Tenants’ Annual Repor t 2015/2016 Written by residents, for residents
Welcome from the Chief Executive I’m delighted to once again provide a summary of our activities over the past year. Some of you may be aware that we have had to make some big changes to the way in which we operate because of changes to the rent we charge. The Government has asked us to reduce our rent which of course is good news for you, but it does mean that we have less money to provide some of the services which you may be used to. A lot of the changes should not affect your day-to-day experience of working with New Charter but we have had to cut back on some areas including some of our tenant involvement work.
Quite a lot of people have left the company in recent months and this means that we are still working through the possible effects of some of the changes we have had to make, but I’m confident that our core landlord services such as rent collection and repairs will remain as strong as ever. I hope you enjoy this review of the year and I look forward to hearing how you think we might continue to improve the service we offer.
Ian Munro Group Chief Executive
If you need help understanding this document, please call us on 0161 331 2000 and we will arrange for somebody to help you.
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The X-tra Factor Team This Annual Report is written by residents for residents. This year we have looked at what is of interest and importance to residents and have made the report as lively and personable as possible.
Our team this year has been:
Louise Seddon
Shabana Kosar
Who lives in our homes?
04
Great Facts
05
Value for Money
07
Resident Involvement
08
TMT - Scrutiny Panel
11
Social Enterprise
12
Neighbourhood & Communities
13
Anti-Social Behaviour
14
Repairs & Investment
15
Allocations
16
Revenues and Welfare Reform
18
Complaints and Customer Experience
20
Organisational Development
22
Performance
23
STAR Survey Results
24
Governance
25
03
Who lives in our homes?
41.94% Male
53.74%
58.05%
0.01%
Female
Transgender
41.44%
4.82% Under 25
5.84%
Over 55 Black, Minority & Ethnic
25-55 year olds
42.2% Religion other than Christian This information is linked to profiling information gathered from new tenants and is based on what tenants have declared to us.
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1.36% Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual
7.5% Disabled
If you would like any further information on our customer profile, please contact: Jon Baylis, Business Intelligence Manager at: Jon.Baylis@newcharter.co.uk
Great Facts
Turnover
£72.357m
Number of properties New Charter owns or manages
Rental Income
£69.659m
Number of employees
873
Repairs & Investment
£323.114m
Borrowing & Loans
£326.550m
Overall customer satisfaction
91%
15,342
Targets Our key corporate plan objectives remain to: Achieve five-star status across all neighbourhoods where we operate Provide efficient and cost-effective services that demonstrate social impact and value
Provide greater innovation in the way customers are involved in scrutiny and direction of our business and ensuring greater accountability Inspire people to achieve their aspirations through a choice of homes, employment, and health and wellbeing opportunities
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Great Facts Continued Awards and accreditations
Best Companies Accreditation
Number 34 in The Sunday Times Best 100 Not For Profit Companies To Work For
2* from Best Companies for ‘Outstanding Employee Engagement’
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October 2015 - TMT shortlisted CSI - most inspiring Scrutiny Panel award and Excellence in Communications
May 2015 - HQN Estates reaccreditation - first housing provider in the country to be awarded this and successfully attain it
June 2015 HQN Lettings accreditation-agreed to be a pilot for new scheme and help develop the HQN assessment framework
New Charter Building Company achieved RoSPA Gold
November 2015- Recognised by CIH for excellence in improving health and wellbeing of residents and communities
Value for Money Value for money is ensuring we are getting the best quality service at the lowest cost and to make sure we are making full use of the resources we already have.
13p
11p
20p 21p
It is a main focus for New Charter to make sure that any service we offer is value for money without it affecting the service to our customers. We are focused in delivering excellent services and keeping a balance between cost and quality.
1p 13p
Every ÂŁ1 we spend is shared across: New homes
Employee costs
Neighbourhoods & environmental
Overheads
21p
Responsive, empty homes & routine planned repairs
Interest & finance charges
Major repairs i.e. investment programme
If you would like more information about Value for Money, please contact James Bell, Head of Finance at: James.Bell@newcharter.co.uk
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Resident Involvement The Resident Involvement team and Community Regeneration team have joined together since January 2016 to form the new Community Development team. The team is working in line with the Group’s corporate plan to meet targets of engaging residents actively within New Charter and supporting residents to improve their health & wellbeing, gaining employment and training and setting up active groups in the community.
Tenants’ training The team has offered various training to residents to get them job ready and improve their overall wellbeing as well as giving them valuable skills such as first aid training, food hygiene, confidence building and various others. In 2015/16 the team trained more than 200 residents.
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Stars that Shine award winners
Resident groups The team has supported residents to set up new groups and now have over 30 groups in New Charter neighbourhoods. We have tackled areas highlighted within the
neighbourhood plans and assisted the neighbourhood co-ordinators to engage with residents. They have been involved in activities such as community gardens, coffee mornings and cook and eat sessions.
Resident Involvement Continued Resident Involvement awards Mavis Halton Stuart Ferguson Debbie Evans Jean Botha Jill Travis Jean Caldwell Irene Raddings Millbrook Resident Association The Newton Group (Joe Cocks), Grange House Garden Group (Dave, Adrian and Clive) Muddy Buddies (Frank, Dean & Michelle) Hunters Court Residents Association Somerset House Hindley Close Residents Association Audenshaw Community Association All the above won New Charter’s Stars that Shine awards, which are internal to the Resident Involvement team, to mark the achievement of individuals and groups in categories such as Best Female, Best Male, Best Neighbour, Green Finger award, Best Community Group and many more.
Great Opportunities work club
Timebanking We have continued our support for the timebanking volunteer skill swapping scheme this year with funding through our Great Neighbourhoods fund. The scheme has been operating since 2010 and currently has 326 members who have exchanged over 6000 hours volunteering to help others. This is an effective asset based community development tool aimed at reducing social isolation and loneliness. The youth team has been disbanded and we are now drawing on partners where needed. Prior to this, the team was connecting with large numbers of young people across the borough, to run youth sessions and events. Its work
centred around the health and wellbeing and employment and skills agenda and they worked with young people between the ages of 7 and 18 (and up to 24yr olds who are NEET-not in education, employment or training) delivering sessions on Cook & Eat, anti-social behaviour, healthy relationships and friendships and child sexual exploitation.
Great Opportunities Our Great Opportunities plan helps residents into employment, training and education. We run two work clubs in Tameside as well as two in Oldham and are currently working with the Neighbourhood team to plan more activities through the neighbourhood plans.
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Resident Involvement Continued Health & wellbeing The Community Development team is working closely with partners such as NHS, Tameside Active Alliance, Lifeline and many more. We have offered training to residents and staff on drugs and alcohol awareness which more than 60 people attended. As well as training we are working in partnership with Active Tameside to offer discounted memberships to our residents.
Cook & Eat session We have provided 435 people with training, secured 59 voluntary placements and been successful in supporting 58 people to gain paid sustainable employment. We offer one to one assistance at the work clubs
and assist customers with their job search and helping them to become job ready. Our work clubs are supported by the Jobcentre and we work in close partnership with them as well as other agencies.
We have also delivered cancer awareness training in conjunction with the NHS to 100 people. We are looking to develop this work further and develop a plan to work with residents of all ages and empower them to improve their health & wellbeing.
For further information about the Community Development team or to get involved, please contact Sue Cox, Community Development Manager at: Sue.Cox@newcharter.co.uk
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The Tenant Management Team Scrutiny Panel Over the past 12 months the Tenant Management Team has continued to make great progress and has been actively looking at the services provided for tenants, from both New Charter Homes and that of other providers by way of benchmarking. The team now has 6 proactive members who have attended various training in the past 12 months such as equality and diversity, youth engagement and introduction to scrutiny. The team met with the Gedling Homes scrutiny panel Gedling Eye and are working on a joint working strategy going forward where they will be looking to work on topics with Gedling Homes and New Charter/Aksa Homes. In addition, they have continued to work with other co-regulatory champion organisations to promote scrutiny across the country. The major success of this partnership work was ‘Scrutiny Live,’ an original initiative that was introduced at the 2015 CIH (Chartered Institute of Housing)
TMT panel conference by the co-regulatory champions, where members of our team together with Soha, Community Gateway and 20/20 Housing joined forces to
deliver three sessions at the prestigious conference. Going forward the team will be called T4T- Tenants for tenants.
If you would like to know more about the Tenant Management Team, please contact Minaz Aslam, Community Development Officer at: Minaz.Aslam@aksahomes.co.uk
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Social Enterprise 2nd Generation Furnishings is a not for profit, charitable, social enterprise company that was set up to help recycle furniture, clothes and other household items. The company aims to assist those who are in financial hardship as well as offering volunteering opportunities for the people in Tameside. 2nd Generation has continued to make a positive impact in the community and has made progress in making their business sustainable in the challenging economic environment.
They work closely with external partners to take on volunteers and provide an excellent starting point for volunteers, many of whom have gone on to sustain paid employment. They have helped more than 1,000 people with starter packs and continue to offer these to people who are in need as well
as supplying customers with low cost furniture which is cleaned and restored by the staff and volunteers. They have continued to work closely with New Charter to reduce tipping costs by making good use of household items.
2nd Generation Furnishings The Tom Daly Centre Astral House, Stamford Drive, Stalybridge, SK15 1QU Mon-Fri 9.30am - 4.00pm, Sat 10am - 2.00pm 2ndgenerationfurnishings@gmail.com 0161 303 0083 www.2ndgenerationfurnishings.co.uk
If you would like further information about 2nd Generation Furnishings or volunteering opportunities, please contact them at: 2ndgenerationfurnishing@gmail.com
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Neighbourhood and Communities Neighbourhood plans
Green Charter
CleanCare
Neighbourhood plans for New Charter’s 32 neighbourhoods came to an end after running from January 2013 to January 2016. The aim of the plans was to improve the sustainability by focusing internal and external resources on identified sustainability issues. The plans have been highly successful in improving neighbourhood sustainability scores. The number of 3 star neighbourhoods was reduced from 8 to 1 and the number of 5 star areas grew from 8 to 22.
Green Charter has increased the number of work experience placements it has taken in the last year from partners particularly from Prince’s Trust, Tameside College and Groundwork as well as working closely with internal and external partners.
CleanCare continues to work with Cavendish Mill on the recycling project which has been a huge success. It is also looking at their approach to fly tipping and ways of reducing the cost to the organisation.
New plans are now in progress to be launched soon. They will be taking a more Goup-wide approach and with the Aksa Homes plans being completed late 2016, and Gedling Homes in March 2017.
Green Charter is also working on an environmental planting strategy for New Charter which will see the best use of our land, resources and materials to improve the appearance over the next few years to the ‘gateways’ to our neighbourhoods. 92 customers take advantage of the low cost gardening service and 97% are satisfied with the service provided.
Independent living services Independent living services now have activity co-ordinators who have set up various groups and carried out different activities across all the schemes. A ukulele group has been set up, the independent living schemes take part in and across borough quiz, lunch clubs are running in 8 schemes and various day trips and activities have taken place.
If you would like to know more about the Neighbourhood team, please contact Robert Porter at: Robert.Porter@newcharter.co.uk
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Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Our aim is to continue to work with our residents and partner organisations to reduce crime and ASB in our communities, improving our neighbourhoods and making them a safer place to live. Throughout 2015-2016, our Neighbourhood Enforcement team dealt with 277 cases, around 27% of all complaints were dealt with within the team. A total of 27 injunctions were obtained at County Court in cases where serious and persistent anti-social behaviour occurred. Five tenancies were ended as a result of serious tenancy breaches. In addition to the ASB investigations the team carried out, they have also investigated 17 Tenancy Management Cases, where breaches of tenancy had occurred.
The team also manages the Restorative Justice provision for Tameside and 117 referrals have been dealt with between February 2015 to February 2016.
Since March 2015, the team has been devolved powers to issue Community Protection Notices (CPNs) by Tameside Council. The purpose of a CPN is to prevent unreasonable behaviour which is having a detrimental effect on the community from continuing. In this time, 79 CPN warnings have been issued, leading to 26 CPNs being issued.
Percentage of respondents very or fairly satisfied with the outcome of their ASB complaint:
The team are also working with a number of local schools to embed restorative justice principles with young people.
Satisfaction Percentage of respondents very or fairly satisfied with the way their ASB complaint was dealt with:
92%
90%
90%
95%
94%
11/12
12/13
13/14
14/15
15/16
91%
88%
89%
92%
95%
11/12
12/13
13/14
14/15
15/16
If you would like to know more about the Neighbourhood Enforcement team, please contact Michael Holt, Neighbourhood Enforcement Manager at: Michael.Holt@newcharter.co.uk
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Repairs & Investments 43,348 repairs were completed in 2015/2016. 99.88% of which were on target which improved customer satisfaction. Investment plan update Installation of 200 front doors and 31 new communal doors across Tameside Lift renewals to William Ford House Mottram, Lakewood 1321 heating renewals 531 new bathrooms 163 new kitchens 659 rewires plus 37 rewires in communal flats 15,762 emergency and out of hours repairs logged and responded to
New homes
Solar panels
In 2015/16 New Charter Homes continued to build new affordable homes to reach its corporate objective. In total we built 105 new properties.
This year we have installed solar panels to 2,736 properties. This will help our tenants to save money on their energy bills.
If you would like more information about Repairs & Investment, please contact John Ardern, Director of Property Services at: john.ardern@newcharter.co.uk
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Allocations New Charter is the first housing association in the country to receive Housing Quality Network (HQN) accreditation and has managed to retain this for the last 6 years. We will be assessed again soon. Empty homes The number of empty homes decreased this year and we have managed to meet our targets.
147
160
173
178
170
155
142
130
114
121
119
119
Apr 2015
May 2015
Jun 2015
July 2015
Aug 2015
Sep 2015
Oct 2015
Nov 2015
Dec 2015
Jan 2016
Feb 2016
Mar 2016
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Allocations Continued
Housing applications
372
355
379
372
314
399
347
269
181
417
386 344
Apr 2015
May 2015
Jun 2015
July 2015
Aug 2015
Sep 2015
Oct 2015
Nov 2015
Dec 2015
Jan 2016
Feb 2016
Homeswapper
Affordable rents
In 2015/2016, 11 residents decided to transfer using the Homeswapper website. This is similar to a mutual exchange but it is between any registered provider giving tenants more variety and flexibility.
We continue to work with the HCA (Homes and Communities Agency) to convert our homes into affordable rents. We have a target to convert 512 homes to affordable rents between April 2015 and March 2018.
Mar 2016
By the end of March 2015, we had converted 193 towards this target.
If you would like more information about Relets, please visit www.newcharter.co.uk, our neighbourhood hubs or contact Janet O’Connor, Empty Homes Quality & Performance Manager at: Janet.OConnor@newcharter.co.uk
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Revenues and Welfare Reform There are a lot of changes coming in regard to welfare reform. Information has been provided with rent statements to highlight the changes that are coming. This year it’s been a matter of general advice but as implementation dates are made public for particular welfare reforms, we will target information to those groups affected. We have continued to train staff in every department so they are fully able to support residents. We have a ‘frequently asked questions’ section on the website which you may find useful. www.newcharterhomes.co.uk/ welfare-reforms/faqs
Welfare benefits and debt advice As ever, the MoneyCare team has been extremely busy and the
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service remains in high demand. The team helped 470 customers claim welfare benefits totalling £1,514,612 last year and helped 283 customers deal with £2,195,205 of debt.
Financial services for tenants We offer a number of services to extend the choice tenants have to access financial products. 1,515 tenants take part in the Home Contents Insurance scheme ‘My Home Finance’ was a loan service that was available to tenants which came to an end earlier this year. We estimate that tenants saved
£29,877 last year in interest payments when compared to high street lenders
Smarterbuys store is a service that allows tenants to buy household goods at a lower price Since January 2015, 33 tenants have used the scheme
We partnered up with ‘Community Switch’ for a period to help tenants switch fuel supplier. During the last year, it is estimated that tenants saved £10,000 in fuel costs.
Revenues and Welfare Reform Continued Hardship fund a helping hand
Stop loan sharks We launched the ‘Stop Loan Shark Charter’ with partners. The Tameside ‘STOP Loan Sharks Charter’ was signed by nine partner agencies at New Charter Group’s head office. If you have a concern regarding loan sharks please contact the Illegal Money Lending team on 0300 555 2222 or reportaloanshark@ stoploansharks.gov.uk
We recognise that sometimes tenants need a ‘Helping Hand’. Last year, 26 tenants received an award from the scheme of an average amount of £193 to help them through a short term crisis. If you would like further information, please contact the Revenues team at Revenues@ newcharter.co.uk
payment line. The automated service is available 24 hours a day. The use of this service grew even more popular with £6.7m collected through this facility - £1.6m more than the previous year.
Payment facilities We offer various different payment methods to support tenants and this year we launched the direct debit facility that you can set up over the phone, as well as encouraging tenants to use the automated
If you would like more information about Revenues, please contact Julie Vickers, Director of Revenues at: Julie.Vickers@newcharter.co.uk
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Complaint & Customer Experience
217
10
Repairs
Complaints received by New Charter Homes (decreased from last year)
Number that needed more investigation (Stage 2) (increased from last year)
Most complained about topic
We have been doing a lot of work in the last year to learn from complaints to increase customer satisfaction.
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Introducing a new Complaints Policy with a greater focus on putting it right sooner for our customers, based on the Housing Ombudsman’s dispute resolution principles.
A colleague training programme to support the new policy. More vigorous monitoring and reporting of complaints to ensure we learn from our mistakes and improve our service going forward, including working with our Tenant Management Team.
Complaint & Customer Experience Continued Customer Hubs The Customer Hubs continue to provide a GREAT service to customers at a convenience to them, as well as adding value to the organisation. 43,266 customers visited the Hubs in 2015/2016 and the team dealt with 67,714 enquires. Through the money surgeries at the Hubs, the team has helped customers to set up payment plans and in return have contributed to the overall revenue collected which has been approx. ÂŁ730,374
Connect
7 days a week and aim to deliver excellent customer service at first point of contact. The team answered 250,000 customer calls 91% of all calls made. The team also took 2,961 rent payments to the value of ÂŁ562,460.41.
Reporting anti-social behaviour Paying rent Switchboard access
New for 2016
The service is able to help with: Logging repairs Arranging gas service appointments Enquiries about current housing applications Tenancy issues
Connect service is our frontline first point of customer contact team for all our New Charter departments and services. This service is available 24 hours,
Green Charter
If you would like more information about Complaints and Customer Insight, please contact Sarah Chilton, Customer and Business Insight Manager at: Sarah.Chilton@newcharter.co.uk
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Organisational Development Apprenticeship programme New Charter continues to contribute to the community and have a generous apprenticeship programme which they have continued to support even in the current economic challenges. Many of the previous apprentices have gone on to secure sustainable full time employment with external agencies as well as within teams at New Charter. In 2015, New Charter took on 6 apprentices.
Corporate Social Responsibility This year we have continued to excel in Corporate Social Responsibility by giving back to our local communities through fund raising and by supporting community projects. We have raised ÂŁ600.94 in staff dress down days and cake bake sales.
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Apprentice of the year award Staff have also used the generous 2 day volunteering opportunities to utilise their skills in various
community projects and we have continued to match fund individual fundraising efforts.
If you would like more information about Organisational Development, please contact Jane Atherton, Director of People & Risk at: Jane.Atherton@newcharter.co.uk
Performance Great Homes Average time taken to do any repair
6.03 days (target 6 days) Overall satisfaction with repairs
95%
(target 96%) Number of repairs completed right the first time
99.91% (target 99%)
% of appointments kept
100%
Great Neighbourhoods
Corporate Services
Satisfaction with newly let properties
100.08%
91%
(target is 91%) Average relet time
20 days (target 20 days)
Rent collection rate ended the year at (this allows Housing Benefit that was owed to rent accounts at that time) (target 99%) Rent loss from empty homes
1.04% (target 1.4%)
Great People % of calls answered in Connect
91%
(target 95%)
Above target Within target Below target
(target 100%) Complaints replied to in time
96%
(target 95%)
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STAR Survey Results Each year we carry out a customer survey called the STAR (Survey of Tenants and Residents). We do this to check how happy our tenants are with the service we provide and also to look at what needs improving and how we can improve to do this.
89% Overall customer satisfaction
+50
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89% Satisfied with the quality of their home
Good net promote score (how likely you are to recommend us to others)
88% Satisfied with the overall condition of their property
86% Satisfied with the way we deal with the repairs and maintenance in your homes We continue to put money into your homes and making sure they are a of a good quality and also looking at the different programmed works we can carry out to improve the appearances of your homes.
87% Satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live in We use this feedback to plan our future work and continue to make our neighbourhoods safer and a better place to live in.
Governance Tenant Board members at New Charter Homes
Helen Garnett-Wren
Tammy Williams
Lez Barstow
If you would like more information about becoming a Tenant Director, please contact Laura Douthwaite, Governance Manager at: Laura.Douthwaite@newcharter.co.uk
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New Charter Group Cavendish 249, Cavendish Street Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 7AT 0161 331 2000 @NewCharterGroup contact@newcharter.co.uk www.newcharter.co.uk