On the House - Annual Report Special Edition

Special Edition

Annual Report

2009-2010

house

housing news for Winchester City Council tenants and leaseholders

Dear Readers

What is this report about?

Welcome to your 2009/10 Annual Housing Report. In this report, we have included details of how Winchester City Council, your landlord, has performed in the year to 31 March 2010. We hope you find the information useful.

The regulator for housing, the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) requires us to issue an annual report to tenants every year. The TSA is our equivalent of Ofsted for schools, or the Financial Services Authority.

As with all public services, the Council is facing significant financial pressures this year. Despite the pressure on services to tenants, the Council is committed to maintaining and improving all Landlord Services where possible. We are grateful for the understanding and support from all tenants’ groups consulted on these pressures, and are committed to lobbying Government to ensure a fair settlement for Winchester on the current review of national housing finance.

I did not support the policy to sell much needed “estate” homes to help address Government under funding in housing and I’m pleased to say this policy will not continue. Some “non estate” buildings which are not suitable for family housing and cost too much to maintain may be disposed of this year. Our priority is to improve services to tenants, increase investment in your homes, reduce void times and to ensure we meet your expectations of the Council as your landlord.

Cllr Lucille Thompson Portfolio Holder for Communities

This annual report must give you an honest and helpful view about how well Winchester City Council is doing against the TSA standards.

We must also say what we are doing on tailoring agreements on services with particular groups of tenants.

The report details our pledges to you. How well we do on meeting those pledges is checked by the TSA (www.tenantservicesauthority.org).

The Winchester district wide tenants group TACT (Tenants and Council Together), the Newsletter Working Party and the Reading Panel have been consulted on the contents and design of Fill in the qu es ti onnaire inside this report. this edition for a chance to win an ipod touch or equivale nt in Luv2Shop vouche rs

Tenant News, produced by Tenants efor d iTenants t i o n 1can be found at the back of this edition

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October 2010

thebigword telephone interpreting service The Council uses a 24-hour Telephone Interpreting Service, which also provides written or recorded translations including audio tapes and CDs. If you, a relative or a neighbour would like to talk to the Council through an interpreter, please contact your Area Housing Manager on 01962 840 222.

A summary of the last year Key achievements last year included: Decent Homes – All of our properties are now classified as “Decent”. These homes were brought up to the Government’s standard by March 2010 – 9 months ahead of schedule.

If you would like any of the information in on the house made available in large print or audio format, please call Glynis Cole on

Freephone 0800 716 987.

TEXTPHONE This facility is available for readers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Please telephone 01962 878 982.

If you have any particular needs which affect how you are able to use or be involved in our services or how you would like to receive information - for example translation, interpreters, Braille, audio tape, large print, sign language - please contact the Customer Service Centre either by telephone: 01962 840 222 or by email: customerservice@ winchester.gov.uk Winchester City Council, City Offices, Colebrook Street, Winchester, SO23 9LJ. telephone 01962 840 222 fax 01962 841 365 email housing@winchester.gov.uk website www.winchester.gov.uk Telephone calls may be recorded.

Printed on 75% recycled paper.

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Customer Service – Landlord

Gas Servicing and Cleaning Contracts – New contracts for

Services once again achieved accreditation against the national Customer Service Excellence standard following an independent review.

these services were awarded this year and both are working well.

Disabled Adaptations – Over

Tenant Involvement – You

get it taped

In particular, tenants undertook a formal inspection of the Leasehold Management service and took part in two “mystery shopping” exercises to test the quality of our services to you.

continued to play an active role in helping us develop services.

£750,000 was spent on providing disabled adaptations to assist Council tenants to remain in their own home.

Priorities for this year Maintaining Decent Homes –

Energy Efficiency – The Council

We will be investing over £8 million on maintaining and improving your homes this year.

will continue to improve the energy efficiency of your homes. The energy efficiency of Council homes is already significantly higher than private homes in Winchester and higher than most other council homes in the country. This year, we will be increasing investment in new boilers and will be working with partners to test renewable energy options such as solar panels.

Housing Revenue Account Reform – The Council and TACT has lobbied Government for reform of the current Housing finance system which could see more money for Council housing. Further announcements are expected shortly and it is hoped that changes will be introduced by April 2011.

New Repairs Contract – The service provided by Serco is being reviewed and a new contract will be let from April 2011. Tenants are directly involved in the selection process.

Improving Performance – We aim to improve the time taken to relet properties from an average of 44 days last year to 30 days.

We also aim to ensure that 100% of homes have a current gas servicing certificate.

Review of Local Standards –

Tenant Involvement – We will

This annual report forms part of the work on reviewing our current local standards as required by the Tenant Services Authority. The review of existing standards has to be completed and new standards published by April 2011.

continue our programme of Tenant Inspections of our services and also undertake at least 3 “mystery shopping” tests as well. The results of each will be reported to you through “On the House”.

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National and Local Housing Standards The Tenant Services Authority has this year set down national standards that all social housing tenants can expect from their landlord. In addition, all landlords are expected to agree local standards with their tenants.

This document sets out the existing standards for Council tenants in Winchester. These standards have been developed, reviewed and agreed with tenants in recent years, both through TACT and its sub groups and through wider surveys and consultations. They now need to be reviewed in light of the new national standards. Over the next 6 months, tenants will be asked to help us agree which standards are most important to you, which need changing and which, if any, need to differ from one area to another to take account of local need.

The Council’s Local Standards We have developed a wide range of local standards in recent years and they are set out in the Tenants Handbook. The standards are summarised on the next few pages, along with information on how we perform against those standards.

The standards have been developed through close working with tenants groups and taking account of feedback from previous tenant’s surveys.

The National Standards are:

Are Our Current Standards the Right Ones?

In June we held our first Tenants Conference and exhibition linked with TACT Annual General Meeting.

The purpose of the conference was to talk to you about standards and services, what is important to you on your estate and ask you to give us your views.

For local standards see:

Tenant involvement and empowerment

page 4

Maintaining your home

page 6

Allocating homes and setting rents

page 8

Looking after your neighbourhood

page 9

and communal areas

Value for money

Annual Report 2009 - 2010

page 10

The conference was a great success with over 60 tenants attending. It was opened by the Chair and Vice Chair of TACT with special guest speaker Peter Marsh, Chief Executive of the TSA. There was general support at the Conference for the existing standards, although we now want to provide all tenants with the chance to tell us what you think.

Go to Page 12 to find out all the different ways you can let us know what you think about the Winchester local standards and what happens next ...

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How well are we doing?

Tenant Involvement and Customer Care The Council’s current local standards in this area are: Understanding and Responding to Diverse Needs of Tenants

Customer Service, Choice and Complaints We Will:

We Will:

Treat you fairly and respectfully.

Try to get things right first time and put them right if they go wrong.

Listen to your ideas and use your feedback to improve our services.

Respond to letters and emails within 10 working days and answer telephone calls within 20 seconds.

Respond to complaints within 10 working days and escalate it if you feel our initial response is unsatisfactory.

Involvement and Empowerment

r Last year 125 of ou l our tenants received al larger communications in ’s what print, because that they asked for.

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Aim to know the needs and profile of all of our customers.

Train officers with the skills to be able to respond to different needs.

Provide translations, tapes and big print leaflets on request, or arrange for an interpreter to support you at meetings about your tenancy.

Provide a portable hearing loop for meetings or interviews at your home or in our offices.

We will support formal tenant involvement by:

Providing financial support for recognised tenant and resident groups including an annual grant, and start up grants for new groups.

Providing access to meeting rooms, photocopying and stationery and help to set up and encourage accountable tenant and residents’ groups in your area.

Giving you what you want…

Encouraging individual tenants and leaseholders to give us their views on our services through regular surveys, Tenant Talk, and through ad-hoc groups on tenancy issues, rent or service charges.

Mystery Shopping Did you know that 11 tenants carried out 2 mystery shops on contacting the Council and written communication last year?

We launched our new Tenants Handbook in 2009

92% thought the information and advice was good 89% liked the new design and format

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Your Response

What you think of us

National National Rank Average

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with the services / overall service provided by us

85.7%

79%

Top 25% performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with how enquiries are dealt with generally by us

82.6%

72.1%

Top 25% performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied that their views are being taken into account by us

65.5%

60.78%

Above average performer

% respondents who feel we are very or fairly good at keeping them informed about things that might affect them as a tenant

89.3%

78%

Top 25% performer

Turn Your Phone Into a Lifeline Lifeline is an alarm system that allows

you to call for It is available to all residents living in the Winchester district and provides peace of mind for you and your family.

help day or night, 365 days a year.

Letter Responses Our average time to respond to a letter is 8 days

76% of our letters are answered within 10 days 96% of our letters are answered within 20 days

ges Lifeline Rental Char Cover Standard

contacts the service with three Subscriber supplies Monthly Weekly Lifeline 400 £6.88 £1.72 Rental £3.84 £0.96 Cover £11.65 £2.68 Total + VAT Monthly Weekly Lifeline Connect £8.92 £2.23 Rental £3.84 £0.96 Cover £13.89 £3.20 Total + VAT

Quarterly £29.08 £12.58 £41.66

Annually £116.32 £49.92 £166.64

Mobile Warden Cover

hours a day to emergencies 24 Quarterly Mobile Warden response Monthly Weekly £22.37 Lifeline 400 £6.88 £1.72 £33.55 Rental £10.32 £2.58 £55.92 Cover £18.64 £4.30 Total + VAT Quarterly Monthly Weekly £29.08 Lifeline Connect £8.92 £2.23 £33.55 Rental £10.32 £2.58 £62.63 Cover £20.88 £4.82 Total + VAT

Extra Equipment

Annually £89.44 £134.20 £223.68 Annually £116.32 £134.20 £250.52

Annually Quarterly Monthly £39.52 Weekly £9.88 £3.04 £26.00 £0.76 £6.50 Safe Socket £2.00 £286.00 £0.50 £71.50 Smoke Alarm £22.00 £206.96 £5.50 £51.74 Telecare (mobile) £15.92 £51.48 £3.98 £12.87 Telecare (standard) £3.96 £26.00 £0.99 £6.50 Co Detector £2.00 £0.50 Pendant Extra by calling contact details change contact lifeline if your to operator. advised an be Please to speak to press the red button 01962 856 488 or

Phone Response Times 89% of our calls are answered within 20 seconds

Complaints Total Number

Upheld

In target

Housing Management

10

5

100%

Supported Housing

7

Service

y to call an emergenc Annually Quarterly £89.44 £22.37 £49.92 £12.58 £139.80 £34.95

Our information…

our Did you know all ments are leaflets and docu up of checked by a gro sure they tenants to make d are easy to read an understandable?

14 of the 16 complaints received by rents were about the arrears notice which was sent out in error. An apology was issued to those tenants and was repeated in “On the House”.

Lessons Learnt from complaints received 5

57%

Rents

16

14

94%

Property Services

15

8

73%

TOTAL

48

32

83%

Annual Report 2009 - 2010

Landlord Services changed the following due to complaints being raised:

The tenants’ handbook was reworded to avoid confusion about rent for properties completing a mutual exchange.

The Community Alarm Service has extended their hours to cover the reduced Customer Service Centre opening hours.

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How well are we doing?

Maintaining Your Home The Council’s current local standards in this area are: Quality of Accommodation The “Winchester Decent Homes Plus” standard, agreed with tenants in 2005, states that the Council will:

Meet the basic Decent Homes Standard by 2010.

Maintain current levels of service.

Continue to give priority to providing showers and other aids and adaptations (subject to assessment).

Work with other organisations to improve safety and parking on estates.

Complete 98% of jobs within target times.

Aim to achieve 98% satisfaction levels on all satisfaction survey questions for repairs, planned works and disabled adaptations.

Repairs and Maintenance We Will:

r

Updating you home…

e year: Fitted during th s 90 new kitchen oms 112 new bathro grades 4 06 heating up pgrades 96 insulation u doors 141 new front

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Arrange appointments for 100% of pre-inspections and works issued to Serco for completion (except emergencies) and offer a morning or afternoon appointment.

Operate an out of hours emergency service, 5pm – 8.30am Monday – Friday, weekends & bank holidays.

Inspect external and internal communal areas of our properties every 5 years and carry out repairs and painting as necessary.

Carry out 100% of gas servicing by appointment.

Check annually all carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors.

Carry out aids and adaptations work for elderly or disabled people after an assessment by an Adult Services Occupational Therapist.

Carry out a programme of planned maintenance to homes including replacement kitchens within available resources.

Repairs 202 complaints were made on Repairs Customer Care Cards.

This means that of the 24,618 jobs completed in 20 09/10 less than 2% led to complaints .

Those complaints were reviewed with the contractor and have led to improvements of the repairs ser vice over the last year.

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Your response

National Average

National Rank

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with the overall quality of their home

88%

81%

Top 25% performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with the general condition of their property

83.5%

77.43%

Top 25% performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with the way we deal with repairs and maintenance

85.2%

75.95%

Top 25% performer

How we perform against our standards

Target

2008/09 Value

% non-decent council homes

0%

0.3%

0%

Top performer

Energy Efficiency of Housing Stock (SAP rating)

75

78

75

Top 25% performer

Responsive repairs - % of jobs completed within target

98%

93%

91%

Not available

Responsive repairs - % of appointments made and kept

98%

99%

98%

Not available

Gas servicing - % of homes with a current gas servicing certificate

100%

99.7%

98.94%

Bottom 25% performer

What you think of us

Local 2009/10 Value Comparison*

* Performance has been compared with 32 local authorities and housing associations in the South East.

Making life easier‌ 564 tenants received Disabled Adaptations throughout the year.

These included: 90 showers 17 stair-lif ts 24 assisted access work s (e.g. ramps) 1 major building change

Annual Report 2009 - 2010

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How well are we doing?

Allocating Homes and Setting Rents The Council’s current local standards in this area are: Allocations The Hampshire Home Choice Lettings Scheme includes all social housing providers in the East Hampshire, Havant and Winchester council areas. We all allocate using the following rules:

100% of social lettings to which the Councils have nomination rights to be made through the scheme.

Help customers make bids for properties across the Council areas.

To meet housing need.

To let social housing in a fair and open way.

Rents

Tenancy We Will:

We Will:

Offer a wide range of payment options.

Give introductory tenancies to all new tenants.

Take a firm but proactive and personal approach to managing rent arrears. Provide options and assistance for repaying your debt, taking legal action as a last resort.

Give secure tenancies if you are an existing secure or assured tenant or if you have successfully held an introductory tenancy with us for a period usually of 12 months.

Provide basic debt advice or refer you to the Citizens Advice Bureau specialist money advisor or a support agency if you are having difficulty paying your rent.

Meet all new tenants at a sign up interview and arrange a home visit for all tenants in the first 4 weeks of their tenancy.

Introductory tenants also receive a home visit after 9 months.

Aim to relet all properties within 30 days once the tenancy has been terminated.

Provide you with a Tenants Handbook at the start of your tenancy.

Target

2008/09 Value

2009/10 Value

Local Comparison

Amount of rent collected and arrears recovered

99%

98.92%

98.71%

Top performer

Average time it takes us to re-let our properties (days)

30

41.89

43.5

Bottom 25% performer

How we perform against our standards

Our Homes in 2009/2010

Type

page

8

1 2 3 4+ Bed-sit bedroom bedroom bedroom bedroom homes homes homes homes

Total number

39

1631

1683

1629

57

Let this year

15

215

165

93

1

Average rent

£60.78

£67.01

£77.62

£89.61

£97.95

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Looking After Your Neighbourhood and Communal Areas

How well are we doing?

The Council’s current local standards in this area are: Neighbourhood Management

Local Area Co-operation

We Will:

We Will:

We Will:

Keep your estate clean and tidy.

Carry out annual inspections of all our communal areas and deal with any issues quickly and efficiently.

Work with other agencies to make our estates and homes safe and peaceful environments for people to live in.

Make an active contribution to the work of the Winchester Community Safety Partnership.

Provide money to the Citizens Advice Bureau for an independent Money Advice service to tenants.

Attend at least two estate walkabouts a year and deal with any issues quickly and efficiently.

Remove racist or obscene graffiti within 24 hours.

Anti-Social Behaviour

What you think of us

Your response

National Average

National Rank

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live

88.10%

78.05%

Top 25% performer

Treat all reports of nuisance, anti-social behaviour, harassment and domestic abuse seriously and confidentially.

Contact or visit any victims of harassment or domestic abuse within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

Take swift legal action where appropriate.

Support victims or witnesses to be re-housed where the situation is very serious or life threatening.

Provide witness support, access to assessment and mediation services and supported housing services for both victims and perpetrators where appropriate.

Anti Social

What did you think?…

with This year we worked more to our tenants in Stan wanted find out what they ood in their neighbourh ve the and how to impro community.

8 Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) notices were served during the year 4 tenancies were terminated because of AS B 1 crack house was closed

Annual Report 2009 - 2010

Get in the game…

Last year we arranged really successful 5-a-side football matches for kids in Stanmore.

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How well are we doing?

Value for Money The Council’s current local standards in this area are:

General Management

We will:

Aim to be in the top 25% for performance for all key performance indicators.

Aim to keep our management costs below average for district councils.

£1,363,000

£8,565,000

Capital Costs £3,757,000

Sheltered Housing

Tenancy Services

Report our performance to all tenants in the Annual Report and monthly on our website.

Compare our service costs and quality against other landlords and learn from them.

Government Charge (‘Negative Subsidy’)

£1,024,000

General Repairs & Maintenance

£2,404,000

£3,923,000

This chart shows how we spent your money in 2009/2010

What you think of us % respondents very or fairly satisfied with the value for money for their rent

Your response

National Average

National Rank

81.20%

77%

Above average performer

Value For Money is a balance of good performance, good quality with reasonable costs. We have shown you our performance and what you think of the services we provide in the earlier pages. This table shows you whether our costs are reasonable when compared locally.

Our Average Cost

Local Average Cost

How we compare locally

Resident Involvement

£35.94

£39.86

Better than Average

Repairs and Empty Property Servicing

£463.44

£628.51

Top 25% performer

Housing Management

£193.00

£249.70

Top 25% performer

Estate Services

£69.66

£136.56

Top 25% performer

Annual cost per property

Reducing Costs…

By renegotiating one of our repairs contracts this year we have saved nearly £5 00k for this year and following years. page

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More Efficient…

By changing Mobile Wardens and Scheme Managers to Older Persons Suppor t Officers, they can now help more people for the same amount of money.

Better Quality…

We have joined the Hampshire District Residents Forum to share ideas with tenants from other areas in Hampshire and find out what we could do better. w w w. w i n c h e s t e r. g o v. u k

Older Persons Housing The City Council aims to promote independence and choice for older people by providing quality housing and support. Specific services to older people include: Sheltered Housing We provide support to 850 older residents in sheltered flats and bungalows across the district providing a safe, secure and supportive environment where tenants can choose to join in regular social activities.

Community Alarm Service All properties in our sheltered schemes are connected to the Community Alarm Service, which provides emergency assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

98.5% of all alarm calls to the Community Alarm Ser vice are answered within 1 minute.

Extra Care Our extra care schemes, Matilda Place and Victoria House are both based in central Winchester and have a capacity to house and support 44 tenants. The service prevented 5 tenants moving into residential care last year.

Additional care is provided to help tenants continue to live independently in their own home for as long as possible and to prevent admission into residential care. Cover is provided on site 24 hours a day, every day, by care assistants providing personal care as required, including help with bathing, dressing and meal preparation.

We offer opportunities for our older people to have their say through scheme Information Sharing Sessions & the Sheltered Housing Forum.

Telecare As people get older they are many times more likely to have an accident and when you live alone these accidents can have major consequences. We help older people within our own sheltered schemes and out in the community to continue to enjoy living in their own home, knowing help is at hand through “Telecare� solutions.

Telecare offers a wide range of sensors which will automatically call through to the Community Alarm Service in certain events (such as a fall, flood, fire, inactivity etc).

Get Fit 1-2-1 is running in 8 of our sheltered schemes of fering tenants an opportunity to get together and keep fit at the same time.

Annual Report 2009 - 2010

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What happens next?

Between now and next April, we need to agree with you if our current standards meet your needs.

Agreeing New Standards or ‘Local Offers’ In addition to the survey enclosed, we will shortly be asking a random sample of tenants to complete a detailed tenant satisfaction survey.

We will use the information from this survey and what you have already told us through previous consultations to agree new local standards for 2011. We will discuss the results with resident groups and forums later this year and will agree what more we can do to tailor services to meet your needs and expectations.

We will report progress in the March edition of “On the House”.

Tell us what you think!

You may be among the 30% of Council tenants who have been asked to take part in this year’s survey on tenant satisfaction.

Last time over 57% of forms were returned which allowed the Council to find out what was really important to tenants and improve services further.

Now, the Council is asking for your help to achieve another high response rate!

If you have been chosen to take part in the random sample you will have already received a questionnaire and we would be grateful if you could spare a few moments to answer the questions.

We will use this important information to help improve our services in the future, and to report back to you on the progress we are making.

Your views are really important.

Fill in the questionnaire inside this edition for a chance to win an ipod touch or equivalent in Luv2Shop vouchers. Alternatively you can complete it online at

www.surveymonkey.com/ s/housingreport

Now turn the magazine over to read page

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