Value for Money Statement

1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016

Doing more with your money.

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Message from the Chair and Chief Executive

Tai Calon Community Housing has recently been looking at how it can ensure value for money for its tenants, particularly in the light of the social and economic challenges faced by communities in the Blaenau Gwent area. The Board and the staff have been reviewing how we spend money to ensure that we are maximising benefits for our tenants. We are, therefore, pleased to present our first Value for Money Statement. This Statement outlines our Value for Money aims, ensuring that we work as effectively and efficiently as possible. Whilst driving efficiency and performance is critical to delivering the best service we can to tenants, we believe in the importance of being accountable for how we spend money and achieve value for that expenditure. The Statement shows how Tai Calon has performed over the last 12 months in key areas such as repairs, customer service, rent collection and empty homes. In the last year, savings have been made in our major works programme, by more effective procurement and by organising our finances so we pay lower banking fees. We have also used resources to help tenants and members of their families gain qualifications and employment through training and work placements. For example, 38 residents have gained employment through our Community Work Placements Programme and 18 tenants have received help to start their own businesses. We will continue to strive for continuous improvement in all we do and maximise benefits for tenants from the money we spend and report annually to our tenants on our progress and achievements. The publication of this statement is the start of the journey.

Norma Barry – Board Chair Joe Logan – Chief Executive

Our Vision

Homes and thriving neighbourhoods where people are proud to live.

Tai Calon Community Housing was formed in 2010 as a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer from Blaenau Gwent Council. The first five years were spent keeping the promises we made to our tenants as part of the transfer offer. This included bringing every home up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard which was achieved in December 2015. In 2015 Tai Calon launched our 2020 Vision, the new 5 year Corporate Plan for 2015 – 2020. In it we refreshed our corporate values. These are that we will:

•  Focus on tenants and communities

•  Work honestly and transparently

•  Show respect and professionalism

•  Be excellent •  Improve and innovate •  Involve, listen and learn

By living these values we will deliver a value for money service for all our tenants and service users. That’s why we strive to continually monitor every pound we spend and measure its effectiveness.

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Our Value for Money Aims Tai Calon is operating in a challenging economic environment. The UK government is changing the way benefits are paid to many of our tenants which increases the risk to Tai Calon’s income. Tai Calon remains committed to its vision of providing homes and thriving neighbourhoods where people are proud to live. This means that delivering value for money is more important than ever. Some of the ways we will achieve this are: •  Manage procurement effectively

and make every penny we spend count.

•  Maximising the return on our assets

•  Finding new ways to generate income so we are not completely reliant on rent.

•  Making sure all our processes work effectively and efficiently

•  Ensure all our staff work as efficiently as possible

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Area UnemploymentRateto31/03/2016aged

16-24

UnemploymentRate

(Workingage)

%ofpopulaAonreceivingworkrelated

benefits

Wales 15.6% 5.7% 14% BlaenauGwent 27.4% 10.1% 22%

Torfaen 13.5% 6.1% 16% Merthyr 21.9% 7.4% 21% Caerphilly 16.6% 6.6% 18%

Source:StatsWales

Socio Economic Context Tai Calon operates in one of the most deprived communities in Wales. Our customers and prospective tenants are more likely to be unemployed or receiving in work benefit than the rest of Wales. Our young people are also less likely to be in higher education than elsewhere. This presents both a social and a business challenge. The ability of our current and future tenants to pay their rent is critical to the financial viability of the business. Changes to the benefit system, both for those in and out of work create increasing pressure on our income. Equally our ability to create thriving neighbourhoods is helped by having tenants who can both afford to pay their rent and also have disposable income to spend in the area. These conditions support Tai Calon’s twin aims of being an efficient social landlord, and also running a range or programmes that both generate income and improve the employment skills of tenants and residents of the borough. 5

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Where Your Money Goes

And how we save it

And here’s some of the ways that we saved money in 2015/16 •  We saved £607,509 from the

major works programme and £32,840 from other contracts by undertaking effective procurement such as renegotiating our cleaning and mobile telecommunications costs.

•  We reduced the number of empty properties from 310 to 190. Some of these properties are now being appraised for disposal or demolition while others have been let and are generating rental income for Tai Calon.

•  The recent regulatory opinion for 2015/16 upgraded Tai Calon’s financial viability to “Pass” the highest award that can be granted. This puts the Association on a stable footing for the future.

•  Tai Calon has reviewed its current position and reduced its unused debt facility by £20 million. This will save £165,000 each year in funding costs that would otherwise have had to be paid.

•  We are also reviewing our services to ensure that they are as effective as possible.

Depreciation 11%

Finance 3%

Funding Costs 14%

WHQS 23%

Corporate Services 3%

Housing & Communities

14%

Environmental Improvements

7%

HR,OD & IT 6%

Repairs 16%

Central Costs 3%

FortheYearEnded31stMarch2016

What matters to you also matter to us. Here is how we are doing in the areas important to you.

Repairs We’ve made steady and consistent progress this year in completing repairs both within their target time and completing them correctly first time. This is a priority for us as it gives our tenants a good service. It’s also important for Value for Money purposes, as when we only have to attend once for each repair it’s quicker and cheaper for us, and we can carry out more repairs each day. To improve our performance we will be introducing specialist software to help our Customer Services team ask the right questions and understand the repair in detail. We are also introducing formal Schedule of Rates values, these values will help us deliver better value for money. They will give us a greater understanding of how long each repair should take, and we will be able to plan and schedule repairs more efficiently David Gray – Interim Head of Service, Assets/Property Services

Rent and Income Rent collection has been good in 2015/16 and has supported Tai Calon in investing in its homes and neighbourhoods. Processes have been improved with earlier contact with the tenant to prevent arrears building up. There is a dedicated team who all have their own patches to manage, allowing them to really get to know and support their tenants. The strong performance achieved is due to having a focused team concentrating on activities proven to achieve results. Ceri Owen – Income Manager

KPI 2015/16 Target

Achievement of WHQS 100% 100%

Repairs completed to target time 93.84% 93.80%

Repairs Right First Time 80.66% 81.00%

Current Tenant Arrears 1.29% 2.00%

% of Calls answered by Customer Services 96.82% 97.50%

Customer Satisfaction with Customer Services 98.26% 95.00%

Average void period of our properties 182 days 56 days

Income loss from empty properties 4.94% 4.00%

Average Energy Efficiency Rating of our homes 70.03% No Target

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Our Performance

Our Homes

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Our housing stock is Tai Calon’s largest asset, and it’s important that we both use and maintain it effectively. In December 2015 we delivered our promise of bringing all our homes up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard involving investment of over £120 million, however continuous investment will be required into the stock to maintain our homes at this level. Tai Calon’s Board have approved an Asset Management framework that sets out the main activity for the medium term. The main activities to ensure effective asset management and maintaining WHQS are: •  Tai Calon are now working with Savills to

finalise a dashboard for neighbourhood investment and modelling, including “red, amber, green” priority setting. From our work so far we can see that the vast majority of the stock is viable long term and WHQS can be maintained. However, close to 100 long term empty units are undergoing option appraisal.

•  To ensure overall stock is relevant to our tenants and communities and resources allow its improvement. Some homes may be flexibly remodelled to meet income constraints, or to meet changing patterns of demand.

•  Ensure co-ordination and best value from capital investment, planned and reactive repairs and cyclical maintenance.

•  Fuel poverty, renewables or community energy schemes will also be considered

•  On-going comparisons/benchmarking with sector leaders and external accreditation for maintenance and voids.

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Our Neighbourhoods As well as investing in our homes, Tai Calon is committed to providing safe and attractive neighbourhoods for our tenants to live in. In 2015 to check how we are doing, we launched a telephone survey. Tenants who contacted our Customer Services team could explain how they felt about their neighbourhood and whether they would recommend their neighbourhood as a place for friends and family to live. The results were as follows: This gives us a firm foundation for further investment in our neighbourhoods in subsequent years.

Question Result

Q1 – Do you like where you live 90.13%

Q2 - Would you recommend where you live to friends and family.

86.54%

We will provide quality homes in safe and pleasant environments.

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Other Activities Tai Calon is more than just a landlord. We also have social responsibilities to our tenants and the wider community. We work on these responsibilities by delivering a range of programmes in partnership with other agencies active in the area. These involve increasing skills and employability of Blaenau Gwent tenants and residents Where possible, we do this on an income generating basis that diversifies our income away from just rent. This has multiple benefits to Tai Calon: •  Our reliance on rental income is reduced.

•  Increasing the skills and employability of Tai Calon tenants reduces the risk of arrears and empty properties.

•  Improving the skills of non tenants who participate in programmes we run improves the overall economic well-being of the area.

On the following pages we outline some of the activity Tai Calon has been involved in and the benefits it has provided.

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Community Work Placements Community work placements (CWP) are aimed at long term unemployed whose primary barrier to work is a lack of work experience or motivation, or who have spent a great deal of time away from a structured work environment. The aim of the CWP programme is to equip people with a valuable period of experience in a work based environment. This enables them to develop the disciplines and skills associated with sustained employment, and ultimately to move into employment. Customers have been involved in a range of activities in Tai Calon, from experience in our environmental teams to conducting customer satisfaction surveys. Since the programme started: •  145 residents have started a

placement •  90 residents completed a six

month placement •  38 residents have started

employment •  4 residents have been

employed by Tai Calon.

In 2015/16 Tai Calon successfully obtained £48,000 funding from the Department for Work and Pensions to assist people in the area with multiple barriers to employment to obtain qualifications in the construction industry. In all 30 people went through 13 weeks training to gain Health and Safety qualifications; as well as gaining the Construction Skills Certification Scheme cards that allows them to work on site. To date 12 of the people who attended the course have gained employment.

Assisting With Self Employment

Tai Calon operates a self employment scheme. Tenants who wish to start a business can use the scheme to access funds in conjunction with Business Wales. In 2015/16 there have been 18 tenants who have accessed the scheme to start a business. Start-ups ranged from larger projects like setting up a gym and a film company to smaller ventures such as assisting with the purchase of a sewing machine to start a home sewing business.

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Flexible Support Fund

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Our Future Plans The economic environment and the UK government’s plans for welfare reform present significant risks to our business. This means that our value for money activities and our focus on efficiency are not just the right thing to do for our tenants, but are critical for our future success. In 2016/17 we will also be deploying specific changes to improve our efficiency whilst providing a more effective service to our tenants. These include: •  The launch of the Tai Calon app. The app will

allow tenants to view their rent statement at any time as well as make a rent payment. This improves visibility of every tenant’s current position as well as adding another payment channel for Tai Calon. Further additions to the app will be made as the year progresses.

•  Improving our repairs service by implementing the Repair Finder tool within Customer Services. This will provide our repairs teams with more focused information and enable us to undertake repairs more quickly and efficiently.

•  Some of our customer satisfaction surveys will move from being provided by telephone to text message. By doing this we can sample much larger groups of tenants and gain a better understanding of tenant satisfaction.

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Share Your Thoughts Your feedback is important to us. If you have any thoughts about this value for money statement, please let us know, by emailing us at: vfm@taicalon.org.uk