roles including Chair of mhs homes limited (a not for profit landlord) in the Medway area and Medway LIFTCO Limited, a PPP initiative to develop healthcare facilities in the Medway area. Ashley is Chair of the Group Risk Management and Audit Committee.

Andrew Newell ETG EH (Core Member) – appointed 2007 EL EP Andrew has over 30 years UK financial services experience encompassing finance, risk, audit and governance. He was formerly Head of Finance at Abbey National plc.

He is the independent Chairman of the Football Association Audit Committee, a Non Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of One Savings Bank plc, and a Trustee of Crisis.

Andrew is chair of East Treasury and a member of our Risk Management and Audit Committee and of East Regen.

40

THAMES

Marianne Skelcher, Chartered Director ETG EH (Core Member) EL EP – appointed 2008 Marianne is a self-employed organisational development consultant and executive coach and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She holds a number of nonexecutive roles and was previously Group Director of Human Resources, Bromford Group. Marianne chairs the Governance and Remuneration Committee.

Sheila Lewis BSc FRSA (Core Member) – appointed 2007

ETG

EH

EL

EP

Sheila is the founder and Director of Volanti Consulting Limited and has been a management consultant for 25 years. She was previously a consultant with KPMG, CSL, Deloitte and Dearle & Henderson. Sheila provides a wide range of strategic and operational consultancy services to local authorities, social housing providers and voluntary organisations. Sheila chairs the Development and Asset Management Committee.

Shirley Watson ETG EH (Core Member) EL EP BSc CEng CEnv FICE MCIHT MCIWEM FRSA – appointed 2008 Shirley is a civil engineer with over 30 years consultancy experience in both residential and construction projects. Currently self employed as a business management consultant, she has held several director level positions including at NHBC and most recently, with consultant WSP,

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

KEY to boards members sit on: ETG = East Thames Group

EH = East Homes

first as Director of Business Improvement, then Head of UK Property. Shirley chairs the East Place Board and is a Member of the Development and Asset Management Committee and of the Risk Management and Audit Committee.

Mehban Chowdery (Core Member) – appointed 2007

ETG

EH

EL

EP

Mehban is NHBC’s regional director for London. With a civil engineering and construction management background, he has held senior management positions across both the private and social housing sectors, involved particularly with large scale regeneration and mixed use projects. He was seconded to work on the Egan task force agenda for improving customer satisfaction with the quality of new homes and enabling innovative construction methods. Previously he has also been a board member at ASRA housing association and presently sits on the Housing Design Award Committee and is a member of its professional judging panel.

June Barnes (Core Member) – appointed 2011

ETG

EH

EL

EP

A town planner and member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, June has been Chief Executive of East Thames Group since 1997.

She is a Board Member of the National Housing Federation and on their Audit and Risk Committee, Chair of Stratford Renaissance Partnership and a Trustee of the Institute for Sustainability.

EL = East Living

EP = East Potential

Johanna Holmes Independent Chair, East Homes – appointed 2007 EH Johanna was a founding manager of consultants Chapman Hendy Associates (now Tribal), having previously worked as Chief Executive of Women’s Pioneer Housing, Assistant Regional Manager (Monitoring and Regulation) at the Housing Corporation and for Paddington Churches Housing Association (now part of the Genesis Group).

Johanna continues to work as a consultant to local authorities, chiefly on youth homelessness, and is also a Trustee of HACT.

Terry Price (Independent) – appointed 2007 EH Terry is an accountant and a member of the East Homes Board (Treasurer), East Regen (Chair) and East Treasury.

He currently holds a number of Non Executive Director roles in the public and voluntary sectors and is also a school governor. He was formerly Director of Strategic Finance for the Metropolitan Police and Director of Resources for Sport England.

Angela Williams (Resident Board Member) – appointed 2011 EH Angela is a Newham resident and currently works with the London Borough of Newham as a street scene enforcement officer.

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41

Philip Fearn (Resident Board Member) – appointed 2011 EH Philip Fearn is a shared owner at Vickery’s Wharf in Tower Hamlets and was the founding Chair of the Abbots & Vickery’s Wharf Residents Association. He is currently a director of the Abbots Wharf Management Company and is managing director of Fearn Events & Communications Ltd.

Dominic Jebb (Resident Board Member) – appointed 2011 EH Dominic is a Newham resident and previously completed the foyer programme. He is a Customer Relationship Management Executive at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain having previously worked for solicitors Trowers and Hamlins.

Debbie Sorkin – Chair, East Living EL – appointed 2007 Debbie is Director of Engagement at the National Skills Academy for Social Care, which works with social care employers and commissioners from across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. She also has expertise in spatial planning, regeneration and community engagement issues from her previous role as Director of Programmes and Services at the Royal Town Planning Institute. Debbie is a Trustee of the Camden Society, Vice-chair of Novas Scarman Group, a national social justice charity; and sits on the DCLG Voluntary and Community Sector Partnership Board.

Rohan Hewavisenti (Independent) EL MEng, ACA – appointed 2007 Rohan is director of finance and business development with the British Red Cross. He previously worked for Breast Cancer Care, ActionAid and VSO. He is currently on the boards of Charity Finance Directors’ Group and Charity Investors’ Group.

42

THAMES

Vacant – Chair, East Potential

EP

Alec Dick (Independent) – appointed 2009 EP Alec is a regeneration and renewal professional with over 30 years experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors. He has held senior level positions in these sectors and has a proven track record of success in physical, social and economic regeneration and neighbourhood renewal.

Retirements during 2010-11 Name Date retired Board sat Bob Chilton, Group Chair.... 2010 .................... ETG Rita Dattani ............................. 8/11 .................... ETG Sandra Fryer .......................... 8/11 .................... ETG EP Graham Lust ........................... 8/11 .................... ETG Chu Ofili ........................................ 8/11 .................... ETG Linda Perham ........................ 8/11 .................... ETG EL Kay Vowles ................................ 8/11 .................... ETG Ruth Richards ....................... 3/11 .................... EH Debbie Taylor ......................... 3/11 .................... EH Jide Olagundoye ................. 8/11 .................... EH Phil Hearson ........................... 3/11 .................... EH Jeanette Dye ........................... 3/11 .................... EH Peta Caine ................................. 8/11 .................... EH Mark Westcott ...................... 8/11 .................... EH Miranda Coates .................. 8/11 .................... EL Chander Hingorani .......... 8/11 .................... EL Ajibola Awogboro ............... 8/11 .................... EL Catherine Harris ................ 8/11 .................... EL Mike Howes ............................. 8/11 .................... EL Alison Rosen ........................... 8/11 .................... EL Ron Wallace ............................ 8/11 .................... EL Alan Wells .................................. 8/11 .................... EP Stephane Koumba .......... 8/11 .................... EP Joe Tuke ....................................... 8/11 .................... EP Richard Penney ................... 8/11 .................... EP Carolyn Clarke ...................... 8/11 .................... EP Christine Bowden ............. 8/11 .................... EP

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Our funders We would like to say a big thank you to all the organisations who provided us with important funding to carry out the work that we do.

If you would like to help us make a difference by helping local people and changing lives, please call our fundraising team on 0208 536 3982 or email russ.mclean@east-potential.org.uk.

FUNDED BY

The Federation

THAMES

43

Performance

12.2% 30.1% 20.5%

3.9% 11.1%

5.4% 0.8% 4.6% 0.3% 3.5% 4.8%

0.1%

64.7% 14%

3.1% 1.5% 2.7%

£’000

65,457 14,196 2,690 3,167 1,481 4,820 3,533 290 786 4,695 101,115

INCOME

Rents & service charges Grants - Care & Support Development management fees Grants - Community involvement First tranche shared ownership sales Sale of housing properties Properties developed for sale to other registered providers Sales & marketing fees Properties developed for sale - non social housing Other TOTAL

£’000

28,978 19,781 5,157 10,704 3,793 11,769 979 3,533 521 3,882 4,150 1,939 634 383 56 96,259

1% 3.7% 0.5% 4% 4.3% 2%

0.4%

0.7%

EXPENDITURE

Management costs (including wages) Net interest Service charge costs Support Rent - private sector landlords Maintenance / repairs First tranche shared ownership sales Properties developed for sale to other registered providers Properties developed for sale - non social housing Development costs Community involvement - programme costs Housing properies depreciation Rent losses from bad debts Other Corporation tax TOTAL

MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS (EAST HOMES) % Emergency repairs completed within timescales % Urgent repairs completed within timescales % Routine repairs completed within timescales % Stock meeting Decent Homes Standard

2009-10 Performance 98.7% 92.8% 90.5% 98.0%

2010-11 Performance 93.6% 98.4% 97.1% 100%

2010-11 Target 97%* 97%* 97%* 100%

VOIDS AND LETTINGS General Needs relet time Supported Housing relet time % of General Needs stock vacant and available to let % of General Needs stock vacant but unavailable to let

Performance 27.4 days 47.5 days* 0.4% 0.5%

Performance 22.27 days 59 days 0.4% 1.0%

Target 28 days 46 days 0.4% 1.2%

FINANCIAL INDICATORS General Needs arrears Shared Ownership arrears Number of Shared Ownership sales Number of Rent Now, Buy Later completions Average void period for sales

Performance 4.71% 3.31% 31 106 15.2weeks

Performance 4.25% 2.13% 11 49 6.2weeks

Target 5.3% 4.5% N/A N/A 12 weeks

RESIDENT SATISFACTION Satisfied with overall service Satisfied with views being taken into account Number of residents satisfied with SER services

Performance 76.1% 69.9% 97.6%

Performance 70.0% 68.1% 94.8%

Target N/A 70% 85%

44

Excludes foyers.

*

THAMES

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

Performance figures for the Group's housing services, including the resident profile of both our social rented and supported homes.

GENERAL NEEDS RESIDENT PROFILE Household types of new tenants

13.8% 33.1%

Age of new tenants

26.9%

7.3%

76.1%

6.9% 19.3%

15.4%

Ethnicity of new tenants

7.2%

34.6%

1.3% Older people Single adult Multi adult - no children Lone parent Multi adult - with children

32.6% 17.9% 5.3% 2.3%

White British White other (incl Irish) Black/Black British Asian/Asian British Mixed Chinese/other

Under 18 (0%) 18 - 24 years 25 - 59 years 60 - 74 years Over 75

SUPPORTED HOUSING RESIDENT PROFILE Household types of new tenants

20.6% 4.7% 3.2%

14.8%

7.8% 7.6% 0.6%

Older people Single adult Multi adult - no children Lone parent Multi adult - with children

ETHNICITY OF STAFF

860 52 2

We had 805 employees on 31 March 2011

stage 1 complaints stage 2 complaints complaints referred to Housing Ombudsman

46%

0.9%

33.5%

40.9% 9.7% 9.2% 2.6%

White British White other (incl Irish) Black/Black British Asian/Asian British Mixed Chinese/other

Under 18 (0%) 18 - 24 years 25 - 59 years 60 - 74 years Over 75

COMPLAINTS: 2010–11

Ethnicity of new tenants

4.3%

56.9%

83.5%

0.6%

Age of new tenants

32.3% 4.2% 12.6% 3.7% 0.4%

White Black/Black British Asian/Asian British Mixed Chinese Other Unknown

THAMES

45

Performance Performance information for our social and economic regeneration projects and schemes, including foyers.

28% 37.2% 28.1%

3.9% 2.8%

£’000

INCOME

3,604 3,587 4,767

Supporting people Rent and service charges Grants / donations (including funding from East Homes) Other activities Other

499 365 12,822

0.1% 1% 1.2% 2.2%

TOTAL

70.2% 13.2% 12.2%

£’000

8,996 1,693 1,561 280 150 132 10 12,822

EXPENDITURE

Accommodation services Community involvement and regeneration Childrens centres Education and employment Time for Youth Management & admininstration Property management TOTAL

Foyer performance • 57% of all foyer residents were in employment, education or training activities • An average of 20 foyer residents a month took part in volunteering • 78% of all foyer residents who movedon, did so having successfully met all the goals in their support plan • 73% of the 408 foyer resident departures were planned

46

THAMES

• 39% of people who moved-on from the foyers were in education or training programmes • 19% moved-on with a level 1 or above qualification • 12% left with a basic skills qualification • 18% people moved-on from the foyer with employment • First Step Foyer assisted a total of 41 referrals to other housing (supported or otherwise), up from 23 in 2009/10

ANNUAL REVIEW 2010-11

GRANTS 2010-11 £’000

CENTRAL HALF

1,478

Essex County Council

3

Comic Relief

3

Other (cont)

49.8% 0.8% 0.3% 0.3%

0.1% 0.1% 15.2%

14.7%

2.8% 2.2% 2.7% 0.3%

1.3% 5.2% 0.3% 0.03% 0.9% 0.7% 0.4%

0.5%

0.5%

0.9%

GRANTS 2010-11 £’000

OUTER HALF

27

Arts Council

10

Mercers’ Charitable Foundation

14

DEFRA

10

Merchant’s Taylor

East Foundation

24

Midland Heart

153 40

Food Growing Project

26

Foyer Federation

14

Newham College

12

Grocers Charity

82

Newham Food

22

Heritage Lottery Fund

1 10 436

Housing the Homeless

450

LB Newham

Access Partnership 8

Other

Jack Petchey

64

Routes to Work

London Councils (ALG)

80

Starting Point

1,482

TOTAL

THAMES

47

Annual review

2010-11

Registered office: 29-35 West Ham Lane, Stratford, London E15 4PH. Customer contact centre: 0845 600 0830. Main number: 020 8522 2000.

Minicom: 020 8522 2006. Fax: 020 8522 2001. Web: www.east-thames.co.uk. East Thames Group Limited: Registered in England & Wales (4091100) Registered Charity (1084952) Tenant Services Authority Registered (LH4309). Member of the National Housing Federation.

Produced and designed by the Marcoms team, East Thames Group. 1005-SEP-2011