Investing in our community How are we doing? Our report for 2015
Doing what matters most to customers Investing in homes and our community Making us stronger for the future
Welcome to your annual report
Every year we are required by our Regulator to provide information to you about how Ardenglen is performing against the Scottish Social Housing Charter. The Charter sets the standards and outcomes that all social landlords, including Ardenglen, should aim to achieve. This report gives us all a chance to see how Ardenglen is performing, celebrate some our achievements and highlight any areas where we could do better. We also hope this report will help you consider “how we are doing” by comparing Ardenglen against the performance of other social landlords. As a tenant myself, I recognise that times remain hard and I am pleased that Ardenglen has been able to maintain its investment in our houses, services and in the local community. We have focussed on trying to make our homes as energy efficient as possible through upgrading heating, insulation and fitting new windows. These are the areas you highlighted as priorities in our various tenant surveys and I hope you will agree we are delivering on what you asked for. We have also tried to give you some information on where your rent money is spent so you can consider if Ardenglen is giving you “value for money”.
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You can find all our detailed financial and other performance information on the Ardenglen web site: www.ardenglen.co.uk If you would like to compare Ardenglen’s performance against any other social landlord there is loads of information available at our Regulators web site; www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk Thank you for your ongoing support and I hope you enjoy reading the report.
Isa Brier Chairperson October 2015
What do the tables mean? Satisfaction with overall service
Result 2015: 96% Change from 2012: 90%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 88%
How we compare to others To help us compare how we are doing, we share information about our performance with other landlords in Scotland. Where information is available, we compare our performance with the Scottish average.
What do the colours mean? ĂŠ
We have improved since last year
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We have stayed the same as last year or do not have comparative data
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We have got worse since last year
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The Customer/ Landlord relationship
No. of equalities complaints: 0 No. of all other complaints: 132 No. of complaints upheld: 83 % complaints dealt with on time
Result 2015: 91.6%
Our Values We believe We believe in providing a caring, honest environment for customers and colleagues that promotes equality and diversity, tackles discrimination and values openness and accountability. We will treat others the way we wish to be treated ourselves.
We value We value and actively seek the views and opinions of colleagues and customers. Through active inclusion we will ensure best value and long term sustainability for our business, our communities and our environment.
We deliver We deliver on our promises. We take pride in getting things right first time, every time and providing value for money. We encourage innovation and pursue excellence in all that we do. Continuous improvement is part of everyone’s job and customer satisfaction is everyone’s responsibility.
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Change from 2014: 96.8%
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Governance and viability
Ardenglen’s success is built on a partnership of staff, committee and residents working together to build a strong, local, community controlled Housing Association, whose mission is to invest in your home and your community and deliver what matters most to our customers. We operate with an elected Management Committee whose role is to set and monitor the strategic direction of Ardenglen. Our staff then carries out the day to day work to meet those goals and objectives. Our Committee members all receive an annual appraisal to enable them to identify training and development needs and must sign our Code of Conduct, which sets out the standards expected of each member. A key role of the Committee is to ensure Ardenglen is run in a proper business like fashion and to make us stronger for the future. Times remain hard, but by effective control of our operating costs, Ardenglen’s finances remain strong and we are able to continue to provide high quality homes and services. This means we often have difficult choices to make about how and where we should prioritise our spending. This is why we regularly ask you about how we are doing and seek your views on what will have the best impact on improving the lives of you and our community. We will always try and focus on doing what matters most to you.
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Tenant Satisfaction Satisfaction with overall service
Result 2015: 96% Change from 2012: 90%
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How we compare to others : Tenant satisfaction is of the utmost importance to Ardenglen and as such we are constantly seeking your views of our services in all areas across the business. For example you will be asked to rate our maintenance service every time a repair is completed or you may be asked to comment on our estate services such as landscaping or close cleaning.
Scottish average 88%
Satisfaction about being kept informed
Result 2015: 98% Change from 2012: 95%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 89%
Every 3 years we appoint an independent consultant to survey 40% of our tenants to establish your views and assess priorities. This information is invaluable to us and provides us with the basis of a 3 year action plan against which we regularly report completion progress in our newsletter. Our next survey is due in 2016. We also receive feedback from you through focus groups linked to a particular area or project. We are currently working through some improvement plans with a number of residents at Ballantay Terrace. We never lose sight of the fact that you live in the area, therefore you have best knowledge of the issues and potential solutions to problems.
Did you know? Our office is open over lunchtime and all our staff have direct dial numbers and answering machines to make it easier for you to reach the person you need 6
Satisfaction with opportunities to participate
Result 2015: 93% No data from 2012
How we compare to others : Scottish average 80%
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Homes and Rents
We understand the rent levels we charge for our properties are a key concern for you, particularly during these times of competing demands on finances. Every year, our rent increase is calculated to cover our rising costs and ensure our business remains viable and strong for future years to come. This year has seen the introduction of universal credit to Castlemilk. In these cases, we no longer automatically receive rent payments directly to us. Rent allowance is paid to the individual who in turn is responsible for making the payment to their landlord. If you have entitlement to universal credit, please speak to a Housing Officer. We have also begun to see the effects of new Legislation in respect of reduced entitlement to Housing Benefit for EU Nationals. We still operate free welfare benefit advice every Wednesday and Thursday by appointment. How do our rents compare? Average weekly rents Size No. Ardenglen Scottish Ave.
(apt)
1 2 3 4 5
40 147 515 211 45
£41.10 £63.32 £69.66 £77.84 £88.40
£64.03 £68.55 £69.61 £75.70 £84.04
+/-35.8% -7.6% +0.1% +2.8% +5.2%
Did you know? Direct debit is the most popular rent payment method. 7
Value for Money
How every £1 is spent
Value for Money (VFM) isn’t just about cutting costs. Instead it means spending well and wisely and being efficient and effective in delivering our goals and objectives.
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Most of our money comes from the rent you pay and as “wise spenders” we have a clear strategy of making sure this is spent to get the most benefit to you and the community we serve We have asked you what your priorities are. You can see that the vast majority of our resources are spent in providing effective, customer focussed services and in the maintenance and repair of our houses. We want you to be fully involved in this process, which is why we continue to seek your views on what matters most to you. We also want to be as open as possible, so you can easily see where resources are being spent. VFM is also about constantly looking for new services, funding or partnership opportunities that will help existing or future customers. To ensure VFM we compare our costs with other landlords. This is called benchmarking. You can find how we perform on our web site. Our people are also vital to delivering VFM. We invest in the learning and development of our staff, committee and volunteers, without who we cannot deliver your priorities. We are independently checked for this by Investors in People who have given us a Silver Award.
Did You Know? You can find all our financial and performance information at www.ardenglen.co.uk 8
25p
Salaries
15p
Reactive Repairs
14p
Planned maintenance
27p
Surplus for the year
9p
Management & maint admin
6p
Interest paid on loans
2p
Regeneration
1p
Overheads
1p
Bad Debt
Value for money
Value for money for us is about delivering maximum value to you whilst minimising costs. This means we aim to provide an effective and high quality service which meets your needs and expectations as efficiently as possible and in the most cost effective way. We aim to achieve value for money in a number of ways. An example would be the in way in which we select contractors for our planned maintenance contracts. All work is publicly advertised and a full combined assessment of price and quality is carried out before any appointment takes place.
Rent collected as a % of total rent due
Result 2015: 98.9% Change from 2014: 99.9%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 99.5%
Rent lost as a % of rent due as a result of houses being empty
Result 2014: 0.2% No data from 2014
We operate our business in a financially transparent manner, with all of our financial information being available on our website for inspection. In addition, we are working hard to devise other ways to share this information with you. Whilst we do all we can to be efficient with your rent money, we need to ensure that we are meeting your expectations and you rate our service standards. We will therefore request your feedback on how well you think we are performing.
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 1.1%
Number of days taken to relet empty houses
Result 2015: 8.2 days Change from 2014: 8.6 days
How we compare to others : Scottish average 36.8 days
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Did you know? Our free money advice service is available by appointment every Wednesday and Thursday 9
Quality and maintenance of homes We fully appreciate that for the majority of our tenants, repairs and maintenance is our most important function. This year we have improved in the areas of faster emergency response, % repairs completed right first time and % of repair appointments kept. Our survey data also found that 87% of new tenants were happy with the repair condition of their new homes and 90% of residents were happy with the reactive service. 2014/15 has been a busy year for our planned maintenance programme. It marked the start of our window and balcony door installation programme to 286 properties. We also replaced front controlled entry doors, electrical systems and handsets to 25 tenemental blocks. Major repairs spend in the year totalled £509,759. In order to maintain our estate to the highest quality, we also invested considerable sums within our cyclical maintenance programme consisting of annual gas maintenance, cyclical painter work, landscaping and close cleaning. Spend in this area reached £302,441.
Average time to complete emergency repairs
Result 2015: 2.6 hrs Change from 2014: 3.2 hrs
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 5.9 hrs
Average time to complete non emergency repairs
Result 2015: 3.1 days Change from 2014: 3 days
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 7.9 days
% of repairs completed ‘right first time’
Result 2015: 96.5% Change from 2014: 95.6%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 90.2%
% of repair appointments kept
Result 2015: 99.6% Change from 2014: 99.3%
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How we compare to others : Scottish average 92.4%
% satisfied with maintenance service
Did you know? We completed an average of 4.3 repairs per property in the year 10
Result 2015: 95% Change from 2011: 81%
How we compare to others : Scottish average 89.3%
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Regeneration
Our regeneration activities are focused on improving the health, safety, life chances and vibrancy of our community. These include delivering a wide range of different programmes and we are pleased that you have told us these are having a positive impact on the lives of the many local people who are participating Many of our programmes are delivered from the Maureen Cope Community Hall, which continues to go from strength to strength. It has become a popular venue for social events and family celebrations. The operation of services and social events from the Hall would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our amazing Social Committee volunteers and we can’t thank them enough for all that they do for our community. We are continuing in our efforts to raise the funding to convert the former St Martins Church into a world class Mountain Bike and Activity Centre. We are involved in this project because we believe it will generate real benefits for our local community. It is a community driven project with many local residents involved in the process. They are giving their time to try and deliver an amazing social enterprise development which will create jobs and attract people to the Cathkin Braes. If you would like more information or would like to be involved please contact our Regeneration Manager Lesley Macphee on 634 8016.
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Neighbourhood and community
% of anti social behaviour cases resolved within target
Result 2015: 92.6% Change from 2014: 94.1%
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How we compare to others : You have told us that one of your key priorities is ensuring we deal quickly and effectively with reports of anti social behaviour. To facilitate this we consulted over increasing our target response times to reach a resolution to each case. This allows us the opportunity to carry out thorough investigations and also monitor cases for a longer period without closing them off. This approach was widely supported and is already showing signs of being effective. This year we processed 18.3 cases of anti social behaviour for every 100 homes that we own. This is a decrease on the previous year where 21.3 were recorded. We have also worked hard to ensure that you receive the best estate services possible. Satisfaction levels over close cleaning and landscaping are increasing. We will continue to let you know when a member of staff is carrying out estate inspections in your area to allow you the opportunity to meet and discuss any individual concerns you may have. As always we are keen to acknowledge that keeping the neighbourhood in tip top condition is something we can only do with the support of our partners with whom we have close relationships. In particular Glasgow City Council and Police Scotland who are on hand to offer assistance and advice when needed.
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Scottish average 83.2%
Satisfaction with Ardenglen’s management of the neighbourhood
Result 2015: 94.6% No data from 2012
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Access to Housing and support
Once again our allocations section has had a busy year reletting 70 homes to housing applicants from our waiting list, internal transfer list and homeless nominations from the local authority. It is important to us that those seeking housing are given the most relevant, individual and accurate advice in order to make the most informed choices about where they live. Allocation staff are available by appointment to give you advice on your circumstances. As a landlord, one of our key priorities is assisting our tenants to remain within their homes. To this end, we are disappointed to note the reduction in the number of people managing to sustain their tenancy for more than one year. Going forward, we will be looking at different ways to improve on this statistic and better understand the needs of our customers. Every year we set aside dedicated budgets to carry out requests for medical adaptations. In many cases, these requests are sent to us by the local Occupational Therapist. Carrying out such works enables people to remain in their homes beside family and neighbours they are comfortable with. % of tenancies sustained for more than 1 year
Result 2015: 90.36% Change from 2014: 95.45%
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% of medical adaptations requests completed in year
Result 2015: 97.22% Change from 2014: 93.5%
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Did you know? You can self refer for small adaptations such as handrails and lever taps? 13
How did we do?
Working together
Your Neighbourhood
2015 - We will have better feedback on complaints and improvements. (Scheduled to begin in next newsletter)
2015 - We will continue to minimise the negative effects of anti social behaviour within our community. (Achieved in part)
2016 target – We will aim to reduce the % of upheld complaints
Your home 2015 – We will expand our repair by appointment to work around busy schedules. (Completed) 2015 - We will begin window replacements in properties previously owned by Glasgow Housing Association. (Achieved) 2015 - We will increase our property inspection visits (Achieved) 2016 target – We will offer increased opportunities for you have an input in our planned maintenance programme
Your tenancy 2015 - We will continue to take a firm approach to any missed rent payments whilst helping those who need budgeting and money advice. (ongoing) 2015 - We will continue to let our houses in such a way as to achieve a sustainable community. (Achieved in part) 2016 target – We will investigate and implement a robust tenancy sustainment plan
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2015 - We will monitor our estate services to ensure we meet your expectations. (Achieved and ongoing) 2016 target – We will aim to reduce the volume of anti social complaints
Value for money 2015 - We will ensure that more staff resources are available on the front line to meet the needs of our customers (Achieved) 2016 target – We will expand our procurement programme to ensure the best price & quality of services
New Homes 2015 - We will take forward our plans to build new houses on the former St Martin’s School football pitch at Cathkin Braes. (Ongoing and carried forward to 2016)
Regeneration 2015 - We will continue to deliver regeneration projects which positively improve the quality of life of our community.(Achieved and ongoing to 2016)
Want to have your say? If you would like more information about getting involved as an Ardenglen tenant please contact the office or visit www.ardenglen.co.uk
Tell us what you think You told us that you like written communication that is clearly written, easy to follow and provides information that is important to you.
Did we get it right? Whilst we have attempted to take your requirements on board, we rely on you to tell us if we got it right. You can feedback your views on this report, good or bad to any member of staff or via our website.
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Get in touch to find out more www.ardenglen.co.uk email: info@ardenglen.org.uk Telephone : 0141 634 8016 Office: 355 Tormusk Road Castlemilk Glasgow G45 0HF
Registered as a Scottish Charity: SC032542