Investing in our community How are we doing? Our report for 2014
Doing what matters most to customers Investing in homes and our community Making us stronger for the future
Welcome to your annual report
A few months ago, nearly 20,000 people visited our area, many for the first time, to see the Commonwealth Games mountain bike event at Cathkin Braes. Lots of them posted how fantastic the area was and how well people were looking after their houses and the local environment. I have real satisfaction that by working together we have made Ardenglen something to be proud of, but also maintained a strong sense of community spirit and supporting each other. Times remain hard for you, for our community and for Ardenglen, but we have continued to invest in our houses, services and our local community and have worked hard to provide the best value possible for the rent that you pay. This report gives us all a chance to see how Ardenglen is performing, celebrate some our achievements and highlight any areas where we could do better. It is a report based on what you have been telling us, through our various surveys and consultations and I would like to thank everyone who has taken part over the year. We want to make sure we spend our money wisely and help our tenants to pay rent promptly. The information you give us helps us target our resources where you say it is needed most. We are, for example, making our homes as energy efficient as possible to save you money on your bills and have increased our free welfare advice service.
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This report also includes information on how Ardenglen is performing against the new Scottish Social Housing Charter. The Charter sets the standards and outcomes that all social landlords, including Ardenglen, should aim to achieve. We will also tell you where you can find all the detailed performance information which we are required to submit every year. Thank you for your ongoing support and I hope you enjoy reading the report.
Maureen Cope MBE Chairperson October 2014
What do the tables mean? Satisfaction with overall service
Result 2014: 96% Change from 2011: 90%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 88%
How we compare to others To help us compare how we are doing, we share information about our performance with other landlords in Scotland. Where information is available, we compare our performance with the Scottish average.
What do the colours mean? ĂŠ
We have improved since last year
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We have stayed the same as last year or do not have comparative data
ĂŞ
We have got worse since last year
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The Customer/ Landlord relationship
No. of equalities complaints: 0 No. of all other complaints: 94 No. of complaints upheld: 76 % complaints dealt with on time
Result 2014: 96.8% Equalities We believe in providing a caring, honest environment for customers and colleagues that promotes equality and diversity, tackles discrimination and values openness and accountability. We gather a range of equalities information on our customers to understand different needs and look for ways to deliver our services to meet those needs. Communication Communication is more than simply the provision of information. It is a two way process and we encourage this dialogue on an ongoing basis across all aspects of our business. A key source of communication is our complaints policy. Every complaint is investigated and reviewed by senior staff on a monthly basis. Our aim is learn from times when we have not quite met your expectations and use the experience to continually improve our services. Participation Our Customer Engagement Strategy sets down the various methods we use to take account of your views and priorities. We respect the right of individuals to become involved with the Association within their own comfort levels and will provide opportunities to do so.
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No data from 2013
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Satisfaction about being kept informed
Result 2014: 98% Change from 2011: 95%
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Governance and viability
Over the past 25 years - staff, committee and residents have worked together to build a strong, local, community controlled Housing Association, whose mission is to invest in your home and your community and deliver what matters most to our customers. Much of our success is down to running Ardenglen in a proper business like fashion and to make us stronger for the future. These are tough times, but by effective control of our operating costs, Ardenglen’s finances remain strong and we are able to continue to provide high quality homes and services. The role of our Management Committee is to set and monitor the strategic direction of Ardenglen. We have recently reviewed our Governance arrangements to ensure we are best placed to meet the many challenges ahead. Each Committee member receives an annual appraisal to enable them to identify training and development needs. The Committee also undergoes a general appraisal to look at how they work together and if this could be improved. Our Committee members must all sign the Scottish Federation of Housing Association’s Code of Conduct, which sets out the standards expected of each member.
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Tenant Satisfaction Satisfaction with overall service
Result 2014: 96% Change from 2011: 90%
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How we compare to others : Tenant satisfaction is of the utmost importance to Ardenglen and as such we are constantly seeking your views of our services in all areas across the business. We do this by asking you to rate our services on an ongoing basis. In addition to this, we appoint an independent consultant once every 3 years to undertake a comprehensive tenant survey. This survey reaches approximately 40% of our tenants, with everyone having the opportunity to participate. Our last survey was carried out in 2013 and provided us with clear direction on your priorities and enabled us to focus our resources in areas where you felt we could improve.
Scottish average 88%
Keeping you informed
Result 2014: 98% Change from 2011: 95%
How we compare to others : Scottish average 89%
Satisfaction with opportunities to participate
Result 2014: 94% No data from 2011
How we compare to others : Scottish average 78%
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Homes and Rents
We understand the rent levels we charge for our properties is a key concern for you, particularly during these times of competing demands on finances. Every year, rents inevitably rise in order to cover the costs of services to the Association. This year we implemented a below inflation rent increase with no reduction to our services. We spoke to all of you affected by the government’s spare room subsidy or “bedroom tax” and submitted discretionary housing benefit applications to Glasgow City Council to ease the impacts of the policy. This year we witnessed an increase in demand for our Welfare Rights Service. Paul Pearson is based at our office two full days per week and works tirelessly to ensure that where appropriate rent assistance through housing benefit is correctly claimed. How do our rents compare? Average weekly rents Size No. Ardenglen Scottish Ave.
(apt)
1 2 3 4 5
40 147 515 211 45
£39.14 £60.98 £66.54 £74.91 £85:50
£59.56 £65.18 £67.19 £73.03 £81.68
+/-34.3% -6.4% -1% +2.5% +4.7%
Did you know? You can pay your rent on-line or by downloading the Allpay app on your smartphone or tablet. 7
Value for Money
How every £1 is spent
Getting more for your money is more important now than it has ever been. We call this Value for Money or VFM. Most of our money comes from the rent our tenants pay and we have a clear strategy of making sure this is spent to get the most benefit to our tenants and the community we serve
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You have told us what your priorities are. The vast majority of our resources are therefore invested in providing effective, customer focussed services and in the maintenance and repair of our houses. We are trying to work in the most “lean” fashion we can. This means we are always looking for ways to do things better and try to do more for less year on year. We want you to be fully involved in this process, which is why we seek your views on what matters most to you. We also want to be as open as possible, so you can easily see where resources are being spent. Our people are vital to delivering VFM. We invest in the learning and development of our staff, committee and volunteers, without who we cannot deliver your priorities. We are independently checked for this by Investors in People who have given us a Silver Award.
Did You Know? You can find all our financial and performance information at www.ardenglen.co.uk 8
19p
Major and Planned Repairs
21p
Routine Repairs
28p
Salaries
15p
Office & Property Overheads
9p
Repayment of Loans
6p
Regeneration activities
2p
Other
Rent collected as a % of total rent due
Result 2014: 99.9% No data from 2013
Value for money
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 99.9%
Rent lost as a % of rent due as a result of houses being empty
Result 2014: 0.2% No data from 2013
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 1.2%
The tables show we are performing better than the Scottish average at reletting empty houses quickly, thus minimising the time where no rent is being paid.
Number of days taken to relet empty houses
Result 2014: 8-6 days Change from 2011: 10.6 days
How we compare to others : Scottish average 35.7%
You have told us that household budgets are being stretched further than ever before. As a customer it is important you know that we are working smartly to ensure that every pound of your rent money is spent in the most efficient way.
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Value for money is also demonstrated through our compliance with procurement regulations. This ensures that our major repairs contracts are openly tendered and that a price/ quality assessment of our contractors is undertaken prior to any works being awarded. As a landlord, we work with partners to seek alternative sources of funding wherever possible in order to reduce the pressure from rental income. For example, this year we secured funding from energy providers to help make our homes as warm as possible.
Did you know? Our free money advice service is available by appointment every Wednesday and Thursday 9
Quality and maintenance of homes We understand that the quality of our maintenance service is a top priority for you and we continue to work hard to deliver in this area. Our local maintenance contractors are familiar with our properties and their understanding of our stock is reflected within our ‘right first time’ performance. Every property within our ownership meets the requirements of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS). In spite of this achievement we have worked hard this year to make improvements to the energy efficiency of our homes in a bid to reduce heating costs.
Average time to complete emergency repairs
Result 2014: 3.2 hrs No data from 2013
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 6.9 hrs
Average time to complete non emergency repairs
We have also begun a planned cycle of property inspections with a view to making sure every home has a comprehensive ‘MOT’ on a 5 yearly basis which will give us an actual understanding on the lifecycle of our components and feed into our planning process.
Result 2014: 3 days
This year we continued our planned maintenance programme with the renewal of 54 kitchens and extractor fans, 54 boilers and 49 bathrooms. Spend in this area reached £138,084.
No data from 2013
Change from 2013: 2 days
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 8.2 days
% of repairs completed ‘right first time’
Result 2014: 95.6%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 87.2%
% of repair appointments kept
Result 2014: 99.3% No data from 2013
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 92.9%
% satisfied with maintenance service
Did you know? By calling us out with office hours you can be directly transferred to our emergency repair contractors 10
Result 2014: 95% Change from 2011: 81%
How we compare to others : Scottish average 87.6%
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Regeneration
We are pleased to see our Regeneration services continue to develop and genuinely touch the lives of local people who are participating in our programmes Projects such as “The Only Way Is Up” have been developed to mitigate the impacts of Welfare Reform on our community and we are delighted with its success in achieving positive outcomes for its participants. From its lush grounds, courtesy of our Gardening Group, to the inviting smells of our Good Grub cookery courses, our Community Hall continues to go from strength to strength. It remains ever popular as a setting for social events and family celebrations. Of course, our operation of services and social events from the Hall would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our amazing Social Committee volunteers and we can’t thank them enough for all that they do for our community. Finally, we have to mention the fantastic news that Glasgow City Council has supported our campaign to establish the Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Centre to the tune of a £1million commitment towards the refurbishment of the former St. Martin’s Church. The efforts of our Regeneration team will continue to focus on raising the rest of the money needed to deliver what would be an amazing social enterprise development right at the heart of our community.
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Neighbourhood and community
% of anti social behaviour cases resolved within target
Result 2014: 94.1% No data from 2013
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How we compare to others : There is no doubting the importance of being able to live in a peaceful, well maintained neighbourhood. Whilst we are unable to achieve this outcome without the work of partner agencies; we are the first point of contact for many of you when things go wrong. For every 100 properties that we own, 21.3 complaints were made in the last year. Whilst it appears this figure is high, it is also reective of the fact that you care about your neighbourhood and trust us to resolve your issues. In every reported case of anti social behaviour, we ask you how you rate our handling. You have told us we could do better. We will be hoping to explore this feedback in more detail over the coming months. The legality of anti social behaviour requires the Association to build a corroborated case against a perpetrator which can be both time consuming and frustrating for us and you. We want to hear from you how this process can be more inclusive. On a more positive note, our estate services of landscaping and close cleaning are being closely monitored by our Housing Services Assistant, Peter Boyle. Peter may seek your views over the phone or as you call to the office. You told us to improve our back court cleaning services. Hopefully the increased visits here will improve the visual standard of the estate.
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Scottish average 75.9%
Satisfaction with Ardenglen’s management of the neighbourhood
Result 2014: 94.6% No data from 2011
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Access to Housing and support
Demand for our housing has continued to increase this year. We allocate our houses on a points basis that operates on a ‘needs priority.’ We offer dedicated allocation appointments where you can discuss your housing requirements on an individual basis with one of our staff. This process assists in managing expectations and provides the opportunity for us to promote other forms of tenure where this is appropriate. You can apply for housing online via our website at www.ardenglen.co.uk . You can also register on Homeswap, our national mutual exchange scheme at www.homeswapper.co.uk We have recently reviewed the information given to housing applicants. We now include details of the turnover of specifics streets and property types. This allows applicants to make realistic decisions based on their circumstances.
% of tenancies sustained for more than 1 year
Result 2014: 95.45% Change from 2013: 88.7%
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Keeping people within their homes is our core function. To this end, we recognise that needs change and we will offer assistance wherever possible. This might be anything from the installation of medical adaptations to financial advice to avoid rent arrears. This year we have worked hard to minimise the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’ by assisting our tenants to move to smaller homes. This has been successful in minimising the risk of homelessness.
% of medical adaptations requests completed in year
Result 2014: 93.5% No data from 2013
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Improvements for 2015
Working together
Your Neighbourhood
We will continue to develop our complaints system to ensure that we feedback to you on the improvements we have made as a result of your comments.
We will continue to work with other agencies to minimise the negative effects of anti social behaviour within our community.
Your home
We will monitor our estate services to ensure we meet your expectations. Furthermore, we will expand the opportunities for participation for you to let us know how we are doing.
You have told us that the quality of repairs and maintenance is your highest priority. We will expand our repair by appointment system in order to build exibility around busy schedules
Value for money
We will continue with our planned repairs and begin window replacements in properties previously owned by Glasgow Housing Association. We will increase our property inspection visits and use the information gathered to inform our planned maintenance programme.
We will continue to review our internal administration processes to ensure that more staff resources are available on the front line to meet the needs of our customers
New Homes We will take forward our plans to build new houses on the former St Martin’s School football pitch at Cathkin Braes.
Your tenancy We need to make sure that we collect all the rent due to us. We will continue to take a firm approach to any missed payments whilst helping those who need budgeting and money advice. We will continue to let our houses in such a way as to achieve a sustainable community through a combination of lets to our existing tenants, waiting list and homeless applicants.
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Regeneration We will continue to deliver regeneration projects which positively improve the quality of life of our community.
Want to have your say? If you would like more information about getting involved as an Ardenglen tenant please contact the office or visit www.ardenglen.co.uk
Tell us what you think You told us that you like written communication that is clearly written, easy to follow and provides information that is important to you.
Did we get it right? Whilst we have attempted to take your requirements on board, we rely on you to tell us if we got it right. You can feedback your views on this report , good or bad to any member of staff, via our website or why not rate our service on our facebook page (see back cover for all contact details).
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Get in touch with us to find out more www.ardenglen.co.uk email: info@ardenglen.org.uk Telephone : 0141 634 8016 Office: 355 Tormusk Road Castlemilk Glasgow G45 0HF
To compare our performance The Scottish Housing Regulator www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk
Registered as a Scottish Charity: SC032542