Leading & Growing Tenant Annual Report 2014
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 YOUR HOME
4
YOUR TENANCY
6
YOUR COMMUNITY
7
WORKING WITH YOU
9
YOU SAID, WE DID
11
VALUE FOR MONEY
12
YOUR RENT
14
GOVERNANCE 15 Understanding the information You will see these ‘thumb’ symbols throughout the report, they tell you how we are performing.
Doing well
Page 2 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
OK
Could do better
INTRODUCTION It’s been another successful year for North Star Housing Group and I am delighted to present your 2014 Annual Report.
Our Tenants’ Conference this year was very successful, with some fantastic informative sessions on all the issues impacting our communities, from welfare reform and tackling fuel poverty, to community involvement and financial inclusion.
Endeavour and Teesdale Housing Associations continue to work together to progress towards the vision of Leading and Growing North Star to 2018 – and Tenant Involvement remains a significant part of this, supported by North Star’s Community Investment Team. As we look to the future, the Group is continuing to develop our strong vision of what we want to achieve for tenants and our communities.
We would encourage anyone who would like to get involved and join us in continuing to help shape the services North Star deliver, and ensure these are the services we really need. I hope you enjoy reading the report, and if you have any questions or feedback please get in touch.
This year, our tenant groups – Tenants’ Voice Scrutiny Panel and Link – have continued to grow stronger. Link has gained strength as a single entity, following the joining of the Teesdale and Endeavour tenant groups. North Star brings together the skills, resources and values of Endeavour and Teesdale Housing Associations to form an equal partnership. The Link group has continued to carry out its important work promoting and encouraging resident involvement, and assisting with the improvement of the quality of North Star’s housing services. The influence of Link on the way North Star delivers our services is truly company-wide, with all geographical areas equally considered.
Adrian Hill, Board Member, Chair of North Star Link. and Board Champion for Resident Involvement
Tenants’ Voice Scrutiny Panel has continued to put customers at the heart of our business by reviewing our services and performance. The highlights of their work this year have included the creation of the new Customer Service Team. The Panel has also been recruiting and training new members to help further strengthen North Star’s services.
www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 3
YOUR HOME In this section we look at how we make sure your home is high quality and well maintained. The Home standard says that we should: • Make sure your home meets the Decent Homes Standard, and continue to maintain it to this level or higher. • Provide a high quality and cost effective repairs and maintenance service.
Investing in our Homes We provide good quality homes for our customers and continue to significantly invest in our existing housing stock. During 2013/14 we have spent £2.1m across the group on home improvements and upgrading our properties to maintain homes to at least the Decent Homes Standard, along with some environmental works to improve
local communities. Over 800 households have benefitted from our planned investment activity, which has included a programme of new external doors, central heating systems, window replacements, roofing and fencing.
Endeavour Housing
Teesdale Housing
Decent Homes Adaptations Heating
52
18
Decent Homes
143
Windows
Adaptations
43
External doors
Environmental Works
Heating
404
One-off projects
20
TOTAL INVESTMENT £1,162,471
99
13
10
47
Air source heat pumps Windows Roofs
16
77
61
One-off projects
14
TOTAL INVESTMENT £1,023,921
Page 4 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
Endeavour Housing
Teesdale Housing
Money spent on day to day repairs
Money spent on day to day repairs
£1,201,525
£254,842
7960
3496
Total number of day to day repairs
Total number of day to day repairs
Our performance OUR TARGET
PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
Your satisfaction with repairs service
85%
95%
Percentage of routine repairs completed on time
95%
97%
Percentage of repairs completed on first visit
80%
77%
Percentage of homes with a valid gas safety certificate
100%
99.9%
Percentage of appointments kept
95%
92.5%
OUR TARGET
PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
Your satisfaction with repairs service
85%
94%
Percentage of routine repairs completed on time
95%
99%
Percentage of repairs completed on first visit
80%
86%
Percentage of homes with a valid gas safety certificate
100%
100%
Percentage of appointments kept
95%
97%
www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 5
YOUR TENANCY In this section we look at the way we let our homes. The Tenancy standard says that we should: • • •
Let our homes in a fair, transparent and efficient way. Have clear application, decision-making and appeals processes in place. Support tenants to maintain their tenancy and prevent evictions.
How many homes did we let this year?
Endeavour Housing
354
Teesdale Housing
89
Our performance OUR TARGET
PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
How long does it take us to relet an empty home?
25 days
29 days
Current arrears as a percentage of the annual debit*
2.6%
1.74%
Your overall satisfaction with how we collect your rent
85%
81.1%
Percentage of rent lost through homes being empty
1.4%
1.94%
Your overall satisfaction with new tenancies
85%
90%
*Net of Housing Benefit
Page 6 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
OUR TARGET
PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
How long does it take us to relet an empty home?
25 days
38 days
Current arrears as a percentage of the annual debit*
2.3%
0.85%
Your overall satisfaction with how we collect your rent
85%
84.4%
Percentage of rent lost through homes being empty
2.1%
1.34%
Your overall satisfaction with new tenancies
85%
82.5%
YOUR COMMUNITY In this section we look at how we work with you and with other agencies to ensure our neighbourhoods and communities are the kind of places you want to live in. The Neighbourhood and Community standard says that we should: • •
Keep estates and communal areas clean and tidy. Work in partnership with you and other agencies to improve neighbourhoods and tackle Anti-Social Behaviour.
Endeavour Housing
Teesdale Housing
NUMBER OF ESTATE INSPECTIONS COMPLETED DURING THE YEAR
NUMBER OF ESTATE INSPECTIONS COMPLETED DURING THE YEAR
39
42
DEALING WITH ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR Our performance OUR TARGET
PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
Percentage of Anti-Social Behaviour complaints responded to within one working day
100%
94.2%
OUR TARGET
PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
Percentage of Anti-Social Behaviour complaints responded to within one working day
100%
100%
www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 7
Investing in Local Communities Following the successful launch of our Community Investment Strategy in 2012, we have increased our investment in local communities, helping them to develop and grow stronger from the inside out. Last year we invested £330,000 – that’s about 20% of our surplus funds – into customer involvement and local communities. Our innovative approach is making a real difference, and from 2012 to 2014 we attracted £266,986 of additional funding from other places to support your community projects. We have continued to support a wide range of projects, including working with children and young people, providing training and work opportunities, community-led housing schemes and education projects.
Projects we have helped so far include:
• • • • •
Primary School Breakfast Clubs: Working in partnership with Greggs the Bakers to provide pupils with a healthy start to the day. Youth Work in Teesdale: A project delivered by Teesdale YMCA and Groundwork North East. Family Support Work: A local partnership to employ a worker to foster community resilience, volunteering and community led solutions. Princess Trust: Supporting and enhancing the 12 week ‘Team Programme’ by providing funding panels and mock interviews. Middlesbrough Community Land Trust & Five Lamps Empty Homes project: Bringing empty homes in Gresham, Middlesbrough and Evenwood, County Durham back into use.
…as well as working with partners including: Housing Hartlepool, the NDC Trust, Belle Vue Community Centre, The Prince’s Trust, Neighbourhood Watch, Hardwick in Partnership, Open Door North East, and Evenwood School in County Durham.
Investment in your local community projects
Endeavour Housing
Teesdale Housing
Total direct investment in Endeavour community projects
Total direct investment in Endeavour community projects
Other funding
Other funding
Total Community Investment
Total Community Investment
Due to our commitment to Community Investment at Endeavour Housing Association, we can look forward to investment from contractors amounting to £40,000 in cash, 6 work placements, 3 full and 4 part sponsored apprenticeships and 8 community labour days into our local communities.
Due to our commitment to Community Investment at Teesdale Housing Association, we can look forward to investment from contractors amounting to £18,400 in cash, 6 work placements, 1 full and 2 part sponsored apprenticeships and 4 community labour days.
£44,188 £14,195
£58,383
Page 8 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
£27,774
£10,065 £37,839
WORKING WITH YOU In this section we look at the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment standard and how we deliver services that meet your needs, as well as how we involve you in our decision making, so your voice makes a real difference.
North Star LINK North Star LINK is your group of involved tenants who work closely with staff across the organisation, influencing and improving services for all customers. The group involves tenants from both Endeavour and Teesdale who meet regularly to represent the views of all our customers, residents, and local communities. The group’s activities range from helping us to develop the tenants’ magazine and report, to working with contractors to improve kitchen and bathroom specifications. North Star LINK organised the very successful tenants’ conference in 2013, and this year’s conference at the Riverside Stadium, was even bigger and better than ever.
Tenants’ Voice Scrutiny Panel North Star Tenants’ Voice Scrutiny Panel forms an important part of our approach to working with you – putting customers at the heart of our business and giving them access to review any service and hold us to account. The Panel, supported independently by the Tenant Panel Advisory Service (TPAS), selects areas of service they would like to review and scrutinises how well we are doing, making recommendations for improvements directly to our Board. Their work has made a real difference to the services we delivered this year, including the decision to invest over £150,000 in our new Customer Service Team, which was launched in March 2014. The Panel has also been recruiting and training new members to help further strengthen our services.
Quick Change We have always regarded ourselves as being good at listening to customers and acting on their feedback. Over the last 12 months we have focussed on speeding up the process for bringing about change from your feedback. Our approach to Quick Change has taken lessons from the private sector and reshaped the way we now listen, learn from and deliver improvements for customers within days, rather than weeks or months, using a much wider range of ‘real time’ customer feedback.
www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 9
YOU SAID, WE DID We value your feedback and will work hard to make improvement wherever we can. Here are just a few examples of how your voice has helped to make a difference in 2013/14:
As a customer you wanted to be ‘kept close’ and provided with an excellent response with ideally a human voice at the end of the phone. We implemented a Customer Service Team which answers every call with a human voice – no voice mail recordings. The customer will remain the focus of the call, and we aim to resolve all your issues at first point of contact.
You told us that our Customer Services should cover multiple services within the business, and should operate one service across Teesdale and Endeavour areas. The team now operates across Endeavour and Teesdale. Following our repairs and satisfaction surveys, we have carried out a 6 month service review, which has highlighted further training areas to enable the team to provide a slicker service in repairs and surveys. Once these developments have been made we aim to continue to work towards providing a ‘one stop shop’ for customers.
Supported Housing Tenants asked to be more involved in things that matter to them, such as choosing blinds for their flats. We have started consulting with Tenants on more of our improvement works, and have already started replacing the vertical blinds with new roller blinds.
Parkfield Hall Tenants wanted to learn more about the garden project and grow their own vegetables and fruit. We set up the gardening club on a weekend Support Workers supported and educated service users on growing crops. We also had a sunflower competition, which encouraged others to get involved.
Young Tenants in our supported housing schemes told us they struggle to get to appointments. With the help of a former Tenant, we raised funds and have been able to provide three brand new bikes to help service users get out and about.
Page 10 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
Endeavour Housing
Teesdale Housing
Complaints by service area SERVICE AREA
2013/14
Asset Management
3
SERVICE AREA
2013/14
Asset Management
3
Development 2
Development 0
Endeavour Housing
14
Teesdale Housing
3
Endeavour Maintenance
50
Teesdale Maintenance
8
Finance 0
Finance 1
Supported Housing
Total 15
7
Total 76
Complaints This year, Endeavour received 76 complaints, compared to 61 received last year.
This year Teesdale received 15 complaints, compared to 21 received last year.
Percentage of complaints responded to in 10 working days Our target
Performance this year
Performance last year
100% 92% 91.8%
Our target
Performance this year
Performance last year
100% 100% 85.7% www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 11
VALUE FOR MONEY In this section we look at how we use your rent and how we achieve value for money. The Value for Money standard says that we should: •
Provide value for money in everything we do, via effective, efficient, high quality services and homes that meet your needs.
North Star Housing Group is committed to managing our resources to provide cost effective, quality services to tenants and to invest in new homes and services for the benefit of our communities. We aim to pay the right price for the goods and services we buy whilst understanding that the right price is not always the cheapest. This focus on delivering Value For Money and continuous improvement has enabled us to invest in keeping North Star strong. Here are some of the highlights that our tenants have identified from this year’s Value For Money Statement.
Welfare & Benefits
We invested
£30k per annum
This year our Welfare Benefits Advisor has helped over 250 households access an estimated £200,000 additional income
Over the last two years... We have received £787,000 in grants to insulate and install new heating making our properties more energy efficient
Helping 696 households achieve fuel efficiencies of
£114,000
The 2012 STAR Survey
showed that good maintenance services are the top priority for our customers Our new repairs service:
• Developed with two other local housing providers to achieve efficiency savings • Predicted to deliver a minimum of
7.5% annual cash savings of £320,000 The new contract will also deliver work placements, apprenticeships and community labour days...
Page 12 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
We have increased investment building a dedicated team to tackle increased deprivation and concerns around area sustainability
Annual cost of Community Investment
£330,000
We have invested
£150,000 in our NEW Customer Services Team to improve our interaction with our customers
7
We have created employment places for graduates & apprentices
...and we are committed to employing
6 apprentices A 12 month graduate placement...
at a cost of £45k
Since 2006
we have developed 838 general needs and supported housing homes
76 NEW homes during 2013/14
Over the last five years we have invested
£13.5m
on planned maintenance (including new kitchens, bathrooms, doors, windows, roofing, heating and insulation)
VFM Customer Group
Helps us shape our approach to VFM and how we can achieve best value in financially, economically and socially
For the full Value For Money Statement, visit our websites: www.endeavourha.co.uk and/or www.teesdaleha.co.uk
www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 13
YOUR RENT The Rents standard says that we should: •
Set our rents in line with government guidance and give you information about our rents.
Endeavour Housing
Teesdale Housing
General Needs Housing:
General Needs Housing:
AVERAGE WEEKLY RENTS 2013-14
AVERAGE WEEKLY RENTS 2013-14
1 bedroom
£74.24
1 bedroom
£65.02
2 bedroom
£83.30
2 bedroom
£73.29
3 bedroom
£91.24
3 bedroom
£81.36
4 or more bedroom
£87.29
4 or more bedroom
£101.04
RENT COLLECTED 2013/14
RENT COLLECTED 2013/14
Total £7,564,060
Total £3,612,795
Supported Housing:
AVERAGE WEEKLY RENTS 2013-14 Total £3,905,316
HOW WE SPEND YOUR MONEY This year we spent every £1 of your rent in the following ways:*
Property Depreciation 8p
Costs of delivering our services 17p
Planned & Major Repairs 29p
Routine Maintenance Mortgage Interest Charge 21p Property Depreciation 8p21p Other Costs 4p Costs of delivering our services 17p Routine Maintenance 21p Planned & Major Repairs 29p Mortgage Interest Charge 21p
Other Costs 4p
Page 14 | Tenant Annual Report 2014
Costs of delivering our services 25p
Planned & Major Repairs 54p
Interest Charge Costs of delivering ourMortgage services 25p10p Routine Maintenance 15p Planned & Major Repairs 54p Mortgage Interest Charge 10p Other Costs 12p
Other Costs 12p
Routine Maintenance 15p
*For every £1 you pay in in rent in Teesdale, we have invested an extra 16p
GOVERNANCE In this section we look at how we run our business to ensure the services we provide to you are the best they can be, and that we are financially secure for the future. The Governance and Financial Viability standard says we have to run our business well by: • Meeting legal requirements. • Being clear about who is responsible for each part of the business, and how decisions are made so we can be held accountable to you. • Manage our money well
GROUP STRUCTURE Board • Leadership – Strategic Planning, Vision & Values • Resources – Investment, Growth • Governance & Performance – Viability & Co-Regulation
Organisations that are individually successful can be stronger and more effective when they unite. North Star Housing Group brings together the skills, resources and values of Endeavour Housing Association and Teesdale Housing Association. We are a strong Group, with a clear vision of what we want to achieve for the people who live in our region – creating affordable, high quality housing and sustainable communities.
www.northstarhg.co.uk | Page 15
It goes without saying that we hope you found the content of your Annual Report useful and interesting. As ever, we would love to hear your thoughts, and would encourage you to get in touch with us using the contact details below. Likewise, if you have any questions or would like more information about anything, please contact us. If English is not your preferred language, please contact North Star Housing Group who can offer a translation service on 03000 11 00 11. Arabic
Punjabi
Urdu
French Si l’anglais n’est pas votre langue préférée, contactez l’organisation North Star Housing Group au 03000 11 00 11, qui propose un service de traduction. Somali Haddii Ingiriisigu uusan eheen luqadda aad doorbideyso, fadlan North Star Housing Group kala xiriir 03000 11 00 11 si ay kuu siiyaan adeeg turjubaan.
Endeavour House, St. Mark’s Court, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6QN
14A Redwell Court, Harmire Enterprise Park, Harmire Road, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8BN
Email: info@endeavourha.co.uk Web: www.endeavourha.co.uk
Email: enquiries@teesdaleha.co.uk Web: www.teesdaleha.co.uk
