Marking our progress 2012
Gurshran Lail, Regional Manager
Mick Kent HouseMark Chair
It has been my great pleasure to be Chair of HouseMark for the last two years, a responsibility which has given me a real insight into the excellent services provided by the company which do so much to improve our sector's performance and efficiency. Moreover, I am pleased to have been able to lead a modernisation of governance at HouseMark, the results of which come into effect in 2012. As well as shareholder representatives, the board will now have two independent members, one of whom will in due course take over from me as chair. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all HouseMark colleagues, staff and board members alike, for their hard work and excellent contributions to company success.
Ross Fraser Chief Executive
In the twelve years since HouseMark was formed membership has continued to grow, and 2011 was no exception with 96.7% customer retention and a considerable increase in membership by smaller associations. Continuing demand for our services demonstrates sector recognition of the importance of data as a business planning tool and the role of HouseMark as the primary source of comparative data on cost, performance and value for money. My personal objective for 2012 is to ensure that our data services support both the growing interest in board, committee and tenant scrutiny, along with the increasing focus on risk management in a challenging economic
environment. Accordingly, we have recently launched our benchmarking dashboard to support scrutiny, and we are currently developing a data service to support future business planning. My colleagues and I are extremely grateful for your continued support. If there is anything more that we can do to improve our services, please contact your regional manager and let us know.
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Our business HouseMark has two primary objectives: to help member organisations improve their performance and value for money, and to return surpluses directly to the social housing sector via our parent organisations, CIH and NHF. However, we recognise that continued investment in new and improved services is essential if we are to continue to meet our objectives. The operating environment has changed significantly since the general election and in response we have embarked on an ambitious business development programme. Whilst most of this investment will be funded from existing resources, we will need to levy a modest increase in subscription fees in 2012 in order to roll out our new initiatives.
We have again been able to meet these objectives in the past year due to continued strong financial performance and membership retention. Mindful of the challenging fiscal environment for our members, we have frozen our subscription fees for the past two years and reduced our consultancy fees. We have been able to do so by securing considerable internal efficiencies across the business.
14%
8%
3%
9%
10%
2%
72% 72%
17%
2% 1%
2%
72%
70% 70%
90% 90%
72%
70%
Subscription services
Benchmarking
Shareholders (CIH and NHF)
Other services
Procurement services
HouseMark re-investment
Workshop income
Good practice
Procurement for Housing
Other services
Consultancy
Consultancy
Other income
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Share of 2011 surpluses
Expenditure
Income
Membership renewal 2011 was another very strong year in terms of membership renewal. The loss of 3.3% of subscription renewal includes several membership losses as a result of organisational mergers, as well as actual non-renewals. The true non-renewal position is therefore even stronger than these figures suggest.
Membership renewal chart 100%
97.5%
96.7%
96.7%
96.7%
2009
2010
2011
95% 95.9%
95.6% 94.4% 630
92.5%
90% 2006
2007
2008
Membership make-up chart
630
953
168
77 58
16
4 ALMOs
Housing associations
Smaller housing associations
Housing co-operatives
LAs
Other
Total
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Whether a housing organisation is operating in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the operating challenge is the same - how can service quality be maintained in the context of increasingly uncertain financial resources? Following the general election, funding for new development, supported housing and community activity has been much reduced. The government’s welfare reform agenda constitutes the biggest future threat to provider revenue going forward. All housing organisations are refocusing their attention on value for money as a consequence, seeking to reduce operating costs wherever possible. Equally, demonstrating value for money and service excellence to boards, housing committees and tenants - in the context of self-assessment and self-regulation - is becoming a core element of sector culture across the UK. In both cases, good business practice means providers need to fully understand their costs, what drives those costs, how performance and outcomes measure up, and make comparisons to fully understand the value for money of their business. Comparative analysis of cost continues to be essential in the pursuit of value for money (VFM). VFM itself is a comparative concept; it cannot be defined without
“
I have found HouseMark’s benchmarking service to be extremely helpful in comparing expenditure, income and performance and as a tool for understanding costs. This has enabled us to make informed decisions on both front and back office costs and achieve reductions.
”
Rob Ingleton, Head of Finance & HR, Poole Housing Partnership
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reference to what other providers are achieving in terms of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Whilst ‘direction of travel’ analysis is also essential, without comparative data VFM cannot be demonstrated to boards, committees, regulators and (most importantly) to tenants. This focus on securing and demonstrating VFM is now a common thread in the expectations of regulators across the UK. Conversely, regulators (in England and Wales at least) are reducing the amount of comparative data they collect and publish from 2012 onwards. This increases the importance of the HouseMark benchmarking dataset going forward. It is the broadest, most consistent and robustly validated national and regional dataset within social housing, and provides the sector’s only independent and trusted method of meaningful comparison with peers. We have improved our existing benchmarking, making data collection easier and enhancing the display of data. More information about these enhancements follows in later pages of this report. However, perceptions of value for money are changing in a manner that reflects future business risk rather than any regulatory influence. Whilst the need to balance current spend and service quality will remain constant, uncertainty regarding future rental income, borrowing costs and external funding mean that the ‘value for money equation’ will also need to capture use of and return on assets, investment in income management, cross subsidy for development and the impact of community activity. HouseMark recognises this shift in emphasis, and we are focusing our service improvements in 2012 around business improvement: better reporting and understanding of data, improved scrutiny and returns. We also propose to develop a business data service – linked to our core benchmarking product – for launch in 2013 to support organisations in their drive to manage future risk.
Member services update Regional managers Extensive customer research carried out in 2010 found that our members would like more personal contact with HouseMark staff. We agree! In response, we have re-designated our existing benchmarking managers as regional managers and recruited three new regional managers to ensure sufficient capacity for face-to- face customer engagement. All regional managers live within a reasonable travelling distance of their customers so they can provide the best possible service, get to know their customers better, and ensure members gain maximum value from their HouseMark subscription. Each regional manager:
Regional manager
Edinburgh
Newcastle upon Tyne
• is the ‘face of HouseMark’ for a regional portfolio of HouseMark members
Sheffield
• manages their member account in terms of customer relations, subscription renewals and benchmarking services
Stoke-On-Trent
• provides technical and customer support in respect of our benchmarking services and undertakes data validation • provides feedback on benchmarking results where requested by members • ensures that members are aware and take advantage of the full range of HouseMark services
Leicester Coventry Swansea
Gloucester Bristol
London Aldershot
We already have a manager for Wales and an acting manager for Scotland. We are looking to deploy dedicated resources in Scotland in 2012.
Making benchmarking easier As we extend the range and depth of the data we collect, we also seek to minimise the data collection effort for our customers. In 2011 we introduced a new method of data collection for our core benchmarking and performance indicator tracking services. Known as the E-form, this approach will: • speed up and simplify the data collection process by removing the duplication of data entry between HouseMark benchmarking services, and allowing multiple users within the organisation to work on data entry simultaneously • provide enhanced quality assurance by collecting more components of performance indicators (rather than results)
in our performance indicator tracking, and ensure greater consistency in the data we collect across our benchmarking services • introduce a quicker and more streamlined data validation process, supported by greater ability for self-checking at the point of data entry The introduction of the E-form as the common platform for data entry across our key benchmarking products has allowed us to start thinking about how we can further improve, including offering automatic upload of data from a range of IT systems. This is an important project for 2012 which will further enhance and quicken the data collection process.
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Member services update “
HouseMark’s new dashboard presents headline performance information in a clear, attractive and intuitive format. It’s easy to navigate and provides both a meaningful overview as well as a drill down option for a more detailed understanding.
”
Tom Bassford, Business Improvement Manager, Eastlands Homes
Supporting board, committee and tenant scrutiny Our benchmarking dashboard was launched on 1 December 2011. This fully accessible and visually appealing presentation of benchmarking data aims to: • increase the visibility and usage of HouseMark’s benchmarking data within member organisations • help providers share their data with boards, committees and tenants to support tenant scrutiny • assist providers and their tenants in making value for money judgements and meeting economic regulatory requirements The dashboard has the following features: • value for money quadrant showing cost against performance for eight key service areas • the ability for users to drill into individual activity areas for more detail on cost and performance • highly attractive visual presentations of data • interactive and easy-to-use interface • the ability to compare with the whole of the UK, regionally, or with a chosen peer group • the option for providers to add commentary to each activity area • providers can also share their dashboard externally by plugging it into their own websites As well as working with providers and tenants in developing the dashboard, we took external usability advice to ensure that the dashboard is as visually appealing as possible. Early feedback from customers has been incredibly positive. The dashboard is free to HouseMark subscribers, but can only be used by those who have taken part in our annual core benchmarking exercise.
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Thought leadership We continue to produce ‘thought leadership’ information on issues such as scrutiny, VFM, ASB, tenant satisfaction and so on. In 2011 our publications included: • Tenant Scrutiny: now and in the future (with CIH and TPAS, November 2011)
Improvements to website and knowledge base
• Guide to self-assessment (September 2011) • Embedding value for money (September 2011) • STAR - Survey of Tenants And Residents (July 2011)
We have restructured our online knowledge base and interactive users’ forum so that good practice information and members’ discussions on our website are organised under similar headings to those used in our core benchmarking, PI finder and other specialist services. New filters allow members to 'drill down' into results, helping them to find the material they need. The closer integration of our online services, together with an improved global search with a ‘type-ahead’ facility, has made it easier for our members to access the full range of HouseMark information and data.
• Respect: ASB Charter for Housing (with CIH and SLCNG, June 2011) • Current use of systems and technology by ALMOs: 2010 (with Tribal Group, May 2011) • Current use of systems and technology by housing associations: 2010 (with Tribal Group, May 2011) • Protecting your rental income stream (April 2011) • Preserving value: A guide to value for money in tough times (January 2011) The most significant of these initiatives was our STAR (Survey of Tenants and Residents) methodology. STAR is a new, voluntary approach to the standardised collection of tenant views, which replaces the previous STATUS methodology and provides housing organisations with a more flexible and lower cost method of collecting and comparing satisfaction data. The methodology and guidance are available at no cost to the sector, and STAR is another example of HouseMark investing to support member organisations in their data analysis work. Initial indications are that most providers in England will adopt the STAR approach, and there is also strong interest from the sector in Wales and Scotland.
“
Performance Improvement Club meetings provide an opportunity to share best practice, learning and networking at no extra cost to HouseMark membership. Attendance at costly seminars and events is no longer viable for many.
”
Brian Worrell, Principal Housing Management Officer, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
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Consultancy HouseMark has a well-respected and experienced consultancy arm, which is working with many of our members to help them improve services and performance. Our consultants have excellent knowledge of our member organisations through close working with regional managers, and analysis of benchmarking data. This gives them a head start in working with members on support projects.
Procurement for Housing Our collective procurement service (PfH) had a successful year in 2011. Annual turnover increased by 15.4% to £103.4 million and membership grew by 8.7% to 793 organisations. Member spend by business function was as follows:
Areas where we can help and support your development include:
3%
50%
• tenant powered performance (including tenant scrutiny support)
% 30
• value for money (reducing operating costs, bespoke benchmarking and analysis, supporting value for money self- assessment, embedding VFM, etc)
• performance management (service reviews, health checks, etc) 4%
• workshops (open access and in-house, on topical issues such as co-regulation, tenant scrutiny, VFM and self-assessment)
”
Jason Wroe, Director of Housing, Newydd Housing Association
7%
“
HouseMark’s Tenant-Powered Performance has really helped our tenants feel empowered and confident to make assessments of our organisation on their own terms, rather than on indicators we’ve created. Their knowledge, understanding and approach is exceptional.
6%
We understand that many of our members have limited funds for consultancy spend; we have significantly reduced our prices and work with customers to deliver the best possible outcomes for the best possible fee.
Utilities and technology - energy, telecoms, IT related services Business and support - print management, waste management, office supplies Finance and commercial - debt management, decorating vouchers, vehicle leasing Materials - insulation systems and airtightness, solar photovoltaics, solar, thermal and voltage optimisers HR & facilities management - recruitment services, building cleaning services Ancillary services - food, postal services
Business highlights were: • the launch of three new energy efficiency framework agreements in partnership with Fusion21 • the modernisation of governance with PfH transformed from an unincorporated membership association into a company limited by guarantee, with an independent board supported by a member advisory group, thus increasing the transparency of our offer to the sector • the November launch of a strategic procurement alliance partnership with Fusion21 and the Northern Housing Consortium
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This accreditation demonstrates our continued drive to provide excellent services in tackling ASB in our neighbourhoods. The process gave independent validation of the work we have already undertaken, and our commitment to continuous service improvement has benefitted from the extra direction provided by HouseMark's recommendations.
“
”
Mark Fitton, Community Safety Manager, City West Housing Trust
Accreditation services Our accreditation services continue to be popular with members, enabling them to demonstrate accountability, transparency, commitment to self-improvement and critical aspects of co-regulation. In 2012 Alongside our existing ASB and Complaints accreditation services, we will be adding Quality Assured Scrutiny. Delivered jointly with our partners, TPAS and CIH, this independent accreditation scheme will set standards for tenant scrutiny arrangements.
Hall of fame - ASB accredited organisations: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Acis Group Blackpool Coastal Housing Bron Afon Community Housing Broxbourne Housing Association City West Housing Trust Derby Homes Elmbridge Housing Trust Halton Housing Trust MHS Homes New Charter Housing Trust Nottingham City Homes One Vision Housing Parkway Green Housing Trust Salix Homes Solihull Community Housing South Essex Homes Stockport Homes Walsall Housing Group
Community Impact Tracking Service Evidencing the impact of community and regeneration projects and their outcomes has never been more important. As funding is squeezed, and spending on ‘non-core’ activity becomes more difficult to justify, evidencing the value for money of socio-economic investment is critical. We have worked with the National Housing Federation and four housing association partners to develop a new service which enables community impact to be measured online, in a collaborative and user-friendly way.
Hall of fame Complaints accredited organisations: • • • • • • • • •
Charter Community Housing CityWest Homes One Vision Housing Parkway Green Housing Trust Sanctuary Midlands South Yorkshire Housing Association Stevenage Borough Council Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust Westlea Housing Association
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This is an invaluable tool for social housing providers as they make decisions about where best to invest scarce resources.
David Orr, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation
”
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The future Scotland In 2010 the Scottish Government invited HouseMark to run a pilot benchmarking study with a number of Scottish housing providers. In 2011, following the pilot’s success, five Scottish councils joined HouseMark, increasing Scottish membership to 20. In November 2011 we signed a partnership agreement with the highly-respected Scottish Housing and Best Value Network (SHBVN) to support membership growth in Scotland in a manner which is complementary to the work of SHBVN. We are also working with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and SHBVN to develop a comprehensive suite of complaints benchmarking and accreditation services relevant to the Scottish operating environment.
“
HouseMark gives us the opportunity to fully and comprehensively benchmark our services across a wide range of other landlords throughout the UK. It provides us with the confidence that we are challenging ourselves on our performance, cost and the quality of our services.
”
Michael Thain, Strategy and Investment Manager, City of Edinburgh Council
Wales In Wales we are working with our IT partners Coactiva Aspiren to integrate our benchmarking service with the Welsh Government pan public sector performance, risk and project management system known as Ffynnon. Ffynnon allows data sharing between public bodies and is available to all public sector organisations. Coactiva Aspiren, who have developed the tool for the Welsh Government, are piloting the automation of a link between Ffynnon at a local level and the HouseMark E-form. If this project is successful, it will make the collection and reporting of performance information easier for our members in Wales and assist data sharing with non housing providers.
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England We are delighted that we have been selected (in partnership with CIH) to deliver a range of membership, secretarial and administrative services to ARCH (Association of Retained Council Housing). This three year contract will see HouseMark and CIH working directly with ARCH to increase membership, improve its member services, lobbying, marketing and website, and oversee the work of ARCH’s first employee. We have worked in partnership with ARCH for four years, but this contract takes our relationship to a new level, and we hope it will assist ARCH to grasp the significant emerging opportunities for the stock retained sector in the wake of financial reform and the localism agenda.
UK wide During 2012 we will be developing and piloting a new UK wide business data service for our members, for full launch in 2013. The business data service will provide a one-stop shop for key indices, saving members time and money in their business planning, while also supporting the drive for improvements in value for money and return on assets. The service will bring together data from our existing benchmarking, relevant publicly available sources (such as interest rates and market rents), and anonymised member business plans in a unique, online, real-time information source. This will enable our members to take an integrated backward, current and forward look at their businesses, tracing trends in performance and cost both alone and relative to their peers. Standard and bespoke measures and a suite of intuitive tools will facilitate effective reporting of performance to stakeholders, supporting board accountability and performance management. Any member organisation wishing to take part in a working pilot should contact Will Perry, our Business Development Director on 07725 203886.
HouseMark office
Samantha McGrady Deputy Chief Executive
I hope you have enjoyed reading our annual report, and have found it useful and interesting. At HouseMark we aim to provide high quality, value for money services, which are focused on what our members want. The operating environment is fast-moving and challenging - we are working hard to ensure that our services mirror what's wanted in the sector but, in order to succeed, we need your views. We are committed to listening to our members and acting on customer feedback. If you would like to comment on anything in this report, or on any aspect of HouseMark's services, please do not hesitate to contact me directly (samantha.mcgrady@housemark.co.uk, telephone: 07961 204771) or your regional manager. 13
HouseMark is a joint venture between the CIH and the NHF. We are governed by a board of directors.
CIH directors
NHF directors
Yvonne Leishman Managing Director Wyre Forest Community Housing
Helen Williams Assistant Director (Neighbourhoods) NHF
Alison Breese Former Operations Director Gallions Housing Association
Elaine Walder Director of Commercial Services NHF
Duncan Snook Director of Finance CIH
Mick Kent Chief Executive Bromford Group
Martin Winn Director of Professional Development CIH
Paul Tennant Chief Executive Orbit Group
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Non-shareholder directors Mick Kent Board Chair Ross Fraser Chief Executive HouseMark Tom McCormack Chief Executive Hexagon Housing Association
Ross Fraser Chief Executive ross.fraser@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07753 856508
Will Perry Director of Business Development will.perry@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07725 203886
Julia Wiles Office Manager / Chief Executive’s Assistant julia.wiles@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500
Samantha McGrady Deputy Chief Executive samantha.mcgrady@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07961 204771
Carole Halfacre Assistant Director (Consultancy) carole.halfacre@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07949 407808
Gez Kinsella Assistant Director (Consultancy) gez.kinsella@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07962 698499
Vicky Johnson Director of Benchmarking vicky.johnson@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07843 433773
Paul Edwards Assistant Director (Benchmarking) paul.edwards@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07841 861974
Sarah Whittle Assistant Director (Benchmarking) sarah.whittle@housemark.co.uk 01452 741969 07957 105795
Janet Richards Director of Corporate Services janet.richards@housemark.co.uk 024 7646 0500 07939 317467
Bob Gillis Assistant Director (Customer Relations) bob.gillis@housemark.co.uk 01709 579430 07986 728669
Liz Kenny Assistant Director (Knowledge Management) liz.kenny@housemark.co.uk 024 7647 2704 15
Further information For further information visit our website www.housemark.co.uk or call 024 7646 0500. You can also follow us on Twitter @HouseMarkLtd HouseMark, 4 Riley Court, Millburn Hill Road, University of Warwick Science Park, Coventry CV4 7HP. About HouseMark HouseMark is the leading provider of performance improvement and value for money solutions to the social housing sector and is jointly owned by the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation: two not-for-profit organisations which reinvest their surplus in the social housing sector.