Orbit Heart of England - Summary Annual Report to Customers 2011-12

Neighbourhood & Community Our local housing teams and Orbit Independent Living teams continued to provide additional services and activities to meet the needs of their customers; such as set up work clubs, ‘clean up’ days and scheme improvements.

Orbit Heart of England is also a major investor in local communities; last we spent over £800,000 to help make a difference to local people’s lives. Further details can be found on our website www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk Last year, there were 252 cases of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB). Many were dealt with quickly by our Community Housing Officers while others saw us take firmer action.

We will review our ASB procedures to make sure they meet our customers’ needs and changes to the law. We continue to work hard to prevent or reduce crime and disorder. We also aim to increase the amount we spend on local community improvements to nearly £1 million.

Customers contacted within timescales when they have reported an ASB problem 98% Customers satisfied with how their ASB case was handled

69%

Value for money

Continuing the journey...

We aim make sure to use our money and resources in the most effective ways. Any money left over after our costs are met can then be put back into the business; this helps us build more homes and provide new services. Last year, for example, we spent an extra £500,000 on community projects.

We achieved a lot over the year but we are always looking ahead to see how we can continue to improve our services to you. In the coming months, we will be concentrating on improving our repairs service, estate services, how we let our homes, the service provided by the Customer Service Centre and how we handle complaints.

There are major changes coming in the housing world in general. Welfare reform will have a huge impact on the housing world. Despite this, our aim is to be in the top 25% of housing providers by this time next year.

We will continue to build brighter futures for people and our communities.

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Join us on our road to success Annual Report to Customers – April 2011 to March 2012 This Annual Report Summary shows what we achieved in the last 12 months. You will see how we performed in comparison to the targets which were set and we look at our plans for improving our performance in the coming year.

Key used when comparing ourselves to other landlords.

Target was not achieved Target was not achieved but performance was better than last year Target achieved

Customers helped to make sure this report is relevant, easy to understand and well designed.

More detailed information is also available in the full annual report on our website www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk

Calls answered at our Customer Service Centre within 20 seconds

59%

Tenant Involvement and Empowerment We will continue to train staff and we are working with the Customer Service Centre to improve the efficiency and quality of the service they provide. We will also look at improving other communications such as using digital technology and improving the website.

During the year we have worked closely with customers to review and improve our services offering a range of opportunities for customers to get involved. For example, the Customer Scrutiny Group completed a review of how new kitchens and bathrooms are delivered as well as starting to look at how customers report a repair and why on occasions they have to be chased up.

In the coming year we will be completing a major review of customer involvement opportunities to make sure that you can get involved in a way that suits you best and that your involvement leads to service improvement.

Number of additional customers expressing an interest in being involved 624

Customers satisfied with the service provided by the Customer Service Centre 95%

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Customer First Sometimes things don’t always go to plan. Last year, we dealt with 301 formal complaints. So we updated our complaints policy making it fairer and easily accessible for customers. We also concentrated on working out what has gone wrong when you first tell us as we appreciate that this is what most customers want.

In the coming year we will improve how we learn from our mistakes, train staff and look at how other organisations achieve great customer satisfaction when dealing with complaints.

We have continued to collect equality and diversity data for all our customers. This information has helped us with our long term planning as well as having a practical use for customers (eg. letting Property Matters know that some people need more time to answer the door).

Information held regarding our customers

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98%

Complaints formally acknowledged within 3 calendar days

87%

Complaints responded to within 14 days

72%

Customers satisfied with how their complaint was handled

51%

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Your Home The repairs service continues to be one of the most important services for you. Over 65,000 repairs were reported over the last year. So we worked on getting the right people with the right spares on the van so Property Matters could fix more repairs on the first visit.

We also got an independent assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses and asked over 2,000 customers their opinion of the service.

We will continue to improve our workforce skills and further improve what spares are on our vans so more jobs can be completed at first visit. We will work with the Customer Service Centre to improve how repairs are diagnosed and increase customer involvement to help us improve this service.

Customers satisfied with the repairs service

82%

Customers telling us that the job was completed at the first visit

72%

Customers telling us that an appointment was provided for their repair 78%

Investing in our properties and your home is a major commitment each year. Last year, we invested over ÂŁ7 million in home improvements. We completed a major service review on how we manage home improvements and we reduced the number of homes that are not meeting the Decent Homes Standard.

We are now targeting properties that have poor energy efficiency to help reduce customers’ fuel bills. We will continue to talk to customers to make sure the improvements are working. And we will make sure we meet new asbestos legislation.

Customers satisfied with the Planned Maintenance service

86%

Your Tenancy We aim to let our homes as quickly and as fairly as possible. Customers helped develop a new customer information pack which is now given to all new customers. Our tenancy support workers helped nearly 600 customers by providing free and confidential support.

Customer satisfied with their new home 94% Average number of days it took to re-let general needs and sheltered properties 26 days

Over the coming months, we will continue to look at ways of reducing the time it takes us to re-let our properties so that waiting time for new customers is kept to a minimum.

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