TO TENANTS
YOUR ANNUAL REPORT 2012
“
Welcome to our third annual report to tenants, your opportunity to find out more about what we do, how we’re getting on and what we are planning to do in the future. It is packed full of useful information which gives you a flavour of the range of things that Great Places gets up to. The Tenant Services Committee (TSC) is our customer led decision making body within Great Places. The TSC is made up of a majority of residents, currently 10 out of the 14 members are tenants. It provides a forum for residents to review Great Places’ performance and steer the direction of services going forward. We work hard to make sure there are continuous improvements to housing and property services. It’s great that we’re given so much authority to make key decisions on behalf of so many people. We are grateful to all those tenants whose involvement has helped to improve Great Places and its services.
Christine Goulden
Great Places board member and Chair of Tenant Services Committee (TSC)
TENANT SERVICES COMMITTEE MEMBERS Christine Goulden (Chair) Guy Cresswell Robin Gardner Janice Kay Angela Lindsay
Maureen McDermott Carol Neale Robin Ogle Sajad Qureshi Brian Sedgwick
Selvie Selvaetnam Geoff Simpson Evelyn Uche Dereck Waters
”
Providing excellent customer service is our number one priority. We work tirelessly to maintain and improve the respected position we hold with you, our customers. This year we were rewarded for our hard work when we became one of only a few housing associations nationally to achieve a 100% success rate in the government’s Customer Service Excellence award. But we didn’t stop there. We have just been awarded Investors in Excellence, an award given to both public and private organisations that have a high standard of all-round performance. The feedback we received confirms that we have a “can-do” attitude, a clear commitment to improvement and that we are performing at a very high level. We’ve always valued your views and put your needs and aspirations at the heart of everything we do. This year was no different. We held numerous focus groups, organised tenant participation events, carried out face-to-face visits and used digital media to communicate with you and we’ve listened to what you said. You can now contact us in more ways than ever before. We enhanced our customer access system which has recorded over 110,000 customer contacts to date, set to rise to over 200,000 by the end of the year We launched our Great Places mobile app which provides you with another way to contact us, report a repair, pay your rent and stay informed about our news We introduced SATNAV, a tool that helps us see how satisfied you are and allows us to deal with your issues quickly
BASED ON OVER 600 RESPONSES SINCE APRIL 2012
89% 88% 94% 94%
of you were satisfied with the overall service we provide
of you were satisfied with the quality of your home
of you were satisfied with our repairs service, up from 73% last year of you were satisfied with how your calls were dealt with
GETTING YOU INVOLVED The Go For It! team is made up of 10 staff and a fundraising co-ordinator working across 32 local authorities. They encourage you to get involved in improving services, re-energising your neighbourhoods, which in turn increases customer satisfaction. Since the team was set up, satisfaction with views taken into account has increased from 54% in 2009 to 85% in 2012. The team’s ‘Go for it - Get involved’ approach involves you in everything from formal meetings to fun days in the community and has had a positive impact on a range of initiatives from our fencing policy to our service standards.
GIVING BACK For us, while building homes is a big part of what we’re about, we continue to put our money, time and energy into your communities long after the cement has dried. The Tenants Services Committee have re-directed of funds into new fencing
AND
£50,000 £90,000
1,727 45
towards helping you keep your home warm
of you got involved in community events over the last year
young people have been helped into work through our Toolbox programme since it launched
We worked with more than 40 residents’ groups to secure external funding for community projects, totalling over
£300,000 £30k £50k £60k £40k
for youth work in Levenshulme, Manchester towards a full-size football pitch in Knutsford to help a Bury resident turn an old church attic into a fantastic community space grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create a people’s history project in Levenshulme
RESIDENTS AT THE ZOO We held our last annual residents’ conference at Chester Zoo.
400 54% 65% 120
people came along to the day of people who went hadn’t been to any Great Places event before of the residents that came were under 55; the year before it was only 5%
residents and their carers came from 20 different supported schemes
SERVICE STANDARDS At the zoo we asked you about how we’re doing in several areas and continued these discussions at Local Area Forums throughout the year. We have now agreed on five priority areas: • High quality of service • Delivering on promises • At your convenience • The personal touch • Keeping you informed We’ll tell you how we’re doing regularly in these five areas.
VALUE FOR MONEY Great Places considers the broader aspects of value for money (VFM) where cost is only one element, and service, quality, customer satisfaction and sustainability are also crucial. We think about value for money in every decision we make especially in repairs, maintenance and the improvement of your homes. Our two main priority areas - providing excellent customer service and becoming financially stronger – both have value for money at their centre.
88%
of you were satisfied that your rent was good value for money
£5 MILLION
spent on improving your homes this year, next year we plan to spend even more Through our various money saving initiatives, this year we’ve saved you over
£1 MILLION
34 residents were referred to our debt management team. We helped these residents increase their annual income by a collective total of
£27,000
We piloted a downsizing initiative to give up to 10 households the chance to move into a smaller home that’s cheaper to run. To encourage residents, we offered a range of incentives including up to £600 towards removal costs In Salford, we helped residents reduce their rent arrears. The total amount raised during the project stands at £70,000 With Salford-based Footlights Theatre Company we staged an exciting performance of “Just A Few Quid”, a play about the dangers of loan sharks Our award-winning NHS No Smoking campaign helped residents kick the habit and save an estimated £2,000 a year each We help you to budget, understand benefits and to manange your bills. Last year we provided one-to-one support and advice to almost 1,500 tenants
HOW WE SPEND YOUR RENT Surplus - our rainy day money because we’re a notfor-profit organisation, all of our spare cash goes back into improving your homes, funding our supported housing projects and creating new homes
10%
Services we provide to you
9%
Fall in property value
11%
Everyday repairs
13% 15%
Interest payments on loans
22%
20%
Staff & office costs
Planned or major repairs
THIS YEAR WE SAVED
£100,000 £200,000 on the group’s gas & electricity contract for communal areas until 2015
through our grounds maintenance contract review, reducing the number of suppliers from 17 to 3
£400,000 a year for 7 years through a new deal with our bank
1792
STANDARD OF HOMES
OVER THE LAST YEAR
REPAIRS
100%
new kitchens installed
565
We invest in your homes to make sure they remain high quality and comfortable places to live. To help us do this we’ve introduced a computer system which allows our staff to access information on energy, adaptations and future home improvements, instantly. It provides us with information on when, and where, to invest in our stock. We also involve you in decision-making so we can spend money where you think it is needed, and develop standards we know we can afford in the future.
of our homes meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard
641
homes painted
289
A-rated boilers installed
homes got new windows
163
109
55
99%
homes got new doors
new bathroom suites fitted
full heating systems installed
of you were happy with the work we did
41,138
96%
repairs carried out
of repairs completed on time
98%
94%
of repairs appointments made & kept
100%
85%
of repairs completed on very first visit
of you satisfied with repairs
of our properties have a valid Gas Safety Certificate
NEIGHBOURHOOD STANDARDS We are always working to improve the general look and feel of your neighbourhoods whether that’s creating green spaces for all to enjoy or working closely with local organisations like the police, the fire service and local authorities to ensure our neighbourhoods are places you want to live in. Your safety is also a major priority. Creating an environment where you can go about your daily business with confidence is what Great Places strives to do every day. We have a dedicated anti-social behaviour team and we employ a fair but tough stance, tailoring action to individual cases. Recently we have developed a new way to identify which neighbourhoods are thriving and which need re-energising.
89%
of you were satisfied with your neighbourhood, based on nearly 1,500 responses
84%
were satisfied with how the ASB case they reported was dealt with
TENANCY MANAGEMENT There have been many significant changes made recently by the government which will affect you and how you live. The most important is the Welfare Reform Act which will have an enormous impact on how much benefit you receive and how it’s given to you. Great Places has been working hard to offer advice and guidance, putting you in contact with our financial inclusion team and supporting you to downsize or get back into work and we will be doing even more in the coming year.
4%
Average re-let time was
22
DAYS
Current arrears (including arrears due to housing benefit)
Rent loss from empty properties
0.8%
Because we’ve been re-letting our properties so quickly, the amount of rent we’ve lost is one of the lowest percentages in the housing sector and our arrears are at their lowest levels ever