Annual Report to Residents 2022-2023

Foreword

Group Chair Sally Higham

Looking after more than 7,000 homes is a big responsibility and something that we take very seriously at Rooftop. Similar to public services across the country, we have had funding cuts and are severely challenged by the wider economic pressures from around the world. However, we are also fortunate to have a strong Rooftop leadership team that is determined to continue to strive to deliver great homes for families in our region, and are constantly looking to strike the balance between delivering the best service we can with the resources we have.

Rooftop works closely with its customers to understand what is needed and where and when, as part of a large, quite complex operation. We care about our customers, and we care about our colleagues, and the Board and I work to support both of these to deliver our services to the high standards that we set out to meet.

Welcome

Group Chief Executive Boris Worrall

Looking back on another challenging year, I am pleased that we completed the repairs backlog and saw improvements to customer satisfaction in the spring after a very difficult winter, which saw pipes freeze and heating systems fail across the country during extreme weather.

I know from talking to colleagues and customers that the ongoing cost of living crisis has caused real problems and distress for many people, and I am pleased we were able to support more than 1,600 people with financial advice this year, helping them access more than £2.8 million of the benefits they were entitled to.

The year was extremely busy as we completed 33,573 repairs, and installed 174 new kitchens, 110 new bathrooms, 259 gas boiler upgrades, and 39 electric heating upgrades, including new technology to upgrade the energy efficiency of 27 of our lowest energy-rated homes. We also completed around 3,000 home surveys to better understand what longterm investment in people’s homes is needed in the years ahead. A further 1,750 surveys will take place in the next 12 months.

During the year we also delivered 174 new homes for local people to rent or purchase through Shared Ownership.

Meeting record demand for services – coupled with a rise in complaints nationally and for Rooftop – saw customer satisfaction for the year at 76% with satisfaction with repairs at 83%. We need to improve and are working hard to do so, targeting a 5% improvement this year.

We have also sought and received views from more than 2,000 customers about what matters most to you, as well as our plans for the next year. You told us that improving the quality of homes, ensuring a good repairs service, and dealing with anti-social behaviour were your top priorities, and we have been and will continue to focus on those and do all we can.

In dealing with high inflation and a cap on rents, we have had to make some difficult choices and find significant financial savings. We have adapted the resources we have to focus on what you have told us matters most, putting particular effort into improving repairs and complaints management.

My colleagues have worked hard this year to be the best they can be for customers and themselves, at the same time as dealing with the pressures and uncertainties of the current world in their own daily lives. I’d like to pay tribute to them and show my appreciation for the patience and understanding of customers on those occasions when things perhaps haven’t quite gone to plan.

Customer Scrutiny Panel

The Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) is an independent group of customers that work with Rooftop to review service areas, make recommendations, and improve things from a customer perspective. This is an important function in enabling Rooftop to meet consumer standards as required by the Regulator of Social Housing.

The CSP follows a set programme of scrutiny reviews suggested by customers and staff. Since COVID, virtual working has been added to our other working methods which has proved very useful.

During the year we finished the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) review. Following this, we recommended the development of a simple leaflet to explain to customers what happens when you report ASB, what constitutes ASB, and what happens next, alongside useful phone numbers.

Customer Scrutiny Panel Chair Lindsey Hendry

The CSP reviewed its own Terms of Reference with a change of name and updated terms and conditions. There has also been a review of the Rooftop Customer Charter and Customer Voice document.

CSP has moved its scrutiny onto Grounds Maintenance and has started reviewing relevant paperwork and selecting people to interview. There will also be a survey to complete, online and in person, to get all customers’ views.

Members of CSP have recommended that completed reviews be made available on the Rooftop website.

The work of the CSP is invaluable to Rooftop, and we do not take for granted the time and commitment that each panel member gives. We are on the lookout for new CSP members, so if you are interested or you would like to learn more, please contact us.

Customer Satisfaction

Every month, we survey around 170 Rooftop customers and ask them how we did across a number of service areas. Overall, just over 76% of our customers were very or fairly satisfied with the service they received from us last year. This is less than the previous year (81%), and although satisfaction has fallen for most housing associations, we are disappointed with the result, and our target for the coming year is to make a 5% improvement. More positively, satisfaction with new lettings was 86% for the year, with 88% satisfaction with planned works, such as kitchens and bathrooms.

We continue to invest time and resources in the two areas that our customers are most often unhappy about - our repairs service and our communication with customers. In the future, we will be asking customers for their opinions and experiences more and more often. Our customer feedback helps inform the things we need to change and what we need to do in the future.

Overall customer satisfaction 76% Planned works New lettings 86% 88%

OverallCustomer Satisfactionby

AgeGroup

Satisfied Neither Dissatisfied

Reliable Repairs

We know how important a reliable repairs service is to you. Following the global pandemic, we saw an increase in demand and a growing backlog of repairs from the lockdown period. We also struggled with a nationwide shortage of qualified tradespeople, increased costs, and limited availability of some materials.

During the year we worked hard with our partners, Platform Property Care (PPC), to steadily reduce and then clear the backlog of 2,900 repairs while also delivering another 18,000 new repairs.

In summary during the year:

We reduced the average number of days to complete repairs from 41 to under 30. We have this year set a target to complete 80% of repairs within our 20-day (working days) target.

Customer satisfaction with repairs was 83% for the year. Although this was affected by the backlog and extended timescales, we are fully focused on improving this and returning to satisfaction levels of 90%.

We completed 90% of repairs ‘Right First Time’ and completed 96% of emergency repairs within 24 hours, two areas of strong performance we will aim to maintain and improve if we can.

We improved how we work with the PPC trades team by meeting them more regularly and introducing new technology. On the doorstep appointments have been introduced, and our repairs officers now have allocated patches.

Responding to your views

Throughout the year we used the feedback from more than 2,000 customer surveys to change how we work and make things better. You have been consistent in telling us that the quality of your home, a reliable repairs service, tackling anti-social behaviour, and good estate management are what matter most to you. In response, we have:

Added an additional Tenancy Enforcement Officer to our team to tackle anti-social behaviour. The team dealt with more than 120 cases during the year by working with the police, council and other agencies to take robust action wherever possible.

Expanded and improved our grounds maintenance service, and updated our mapping to allow us to view in detail exactly which areas of land we maintain, and what is needed to maintain and deliver value for money.

Launched the Chartered Institute of Housing’s professional standards across the organisation, with professional qualifications for all relevant Rooftop staff, and provided mandatory customer service training.

Improved the communications sent out to customers on key themes, including a quarterly bulletin on important information such as repairs, safety, and the work we do in the community.

Community

What’s important in your community?

We have been asking customers in two of our main areas - Evesham and Bishop’s Cleeve - what their priorities are for their local area. That way we can work together to make sure that our services match their needs. This is what we call a Local Neighbourhood Plan - what is right for you and your community. We will soon be working with other communities in 2023/24. We also have around 40 community champions who live in one of our homes and who help us understand and get involved in the local community by telling us about any issues and providing feedback on our behalf.

When things go wrong - complaints

Overall, our customers have raised 1,204 dissatisfactions with us over the last year – nearly 20% more than last year. Alongside this, we’ve seen the number of formal complaints (Stage 1) more than double over the last two years (from 56 to 137), and the number of complaint appeals (Stage 2) triple (from seven to 21 cases).

Whilst the increases are significant, they are in line with the rest of the housing sector’s experience and the Housing Ombudsman’s drive to encourage good complaints management and to promote the complaints process with customers.

The profile of dissatisfactions and complaints is very similar to last year, with around 70% about repairs and planned maintenance, and the remainder focused on housing issues. We are working hard to ensure that we learn from the issues that our customers raise. To do that, last year we created a new role of Head of Customer Experience and recruited two staff to focus specifically on customer service and complaints in repairs and planned investment.

1204

Dissatisfactions

137

Stage1 complaints

21

Stage2 complaints

Learning from complaints

What are we doing differently because of customer feedback

Customer feedback is vital to us. Having received almost 114,000 customer contacts over the past year (April 2022 to March 2023), your comments about your experiences are regularly used to understand how our services are performing and to make improvements to the services we offer.

Some of the feedback we receive may be recorded as dissatisfied contacts or as formal complaints. Over the past year, we have made the following changes because of your feedback by reviewing the learning points from complaints you have made. These have been grouped within common themes.

We are listening You

said...

Repairs are taking too long. Sometimes multiple visits are needed over a prolonged period to complete a repair. There are issues with appointments not being made or kept, waiting for materials/parts, and a lack of progress updates.

We did...

We recognise the need to take better ownership of repairs, and if there is an issue with your repair job we need to see this through for you, from start to finish.

We appointed a Property Resolutions Coordinator in March 2023. This new role in our Property Services team supports an effective approach to repairs complaint management by acting as the coordinator/first point of contact for customers in property-related cases.

Platform Property Care (PPC) has established new working practices that include improved oversight of follow-up works (retaining operatives on the same job when multiple visits are needed), to ensure ownership, good communication, and timely completion.

We are reviewing how we can streamline and improve communications between our main contractor, PPC, other subcontractors, and Rooftop. This is being explored through weekly operational meetings between PPC and our Repairs team, as well as a monthly senior management meeting between us.

You said...

On moving into your new home, you found it was relet in a poor condition. Repairs (and sometimes major works) may be required, along with garden maintenance/clearance.

We did...

We reviewed the void/lettings process in the autumn of 2022 and developed a new minimum lettable standard.

We appointed a Voids Repair Coordinator in December 2022 to provide greater internal control over the voids process. Rather than PPC specifying the works required, we now do this.

Improved communication between Building Inspectors and PPC ensure that major works needed before moving in (such as bathroom or kitchen replacements) are completed as part of the void works, rather than when the property is occupied. A Building Inspector will always visit a property to sign off major works before it is relet.

Viewings are now carried out at least a week before the sign-up date, to ensure you have an adequate opportunity to consider the property you are being offered.

A void standard checklist has been created, itemising your responsibilities on vacating a Rooftop property.

Internal processes for mutual exchanges have also been reviewed. Whilst a mutual exchange is undertaken on the basis that both parties agree the condition of the property when exchanging, as your landlord we need to complete an inspection before any move takes place. This means we can assess the condition of your new home so that any essential repairs (for example treating damp and mould) are carried out before any move is agreed.

You said...

Not understanding what is covered by your service charges because you have not been given an itemised breakdown of what you are paying for.

Additional service charges may have been introduced since you moved in, which you have not been notified of.

We did...

From this year, we have issued everyone who pays service charges with an itemised statement listing each charge separately. These statements were enclosed with your annual rent and service charge increase letters, which were posted in late February 2023.

This gives everyone who pays a service charge a comprehensive understanding of the services they should be receiving in return for the charges they are paying (in addition to their rent) for the forthcoming financial year.

You said...

Poor communication or a general lack of communication. This covers phone calls not being returned, or emails not replied to, meaning you are not kept updated and we don’t manage your expectations.

You sometimes find it difficult to get hold of your Neighbourhood Officer, or may not know who they are.

We did...

We are focused on driving consistently good communication with you. Customer service training was carried out for around 100 customerfacing staff from January 2023. This has improved the recording of customer contacts on our housing management system so that anyone who deals with you has a consistent view of what you have contacted us about and what action we have taken.

Following recent recruitment to vacant posts, we have addressed resourcing issues, and the Neighbourhood Officer team has returned to business-as-usual working. This will enable greater presence in neighbourhoods, so Neighbourhood Officers can introduce themselves, and improve response times to your queries and concerns.

We don’t always get it right. If you wish to make a complaint, we will clearly set out our complaints process and the timescales for dealing with your case. All customer-facing staff have been given training on Rooftop’s complaints process, to ensure there is a consistent approach to dealing with your case. Training was carried out between October 2022 and March 2023. Colleagues are currently undergoing refresher training to stay up-to-date

Keeping you safe

This year we have continued to work hard to keep you safe. We also began work on our Building Safety Strategy which will set out the safety of every building in order for us to put in the most appropriate control measures to ensure your safety, and that we communicate effectively with all our customers about what they need to know. At the end of the year, we had achieved 100% gas servicing compliance and 100% of all relevant properties had an electrical inspection within 10 years or less. We also completed the following:

Damp, mould, and condensation

Following the coroner’s November 2022 report into the death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale, all larger registered providers of social housing were asked to submit evidence to the regulator about the extent of damp and mould in residents’ homes and their approach to tackling it. Most people living in social housing have homes that are largely free from damp and mould; however, living with damp and mould can have a serious impact on residents’ health and wellbeing, and it’s essential that providers identify and address these issues promptly and effectively.

As a responsible landlord we take our responsibility seriously in ensuring that people living within our homes are safe and free from damp, mould, and condensation, and we have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to instances of damp, mould, and condensation that are found within our homes.

Our commitment to you is:

Insulate homes in accordance with Decent Homes Standard to help reduce the likelihood of condensation occurring.

Provide appropriate response times to repairing defects within the home which may contribute to damp, condensation, and mould, these include, but are not exclusive to, heating repairs, repairs to leaks and damage to roofs.

Maintain homes to avoid penetrating and rising damp and for undertaking remedial works if these do occur.

Help customers understand how to minimise condensation in the home.

Further information and advice on damp and mould is available on our website including our policy and should you need this information in another format please contact us.

In December, we responded to the regulator’s request for information, to do this we carried out a comprehensive assessment of the extent of damp and mould for this survey: 1072 returns from our 2022/23 stock condition survey (covering 3000 homes – or 50% of our stock) including identification of category 1 and 2 hazards (Housing Health and Safety Rating System), this identified at that point 363 cases on damp, mould or condensation cases that were currently being managed, and since this date, we have been working with our customers to resolve this for them.

If you have any concerns about either damp, mould or condensation it’s important that we are aware of it to ensure that we take quick action where needed to resolve it.

Supporting you

Britain is facing its biggest cost of living crisis in decades. Last year, we saw more people coming to us for help with crisis support, energy problems and not having enough money to make ends meet than ever before.

To support our customers, we developed a tenancy sustainment strategy and created a tenancy sustainment team to help deliver successful tenancies to enable customers to thrive, enjoy a better quality of life and live in a stable community.

Our experienced Money Advisors secured over £2.8m of additional income for over 1300 families. This was through claiming benefits they were entitled to but not claiming, applying for discretionary housing payments, and grants from energy and utilities supplies.

We secured and allocated £60,000 from Wychavon local authority from its Household Support Fund. Through this, we supported over 1000 families with slow cookers, food vouchers, energy vouchers, and more.

Families 1300 £2.8m Extra money

Fewer customers in arrears

300 customers no longer in arrears

959

We aim to support people who live in our homes and their families who are finding it hard with the increased cost of living, and we are working with internal and external partners to keep families in their homes. If you would like further information on our money advice support, please visit the Money Advice page on our website.

You can now see your rent statement, make a payment, and contact the Income team about your rent all through the Rooftop web portal and app, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Need to know more? Go to the Rooftop website and click on Resident Access page at the top.

You can also visit our website for more information on money advice, or to access various websites offering advice on the Cost of Living Crisis or where you can apply for support.

Household Support Fund:

https://www.wychavon.gov.uk/housing/housing-advice/money-advice

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/support-hub/

https://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/communities/community-servicesdirectory

Your stories...

‘Steve’ is one of our ex-forces residents who has been in a Rooftop home since 2018. He had always engaged with us but ran into rent arrears and financial problems. He applied for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) and was turned down.

In discussion with our Money Advisors, he approached military charities for help with his arrears but was unsuccessful.

However, by working with Steve and after lengthy exchange of calls and documentation, the Royal British Legion agreed to clear the arrears. This has made a huge difference to Steve who can now stay in his home and start a new chapter in his life.

‘Emma’ is another of our ex-forces residents who has been in her Rooftop home in Gloucester for 12 years. She had built up a large rent debt and was no longer engaging with Rooftop.

During a year of conversations and through painstaking relationship-building and establishing a level of trust between with us and the Royal British Legion, arrangements were agreed to clear the debt.

By working together, Rooftop empowered and encouraged Emma to get a clean slate from historical arrears and move forward.

Investing in your home

It is important to us that we provide you with a quality home and we therefore plan investment to ensure your home continues to meet the Decent Homes Standard. This year we spent around £5m on improvements to people’s homes. We also delivered 174 new homes in the year to provide more affordable housing for local communities.

New homes

174 On home improvements

£5m

259

Gas boiler upgrades

We also commissioned a specialist company to carry out 3,000 stock condition surveys of our existing homes last year, with a further 1,750 surveys planned for this year.

These surveys provide us with valuable and up-to-date data on our homes, including the age and condition of bathrooms, kitchens, windows heating systems, and other aspects of the building so that we can plan for their future replacement.

Rooftop would like to thank customers for their ongoing cooperation whilst these surveys are underway.

174

New kitchens

110

New bathrooms

39

New electric heating upgrade

Keeping you warm

Rooftop continues to invest in measures to reduce our environmental impact. We have found that improving the energy efficiency of our homes is the best way to reduce our carbon emissions and save our customers money. This is a big area of focus for us over the next few years as we have a target to bring all our homes to EPC Band C by 2030.

During the year we installed the following energy efficiency measures:

off-grid homes had PV Panels and/or high efficiency storage heaters installed 61 off-grid homes converted from electric to gas heating 41 properties received whole house retro-fit works using government funding including a combination of insulation, renewable heating and high performing windows/doors 27

Rooftop also secured £4.6m of government funding to assist in improving the energy efficiency of a further 157 of our hardest to heat rural homes over the next three years. We have begun to carry out retrofit assessments on the homes identified to receive these improvements.

We will use the data collected from the stock condition surveys and property Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) to plan a programme of energy efficiency works to bring as many homes as possible up to EPC Band C by 2030. This will be achieved through a combination of measures including improvements to insulation, windows and doors, heating upgrades, and the installation of renewable technologies such as PV panels and Air Source Heat Pumps.

There is no need to contact us, Rooftop will contact customers when their property is due to be improved and upgraded.

Value for Money

Today more than ever we have to ensure that everything we do is as efficient and effective as it can be. We are judged against the Regulator of Social Housing’s Value for Money Standard 2018, and it is the role of the Rooftop Housing Group Board to ensure that we adhere to it. This year we:

1. Carried out an independent review of our partnership with Platform Property Care. This confirmed that we are making the savings we should from being in a ’cost sharing vehicle’.

2. Made staff savings of around £200k by completing a review of

how we work, and changing our ‘Operating Model’ to focus as much as possible on core landlord services.

3. Began upskilling our customerfacing staff through the qualifications offered by the Chartered Institute of Housing as part of our professionalisation agenda to improve customer service and productivity.

4. Made the decision to sell our Redditch dementia scheme, Dorothy Terry House, to another housing provider who is dedicated to this specialist type of housing and can provide an enhanced and more efficient service.

Major Improvements - replacing kitchens, bathrooms, and heating 13p

Painting and other home improvements 4p

Day-to-day repairs 20p

Insurance 1p

Servicing systemsheating, water 7p

Bills - gas, electric, water, cleaning 10p Residents' welfare and support 2p

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Our aim is to achieve positive outcomes for potential and existing customers, our colleagues, and the wider community. We recognise that there is inequality in society, in our own communities, and in our workplace and we want to make a difference.

Our new Strategy is designed to ensure that we promote a culture where equality, diversity and inclusion are valued and respected, and sets out how we will actively do this, including challenging discrimination and harassment.

This year has marked a significant step for us in our work on EDI. We have established an Inclusion Alliance that is made up of Rooftop colleagues whose role is to help drive an inclusive culture. This year, we will launch a customer-led focus group that will champion key areas of inclusion that will ensure continued equality in access to services and support.

During the year we were independently assessed by the Housing Diversity Network who has advised that we have met what it regards as a good standard and provided helpful feedback on how we can further our work in this area. Full details of our plans will be published on our website. Highlights from this year included:

We developed and launched a ‘We Care’ customer service training programme for colleagues.

We took part in a national data survey to ensure our workforce and Board was representative of the communities we serve.

We reviewed our recruitment approach to encourage and support applications from minority groups.

Together with Tenants

We are a supporter of the National Housing Federation’s ‘Together with Tenants Charter’. On the next page is a summary of what we are doing and have specifically done this year to meet and move forward the six commitments it sets out.

Relationships

Charter Commitment What we did this year

Housing associations will treat all residents with respect in all of their interactions.

Relationships between residents and housing associations will be based on openness, honesty and transparency.

We have delivered a ‘We Care’ customer service training programme to all customer facing colleagues that is focused upon listening, caring, ownership/accountability, strong communication, building trust, and getting it right first time.

Residents will receive clear, accessible and timely information from their housing association on the issues that matter to them, including important information about their homes and local community, how the organisation is working to address problems, how the organisation is run, and information about performance on key issues.

We have issued a range of communications that include newsletters focusing on key themes to keep you up to date on our progress and plans.

During the year we have sought your views and feedback on your priorities, and changes to our repairs and maintenance service including when we’ve developed key strategies. This has helped us shape our services to meet your needs and finalise our new Corporate plan.

We have shared the Corporate Plan with you that outlines how we’re performing, our achievements and priorities for future work.

Voice and influence

Charter Commitment What we did this year

Views from residents will be sought and valued and this information will be used to inform decisions.

Every individual resident will feel listened to by their housing association on the issues that matter to them and can speak without fear.

We have implemented a new survey system that has enabled us to gather more feedback than ever on your experience as a customer.

This feedback is used to continually improve and also is provided to our Board who ensure they hear our customer voice both through reports and personal customer accounts of their experience.

We’re working with the Tenant Participation Advisory Service on developing more ways in which your voice can be heard and influence service delivery.

Accountability

Collectively, residents will work in partnership with their housing association to independently scrutinise and hold their housing association to account for the decisions that affect the quality of their homes and services.

We have recruited new Customer Scrutiny Panel members to ensure more customers can be involved in scrutinising service delivery.

Quality

Charter Commitment What we did this year

Residents can expect their homes to be good quality, well maintained, safe and well managed.

This year we have undertaken over 3,000 condition surveys of our homes that enable us to ensure that we replace items such as kitchens and bathrooms when needed.This has been carried out independently and findings will be incorporated into our future investment plans.

We have also reviewed our approach to tenancy audits which means we will visit more often to ensure that our homes are of good quality and well maintained.

Listening to our customers regarding the level of anti-social behaviour, we have increased the size of the team and reviewed our approach to taking robust action to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour.

When things go wrong

Residents will have simple and accessible routes for raising issues, making complaints and seeking redress. Residents will receive timely advice and support when things go wrong.

We have fully reviewed our complaints process in line with requirements of the Housing Ombudsman complaints handling code. Our complaints process is simple and accessible and provides you with redress when things go wrong, this has included introducing a new Resolution Officer for the response repairs service.

In addition to this through your feedback we’re ensuring that we continually improve.

Governance and regulation

Housing associations are overseen by a government organisation called the Regulator of Social Housing which checks how we are doing and carries out in-depth inspections around every four years.

We annually check ourselves against the Regulator’s seven standards setting out how we need to work. These tell us exactly what the Regulator needs us to do to make sure we stay in a strong financial position, set a fair rent, look for value for money in everything that we do, and that we take care of the people that live in our homes.

We make sure that they live in safe, decent homes and neighbourhoods, and are given opportunities to be involved. We are open about how we make choices that involve you and we will listen to your views. Every year the self-assessments, which are approved by the Boards, confirm our compliance with the Regulator’s standards.

Every registered provider of social housing must adopt a recognised way of being managed. At Rooftop, we follow the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) Code of Governance to make sure we are doing things in the right way.

In 2020, the NHF reviewed the Code to make it more people and customer-focused. This showed how important it is for the Boards to take a lead on the culture of the organisation and to make sure that fairness, diversity, and feeling included is given a real focus and that it can evidence how our customers can influence the decisions being made that affect them directly. We do this through our Customer Scrutiny Panel and Customer Engagement Strategy.

The Code has four principles: Mission and Values; Strategy and Delivery; Board Effectiveness; Control and Assurance. Each principle has a set of rules that we must judge ourselves against each year to prove we meet them or explain why we don’t. Our annual self-assessment evidences how we comply.

Each year we also publish an Environmental, Social and Governance Report which incorporates all aspects of our business and provides data against 30 ‘Core’ questions which are compulsory, and 18 ‘Enhanced’ questions, which are optional. Currently, there is one enhanced question that we do not report on as we have less than 250 employees. The full report is published on our website.