2012 - 2013 ANNUAL REPORT TO CUSTOMERS

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Contents

Target achieved

Target was not achieved but performance

was better than last year

Target was not achieved

Key to performance figures

Welcome to the Annual Report

Tenant involvement and empowerment standard

Your home

Sustainability

Your tenancy

Your neighbourhood and community

Value for money

Rent

How we compare with other housing providers

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4 - 9

10 - 11

12

13

14 - 15

16 - 17

18

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This was our target:83% of customers satisfied with the

service

Example:

This figure shows how we did in 2011-1289% - This is what we

have achieved83% - This was our

target

89%what we achieved

Welcome to this year’s Annual Report to customers

This is an opportunity to look back

over the last year and let you know

how Orbit Heart of England is

performing, where we are getting

it right and where things need

improving.

We have continued to strive towards better services by listening, learning and adapting. We have been helped enormously by a lot of constructive customer feedback and involvement.

We hope you find this year’s report an interesting and informative read.

If you would like more information about us and how we have performed against our service standards for 2012/13 go to our website www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk. You can get in touch and give us your feedback by emailing ohecommunications@orbit.org.uk

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A few words from Vivien Knibbs, Orbit Heart of England’s Executive Director

Every year, we produce an Annual Report to keep you, our customers, informed about how we are performing against a set of standards. It is also an opportunity to look back at our achievements and to pinpoint where we could do better.

Over the year we have worked hard to develop more efficient and effective services which support our priority of delivering good quality homes in strong communities. That can be a tricky balancing act, especially during a recession and in the midst of the government’s biggest welfare reforms for decades. Despite these challenging conditions I am confident we can continue to improve and become a stronger organisation, providing you with quality homes and vibrant neighbourhoods in the future.

This Annual Report is a great example of collaboration between us and our customers. We are grateful to those of you who helped produce this document and those who have worked with us to help shape our services and let us know how we are doing during the year.

I hope you enjoy reading this report. If you have any comments or thoughts about the Annual Report, we would love to hear from you. You can email us directly at: ohecommunications@orbit.org.uk

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Tenant involvement and empowerment standard - customer service

We are a Customer First organisation. That means putting you first in whatever we do.

Target: 80% of calls answered within 20

seconds

(up 6% from 2011-12)

Target: a minimum of 89% of customers will be satisfied with the service they received when contacting the Customer Service

Centre

(down 4% from 2011-12)

What we plan to do• Resolve a minimum of 55% of all customer

enquiries to the Customer Service Centre at the first point of contact.

• Improve online service access; we’d like to see at least 10% of customers using our services online.

• Start a project to improve our website and involve customers to make sure it meets customer needs.

What we did• We sorted out more calls on the first phone call

without having to pass you on to someone else.

• Involved customers in the improvements being planned for the Customer Service Centre.

• Created the Performance Challenge team: made up of customers who will challenge how customer service standards are being met.

• Changed the way the rent statements are sent out so you can contact us more easily if you need a question answered.

39 seconds average waiting time to speak to someone

was 39 seconds - down from 53

seconds previously

72% of our customers say that their last query was answered in a

reasonable timescale - up from 69%

61% of customers are

satisfied that we are able to resolve their queries. That’s down 4% from last year

81% of customers are

satisfied that they are kept informed about

things that affect them (down from 83%)

65%91%

Tenant involvement and empowerment standard - complaints

A complaint can often be a good thing. It helps us to understand the customer experience and often highlights where services need to be improved.

n Responsive repairs 75% n Other complaint 6% n Planned maintenance 4% n Staff complaint 3% n Gas servicing & breakdown 12%

n Corrective action taken 37% n Compensation payment made 54% n Advice provided to the customer 4% n No further action was required 4% n Miscellaneous 1%

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Complaints handling is an important part of the service we provide. There has been steady improvement in how we deal with complaints but we still have a way to go before we are satisfied that we have reached our targets and that we are dealing with your formal complaints quickly and effectively.

What we plan to do• Review how we handle complaints

to make sure that it’s the best way to meet customer needs.

• Further improve the way we handle initial problems so that they are fixed at the earliest opportunity.

• Carry out our new policy and procedures, including involving customers in what we have learned from complaints.

What we did• Reviewed our complaints policy

and procedures in light of changing legislation and best practice.

• We created an internal customer experience team to make sure repair complaints are given a high priority and resolved quickly.

• Improved how we learned from our complaints and shared some of this learning in our newsletter ‘Heart of the Matter’.

Target: a minimum of 90% of complaints will

be responded to within the timescales set

(an increase of 24%

from 2011-12)

Target: 100% of complaints will be

formally acknowledged within three calendar days

(up 12% from

2011-12)

Target: a minimum of 72% of customers will be satisfied with

how we handled their complaint

(up 1% from 2011-12)

Performance figures

‘What you complained about’

‘What we did as a result of your complaint’

99%96%

52%

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Tenant involvement and empowerment standard - involvement & impact

Customer involvement is important to us. It helps shape our services to you and means that you can comment on and challenge our performance.

During the year, 156 customers were actively involved in a wide range of activities including customer groups relating to the Customer Service Centre, Anti-Social Behaviour, Customer Involvement, New Home Design Guide, Estate Services, Smarter Homes and the 2020 vision/digital business project.

What we did• Delivered a major service review of the customer

involvement service. As a result, we developed a new customer involvement offer which aims to involve customers in all service areas in different ways to suit their interests and time commitments.

• Launched three new opportunities for customers to hold us to account including our Customer Inspection programme where customers inspect empty properties and check conditions against our standard.

• Set up a new partnership with our internal training providers, Orbit Academy, to deliver tailored customer training programmes; this reduced training costs by 50%.

• Promoted the work of the team and the benefits of getting involved through a blog www.oheexcellentjourney.wordpress.com and by publishing two editions of ‘Involvement News’ (we managed to reduce costs for ‘Involvement News’ by 37%).

• Used independent phone and postal surveys to get feedback from more than 4,500 customers on their experiences of our services. This helps us to plan service improvements.

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What we plan to doWe will deliver the Customer Involvement action plan, developed as a result of the service review, which includes:

• Delivering the new involvement offer, introducing different opportunities across a wide range of services; for example, help to shape the future of the income service and the repairs service and our website.

• Improve our systems to make sure involvement activities are effective and offer good value for money.

• Relaunch the involvement service and recruit more customers to get involved.

• Explore new technologies to help involve customers in different ways.

We will continue to have customer representation on our Strategic Board and our new Operational Committee.

Target: a minimum of 69% of customers satisfied that their

views have been taken into account

(a drop of 4% from 2011-12)

Performance figures

An impact assessment for customer

involvement was completed and agreed

by customers

84% of involved

customers were satisfied with

Involvement News (target 85%)

The number of actively involved

customers

65%

156

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Tenant involvement and empowerment standard - scrutiny

Customer Scrutiny is a voluntary group of customers from across Orbit Heart of England working together to take a detailed look into areas of service which need improvement.

What we plan to do• Complete at least two new projects.

• Review how Customer Scrutiny is working.

• Recruit new Customer Scrutiny members.

For more information click here: www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk/customerscrutiny

What Customer Scrutiny achieved

• Completed two projects which looked into the reporting of repairs and customer satisfaction with their new home. Findings and recommendations were presented to and approved by the Board.

• Provided regular updates to all customers via website, newsletter and ‘Involvement News’.

• Recruited and trained five new Customer Scrutiny members.

‘Orbit Heart of England do not wait for a review to be presented to the Board before they act upon the Customer Scrutiny recommendations’

David DuqueminCustomer Scrutiny member.

‘Success… the Board really trust our evidence.’ Irene AshtonCustomer Scrutiny member.

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Tenant involvement and empowerment standard - responding to the diverse needs of our customers

We have a diverse customer population so it is important that we can respond to the broad range of needs, including those of our more vulnerable customers.

What we plan to do• Implement our new vulnerability

policy so our more vulnerable customers receive a tailored service wherever possible.

• Undertake a pilot to help people with disabilities live more independently.

• Open more dementia cafés and introduce a dementia support worker in Stratford-upon-Avon.

• Increase customer satisfaction for the aids and adaptations service.

What we did• Worked in partnership with a range of voluntary

agencies, local councils and government authorities who offer additional services for our vulnerable customers; opened a dementia café in Southam, with Age UK and the Alzheimer’s Society, for people with memory loss.

• Changed the way we handled customer requests for adaptations to provide a consistent service across our region.

• Made 290 adaptations to customers’ homes, ranging from grab rails to wet rooms.

• Reviewed the provision of translation and transcription services to improve service and increase value for money.

• Used the information we have about our customers to tailor services – such as working with customers who were at risk of failing their tenancy and supporting vulnerable customers during the severe winter weather.

68 wet rooms

installed

88% Aids & Adaptations

completed on first visit

A number of Equality Impact

Assessments were completed during

the year

Target: have information on the profile of at least

98% of our residents and demonstrate

how we have used the information to

improve our services

(up 1.5% from 2011-12)

Target: customers satisfied with the Aids & Adaptations service

(a drop of 20% from 2011-12)

Performance figures

99.5%

67%

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Your home standard - responsive repairs

A well-maintained house is important for the majority of our customers. Over 68,000 repairs were reported between April 2012 and March 2013. These were dealt with by our in-house repairs team, Property Matters.

Target: a minimum of 85% of customers

tell us that an appointment was

provided for their repair

(an increase of 11% from 2011-12)

Performance figures

Target: a minimum of 88% of customers

satisfied with the responsive repairs

service

(up 1% from2011-12)

Target: a minimum of 85% of customers tell us that the job was completed on the

first visit

(up 2% from 2011-12)

What we plan to do• Improve the way our Property Matters vans

are stocked to increase the number of jobs completed on the first visit.

• Transfer the delivery of our heating contract (including the annual gas service) to an external specialist company.

• To make sure we provide quality and value for money, our maintenance service will be provided by an outside contractor from 1 April 2014.

What we did• Improved our performance on delivering the annual

gas service programme to over 10,500 properties through better scheduling and access arrangements.

• If a customer continually refuses to let us in to do their annual gas service, we have to start eviction proceedings. Rather than use a solicitor to do this which costs money, we now do that work ourselves.

• Undertook a major review of the repairs process, working across all teams who are involved from the Customer Service Centre to Property Matters.

• Began to make improvements to how the Customer Service Centre diagnose repairs.

• Improved the skills of our Property Matters workforce so that they are able to complete more jobs on the first visit.

• Increased appointments for repairs which are booked when you first report them.

• Launched 13 ‘fix-it’ films on the website to help customers safely carry out a number of small repairs around their property.

1 in 5More than 1 in 5 of our repairs are treated as an emergency. This is a slight reduction from last year

when it was 1 in 4

Target: 96% of customers satisfied

with the service they receive for their

annual gas service

(down 2% from 2011-12)

Target: 100% of all properties which

have gas have a valid landlord’s safety

certificate

(up 0.1% from 2011-12)

83%78%

89%99.8%

91%

99.8% Our Decent Home

Compliance has improved: 99.5% last year, 99.8% this year

85% Overall satisfaction with the quality of your home: a slight drop from 89% last

year to 85% this year

711 Energy efficiency

rating improved in 711 properties

What we plan to do• Complete the procurement of a

new supplier to deliver the kitchen & bathroom programme.

• Continue to focus on properties which are poor in energy efficiency to help reduce customers’ gas and electricity bills.

What we did• Addressed fuel poverty issues by

helping to reduce energy usage by the installation of energy efficient boilers and high performance windows and doors.

• Completed a major external decoration programme, including work which had not been completed last year.

• 1,400 properties were surveyed for asbestos.

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Your home standard - quality of accommodation; improving homes; planned works

Investing in our properties and your home is a major commitment each year. We want to make sure that we maintain and improve your home to a high standard.

Target: a minimum of 90% of customers

satisfied with the choices available

(up 4% from 2011-12)Target: a minimum

of 95% of customers satisfied with the

planned maintenance service they received

(down 5% from 2011-12)

Performance figures

81%

91%

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Sustainability

‘Fuel poverty’ is defined as when a household cannot afford to keep warm at reasonable cost given their income. This remains a key issue for our customers. We are committed to reducing energy bills and tackling fuel poverty, to improve customer satisfaction and well being; for example informing customers about the best use of energy.

What we plan to do• Make sure that by March 2014, none of our

properties are energy rated G.

• Support around 500 customers to improve their energy awareness through our Energy Doctor service, with the aim of saving a total of over £100,000.

• Seek to maximise external funding opportunities to support energy reduction programmes in our properties.

What we did• Completed our pilot retrofits in Wellesbourne,

achieving the first UK Passivhaus EnerPHit retrofit standard for a social housing dwelling.

• Provided customers with more user-friendly guidance and information packs on how to maximise ground source heat pump efficiency.

• Over 330 homes in Coventry were fitted with boiler upgrades, insulation, new windows and doors.

• Loxley Court sheltered scheme was the first UK complex to benefit from air source heat pumps for heating and solar PV panels contributing to electrical generation.

• Launched the ‘Energy Doctor’ service which gave energy advice to 282 customers, saving each customer on average £242 on their energy costs.

What we plan to do• Undertake quarterly customer inspections of

our ready-to-let properties so customers can check properties are being let in line with our agreed standard.

• Ensure that our re-let processes are efficient and that our performance is in the top 25% when compared with other housing providers.

What we did• Completed a review of how we let our

sheltered accommodation which helped reduce the average time taken by nearly a week; increasing our revenue by £10,000.

• Trained staff on the new IT system which has helped us better understand where delays are occurring.

• A Customer Scrutiny project looked into how well we were meeting the re-let standard. Following this, improvements were made, particularly with cleaning which was highlighted as a key area.

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Your tenancy standard

Providing customers with a new home is a great part of our job. When it comes to letting our homes, we aim to be efficient, fast and fair, providing properties that are of a good standard.

General rented properties took, on

average, 17.1 days to let compared to

22.2 days in the previous year. Sheltered

accommodation properties took, on

average, 44.6 days to let compared to 52.6

days previously. During the year, we relet

over 1,200 properties.

500 Over 500 customers were supported by

our Tenancy Support service

£850,000 Our Tenancy Support service managed to secure in excess of

£850,000 in financial gains for

customers

75% Overall satisfaction

with Landlord Services was 82%

now 75%

Performance figures

Target: 94% of customers satisfied

with their new home

(a drop of nearly 8% from 2011-12)

Target: to relet our properties within

25 days

(an improvement of 3 days from

2011-12)

Target: 100% get confirmation within 4 weeks that they can purchase their

property

(same as 2011-12)86%

22 days

100%

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Your neighbourhood and community - local services / community investment

We don’t just maintain and build homes; we build communities too. Our aim is to support and invest in communities to make them sustainable and thriving places where people want to live.

Target: 77% of customers satisfied with Estate Services

(up 14% from

2011-12)

Performance figure

65%Customers satisfied

that the service charge provides good

value for money (was 64%)

89%Overall customer

satisfaction with the local neighbourhood (same as last year)

What we did• We focussed on the four key themes of

employability and skills, financial inclusion, young people and empowering independence.

• We invested nearly £940,000 in 50 separate community investment projects during the year. In addition, we brought in nearly £500,000 of external funding for various projects.

Some of the projects included:

• The Mayfield Road play area was officially opened, having received £10,000.

• Coventry Citizens Advice Bureau received £1,935 for their schools project.

• Bishops Itchington Growing Space project received £15,000. We also donated a parcel of land and we worked with our partners, Garden Organics, to design and build a garden for local residents.

What we plan to do• Deliver our Community Investment Programme,

investing over £675,000 including funding from external sources.

• Achieve customer satisfaction with their neighbourhood so we are in the top 25% when compared with other housing providers.

• Deliver a more robust programme of Estate Inspections across all areas throughout the year. They will be advertised well in advance so you have the opportunity to join in and help influence improvements in your local area. Outcomes will be reported in local newsletters.

• Start a programme of Estate Action Days, which will cover all our communities over a two year period. The days will provide an opportunity for one-to-one engagement between customers and staff to gather feedback on local priorities and issues. This information will then be used to develop specific local offers for the estate for which customers can hold us to account.

• Complete the procurement of new suppliers for the delivery of our estate services such as grass cutting.

74%

What we plan to do• Apply for ASB accreditation through HouseMark.

• Work with other organisations across the Orbit Group to ensure consistency in processes, taking into account customer feedback received from our on-going satisfaction surveys.

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Your neighbourhood and community - dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour

Last year, reports of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) on our estates and schemes increased from 252 to 299. That doesn’t necessarily mean that ASB is increasing but shows that customers are prepared to report problems and, as a result our Community Housing Officers (CHOs) will take firmer action.

Target: 81% of customers satisfied

with the outcome of their ASB case

(down 2% from

2011-12)

Target: 76% of customers satisfied

with how their ASB case was handled

(an increase of 3%

from 2011-12)

Target: 97% of customers contacted

within timescales when reporting a new

ASB case

(down 1% from 2011-12)

Performance figures

What we did• Completed a major review of how we handle Anti-Social

Behaviour cases and made improvements. As part of this, we worked with customers in a focus group to find out their views.

• Made improvements to our processes. All CHOs and District Housing Managers (DHMs) were trained in the new processes and the initial results are encouraging showing a performance improvement towards the end of the year.

• All cases are now reviewed after three months to make sure that processes are being followed and that we are doing things for the customer in a timely manner.

• 118 young people in the Rugby area took part in a range of activities during the Easter school holidays as part of our approach to prevent ASB. The ‘Sky Blues in the Community’ project was funded through community investment.

• Raised awareness in ‘Heart of the Matter’ that online bullying (known as ‘cyber bullying’) is a form of ASB.

• Introduced into our procedure that a manager contacts the customer to check that they agree with the decision and that the case can be closed.

67%72%

97%

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Value for money

We are always looking for ways to get the best quality at the best price. By making savings we ultimately provide our customers with a better service because any surpluses (money left over after we have met all of our costs) go back into the business. This helps us to build more homes or provide new services like the Energy Doctor.

Our staff worked hard to find ways

in which they could make savings in

everything they did. The total value of

these savings came to over £260,000.

What we did• Continued to record local savings and

achieved our full year target.

• Examples of small savings included carrying out ASB witness statements in-house and processing the annual rent review in-house.

• Some larger scale savings, including renegotiating our fleet contract, brought in savings of over £50,000.

What we plan to do• Deliver our Value for Money (VFM) Strategy

and carry out VFM assessments.

• Deliver key procurement and savings projects to make savings of over £500,000, in addition to the £100,000 ‘everyday’ savings.

• Deliver our agreed budgeted surplus (£25.8m) and targeted efficiencies to contribute to Community Investment Funding in 2014-15.

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Here is some information on where our income came from and what we did with it last year. We have added a breakdown of other income and other expenditure.

Due to changes in accounting rules some elements of planned maintenance costs are now capitalised. These are written off to the accounts depending on the assumed life of the planned asset and are shown as depreciation. During 2012/13 we spent £6,329,000 on replacement kitchens, bathrooms and boilers.

Total %

Income £ £

Rent collected 64,586,000 77.7%

Service charges 3,625,000 4.4%

Support charges 1,927,000 2.3%

Property sales 9,381,000 11.3%

Other - see below 3,571,000 4.3%

Management services 132,000

Services to Group members 584,000

Home ownership services 956,000

Other social housing activities 673,000

Non social housing activities 1,218,000

Interest receivable and similar income 8,000

83,090,000

Spend £ £

Routine maintenance 14,597,000 22.3%

Planned maintenance - See note 1 below 7,766,000 11.8%

Service costs 4,039,000 6.2%

Support costs* 2,454,000 3.7%

Management 8,851,000 13.5%

Interest on loan charges 15,008,000 22.9%

Depreciation of housing properties - See note 1 below 7,773,000 11.9%

Other - see below 5,023,000 7.7%

Management services 88,000

Services to Group members 1,207,000

Home ownership services 1,088,000

Other social housing activities 524,000

Non social housing activities 1,497,000

Rent loss from bad debts 468,000

Pension 151,000

65,511,000

Surplus before transfer to reserves 17,579,000

* The cost of providing additional support services to customers such as sheltered scheme-based staff.

What we plan to do• Complete a major review of the

income service so it is able to deliver a consistent service to all customers in light of Welfare Reform.

• Help 200 customers by providing debt or money advice.

• Achieve over half a million pounds in financial gains for our customers.

• Review the reward scheme.

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RentWe have continued to reduce rent arrears through a combination of managing our accounts better, rewarding customers who pay on-time and supporting those who need help through our money advice team.

Governance and Financial ViabilityThe Board is responsible for the running of Orbit Heart of England. It contains a mix of independent members as well as a strong customer representation.

At the end of the year we had achieved a final surplus of £30.1m to reinvest in the business and into our neighbourhoods and communities.

Our strong financial performance provides confidence to our customers, regulator, funders and other stakeholders that we can deliver existing and new services.

What we did• Completed a major information

campaign on Welfare Reform to improve customers’ awareness. Our ‘Guide to Welfare Reform’ was recognised as being ‘good practice’ in the housing sector.

• Introduced guidance to help customers understand whether they can afford to maintain their tenancy once they have moved into their new home.

• Involved customers to make a difference to the rent statements.

• Expanded the rewards scheme to include more options for customers to use their vouchers. Customers redeemed £195,500 of vouchers over the year.

• Increased the size of the Money Advice Team and supported over 350 customers.

• Increased the use of the Customer Service Centre to improve how low level arrears are handled, without the need to pass onto someone else.

• Provided more flexible arrangements for customers paying by direct debit (weekly / fortnightly).

Target: our target for current rent arrears was 3%

(down from 3.4% in 2011-12)

Performance figures

Target: 2.3% was the target for current rent

arrears ignoring the amount we are owed

in housing benefit

(up from 2.4% in 2011-12)

100%customer satisfaction

with our Money Advice Service

81%Customers who are

satisfied that their rent provides good value for money was 81% -

down from 83%Target: 90% of

customers satisfied with range of payment

methods available

(up 1% from 2011-12)

Our target was to make support available to customers should

they need it

3%2.5%

98%

Achieved

The table below shows how our performance compares against similar housing providers. We compare ourselves against housing providers who have more than 5,000 properties and work across more than six local authority areas.

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Customers satisfied overall

with Orbit Heart of England as a

landlord

Customers satisfied with how

their complaint was handled

Customers satisfied with the outcome of their

complaint

Customers satisfied with the overall quality of

their home

The percentage of properties with a valid gas safety certificate as at 31 March 2013

Customers satisfied with how their Anti-Social

Behaviour case was handled

Customers satisfied that their views are listened

to and will be acted upon

Customers satisfied with the repairs service

Customers satisfied with their neighbourhood as

a place to live

The percentage of customers who feel that their rent provides value for

money

The level of overall arrears including housing benefit

Customers satisfied with

the outcome of their Anti-Social Behaviour case

The average time taken to re-let a

property

How we compare against other housing providers

Orbit Heart of England owns over 14,500 properties across the Midlands and operates in 26 local authority areas.

We are in the top 25%

We are above average but not quite there yet

We are below average

We are in the bottom 25%

Heart of England Housing Association (exempt charity)Registered office: 10 Greenhill Street, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6LGIndustrial and Provident number: 304466RHomes & Communities Agency registration number L4526

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www.orbitheartofengland.org.uk

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Orbit Heart of England10 Greenhill StreetStratford-upon-AvonWarwickshireCV37 6LG

0345 8 500 500