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“Our journey”

Annual Reportfor Residents2009/10

Annual Report for Residents 2009/10

This is our report for the year April 2009 to March 2010. We hope it gives anhonest and helpful view of how well we are performing. The information is splitacross six ‘standards’. These standardshave been set by the Tenant ServicesAuthority (TSA), which has been set up tooversee housing associations, and followtalks with tenants across the country tofind out what matters to them most.

Under each standard we have includeddetails of our performance, some examplesof work we have done and things we arealready doing to improve our service. Where possible we have shown how ourperformance compares with other landlords,so that you get an idea of whether we aredoing well or need to improve.

At the back of the report you will also findout how we are talking to tenants todevelop our ‘local offer’ - a service that isbetter tailored to your needs and priorities.

This report has been written and designedwith the help of a group of tenants, who gotinvolved to make sure the information is asuseful as possible and presented clearly. We would also like your feedback and haveincluded a feedback form with this report.

All the data in this report relates to theperiod 1st April 2009 to 31st March2010, unless otherwise stated.

As well as being honest about how we areperforming and recognising areas forimprovement, we also believe incelebrating our successes. This year hasseen a number of highlights, including ourteams collecting three awards.

Our work with Sir Christopher Hatton Schoolto create a sensory garden at CharlesRobinson Court led to us being named aregional winner in youth involvement by theTenant Participation Advisory Service. We then scooped the National HousingFederation’s What We Are Proud Of awardfor the East Midlands for our TenantResource Centre. Finally, our commitment totraining and development helped us to win aregional Learn Direct award.

We hope you agree with us that the reportincludes lots of positive information aboutthe work we are doing to meet our visionto provide better places to live throughquality, well-maintained homes andimproved services.

Joe Nellis, Chair of the BoardDave Willis, Chief Executive

Every year we send all our residents an updateon how we are doing when it comes to lookingafter your homes and providing services to you

Welcome

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As well as a focus on how we involve residents in our work, thisstandard also includes customer service and complaints and how we understand and respond to diverse needs

Satisfaction with the overall service provided by Wellingborough Homes:

* Data provided by the TSA** Data from HouseMark eastern region based on the top performing 25% of housing providers

Tenant involvement and empowerment

Join us on our journey

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Wellingborough Homes

83%National Average*

82%Best in Eastern Region**

84%

Our target is to increase the level of overallsatisfaction to 88% by March 2013. Weknow from a recent survey that the keydrivers of satisfaction are the quality ofthe repairs service, the quality of homesand how we deal with enquiries.

The survey also showed that our youngertenants, and those from black and minorityethnic groups are less satisfied with theservices they receive from us.Understanding the reasons why will be apriority for us over the next year.

Customer service

We received over 47,500 phone calls in the year. Of these:

Actual Target

Phone calls answered within 3 rings (21 seconds) 91.38% 90%

% of calls abandoned by callers 1.85% Less than 5%

In our latest satisfaction survey: We launched a new website, withtranslation, ‘Browsealoud’ and font sizeoptions, that allows tenants to report arepair, check their rent account and make acomplaint, compliment or suggestion.of tenants who responded found

our staff to be helpful

90%

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The number of repairs complaints needs tobe seen in the context of the number ofrepairs completed (over 22,500).

However, we are working with thecontractor and tenants to improve thequality of the repairs service.

As a result of the complaints about grass cutting we changed our landscapemaintenance contractor.

67% of residents were satisfied with theway we handled their complaints.

We felt this was poor (our target is 90%)and, as a result, have introduced a morepersonalised approach to dealing withcomplaints. This sees a dedicated memberof staff looking after each complaint.

Understanding our residents

We are in the process of gatheringinformation about all of our residents to help us better shape the service that we provide.

So far 60% of our residents have given usinformation about themselves. We aim toincrease this to 80% by March 2011 and100% by March 2012. All information isheld securely and is not shared with otherorganisations unless stated.

The information that we do hold has beenused in a number of ways to improve theservice we provide, for example:

f Our magazine ‘Well Informed’ is sentout in larger print or on CD to thosethat have requested it

f We have been able to promote our money advice services directlythrough text messaging

f Identifying tenants requiring aids andadaptations and completing this workas part of our internal improvementprogramme


Complaints

We received 162 complaints about the services we provide. Of these 96.5% were dealtwith within their target response time (against a target of 90%).

The chart shows the top three complaints by service as a percentage of total complaints:

0 10 20 30 40

Repairs 38%

Grass cutting 18%

Improvementprogramme 18%

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Resident involvement

Satisfaction that views are being taken into account:

Our target is to increase the level ofsatisfaction to 70% by March 2013. We know from a recent survey that thekey drivers of satisfaction for our tenantsare being kept informed, how we deal withyour enquiries and the support we provide.

We have a range of ways you can getinvolved including:

Tenant Action GroupTenants who meet monthly to look at howservices are provided, hear feedback fromour staff and ask questions about how weare performing.

Tenant Advisory PanelA smaller group of tenants who havereceived training to help us make keydecisions and monitor the standard ofservices we provide.

Monitoring panels for anti-socialbehaviour, customer services and repairs and home improvementsGroups of tenants who question and helpus improve how we run particular services.

Jargon bustersTenants who check all our information, likecustomer leaflets, to ensure it is clear andjargon free.

Editorial PanelStaff and tenants who choose the contentfor our quarterly magazine, ‘Well Informed’and shape its design and format.

50 plus groupTenants over the age of 50 who meettogether to have a say on services forolder people.





68%

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Mary Reevesbecame a member ofour Tenant AdvisoryPanel (TAP) earlier inthe year. She said:

“I got involved with TAP after a neighboursuggested I might get something out of it.Since joining I have done such a lot. I havebeen on a trip to Salix Homes in Salford tofind out how they involve their tenants.While there, we found out about theorganisation’s Customer Senate and I hopethat we can develop something similarhere in Wellingborough.

“Getting involved with TAP has helped me to find out more about how wellWellingborough Homes is doing.

“I think it is vital that tenants get involvedand have the opportunity to check andchallenge what their landlord does.

“We need a good cross section of peopleto make sure services reflect the needs ofeveryone.”

f Develop and launcha rewards andincentive scheme

Casestudy

f Develop and launch a new approach toinvolving tenants. This will include a wayof developing tenants to becomemembers of the Board, as well assetting up more formal opportunitiesfor tenants to monitor performance

f Set up a tenant inspectorscheme to help you keepa check on our services

f Develop our supportservices to reach morepeople with diverse needs

f Seek to engage with moreyounger and Black andMinority Ethnic tenants

To further improve we will:

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The Home Standard includes the repair and maintenance of yourhome and any shared areas (such as hallways in flats) and whetherour homes meet the Decent Homes Standard

Our target is to increase the level ofsatisfaction to 89% by March 2013.

We know from a recent survey that thekey issues affecting satisfaction are theway we deal with your initial repairrequest, how we take your views intoaccount when looking to improve theservice and the time it takes before westart work.

In April 2009 we launched our new repairsservice with our partner Rok. As per thetransfer promises the new service includedan appointment system with 98% ofappointments being kept during the firstyear (against a target of 97%).

Over 22,500 repairs were carried out in2009/10 - on average that is almost fiverepairs for each home. Once each repair iscomplete, tenants are asked to complete asatisfaction card.

Your home


Satisfaction with the repairs and maintenance service:





81%

Of those returned:

were satisfied with the service they had received

(against a target of 90%)

96%

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Through our repairs monitoring panel weknow that you would like more choicewhen making a repairs appointment. We have worked with Rok to improve ourcomputer systems and offer you a choiceof three time slots on your preferred date.

Again in response to suggestions we havelaunched our new ‘Handy Hour’ service sothat tenants who qualify can get small DIYjobs completed for a flat rate charge ofjust £10 per hour.

Gas servicing

We have made significant improvements inthe way we organise gas servicing. We havea legal obligation to service your gasappliances once a year to keep you and yourneighbours safe. Because this is so importantwe will take tenants to court who do notgrant us access to complete the service. As aresult 99.97% of gas services due werecompleted (against a target of 100%).

Quality of your home

82% of tenants were satisfied with thequality of their home but satisfaction wasconsiderably lower for those tenants agedbetween 16 and 34 (53%).

Last year we spent over £12.9m repairing and improving the housing stock(over £25m since the transfer from thecouncil).

Actual2009/10

93%95%Emergency repairs completed within two hours

93%95%Urgent repairs completed within 24 hours

96%90%Routine repairs completed within 28 days

99.97%

Actual2008/09

82.5%

89%

93%

100%100%Properties with a gas service carried out

Target

You can see below how we have improved our performance in completing repairs ontime, although work still needs to be done to meet our targets.


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Tenant satisfaction with the improvementwork completed to date is high at 97%,but some tenants were unhappy about thelength of time taken to do the works andbecause they didn’t know when tradespeople would arrive. Both our contractors,Lovells and Wates, have accepted thiscriticism and have taken action to makethings better.

We also spent over £575k on our aids andadaptations service during the year to help238 tenants and their families live moreindependently within their own homes.As part of the service we fitted:

f 151 level access showers

f 19 stair lifts and

f 10 access ramps

We are fitting more minor adaptations,such as taps and bath rails, as we improve homes through the improvement programme.

2009/10 Since Transfer (Dec 07)

Kitchens 457 785

Bathrooms 549 809

Heating systems 407 447

Boilers 662 835

Rewires 234 562

Most of this money has been used to provide:

of homes now meet the DecentHomes Standard and we are on trackto reach our target of 100% by

December 2012

72%

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f Work with tenants to agree anew standard for our homesthat will apply from 2013,with an increased focus onenergy efficiency

Older residents arebenefitting fromwork to improvesheltered housingacross the borough.

Work started this year to refurbishBarringers Court in Irchester.

This is the third scheme to be improvedsince transfer, following on from PerkinsCourt and Hollowell Court.

Tenant Win Honey said: “Hollowell Courthas been transformed and we’re all reallyhappy with how it looks. It’s great that thebedsits have been converted into onebedroom apartments and our quality of lifeis much improved now.”

Work at Barringers Court will includetransforming the scheme’s existing bedsitsinto one-bedroom, self-contained flatscomplete with level access showers.

There will also be improvements to thecommunal lounge and kitchen, as well aslandscaping to the garden.

Casestudy


f Consult tenants andleaseholders before startingwork to improve the sharedareas of blocks of flats

f Complete the £1.8m projectto refurbish Barringers Courtand start work to redevelopKnights Court

f Work with tenants toagree a definition of ‘rightfirst time’ for repairs andmonitor our performanceagainst this definition

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This standard covers how we maintain the areas around ourhomes, how we work with other organisations for the good of the local area and how we tackle issues like anti-social behaviour

Neighbourhood satisfaction

This compares well with the satisfaction of all residents in Wellingborough at 71%(Source: Local Government Data Place Survey 2008)

You have told us that car parking, litter anddisruptive children are the main problemsin your neighbourhood.

Environmental improvements

In 2009 we worked with resident focusgroups on the Hemmingwell Estate todesign improvements and spent just over£500,000 on landscaping, removing highwalls and modernising garages.

Plans are now being drawn up to completeour work in Hemmingwell and begin inother parts of the borough.

Neighbourhoods and communities

Acceptable behaviour

We aim to take a pro-active approach topreventing anti-social behaviour.

To promote acceptable behaviour we are:

f Working through local schools to helpmore than 400 pupils learn about theimpact poor behaviour can have

f Running free activity workshops forparents and children during schoolholidays. Activities include rocketbuilding, manicure sessions, arts and crafts

f Supporting the Arson Task Force’sDragons Den project, working withlocal schools to tackle arson, inparticular wheelie bin fires

Where anti-social behaviour does occurwe work with partners, such as the police,fire service and local councils to resolvethe issue.

In 2009/10 we started work on 418 anti-social behaviour cases resulting in usserving eight notices of seekingpossession. 94% of those helped by ouracceptable behaviour team were satisfiedwith the service they received (against atarget of 90%).

of tenants were satisfied with theirneighbourhood as a place to live

79%

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Community work

We gave £51,000 to a number of local projects though our communitygrant scheme. This included grants to:

f Service Six - providing footballcoaching and dance classes for young people

f Croyland Community Association to support its work in the area

f Home-Start Wellingborough andDistrict to support Little Stars, a stayand play session in Kingsway

Estate appearance

Over the past year we have organised 23estate walkabouts. As a result we haveremoved litter, reported pot holes, workedwith the authorities to get untaxed carsremoved and visited tenants with overgrowngardens to ask them to take action.


f Develop with residents andpartners an estates standardthat will be monitored throughwalkabouts and inform ourlong-term approach toproviding landscapemaintenance services

f Implement our firstneighbourhoodagreements which willsee residents and localagencies agreeing andsigning up to standardsfor their area

f Deliver moreenvironmentalimprovementschemes inconsultation withtenants and keypartners

Our Tenant ResourceCentre won an awardfor reaching out intothe community. Inthe last year thecentre:

f Gave help and support to 200unemployed people

f Helped 40 people into work or training

f Gave 280 people help to improve their health

f Offered vital help and support to 12women at risk of domestic violence

The centre also provides activity sessionsfor families during the school holidays.

One grandmother emailed the team to say:“I would just like to thank you for anotherenjoyable half-term activity week held inyour Tenant Resource Centre. This is thesecond session we have attended and lookforward to the next. Abi, my granddaughterhas learnt different skills, many of which wehave continued at home.”

Casestudy


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This standard covers how we allocate homes, the rents we chargeand the security of tenure that we offer to you

Allocating our homes

To become one of our tenants you have toapply to the Borough Council ofWellingborough.75% of our empty homesare let in this way. We work closely with thecouncil to ensure all our homes are let fairly,taking into account the applicants’ housingneeds. The remaining homes are let toexisting tenants who wish to transfer in linewith our Allocations Policy.

From October 2010, all applicants willapply for housing through a new choicebased lettings scheme called‘Wellingborough keyways’ where they canbid for homes either online, over the phoneor in person. Information on this newscheme will be published in the autumn.

In 2009/10 we let 381 homes. Of these62 were designated as sheltered housing.Here are a few facts about the newhouseholds we housed:

f 35% were granted an assured tenancyand 65% a ‘starter’ tenancy

f 16.3% of lettings were to a black andminority ethnic household

f 25% were identified as legallyhomeless when they applied forhousing

The main reasons for requiring housing were:

f Being asked to leave by family or friends

f Overcrowding

f Ill health / disability

f Ready to move toindependent living

We helped 90 homeless householdsthrough a temporary housing scheme runin partnership with the council.

To help people move we also promote theoption to swap your home through anational house exchange scheme. For moreinformation contact the Customer Serviceteam on 01933 234450 or visitwww.whomes.houseexchange.org.uk

Empty homes

It took on average 21 days (against a targetof less than 25 days) to let what we callgeneral needs housing, but shelteredhousing took longer at an average of 62days. This is because we find it difficult tolet bed-sits and this is one of the reasonswhy we are refurbishing our shelteredschemes.

2.16% of our homes were empty as at 31March 2010. The national average is 2.3%.

Your tenancy

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Rent services

Every year we write and tell you theamount of rent you must pay and send a statement to you four times a year.

We have a wide range of ways to payincluding at the Post Office and Pay Points,by Chip and Pin at Thompson Court and by direct debit and standing order.

You can also ask us for a password thatallows you to access your rent accountdetails on line. Just call our CustomerServices team on 01933 234450.

We collected 100.24% of all rent dueagainst a target of 100%.

The table below compares our averageweekly rent for different homes with theaverage rent from other housingassociations in Wellingborough.

Tenancy support

All tenants receive a copy of our tenants’ handbook and new tenants acomprehensive welcome pack full ofuseful information.

All new tenants also receive four visitsthroughout the first year of their tenancyto provide that little bit of extra supportwhilst they settle into their new home.

Financial advice

We are keen to provide advice and supportto tenants to help them make the most oftheir income. We offer a range of adviceservices, including access to informationabout basic bank accounts, affordableenergy, low cost home contents insuranceand affordable loans. For more informationabout our ‘Now Let’s Talk Money’ servicescontact our Customer Services team on01933 234450 or visitwww.wellingboroughomes.org

Despite this support we had to evict 21households because of rent arrears.

3 Bed£

2 Bed£

1 Bed£

77.0166.4463.22Wellingborough Homes

89.1881.1870.51Other housing associations in Wellingborough

Notes:i Weekly rents are shown allowing for an annual 48 week rent debitii Net rents are used excluding any service chargesiii Rents shown are for both general needs and supported housing

Rent arrears represented

of the total rent due (against a target of less than 3.5%)

2.51%

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We offer confidentialfinancial help to allour tenants. We workwith the CommunityLaw Service toprovide a specialist

benefit and debt advice service. Over thelast year the service worked with 536tenants and helped them to claim a total of £888,938 in benefits.

In the last year we have developed ouradvice services, under the banner NowLet’s Talk Money. We are now sending outoffers of help via text message.

Casestudy


f Start to measure thesatisfaction of residentsmoving into a home forthe first time

f Introduce a tenant incentive schemeto reward those who keep to theterms of tenancies, for examplethose who leave their homes in agood condition when they move outto reduce the amount we spend onempty properties

f Set up a Life Skills course withpartners to help new tenantsdevelop the skills they need torun their homes and managetheir tenancies

f Aim to start on site withthe development of atleast 35 new homes toprovide much-needednew homes for rent andshared ownership


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This standard is set to make sure we are well run as anorganisation and that we are financially sound

A lot of information covering ourarrangements for governance and ourfinancial position is set out in our statutoryannual report and accounts, a copy ofwhich can be found on our websitewww.wellingboroughhomes.org or can be sent to you if you call us on 01933 234450.

Governance

We have adopted the National HousingFederation’s (NHF) Excellence inGovernance code and a recent internalaudit review highlighted many areas ofgood practice in our governancearrangements including:

f An annual self assessment of theBoard’s performance

f Clear role profiles for the Chair and other members

f A service agreement that sets out the obligations of board members

f Training plans

Financial viability

We provide detailed information to theTSA on our financial performance. The TSAconfirmed in April 2010 that we meettheir standard on financial viability.

Our total income last year was nearly£18m and most of this was from rents.We are a not-for-profit organisation, so allof the income is reinvested back intohomes and services.

We spent nearly £19.3m, the bulk ofwhich was spent on management costs(£3.5m), improvement works (£9m),repairs (£3m).

Because of the cost of the improvementworks we expect to spend more than ourincome over our first five years. We havean arrangement that allows us to borrowthis money and repay it over 30-years.The conditions attached to this loan havebeen met.


Governance and financial viability

f Develop the scrutiny role of theTenant Advisory Panel (TAP). Wehope that members can use theirexperience to judge our compliancewith the TSA’s standards and to goon to join the Board

f Review our governancearrangements againstthe updated NHF Codeof Excellence

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The ‘Value for money’ standard is set to make sure we make good useof the money available to invest in the things that matter to you

Value for money

Where your rent is spent

The graph below shows how we spendeach £1 of your rent:

76% of tenants were satisfied that therent they pay provides value for money.We think we can improve on this.

We have agreed a new Value for Money(VFM) strategy that sets out our approachto securing and testing VFM and howtenants will be involved. Key elements ofthe strategy include:

f Using procurement clubs such asProcurement for Housing to help us geta good deal when it comes to buyinggoods and services by joining withothers to ‘bulk buy’

f Conducting service reviews, involvingtenants, that includes a check on VFM

f Benchmarking (comparing) our costsand performance with similar landlords

We believe we have achieved value formoney by:

f Making full use of our Tenant ResourceCentre to provide an extended rangeof services through partner agencies

f Securing an additional £20,000 fromthe Department of Works and Pensionsto support our money advice services

f Introducing mobile technology formaintenance and for housing staff tocut down on trips back to the office

f Training staff to provide an improvedhousing benefit application serviceresulting in reduced arrears

f Improving performance on collectingrent arrears and reducing the timetaken to re-let empty homes. This hashelped to increase our income.


f Explore the optionof installing solarpanels on roofs

f Develop a toolkitto help tenantsassess value formoney whenhelping us withservice reviews

� Employees 16p

� Office & operating overheads 15p

� Repairs 16p

� Interest 2p

� House purchase 1p

� Major improvements 50p

During the summer of 2010, we consulted tenants face-to-face, on the phone and online to find out how our customers want us to do things differently, to meetthe needs of different areas and groups

We called this consultation ‘Opportunities’, to respond to the Tenant Services Authorityrequirement for housing providers to develop ‘local offers’ for tenants. We asked peoplewhat they want to challenge or change about the way we work. We also asked forideas about parts of the service where residents should have more choice.

The road shows the consultation already underway, and how we plan todevelop our local offers over the coming months.

challenge, choice and change

Opportunities:


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f September

We visited nearly1,100 homes as partof our staff conference

f July

A special page was setup to gather feedbackat www.facebook.com

f August

Staff attended localfetes and the town’sParty in the Parkevent to talk toresidents there

f June

We organised a telephonesurvey of 100 randomlychosen tenants together withthree telephone conferenceswith 20 residents to getmore in depth feedback

f You want to know more and get moreinvolved - you suggested we develop atraining academy where we can offer‘bite size’ training for tenants to checkhow we are performing

f We should make our local offerspersonal to people with similar issues,rather than base it on where people live

f We should make it easier for people toaccess our services by offering thingslike estate surgeries or crèche facilitiesat our offices, so parents can talkwithout their children having to hearthe issues

f We could introduce a tenants’ incentivescheme to reward people who meettheir tenancy obligations and give uptheir time to get involved

f You would like to book repairappointments in the evening and atweekends and get better informationabout any delays to repairs

f You want our repairs contractors tofocus on promptness, communicationand the quality of the work they do

f We need to offer higher standardswhen you move into one of our homes- including a tidy garden

f You would like help with gardening

f You want us to work with otheragencies to control rubbish and litter,tackle anti-social behaviour andimprove parking and transport facilities

f You want us to get more involved inlocal communities - especially helpingto organise activities for children andyoung people.

Here’s what people have said so far:

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We are now working with residents to prioritise thesesuggestions and discuss how we can turn them into actions

The markers on this page explain the next stages in our journey. There is still lots ofopportunity to get involved with us and tell us how we can improve services for you.

Talk to us about getting involved by calling 01933 234450 or emailing [email protected]

The next stages


f October

Develop our draft offers withmembers of our TenantAction Group and TenantAdvisory Panel

f January/February

Agree the local offers withtenant representatives

f November/December

Consult with wider tenantgroups and others we workwith on the plans

f March

Publish details of thelocal offers in the springedition of Well Informed

f April onwards

Update all tenants on ourprogress through WellInformed

Involve members of theTenant Advisory Panel inmonitoring our progress

Keep on reviewing ouroffers to check to howwell they are working

Tell us what you think for a chance to win £50

We would like to know what you think ofthis annual report. Please take some timeto fill out this form, cut it off and send itback to us at:

Freepost PlusRRTX-KLYH-YGBLCustomer ServicesWellingborough HomesThompson Court9F Silver StreetWellingboroughNorthamptonshireNN8 1BQ

We will draw one feedback form from allthose received by Friday, October 29, towin £50 of shopping vouchers.

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Wellingborough HomesThompson Court, 9F Silver Street,Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 1BQ

T: 01933 234450

www.wellingboroughhomes.org

Wellingborough Homes is the trading name of Wellingborough Homes Limited.Registered office: 12 Sheep Street, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN8 1BL.

Wellingborough Homes is a charitable and industrial and provident society,registration no. 30097R; Tenant Services Authority registration no. L4509.

If you would like the annual report translated, please contact theCustomer Services Centre on 01933 234450 or call into our offices.

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