Annual report 2013-14
Another year, another great journey.
GREAT Homes, GREAT Neighbourhoods, GREAT People
Welcome Back when New Charter began in 2000, we committed to a vision of GREAT Homes, GREAT Neighbourhoods and GREAT People and 14 years on, it’s clear to see how we’ve lived and breathed this motto in everything we do.
Education remains an important part of New Charter’s work and our Great Academies Education Trust is starting to see some promising results.
The Group has grown significantly in this time and now provides a range of services in communities that go far beyond just housing.
We’ve built many affordable homes and have another busy few years ahead after securing a further £6m in new-build funding from the Government’s Affordable Homes programme.
With this in mind, the company has updated its official title to New Charter Group to better reflect the business of a modern-day ‘housing’ association.
Solar panels are also due to be fitted to around 4,500 of our Tameside homes in the next year to increase efficiency and help tenants with reduced energy bills.
With more people accessing food banks, child poverty remains firmly on the agenda and our Inspire team is helping families to tackle low school attendance, exclusions, unemployment and crime. There’s lots of work to celebrate from the past year. I’m particularly pleased that we are still one of the Best Not for Profit Companies to Work For, number 7, according to the Sunday Times and we were voted into the number 3 spot by sector colleagues in a ‘Best Landlord’ poll.
We’ve put together this report to share some of New Charter’s key achievements from what’s been another very busy journey. Ian Munro, Chief Executive New Charter Group
Ian Munro
31 apprentices helped to build new homes Inspire Programme has helped more than 180 families to tackle low school attendance, worklessness, debt and mental health problems
Decorated and fitted new windows, doors and kitchens to improve sheltered housing schemes
65 people trained to help deliver Restorative Justice in Tameside working with the police and other partners
Launched star-ratings for neighbourhoods to help improve areas. 20 of 32 neighbourhoods now have the highest five star rating compared to eight in early 2013
New allocations policy helps those most in need find homes and rewards people who contribute to their community
36 active resident associations and more involved tenants as a result of new neighbourhood plans In-house grounds maintenance service Green Charter has improved tenant satisfaction from 25% to over 92% in less than two years. The service also won Best Customer Service Co-Creation category at the Institute of Customer Service awards
Young Dreamscheme tenants won a Silver Medal for their ‘Day at the Seaside’ Show Garden at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park GREAT Opportunities programme has
helped 522
people with training and
104 people into paid work
Secured over
192 people on the European Social Fund project attended New Charter job clubs with 24 helped back into work
ÂŁ1m extra income
for our tenants in benefit entitlements
Launched a new domestic violence service called Bridges on behalf of Tameside Council
Built 102 new affordable homes in Tameside
CleanCare caretaking team reduced annual fly-tipping costs by almost
£18,000
Awards Rent collection rates above target at
99.91%
• Maintained Estate Management accreditation from the Housing Quality Network for the second year • Achieved TPAS accreditation in Resident Involvement
Set up partnerships with Oldham Community Leisure and Oldham Coliseum to improve residents’ access to sports, culture and training and employment opportunities Accessed external funding from the NHS and the Big Lottery Fund to complement existing Aksa services
Our social lettings agency Homes For All now manages more than 60 properties
Extended our empty property services to Manchester as well as Rochdale and Oldham
Completed the first year of new neighbourhood plans to help improve areas and tackle local issues
Built
Set up a Community Investment Fund for residents
23
affordable homes across Oldham
Developed a ‘Stepping into Work’ programme with work clubs in each of our neighbourhoods to help people back into employment
Rent collection rate above target at
99.19%
Secured
£10,000
106 tenants taken part in training courses
worth of free training to help set up Neighbourhood Resolution Panels
Completed Public Realm works, providing £3m of funding for estate based and community projects over the past five years. Also supported the creation of Gedling Country Park with £650,000 funding from the final year of the programme
Rent collection above target at 99.77%
Resolved 98% of reported anti-social behaviour issues
0 over 20 d e t e l p Com m bathroo , n e h c t ki ting and hea worth es upgrad
0 0 0 , 0 0 £5
Launched GREATer Together and GREATer Training to help increase tenant involvement and help people develop new skills
Launched Your GREAT Neighbourhood Promises in three pilot areas with another six due soon
Completed around £1.3m of external work to improve paths, fences and roofs
Awards • Gedling Eye won Excellence in Tenant-led Scrutiny at the 2014 TPAS Awards
Brought in
ÂŁ9.6 million
Turned 1,600 void properties back into new homes 100% record with 50% returned early
of external business Completed more than 53,000 repairs and 7,500 out of hours call outs
Started work on the first new build development for New Charter Homes at Holland Road in Hyde
Contributed to the reduced average cost of a repair - our lowest to date
99.82%
42
of repairs done right first time
Apprentices recruited since 2001
(highest achievement to date)
Gas certification 100% for 44 consecutive months
100%
Awards • Achieved Housing Quality Network accreditation for Responsive Repairs along with Asset Management and Gas Safety • RoSPA Gold (sixth year)
Launched Moving Forward, an Oldham-based Children in Need funded service working with young people affected by abuse
Set up Great Moves accommodation-based services in Oldham and Tameside, as well as the Great Lives activities and personalisation service in Tameside Leased 16 new homes in Oldham and Trafford spending
ÂŁ32,000 Empty Homes grant
Launched a new website and improved external communication through social media
Launched the Purple Door project in Trafford with the Albert Kennedy Trust to house four young LGBT homeless people in a refurbished former empty home
Started the Tameside women’s refuge as part of the New Charter-led Bridges project
Oldham Floating Support Service
saves
the local authority
Delivered over
18,000 hours
£3.50 for every £1.00 spent
of practical support to older and vulnerable people through Tameside Home Services
Awards • Won a Redemption and Justice award for Re-Unite, a project supporting mothers to get back together with their children on release from custody
Support services
Achieved a
98%
overall satisfaction rating Helped 127 people into supported accommodation
Temporary homeless accommodation schemes Gibson Terrace, Lyne View and Waterton Lane exceeded 95% targets for availability, occupancy and planned moves New customers to the service increased by 34% with a further 14% needing emergency help because they had nowhere to sleep
Homeless prevention work has reduced the number of people making a homeless application and receiving full housing duty The number of households placed in temporary accommodation has also reduced and was one of the lowest across Greater Manchester in August 2013
Prevented more than 1,000 households from becoming homeless
Prevented
591
people from becoming homeless (exceeding targets)
Housing advice and homeless assessment contract with Knowsley Council extended for another two years Despite welfare reform, reduced the number of homeless applications receiving a full homeless duty within the borough when compared to 2012/13
People moving into temporary accommodation at, or below, target levels for six consecutive months
Our People
96%
Tenant satisfaction at 90% New Charter Homes 78% Aksa Homes 87% Gedling Homes
people happy with us as an employer
Around
Delivered 4,334 training days for colleagues
90 housing apprenticeships created across the region through Foundations in Housing funded by the Government’s Employer Ownership of Skills pilot
New Charter’s talent management programme Ingenium continues into a third year
34
apprentices across the New Charter Group this year
Launched Shield of Support resilience training to equip employees with skills to help tenants deal with pressures of welfare reform
Awards • Investors in People Gold (2013) and retained the Health and Wellbeing award
Launched a mascot, Nora The Owl
• Number 7 in the 2014 Sunday Times Top 100 Best Not-ForProfit Companies to Work for list and three star Best Companies rating • Third in 24 Housing’s Top 50 Landlords survey (2013) • North West Contact Centre Award winner
Silver Springs Academy in Stalybridge (Tameside) rated ‘good’ with ‘outstanding’ features in its first Ofsted inspection Secured a £3m new build for Silver Springs Academy to open 2014/15. It will feature top-class facilities with improved IT, a specialist early years department and a new learning resource centre 100% of A-level students at New Charter Academy secured a place at university while GCSE pupils celebrated a record set of results with almost every subject achieving its best performance
97%
of Copley Academy pupils achieved A*-C grades in GCSEs with more than 70% gaining five A*-Cs
Launched healthy school breakfast club at Silver Springs Academy in partnership with Greggs Foundation
Continued to work with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester United Foundation to help raise aspirations of students, their families and the community
ew website Launched a n .uk tiontrust.org ca u d se ie m e ad www.greatac
Former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh performed an exclusive show for pupils and parents at New Charter Academy called Black Roses as part of the Royal Exchange project
Newspaper and radio station merged to create Quest Media Network and improve the community news offer across Tameside
Tameside Radio on air
24/7
102
365 days
Weeks a year dedicated to work placements
30
48 48 volunteers, 18 full time staff
People on a schools journalism programme run by the media network
Tameside Reporter and Glossop Chronicle have a circulation of 20,000 people
Tameside Radio has around
96,000 listeners and the online news website Inside Tameside has 840,000 monthly hits
Group Income and Expenditure Account for the year end 31 March 2014 £’000 Turnover............................................................................................................. 102,492 Maintenance, management and other income.................................................. (76,763) Operating surplus................................................................................................ 25,729 Surplus on sale of properties................................................................................... 720 Surplus on ordinary activities before interest, tax and exceptional items......... 26,449 Net interest payable............................................................................................ (20,111) Surplus before exceptional items.......................................................................... 6,338 Exceptional items....................................................................................................... 76 Surplus for the year before tax . ........................................................................... 6,414
Group Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2014 £’000 Value of investment in our housing stock......................................................... 516,365 Value of investment in our offices, IT etc............................................................ 14,772 . ......................................................................................................................... 531,137 Cash in hand and money we are owed, less bills not paid at the year end........ 53,317 584,454 £’000 Borrowing from loan facility.............................................................................. 354,095 Other long term creditors.................................................................................... 65,266 Accumulated reserves....................................................................................... 165,093 Total funding...................................................................................................... 584,454
RTB/RTA properties generating £720k (2012/13 £985k) During the year, capitalised major works were £12.609m (2012/13 £12.447m) Rent losses from voids were £1.282m (2012/13 £1.263m) Provisions for liabilities and charges £30.945m (2012/13 £43.663m) relating to the development agreement with Gedling Borough Council is included on the balance sheet. External income generated by the Building Company was £8.951m (2012/13 £8.688m) An exceptional item has occurred in the year due to the inclusion of Family Support Charity in the Group financial statements for the first time.
To view our full performance information, please click here.
Head Office: New Charter Group Cavendish 249 Cavendish Street Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 7AT 0161 331 2000 contact@newcharter.co.uk
@NewCharterGroup
www.newcharter.co.uk
GREAT Homes, GREAT Neighbourhoods, GREAT People