Message from Susan Hickey

Welcome to our 2021/22 Residents’ Annual Report. This past year has been a busy and challenging one. Covid-19 continued to have an impact on how we live and work. The cost of living has had a significant impact for many people and organisations – including Swan and our customers. Swan’s governance and financial rating was reviewed and downgraded by the Regulator of Social Housing, and Swan has also faced financial challenges.

What’s in this report?

Look out for our key performance highlights

New this year

Coming up in 21/22

Resident Feedback

Changing Lives, Creating Opportunities

Resident led improvement

MOVING ONLINE AND KEEPING COMMUNITIES CONNECTED

Page 05

HOW DO WE LISTEN TO YOU?

Page 09

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY RESULTS

Page 10

TACKLING ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Page 15

LOOKING AFTER YOUR HOME

Page 19

CARE AND SPECIALIST ACCOMMODATION

Page 27

PERFORMANCE AT A GLANCE

Page 31

During the first half of the year we continued to adapt our services so that we could fulfil our mission to deliver brilliant customer care and great places to call home amidst Covid-19 restrictions. Our frontline teams still completed over 48,000 repairs, delivered nearly 42,000 care visits and provided more than 1,200 free meals for children during school holidays. We also increased our use of online technology to hold public consultations and customer meetings and to give you support and advice - including helping our customers to gain over £1m in benefits support. I can also confirm that Swan leaseholders living in blocks that require cladding remediation works will be protected from the costs of work on external wall systems and balconies.

While we have now returned to relative ‘normality’ with Covid-19 restrictions having been lifted, having seen the benefits of digital services we will keep offering and expanding these for our customers. This is part of our work to improve your customer experience. We have also been working with the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) for the second year to gather your feedback through surveys and focus groups to listen to how we can get things right, make changes, and to monitor our progress.

Swan has been facing financial challenges and our leadership team has been working with various partners so that Swan can become part of a larger group. Discussions with Orbit were ended in September 2022 and our more recent discussions with Sanctuary will see Swan join the Sanctuary group on 31 January 2023.

Sanctuary is one of the largest not-for-profit providers of housing and care in the country. Being part of Sanctuary will help to secure the financial stability of Swan and ensure we can continue to deliver our services and invest in your homes. We will be writing to all our customers with more information about this soon or you can find out more at www.swan.org.uk/Sanctuary

In 2022/23 we will be focusing on supporting our customers through the cost of living crisis while also continuing to work to improve our services, our governance and viability. This will enable us to keep fulfilling our purpose to ensure as many people as possible have somewhere to feel at home.

Susan Hickey Chief Executive