Blackwood ARC Report Card 2024/25
As a registered social landlord (RSL), Blackwood has a responsibility to report housing charter data to the Scottish Housing Regulator every year. This data submission is called the annual return on the charter (ARC). All RSLs are required to submit this information every year. The ARC information helps the regulator understand our performance as a housing association, and how well we are doing against other housing associations across Scotland.
The ARC has 6 sections covering housing performance areas:
Overall Satisfaction
Customer/Landlord Relationship
Housing Quality & Maintenance
Neighbourhood & Community
Access to Housing & Support
How we monitor our performance:
Good Value from Rents & Service Charges
• Monthly reports presented and discussed by Blackwood Senior Management Team
• Quarterly performance reports presented to Blackwood Performance and Risk Committee
• Quarterly data submitted to Scotland’s Housing Network (SHN) to allow us to benchmark against our peers
• Annual ARC data submitted to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR)
To view the full ARC report submission, please visit the Scottish Housing Regulator website at www.housingregulator.gov.scot
What We Own and Manage
Blackwood Homes and Care was founded in 1972 by Dr Margaret Blackwood MBE, a pioneering campaigner for the rights and independence of disabled people. Her vision was centred on enabling independent living through better financial support and housing that truly met people’s needs.
More than fifty years later, we remain committed to that same vision. Today, Blackwood helps people live life to the full by providing high-quality accessible housing, personalised care, and tailored support for people with a wide range of needs.
What sets Blackwood apart is our unique combination of both housing and care. Not all of our customers receive both services, but the expertise we have developed in each area strengthens the quality, flexibility, and innovation of the support we provide.
We are also recognised for our forward-thinking approach to independent living. In housing, we have invested in the design of beautiful, accessible homes that combine modern construction with inclusive technology. In care, we provide a 24/7 digital support service and CleverCogs™, our award-winning personalised platform that helps people stay connected, manage their care, and live more independently, whether in their own home or in a Blackwood development.
Independence is not about being alone. It is about having choice, control and support when you need it.
Margaret Blackwood
Finances
We spend money on our properties to help improve the lives and living conditions of tenants in Blackwood.
Reactive Repairs & Maintenance
Planned & Cyclical Maintenance
Overall Satisfaction
Cost of Adaptations
It is important for us to hear from tenants about their overall satisfaction using and accessing Blackwood’s services. We do this through our three yearly survey of all tenants.
2023/24
2024/25
We have received a higher response rate this year but have seen a drop in overall tenant satisfaction from 2023/24 to 2024/25. Reasons for dissatisfaction included tenants being concerned about the standard of repairs, communication about repairs works, the quality of grounds maintenance in estates, and anti-social behaviour which are all consistent with the survey results in this report. To offer an improved customer experience, we have integrated our Customer Service Team as part of our overall housing services team to deliver a streamlined customer response, and the intended outcome is that this will improve the tenant’s satisfaction with our services.
Tenant and Landlord Relationship
We want to continue to have strong and positive relationships with tenants, based on communication, responsiveness and service quality.
Tenants who feel Blackwood is good at keeping them informed
Tenants satisfied with the opportunities to participate with Blackwood 2023/24 2024/25
2023/24
2024/25
In 2024/25, 65.51% of tenants felt Blackwood was good at keeping them infor meda decrease from 83.06% in 2023/24. This result falls below both the peer group average (84.08%) and the national average across Scottish RSLs (91.94%). Tenant satisfaction with opportunities to participate in Blackwood’s activities also declined, from 91.94% in 2023/24 to 70.09% in 2024/25. These results indicate areas for improvement in tenant engagement and communication. We remain committed to listening, learning, and taking action to enhance the tenant experience in the year ahead. Our Business Plan 2025-2028 outlined specific strategic actions which focus on improving customer satisfaction and increase customer participation and empowerment.
Access to Our Homes
We measure how effectively we let our homes, how rent and arrears are collected, and how quickly we re-let empty properties, to ensure people are getting the right homes, at the right time.
Rent increase
2023/24
2024/25 Peer Group Scottish RSL Average
In 2024/25, Blackwood applied a rent increase of 6%, down from 7% the previous year. While this is a reduction, it remains above the average increase applied by our peer group (5.19%) and the wider Scottish RSL sector (4.40%). These figures demonstrate our efforts to balance affordability with the need to maintain high- quality housing and services, as Blackwood is a specialist RSL with many properties adaptable for people with complex health and support needs. We continue to monitor market conditions and tenant feedback to ensure our rent and service charges remain fair, transparent, and sustainable.
% of rent due collected across the reporting year
2023/24
Rent collection has increased this year compared to last. This is in part due to the introduction of a new Income Team who have a focused approach to rent and debt collection.
% of gross rent arrears due at the end of the reporting year
2023/24
There is an increase in total gross rent arrears compared to last year’s figure, and our peers. We recognise to improve our rent collection; we need to support our tenants better and closely manage our arrears. This will be our focus in the coming year.
We recognise this increase and are working to support tenants and improve rent collection and management of arrears, including a new housing department
2023/24
2024/25
Across the year we will re-let some of our properties due to changing of tenants and other circumstances. The average time to re-let our properties has reduced compared to last year. This improvement is due to an internal restructure within our housing services team and better working with contractors to tur n properties around quicker. We are still waiting longer to re-let properties compared to our peer group. We hold regular meetings between housing and property teams and contractors to ensure void times keep reducing.
Your Neighbourhood & Community
It is important for us to deliver our housing and property services in a way that helps develop and support safe, welcoming community where tenants live. We want to understand and learn how tenants experience their surroundings and how responsive we are to concerns that affect community wellbeing.
Satisfaction with contribution to your neighbourhood
We asked tenants "‘Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your landlord’s contribution to the management of the neighbourhood you live in?’" The following percentage of tenants reported being satisfied:
We have seen a drop in tenant satisfaction for contribution to neighbourhood, from 88.23% in 2023/24 to 64.15% in 2024/25. The main reasons for dissatisfaction include repairs and communication from our staff teams. In the coming year our Housing and Property Services Team will respond quicker and more effectively to all tenant queries.
Anti-social behaviour
We have a responsibility to manage and resolve incidences of anti-social behaviour when they occur. The following percentage of anti-social cases were resolved within the reporting year.
There has been a decrease in cases being closed off on time. Factors impacting this were changes to how cases were logged on our new recording system, and training issues to ensure that all staff were closing cases within the timeframe. Reasons for cases being unresolved included the perpetrator being deceased, the complainant did not wish for action taken or third parties were involved e.g., the police.
Scottish Housing Quality Standards
Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) ensures social homes are safe, warm, and in good repair. It covers energy efficiency, modern facilities, and structural safety.
At the end of 2024/25, our self-contained housing stock met the standard. Properties meeting SHQS is lower this year against last year but is higher than our peer group average. Failing stock this year is attributable to a marginal failure of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH), or for a lack of access to carry out an electrical safety check (EICR). We will prioritise gaining access for overdue EICR electrical inspections over the forthcoming year, along with reviewing the EESSH failing properties with a view to upgrading them.
Repairs
This section outlines how effectively we responded to repair requests. The information below reflects how quickly and reliably we resolved issues that affected tenant comfort, safety and quality of life.
Average hours to complete emergency repairs
Average time to complete non-emergency repairs (days)
2023/24 2024/25 Peer Group Scottish RSL Average
% of repairs completed right first time
2023/24 2024/25 Peer Group Scottish RSL Average
Blackwood improved emergency repair response times to 3.5 hours in 2024/25, quicker than both our peer group and the national average. Non-emergency repairs took slightly longer than last year but remained quicker than sector benchmarks. First-time fix rates rose to 90.35% this year, showing strong progress in repair quality and reliability. Right First Time repairs increased from 84.97% in 2023/24 to 90.35% in 2024/25, demonstrating strong progress in improving repair quality.
If you would be interested in being part of our Tenant Group (Team Blackwood), please get in touch with our Customer Service Team by email cst@blackwoodgroup.org.uk or telephone 0131 317 7227. We would be delighted to hear from you.
We are committed to providing tenants and customers with accessible versions of this and other reports. If you would like a large font version, braille or alternative language, please get in touch with our Customer Service Team by email cst@blackwoodgroup.org.uk or telephone 0131 317 7227 to request this.
160 Dundee Street | Edinburgh | EH11 1DQ