Eleventh Annual General Meeting held on 22 September 2015 at 4.00 pm at YHN House, Benton Park Road, Newcastle upon Tyne. Present: Newcastle City Council: P Ritchie (Chief Executive) Your Homes Newcastle Board Members: O Grant (Chair), V Dunn, P Dutton, J McCarty, A Mirza, T Moore, M Page, J J Reid, N Shukla, P Scope, Stephenson, E Snaith, D Slesenger, J Streather, M Talbot, L Wilson. In attendance: J P Lee S Breslin N Scott D Langhorne J Davison L Forrest I Gallagher J Clifford M Burn A Baker G Ellingham D Creighton R Clark P Corcoran C Hayes A Senior C McMullen G Clark Paul Hobbs J Coulter
Chief Executive Assistant Chief Executive & Director of Corporate Services Director of Tenancy Services Director of Property Services Company Secretary Head of Finance Head of Property Maintenance Finance Business Analyst Head of Support & Care Governance Support Assistant Head of IT Executive Assistant to Chief Executive Care Services Manager Lead Customer Involvement Officer Communications Officer NCC NCC Independent Chair of Audit Committee Ernst & Young LLP Byker Community Trust
Apologies for absence P Dibbs, D Huddart, J Purvis 1
WELCOME The Chair extended a warm welcome to all present at the meeting, both colleagues and the Chair of Byker Community Trust, Jim Coulter. The Chair welcomed Malcolm Page who will be nominated to stand as a Director later in the meeting, and welcomed back a long standing council member of the Board of YHN, Cllr David Slesenger.
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CHAIR’S REPORT The Chair reported that this was her second AGM and was very happy to be speaking to everyone today.
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The Chair referred to this years’ annual report, called Changing Landscapes, and wanted to talk about a few facts and figures from the last year. The Chair noted she would summarise some of the themes which relate to the year 2014-15 and that some of these will lead into some of the issues which are going to be considered at the Board meeting which will immediately follows the AGM. The Chair explained the annual report goes from the street to the stars, it starts with a section which is called homes and streets, which is really about trying to get the basics right. Without the customers of YHN, without the homes, there is no reason for YHN at all; we don’t exist except to serve our customers. So, our emphasis as in last year and previous years, and as it will be in the future, is to try and make sure we provide the services that our tenants and customers want. The right services, and if they are not, that we listen to you when you tell us why. The best basic measure of satisfaction was gathered at the general survey of tenants which has risen to a high of 87.5%. The Chair noted this is a tribute to the hard work of staff working out on estates and behind the scenes, day in and day out. We did well in collecting rents; we exceeded our targets for the year by collecting £111.8m which is 99.6%. There are some voids, we are working hard to try and get rid of voids. We didn’t quite achieve our targets of 1.45% which means we were down in income by about £1.6m. So now we are thinking through and about plans to reduce the time it takes to re-let empty homes. That is an important issue for us and it is also an important issue for families, and for people to make sure they have got accommodation that suits them. And, obviously when we gather the money in, it enables us to support our customers. One of the things a lot of work has gone into this year is the advice team, who have helped customers access over £3.5m in benefits and grants, £1.63m of this was helping people to stay on top of their rent, a very tricky issue in very difficult times. We are also taking part in the FareShare collaboration, 900 food parcels were distributed. The Community Care Alarm Service has had 4,800 customers, 119,000 calls, 3,100 emergency calls including 2,300 falls – a very important service to customers and to those who have need of the service. Our Young Peoples Service has supported 46 families in crisis via the Family Intervention Project, and has worked with 352 young people. This theme of trying to help people and help themselves also cuts across the training and employment opportunities which we offer. We have increased our apprenticeships to 30, Your Homes Your Jobs takes 30 people to try and help them, we are also trying to help people launch their own businesses, and again, 30 tenants were helped to set up and launch their own businesses. The Chair commented this is an area dear to Pat and the council’s heart; how can we try and assist and enable more people to get into and secure and keep employment.
One of the underpinning things that has also been happening during these changes to the welfare service is that it is encouraging us to think of new ways to support our customers. We’ve been looking in neighbourhoods; our work continues to support neighbourhoods as well as individual customers. We have repair vans which you will know and see, going out and about. This year we launched our estate based housing management services. We are looking at and are trying to develop specialisms in housing options, income management, and tenancy & estate management, operating out of existing customer service centres. We’re trying to make sure more expertise provided to customers is provided by also focusing development on our own staff. In housing options, we’ve let 2542 properties. And at HASBET, we have dealt with 503 cases of anti-social behaviour, many of which were resolved positively with just two evictions. These are particularly difficult issues for staff to deal with and for neighbourhoods to cope with. Many of us would have heard that at the event which was held at St James’, there are some difficulties some people face actually managing living alongside people whose behaviour is anti-social, very difficult. We have tenant inspections - Going for Gold - at each of the estates which we manage. And we’ve been consulting customers to try and help them, to then help us to shape the services they receive. I think this is going to be something we are going to be spending more and more on, and more thinking on in coming years, as times change. So looking at our assets, we have been managing, and we are managing substantial assets on behalf of the city council, but what we want is that all of the homes and neighbourhoods we manage meet 21 st Century standards, something our tenants have all told us is important to them. So we are creating a new asset management strategy, which outlines our medium and long term approach to maintaining and improving Newcastle City Council’s Housing Revenue Account and assets. We have revitalised some sheltered homes; Moor House in Fenham, Hadrian House in Throckley, some of us had the pleasure of being at Hadrian House when Cllr Joyce McCarty opened it, a marvellous resource and place to live, it was delightful to see so many tenants that were thrilled. Tony was there, and Loraine, it was lovely to see how people were thrilled with the environment that had been created. What we are looking at here are modern, spacious, energy efficient homes with a range of support options that better meet the needs of customers aged over 55. There is major investment underway at present at Blakelaw to the estate itself, North Kenton, to some outdated mid-rise blocks, and much more. More blocks are being re-clad recently, the silver award has been achieved with SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow), at a different level but nevertheless very important we have put in 17,717 double glazed windows, 651 combi boilers, insulation to 110 walls, 89 lofts and a lot more besides. So a lot of activity has been taking place.
You’ve Got The Power has been something which has engaged a number of tenants as you can see in this picture, where tenants make choices, we’ve had over 4,000 votes cast for things that people think money should be spent on, and 300 suggestions put forward, you can see a photo there with some folks who have been dealing with something that they thought was a good idea, money has been put in to support it. Money is obviously at the heart of what is happening, and representing and protecting the city, responding to financial challenges and developing our commercial acumen is something Board members know which we’ve been trying to work very hard on during this last year. We’ve had I think a very interesting year and a half, and I’ve certainly found it really stimulating and interesting since I joined in January of 2014, we’ve had some very positive conversations and made considerable progress in working together with colleagues at the city council on a new management agreement, and the Chair wanted to pay tribute to NCC colleagues for the way in which that has happened. It’s been a very positive working relationship over the last year and a half or so. We are obviously working with partners in the city, still learning what it means sometimes to be on the other side of the table, and we have had some considerable success not just working with the city council but I’m sure Jim from Byker Trust appreciates that their strong performance on rent collection, repairs and re-let which was also paid tribute to at your AGM is also because staff at YHN have worked very hard in your support. With Leazes Homes similarly, good work with Leazes on arrears, £118 arrears per property, the target was to be not more than £170, so was an exceptional result. We are constantly looking at a fresh look, value for money, priorities on achieving efficiencies and enabling sustainable investment by our partners and ourselves. We have made budget savings of £1.2m in the year, we have introduced workforce scheduling and mobile working practices at Newcastle Furniture Services and in the Concierge service; promising results so far. And remember YHN has been making efficiency savings every year of varying amounts but certainly around 2%. Substantial savings constantly achieved, and that means that staff are looking all the time at how they can be efficient and effective. We’ve done some very big pieces of work with Newcastle Furniture Service; 17,800 collections and deliveries have taken place, items of furniture of varying sizes. Go Digital is incredibly important, and some of us met and heard some of the success stories of the digital champions project to prove opportunities to develop their IT and digital skills. This is a key way in which our customers and we at YHN can support the city council as well, in all the digital inclusion activities which are at the heart in the way in which people have to apply for work, apply for and deal with benefits arrangement, everything is now digital, and obviously our customers must be kept up to speed with this. So that’s been a key thing we have been looking at and will continue to look at in the
coming years. Palatine Beds has been one of the success stories of YHN in recent years, we’ve got more partnerships at the Westerhope site, they won the most innovative social enterprise partnership at the National Federation of ALMOs award in 2014 but this year in 2015, we have a lovely photo of the team with the marvellous stand that they put on that won the best small stand at the Chartered Institute of Housing Conference. Customers are dealing with Universal Credit which we are trying to prepare for, and increasingly start to understand the implications of it. There’s a video coming up which shows an insight into the issues that people will be facing. So you’ll see that proactive support is high on the agenda in how we assist our tenants in coming years. Obviously it’s about personal budgeting and some of the people at our event in February we were talking about how they can help young people with budgeting arrangements. But this also means working with banks, enhanced IT systems and training, to try and help people and us to stay on top of arrears so that they don’t become too big. We are looking next year to be doing much more in the way of generating our own income, we are looking for 5.5% growth of the Furniture Service, which is a little bit more than last year, we had 5.5% last year but we want more, we got some contract wins at Palatine and hopefully some leads which took place at the housing conferences that we were attending. We are looking to be more innovative, more creative, whilst still staying in areas of work in which we have knowledge. So summing up, it’s a cliché, all annual reports say this has been a year of change, it’s the constant in everybody’s annual report, but for us it has been more accurate to say perhaps it’s a year when things became clearer for us, the housing stock is going to change, Decent Homes raised the standard, now the investments we are managing for our clients takes the social housing stock to what chefs describe as the next level, and also relieve some of the historic imbalances in the stock. But one of the things we are going to have to concentrate on very hard and work with the city council is to enable the understanding amongst ourselves about our customers, the profile of our customers and their needs. Customers themselves will be required to change, we know for some this will be uncomfortable and unfamiliar, one of our duties is to help and support them as they make these changes. Another thing which didn’t come into effect in the year but is of course going to change for us – Board know a lot about this – we are going to change our working arrangements, and styles will change with the reorganisation of the budgets, the HRA responsibility has always rested with the council, but it’s management has taken place substantially with YHN, this will now be happening with the council. And the creation of our trading and charitable arms which we will be coming onto in the Board meeting later. Last time we were talking about YHN having completed ten very successful
years. The last decade has shown us time and time again is not to fear change, we can assume that new opportunities will be presented as well and we can search out new opportunities, but making the most of those opportunities will require us to work effectively with others, reflecting the council’s priorities, and it’s aspirations for the citizens of the city, and to be coordinated and coherent in the responses we make and the decisions we take. Summing up The chair noted it was her second AGM as Chair but her first full year, she continue to be reassured and comforted by the commitment of our staff, delighted by the contribution made by customers to YHN, and grateful for the support of the Board and the executive team of YHN and hoped everyone found the report interesting and an appropriate summary of the work undertaken over the last year. The Chair then passed over to the shareholder, Pat Ritchie from NCC. 3
NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL Pat Ritchie started by thanking the Board for inviting her to attend the AGM today, and what she will talk about is a bit about joint successes that Olivia has outlined over the last year, but also talk a bit about some of the challenges that lie ahead in the next year as we move forward with YHN and the city council. Pat started by really echoing Olivia’s thanks, and thanks to Olivia and the Board for all of the hard work this year, and the successes that have been outlined in the Annual Report, and particularly from the council, thank you to you as Board members for your personal commitment and hard work to those successes. She also thanked Neil, Sheila and others in the senior management team, particularly for taking up the reigns when John was seconded to the city council, in ensuring things continued to work efficiently and that the organisation continued to achieve the successes that we’ve heard outlined in the Annual Report. As noted this is Olivia’s second AGM of YHN, this is her third year of coming to talk to you as the stakeholder on behalf of the city council. And every year she has said a lot has happened and there have been a lot of changes, and that’s more than true really, this year if you think about the last year we’ve had a general election, we’ve now got a majority Conservative government, the first in nearly twenty years. We’ve undertaken a review of the relationship between YHN and the city council and there’s been a lot of intensive work on that, and through that review, developed and built on the strong relationship that we have, to develop new ways of working, and will need to continue to, to meet those challenges in the future. Since last year, the situation facing the public sector has not become any
easier, and don’t see it becoming any easier in the short to medium term. The city council, along with other public sector bodies, has faced a continued period of austerity, and we expect that to continue over the course of this parliament. In this current financial year, the council had to make cuts of around £40m, next year will be looking at over a three year period cuts of around £100m. Quite how that will be profiled needs to work through. But you’ll see that there is still significant pressure on budgets within the council and across the whole of the public sector within the city. And, these savings have had to been made at a time when there is increasing demand on services, and increasing pressure on services and local people, and that has a kind of double effect, putting pressure on council budgets. It is a real testament to staff at all levels in the organisations of both YHN and the city council that we’ve been able to reshape and maintain services through that period of great challenge and still do the best for tenants and for people across the city during this period of increased demand and under very difficult circumstances, and wanted to thank all of the staff, particularly in YHN for their hard work, as we’ve gone through those challenges over the last year and beyond that. Austerity has also affected tenants of YHN and our tenants in the city; we’ve seen successive waves of welfare reform that have reduced the income of the people in the city by around £150m we think. And because of the reforms to housing benefit in particular, council tenants have been at the front line of those cuts. Our approach to these issues has been to provide intensive support to those in need, and this has meant that through that support we’ve managed to maintain a position where evictions are still at a historic low. But now it’s clear that welfare reforms are a permanent and ongoing part of the landscape and the capacity we have to respond to those issues is reducing. We’ve helped people to delay the impact of welfare cuts and our task now is to support people to adjust to that change. To find jobs for people where we can, to find housing options where necessary, and to concentrate our support on the most vulnerable tenants who need our help. Unfortunately the end of cuts to expenditure as mentioned earlier is not in sight and can’t see a big change in the lifetime of this parliament. The forthcoming spending review which is due to report in September will put further pressure on unprotected Whitehall budgets of which local government is one and DCLG’s budget and housing is part of that unprotected set of spending as part of the spending review. The cuts will find their way to a local level and we really need bold local leadership and collective ways of working across the public sector and particularly, building on the close relationship between YHN and the council so that we can continue to provide decent public services to residents of Newcastle. Pat wanted to talk a bit about the YHN and the NCC review and how that’s
developed and where that is going next. To create new ways of working to help protect services in stretched financial times was behind the joint review we undertook over the last year, and what could have been quite a testing period for relationships between the two organisations, has actually brought us closer, a closer understanding of how we need to operate together. That was due to the hard work, particularly of Olivia and other Board members in developing strong relationships at a political level but also due to joint close working between senior managers within the council and within YHN, and it has developed much closer working and a closer understanding. The review has now concluded and we are taking forward the changes that were agreed in the review. It is important to make it clear that whilst the review is concluded, we are still at the beginning of a journey and not at the end of a journey of radical transformation that is required to be able to maintain services in the context that has been outlined. YHN, like all parts of the public sector, will be expected to go through a continued process of change, and Olivia talked about that in her presentation. Some of those changes will be forced upon us through the context discussed, but other changes will be made because we want to stay on the front foot, leading the city to grow and transform, and continue to enhance the wellbeing of our tenants and citizens across the city during these challenging times. The review has changed the way we manage the rental income stream from YHN, but the review has also created opportunities for both organisations, through different ways of managing, to really go further in driving value for money for tenants. We’ve now set up formal quarterly meetings around that collective responsibility and reporting structures around performance monitoring, and as the single stakeholder who comes every year to sign off the AGM and the accounts, that was quite important that we put those things in place to be able to get the right assurances, joint assurances to the sign off. This is on top of informal continued close working relationships, and an example of where we have made great strides in joint working is around the whole digital access to services. We are creating more flexible options for those wishing to make payments to the city council while maintaining that level of personal support for those who need it. And that could not have been achieved without the work of YHN has done, particularly to support those tenants who don’t have access to digital means of paying who, around 43% of tenants have no access, and you’ve done a huge amount of work to support them to be able to access services in a different way. That’s a really good example of us working jointly, achieving the change that has needed to happen, to support people. We need to go much further down this road as we move to Universal Credit, and accelerate this programme. The way the film was shown describes the importance of joint working as Universal Credit changes come in. Colleagues in both organisations are working in close partnership to ensure we get the best possible and most inclusive digital solutions for tenants and residents. It’s
of the utmost importance that we continue that work to improve digital take up of services, so that customers are able to navigate this often unfamiliar terrain, and can access our services in a way that they are comfortable with. Looking ahead, Pat discussed the challenges ahead but also some of the opportunities. These are quite daunting and challenging times for the public sector and in particular for housing organisations. On top of budget cuts we are also faced with some quite challenging in government policy, particularly since the General Election and through the summer budget which will have a direct operational and financial impact on the future of YHN as an organisation and other housing associations, and the future of our ongoing relationship. With any of these announcements there isn’t a huge amount of detail at the moment but would expect that detail will become available within the comprehensive spending review, and that the government are generally finding it difficult to square some of the policy announcements that were made in the election, because they are quite contradictory. Cuts in rent by 1% over the next four years, the extension of the right to buy to housing associations, coupled with the forced sale of council housing and cuts to housing benefit and other benefits will not only impact on the Housing Revenue Account but will have to be taken into account with business planning and in the changing landscape for social housing. We can expect further cuts in housing benefit not just through the rent changes that we talked about but there are likely to be changes particularly affecting young people and families with larger numbers of children which are heralded in the election manifesto of the government. And deeper cuts in central government funding, pressure on affordable housing. In this context it is only right that we take further steps to improve the efficiencies of organisations, YHN have already done a huge amount to, year on year, create a more efficient organisation and make savings but we will have to expect that in the current budget rounds we will be setting tough efficiency targets for YHN and for other partners as part of the approach to the budget in future. These savings will require YHN to think radically at its operations to ensure that every penny in operational costs is spent well. YHN have already made great strides in this but with other parts of the public sector we do have to go further. So, these savings can be reinvested to sustain vital services to tenants, and to help to ensure that the councils housing stock has a sustainable future. We will also meet this challenge by driving more out of commercial income, and I’m really delighted that John Lee has been seconded to the council to provide extra capacity to develop our commercial services, building on his experience of developing commercial expertise in YHN, to help shape the future of public services in the city. A model is emerging that would allow us to take a phased approach to commercial development, and maybe as a result of that, some changes in the councils overall governance of its subsidiaries. I’m personally committed to engaging with the YHN Board on this work, and intend to return if we can find a suitable date in the next month or so, for a
detailed discussion with the YHN Board on some of the emerging thinking within that commercial review and how that might impact on YHN’s business planning going forward. Rising to some of these challenges in a professional manner is what you would expect of all of us, and there is no doubt that all of us will continue both with YHN and the council to find the right solutions to some of these challenges. Underlying all of that is a motivation to do the best for the city. And while these challenges will require difficult decisions we will continue to invest in services that make the biggest difference to tenants, and the focus on the outcomes. Being conscious that coming every year and delivering a difficult message but there is an ongoing difficult challenging backdrop against which we operate; it must seem very depressing every time, the last three years have all been a difficult message. But that while we go through these challenging times, there is still a lot of opportunity for the city, and we must see ourselves as almost custodians of the city as we are going through this difficult time, and continue to look at the future, and continue to look at investment in the city, grow the city and develop the city for the future through the challenges and transformations that we face. Many of us continue to be committed both in YHN and in the council to a strong capital programme that is investing in jobs and growth for the future of the city that will create apprentices and new living wage jobs for our local people. Whilst there still is a big challenge in the public sector, there are signs of real economic growth within the city, private sector confidence is increasing, very encouraged by the number of applications in planning for growth in the city. A lot of our sites that have come onto the market, Science Central behind Central Station, there is significant private sector interest and growth within the city and we need to keep an eye on that as we see this against the backdrop of challenges within the public sector. Capital investment can really bring social value, bringing private sector to invest in the city to improve lives and opportunities for all of our people will be an important aspect of both of our work moving forward. The current focus on the Northern Powerhouse and the greater devolutionary settlement for the north is something that will be important for the city. Many of us around the table have been involved in regional activity for a number of years, and have seen some devolution come and go over recent years, but there is a real opportunity for decisions particularly around capital, and more flexible in a longer term approach to capital, to come through a long term settlement potentially in devolution, and that will mean that if we can get the right levers, decisions about investment can be taken at the north east level, rather than at a national level, and rather than a silo approach. That has got to be good for housing organisations and for investment and growth in the city. There’s much to play for on the combined authority around the devolution of powers and decision making to a north east level that possibly alleviates some of the impact of the national decisions discussed earlier.
Conclusion It’s up to us all really, there’s much to do, and much that we can achieve for the city, and much that we need to build on over the last year, and being confident that through innovation, creative working and joint working that we have seen over the last year we can continue to make a difference to the city, and a difference to tenants. The Chair thanked Pat Ritchie 4
MINUTES The minutes of the tenth Annual General Meeting held on 30 September 2014 were received and approved.
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DIRECTORS’ REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND AUDITORS REPORT L Forrest, Head of Finance, gave a short presentation about the financial statements for the period ending 31 March 2015. L Forrest reminded the board of the journey these important statements have gone through. Audit Committee looked at them in more detail on the 9 th July and recommended them to the Board, the Board then approved these accounts on the 28th July. They have obviously been through an external audit, Ernst & Young identified no material errors or weaknesses, and through our work on disaggregation and stress testing we have tested going concern assumption, looked at a base model, which shows that going concern was a reasonable assumption. Some very quick highlights; anybody looking at them will notice that YHN’s profits are much greater than previous years, in fact, YHN’s never really made any profits in previous years so it’s the first time. It did this through achieving efficiencies within its own scope, and within the management fee agreement agreed earlier in the year, but also it did it because NCC waived their right for this profit to be repatriated to them in the form of a reduced management fee. The accounts for the last time are relatively simple because they are on a pre disaggregation basis and they are largely around staff costs. Thinking about the I&E for the year, there was a profit of just over £2m, the management fee was offset by the income generated through our management of Leazes Homes and the Palatine business and YHN achieved efficiencies of £774,000 within its direct scope, we also facilitated efficiencies in terms of direct costs for the HRA of a similar amount. Employment remains the key cost, and the pre disaggregation accounts, and there was no corporation tax payable. The balance sheet, again, it’s relatively simple, we always talk at the AGM about pension liability which is relatively large, it’s very volatile, it’s changed significantly from last year but it’s back to where it was about two years ago, these aren’t included in our balance sheet as a liability because NCC provides
a guarantee. When we’ve talked about the significant profit it obviously means YHN now has reserves of just over £2m, and this stands us in excellent position in terms of the rent reduction and the risks we are now facing as part of the disaggregated YHN.
RESOLVED – that the sole member of YHN, NCC, received the Directors’ Report & Financial Statements and Auditors’ Report for the period to 31 March 2015. 6
RE-APPOINTMENT OF AUDITORS George Clark Ernst and Young have been the auditors since YHN was created, so they have actually changed and morphed alongside us in every guise that YHN has found itself during that time. They have always provided sound professional service to us, they were very successful in the last tender exercise which took them up to August next year, very competitive in a very competitive market. The service will obviously be subject to a further tender exercise next year, we shall see what happens in that process. The YHN staff that work with them have given them no complaints or criticisms in the past regarding the quality of their work, in fact they are very complimentary. So, on the basis of quality and price I am happy on behalf of the Audit Committee to recommend to the sole stakeholder that EY are appointed at the external auditors for YHN for the next year.
RESOLVED – that Ernst & Young LLP be re-appointed as Auditors for the period to the next Annual General Meeting. 7
RETIREMENT AND APPOINTMENT OF TENANT MEMBERS The Chair asked members to approve the retirement and appointments of tenant members as set out in the agenda (previously circulated and copy attached to the official minutes) RESOLVED:
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To re-appoint Lisa Doherty as a Tenant Board Member for a three year term in accordance with Article 15 of the Articles of Association.
To appoint Tony Moore as a Tenant Board Member for a three year term of office in accordance with Article 15 of the Company’s Articles of Association.
RETIREMENT AND APPOINTMENT OF INDEPENDENT MEMBERS The Chair asked members to approve the retirement and appointments of
independent members as set out in the agenda (previously circulated and copy attached to the official minutes) RESOLVED:
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To re-appoint P Dibbs as an Independent Board Member for a three year term in accordance with Article 16 of the Articles of Association.
To accept the retirement of N Shukla as an Independent Board member.
To appoint M Page as an Independent Board Member for a three year term of office in accordance with Article 16 of the Company’s Articles of Association.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS The Chair on behalf of the Board to say farewell to Nitin. It is a great, great sadness that after being such a diligent, courteous, helpful Board member who has given time up unstintingly and has held in enormously high regard by all your Board colleagues. Nitin, we have greatly valued working with you and it’s been a real pleasure, you will be a real miss, support to me as Vice Chair in times for what was for me difficult months, you have been hugely helpful to me. You have been marvellous in your support and not unstinting challenge, I think that’s the other important thing, whilst you have been supportive you have been manifestly appropriately challenging, as befits a Board member and that has been hugely helpful to us and to our benefit. We are really sorry you are going and I’ve got some small gifts to present to you in thanks. The Chair thanked all present for attending the meeting.
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DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next Annual General Meeting would take place on Tuesday 20 September 2016 The meeting closed at 4.55 pm.