Residents' Annual Report 2018

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Annual Report 2018

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PAGE ONE

Annual Report 2018

Welcome to the 2018 Residents’ Annual Report 2018 This Annual Report sets out details of Swan’s performance for the period April 2017 to March 2018.

Formed in 1994, Swan now owns and manages almost 11,000 properties in East London and Essex. Our mission is to deliver effective services, enterprising solutions and exemplary homes and communities.

Social housing is at the core of our business and is essential to the delivery of our corporate mission and objectives and is the main type of housing we manage.

Our key priorities are to:

Properties we own

4 94

598

73 7

93 0

1 0 8 6

Demonstrate Excellence

Supported Deliver Value for Money Shared Ownership

Leasehold Deliver Good Quality Care and Support Keyworker

General Needs

Increase Customer Satisfaction

Swan now owns and manages almost 11,000 properties in East London and Essex

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PAGE TWO

Annual Report

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is responsible for regulating social housing providers such as Swan, to make sure they are well managed and financially secure. Swan must comply with the economic and consumer standards that are set out by the RSH. The standards are:

2018

Consumer standards

Economic standards • Governance & Financial Viability • Value for Money • Rent

• Home • Tenancy • Neighbourhood and Community • Tenant Involvement and Empowerment

Swan must ensure effective governance arrangements are in place and that we manage our resources effectively to ensure our financial viability is maintained. Swan has a compliant rating for both Governance (G1) and Financial Viability (V2).

Swan’s Board is responsible for ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Key performance information is considered by Swan’s Board and Committees to ensure we are meeting the standards.

Performance information is broken into four key priorities:

Financial

Customer

Compliance with processes Learning and growth

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PAGE THREE

Annual Report

Financial

2018 At Swan, we are committed to ensuring value for money for our residents. Our funding arrangements have been structured to maximise the amount of surplus generated from our development programme and day to day activities to enable us to operate efficiently and effectively.

Our greatest revenue expenditure per property is on repairs and maintenance. Our partnering arrangement with Axis Europe helps us to ensure we offer good value for money. This enables us to invest more in planned works such as replacement kitchens and bathrooms.

Expenditure on rent arrears and collection is high compared to our peers due to the high level of resources we have focused on supporting residents through welfare reform and maximising income recovery.

We benchmark our costs and performance against other housing providers to show how we are achieving value for money. For most areas we are in the top quartile when compared to others. The table below sets out our costs per property (CPP).

Function

CPP

Major Works and planned maintenance

£903

Day to day repairs and empty property works

£515

Rent arrears and collection

£168

Resident Involvement

£37

Antisocial Behaviour

£64

Tenancy Management

£91

Lettings

£46

Housing Management

£406

Estate Services

£189

Overheads as a % of turnover

9.3%

Overheads as a % of direct revenue costs

25.6%

Swan's full financial statements are available at www.swan.org.uk

Key

Quartile 1

Quartile 2

Quartile 3

Quartile 4

0.54%

former tenant rent arrears

£89.68 cost of average repair

2.24%

rental income due in arrears

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PAGE FOUR

Annual Report

Financial

2018 Our rents are set each year in-line with the RSH’s Rent Standard. The Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 introduced a new rent regime that requires rents for social and affordable housing to be decreased by 1% for four years from April 2016. We have implemented this each year at the time of our October rent review.

How your rent is spent

How your service charge is spent

2p 7p 28p

31p

26p

£215k spent on adaptations

average weekly service charge

45p 20p

20p

9p

101.49% of rent collected

10p 2p

• Interest paid on bank loans • Housing management • Repairs and maintenance • Resident involvement • Overheads

£19.89

• Communal cleaning and gardening • Communal repairs • Health and safety provisions • Security and CCTV

• Utilities and insurance • Other

(including from former tenants)

£115.08 average weekly rent

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P A G E F IV E

Annual Report

Customer

2018 Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. Our Social Value and Engagement Strategy sets out our commitment to resident involvement and the development of sustainable communities.

Our latest Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard accreditation report (April 2018) highlighted our strong commitment to delivering high quality customer service. The report details our attitudes and working practices, along with our customer focused initiatives and performance. The CSE Standard is an independent test of the quality of our services and the value they deliver to our customers.

We have an annual service improvement plan in place to help us deliver ongoing continuous improvements in key service areas. We track customer satisfaction by measuring the same key indicators each year and benchmarking them against other landlords. These questions are known as STAR, (Social Tenants and Residents).

Customer Satisfaction STAR results 2016 - 2017 2017 - 2018

84 82

Overall service

82%

71

Repairs and maintenance

overall customer satisfaction

72 62

Listens to your views

65 81 84

Neighbourhood

ÂŁ2.5m

85 84

Quality of your home

spent on home improvements

80 81

Rent provides VfM 59

Service charges provide VfM

192

52 70 68

Estate services

0

20

40

60

% 80

100

new kitchens fitted

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P A G E S IX

Annual Report

Customer

2018 Each year we deliver a range of engagement opportunities to enable our residents to be involved and influence the services we provide.

The two largest events are SwanFest and Summer Night Lights.

SwanFest is an opportunity for informal consultation, it also gives the participants an opportunity to meet others from different estates and regions as well as key members of Swan staff and representatives from 16 local partner organisations.

Over 330 residents attended the event held in Barleylands, Billericay from across the areas that Swan has homes.

Summer Night Lights is an annual community event which brought together over 2,000 residents and 20 local partners, including other housing associations, local authorities, police, fire services, NHS and community organisations.

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PAGE SEVEN

Annual Report

Customer

2018

Repairs Swan’s Asset Management Strategy sets out our framework to maintain and improve our homes. 100% of our homes meet the Government’s current Decent Homes Standard (DHS) and we have adopted a Decent Homes PLUS Standard which has a shorter life cycle for kitchens and bathrooms.

Our planned maintenance programme saw 640 homes benefit from works completed during the year. This included bathroom and kitchen replacements and 178 new boiler and heating systems. We work closely with our local authority partners to provide adaptations for those that need them and fund all adaptations under £1k directly.

100%

properties meet Decent Home Standard

99.2%

repairs completed in target

99.95% properties with a gas safety certificate

47

major adaptations carried out

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P A G E E IG H T

Annual Report

Customer

2018

Complaints We actively welcome complaints and understand the value this type of feedback offers in providing us with a learning opportunity. Complaints reports are reviewed at a variety of levels across Swan to help identify areas for improvement. We subscribe to the Housing Ombudsman Service, whose role is to independently assess whether we have acted fairly and reasonably in dealing with a complaint that has exhausted our internal procedures.

Last year 66% of complaints related to repairs with 68% being upheld. 100% of complaints were acknowledged and responded to within target.

Our average time to respond to a complaint was 5.7 days, with 95% of complaints resolved at stage one.

Complaints received Stage one Stage two Stage three Housing Ombudsman

209 10 0 0

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P A G E N IN E

Annual Report

Customer

2018

Anti-social behaviour We have dedicated Officers to deal with reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB). This year we reviewed how we handle reports of ASB and increased the amount of communication we have with residents during our investigations. This was following feedback that some complainants did not feel we were keeping them up to date.

During the year we received 162 ASB complaints, with 97% of cases successfully resolved. We took legal action in a number of cases, including applying for injunctions. We were granted seven possession orders at Court and we evicted one household due to ASB. We signed up to the ’Make a Stand’ pledge, launched by the Chartered Institute of Housing in partnership with Women’s Aid and the Domestic Abuse Alliance. The pledge highlights our commitment to supporting people who are experiencing domestic abuse.

162

reports of ASB

97%

of cases resolved

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PAGE TEN

Annual Report

Customer

2018

Allocations Our Allocations Policy is designed to ensure our homes are let in a way that is fair and transparent. Priority is awarded based on household need and time waited and reflects local authority policies whenever possible. All our lets are monitored to ensure fairness and efficiency and last year we achieved an average relet time of 13.3 days.

Last year we let 278 homes, 66 of these were to existing tenants. The majority of our homes are let through our local authority partners.

63 households were housed because they were homeless. 18% of our lets were to Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) households and 13% were to a household with a disabled member. We also saw 104 households carry out a mutual exchange into another home.

13.3

days to re-let a property

278

homes let

104

mutual exchanges

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PAGE ELEVEN

Annual Report

Customer

2018

Supported housing We provide quality accommodation and enhanced housing management services for residents with different support needs, including: • People with learning disabilities • People with mental health needs • Young people • Teenage parents • Care leavers • Older People Our services support people to gain independent living skills and to maintain their home.

We supported 232 residents with learning disabilities and another 98 residents living within our supported living schemes.

Our three Foyers provided support to 84 young people, to reconnect with learning, increase employment opportunities, improve their health and wellbeing and develop their leadership potential.

86.4% supported housing overall satisfaction

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P A G E T W E LV E

Annual Report

Customer

2018

Equality, diversity and inclusion We developed our Equality Scheme 2018-2022 which sets our commitment and approach to promoting equality, community cohesion, social, digital and financial inclusion. We have been awarded the Housing Diversity Network Accreditation for excellence, with 5 distinctions for good practice.

All Swan employees undertake equality and diversity training and each year we hold a Diversity Day for staff and involved residents. This year we focused on raising awareness on Homelessness, Domestic Abuse and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).

We were an official partner to Essex Pride and took part in the walking group that accompanied the HouseProud float at London Pride.

Our satisfaction surveys carried out in 2017/18 found no significant difference in satisfaction between male and female residents, disabled and non-disabled residents or White British and BAME residents.

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P A G E T H IR T E E N

Annual Report

Compliance with Processes

2018 We have an ethos of continuous improvement of our services, systems and processes to ensure they remain fit for purpose and can demonstrate value for money by being effective and efficient.

Each year we carry out a number of service reviews across different areas. Last year we changed our repair appointment slots, from two-hour slots to, morning, afternoon and ‘avoid the school run’ slots. This allows us to plan appointments more effectively and better manage customer expectations.

The London and Essex Resident Consultative Committees (RCCs) are our main resident groups. They analyse and challenge our performance and oversee the strategy and policy review process. During the year they reviewed eight policies, including: • Compensation Policy • Neighbourhood Management Policy • Service Charge Policy • Maintenance Service and Inspection Policy

Satisfaction

Performance

Cost

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PAGE FOURTEEN

Annual Report

Compliance with Processes

2018 Residents sit on the Operations Committee and have direct input in the service delivery decision making process. Residents are also represented at key partnership meetings between Swan and Axis to monitor and shape the repairs and maintenance service. Our residents’ Scrutiny Panel undertook two detailed service reviews and provided input and scrutiny on our value for money objectives. More information on the Scrutiny Panel and their reviews can be found on www.swan.org.uk Our annual Resident Involvement Impact Assessment measures and evaluates the difference and value made to services by involving our residents.

We gather feedback to learn how we can improve, below are some examples of how resident feedback has changed how we do things.

You told us that our communication regarding communal repairs could be better

You told us you found it difficult to change tap washers

You told us follow on work appointments were disorganised

So now we use block texts to update residents regarding communal repairs

So now Axis will change tap washers for you

So now if a repair needs more than one visit Axis will book them at the same time as the first appointment so you are aware of the plan of works

2

Scrutiny Panel reviews

8

policies reviewed by residents

95%

of complaints resolved at stage one

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P A G E F IF T E E N

Annual Report

Learning and Growth

2018 We are committed to delivering more regeneration, more homes, more services and more social purpose. We have opened a new factory in Basildon to build over 500 new high quality modular homes and create new jobs for the area.

Our regeneration programmes in Basildon, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets are all well underway, with some nearing completion. The schemes have, and continue to provide, high quality homes to rent and buy.

Our apprentice and graduate schemes have added real value to the teams they support and provide an excellent source of entry level talent for the Swan Group.

Our people are key to helping us deliver our strategy and for the last three years we have made it into the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Not for Profit Companies to work for. Last year we were ranked as a 2 Star company, coming in at number 22!

Our state of the art factory is located in Basildon

22

in the Times 100 Best Not for Profit Companies to work for

13.7%

employee turnover