Welcome
Welcome to our combined Residents’ Voice and Annual Report for 2023/24. This report provides an overview of our achievements and performance between April 2023 and March 2024, including some key highlights for complaints, compliments, resident satisfaction, resident engagement, and work we have carried out in partnership with residents and other agencies across our communities.
We are proud to present some excellent achievements again this year. Thank you to the team at Castles & Coasts Housing Association (CCHA), along with residents who have engaged with us to provide valuable feedback. This feedback helps us to continually improve our services, and the communities we work within.
A special thank you also to our Residents’ Scrutiny Panel, who work extremely hard on behalf of all residents to carry out scrutiny exercises, helping to provide assurance back to the Board that our services meet the needs and aspirations of residents.
As you will read in this report, we are delighted that resident satisfaction with services remains above 90%. We strive to be a housing provider that delivers the best possible services to our residents.
During 2024, the Regulator of Social Housing published a revised set of Consumer Standards. These Standards set out the outcomes social housing providers must deliver and we are absolutely committed to delivering these. We are passionate about ensuring we truly understand what our residents need from us as a landlord, being accountable, and treating residents with fairness and respect. We are also dedicated to making sure our residents live in safe homes, that are within safe and thriving communities.
The Housing Ombudsman Service also published a revised Complaint Handling Code during 2024.
At CCHA, we see complaints as an opportunity to learn. When things go wrong, we will apologise, put things right quickly, and, most importantly, we will learn from complaints, to understand what we can do differently.
Our Board, Leadership Team, and all staff across CCHA feel really strongly about meeting the expectations within the Consumer Standards and the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, and we will work hard to make sure these are delivered for residents.
You will also read within this report that many residents have gone out of their way to tell us when something has gone well. During 2023/24 we received more than eight times the number of compliments compared to the number of complaints received, which is extremely reassuring. Thank you to those residents who took the time to share a compliment with us. These are an opportunity for us to understand what we are doing well, and can do more of for you.
Finally, we would like to say thank you to all of our residents for your continued support during the year. We hope you enjoy reading our Residents’ Voice and Annual Report.
Simon Roberson Chair of Board
Stephanie Murphy Chief Executive
Who we are Our
values
Our
purpose
“Providing affordable homes and sustainable communities with pride, passion, principles and partnership.”
Castles & Coasts Housing Association (CCHA) is a landlord and housing developer that really cares about our residents, colleagues and communities. We provide people with homes and support, owning and managing more than 7,200 properties in rural and urban communities across the North of England, with around 75% of these in Cumbria.
We’re committed to making sure we put our residents’ voice at the heart of everything we do, encouraging feedback about services, and using this to make improvements.
We employ over 290 dedicated colleagues, all committed to making a difference to our residents and communities.
We take ownership We are ambitious
We are respectful
We aim to fully understand and meet the diverse needs of all our residents, making sure there are no barriers to accessing our services. To do this, we need to know we have up to date information about all our residents, and your individual needs and preferences are important to us. That’s why this coming year we’ll contact all residents to check we hold the most up to date information about you, to find out how you prefer to be contacted by us, and if you have any specific communication or other needs we should be aware of, to help us deliver our services in the best way for you.
We launched our Five-year Corporate Strategy in 2022, setting out how we will deliver homes that are safe, warm and affordable while reducing our carbon footprint to do less damage to the planet. The strategy is grouped into five main aims focusing on customer, our homes and communities, our people, growth and environmental sustainability, and innovation.
In this combined Residents’ Voice and Annual Report we share key achievements split into relevant sections to reflect our Corporate Strategy.
2023-24
Key highlights
Here are some of our key statistics for the year.
£1,160,387 in additional benefits gained for 297 residents by our Financial Inclusion team
19,900 repairs completed (including building safety repairs)
168 new homes for affordable rent and shared ownership brought to our region
772
anti-social behaviour cases logged
588
new tenancies started in general needs and independent living
945 compliments received
115 complaints received
87,493 contacts with our Customer Services team
OUR AIM:
Key highlights
We aim to be a truly customer-driven housing provider, which puts our residents’ voices at the heart of everything we do.
Contacts with our Customer Services team
87,493 Resident satisfaction for customer services 94.2%
The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
We take all complaints extremely seriously, and are always keen to resolve any complaints to the satisfaction of our residents. This includes us apologising if we have got something wrong, making sure we put things right, and learning from complaints, to continually improve the services we deliver, and to help prevent things going wrong again.
The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent service that can help you if you are unable to resolve a complaint with your landlord directly, through the complaints procedure.
You can find out more about the Housing Ombudsman by visiting their website: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk or by calling 0300 111 3000. Compliments for the service provided by our team
29
Our Customer Services team is often the first point of contact for residents. We have invested in further training for our Customer Service Advisors this year so they can deal with more resident queries at the first point of contact, to help our residents more, and further improve customer satisfaction.
Following resident feedback, we have changed our out of hours service provider to make sure residents get a prompt and effective response to emergencies outside of normal working hours.
To help landlords manage complaints effectively and fairly, the Ombudsman has a Complaint Handling Code (CHC). The purpose of the CHC is to enable landlords to resolve complaints raised by residents quickly, and to use the data and learning from complaints to drive service improvements.
From 1st April 2024, the CHC became statutory, meaning that all landlords are obliged by law to follow the requirements of the Code.
We have followed the CHC since it was first introduced in 2020. Each time the Code has been updated, we have followed the new requirements and have carried out a self-assessment against the requirements every year.
You can find a copy of our latest self-assessment and our updated Complaints Policy here.
To support a positive complaint culture at all levels within CCHA, we have a dedicated Board Champion for Complaints, Erica Morriss, who routinely conducts spot checks on our complaint handling. Her findings are reported to the Board.
Complaints performance
We have an annual target for complaints. During 2023/24 (1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024), our target was for us to receive fewer than 2.1% of complaints, compared to the overall number of properties. This works out at around 155 complaints per year, or 13 complaints per month.
As you will see from the table below, we received 115 complaints during 2023/24. This is equivalent to 1.56% of CCHA properties, which is below our target of 2.1%.
2023/24 year end performance
For closed complaints during 2023/24, 96.4% were responded to within the target timeframe. 56% were upheld, 17% were partially upheld and 27% were not upheld.
Since our last Residents' Voice Report, between October 2023 and March 2024, 56 stage 1 complaints were received. The following two tables provide a breakdown of those complaints and the service area they related to.
We received nine more stage 1 complaints in 2023/24 than we did in the year before (115 instead of 106). In 2023/24 we received 1.4% of complaints compared to the number of CCHA properties, compared to 1.56% during 2023/24.
We’ve seen reductions in complaints in some areas. The largest reductions year on year were for customer services complaints (down from 7 to 1), anti-social behaviour related complaints (13 down to 8) and compliance works (down from 12 to 8).
The largest areas of increase in the number of complaints received this year relate to newly developed homes, which went up from 1 to 11, and those relating to tenancy management matters (lettings & neighbourhoods), which increased from 7 to 17.
Complaints compared to the number of transactions
The table below shows the proportion of complaints a department received against their ‘headline transaction’ measures for 2023/24. We have defined what these are in the table.
It is difficult to compare the proportion of complaints per department against their total transactions, as many departments have a significant number of other contacts with residents in the delivery of their services. We will continue to look at new ways we can show the number of complaints against the number of services delivered.
Contacts recorded as notes by the team
Primary cause of complaints and lessons learnt
We hold quarterly review meetings with service managers to scrutinise resident satisfaction results and complaints data to:
• Identify any trends
• Make sure that any learning from complaints is captured
• Make sure that if changes to the way we do something are needed, they happen, and we track that they happen, so we can improve services and help stop them happening again
We always take complaints seriously and investigate each one thoroughly. Each one is seen as an opportunity to identify where our services may have fallen below expectations and can be used to learn, so we can improve the services we deliver for you.
How we learn from complaints
The issue
A resident called our out of hours (OOH) service to report a repair needed to their front door. The OOH service sent out the wrong contractor for the job.
How we resolved it
Our investigation found that the OOH service had checked the wrong contractor rota. An emergency job was raised for a temporary repair, and a permanent repair was later made. Following this, we reviewed our OOH service and now work with a different provider. We apologised to the resident for the unacceptable delay in responding to an emergency repair request.
The issue
A resident reported that they were unhappy with the recent works carried out to their fire door. We asked our contractors to revisit the site to resolve the issues, but the resident remained dissatisfied with the standard of the works and asked to make a complaint.
How we resolved it
We contacted the resident to apologise, and then re-inspected the work. The inspection identified that there were some issues which needed rectifying. This work is now complete and we have assured the resident that the door meets the relevant safety standards.
The issue
A resident complained as they had reported ongoing damp and mould issues in their home and felt that they weren’t being resolved to their satisfaction.
How we resolved it
We carried out urgent damp and mould works over two days in the property to eradicate the issue. We apologised for the length of time this had taken and compensated the resident for the inconvenience.
The issue
A resident complained as they had multiple outstanding repairs that they felt had taken too long to complete.
How we resolved it
We apologised for the length of time taken to carry out these repairs, compensated the resident for the delays and worked with our contractors to arrange suitable appointments to get the repairs completed as soon as possible. These delays were discussed during meetings with our contractor, to ensure that lessons were learnt from the experience of the resident.
The issue
A resident made a complaint that they had reported a woodlice infestation and a perished fence in their garden to us, and felt that our response hadn’t addressed the issue.
How we resolved it
Our investigation found that there was a woodlice infestation. We arranged for a pest control contractor to attend and deal with the infestation and for the fence to be replaced. We also had the rear garden re-cultivated to make sure the infestation was fully removed.
Compliments
We’re really pleased to report that between October 2023 and March 2024, we received over eight times more compliments about the services we deliver, compared to the number of complaints. This brings our total number of compliments to 945 for the 2023/24 year, compared to 115 complaints.
“Everything has been amazing. From the staff who work for Castles & Coasts to the home itself. Couldn't wish for more.”
“Very happy with the work carried out. Left everything clean and tidy. The workmen were very nice.”
“The help and advice I received when I contacted Castles & Coasts was excellent. The man who carried out the repairs was polite, professional, very knowledgeable and carried out the repair to our complete satisfaction. We were very happy with the service.”
“Excellent and professional service from contractors and Castles & Coasts.”
“The plumber who came out to fix my toilet was very good, solving the problem really quickly. Very good at his job.”
“The person I spoke to was extremely helpful and sincere due to my circumstances. I felt at ease with her as she listened as well as advising me through my difficult time. I would say that she went above and beyond. I can't thank her and her team enough.”
“Always have good work done by the garden team. Very tidy and always helpful.”
Resident satisfaction
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has created a new system for understanding how residents feel about how their landlord is performing, called Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs). Since April 2023, every social landlord in England has asked residents a series of questions, on topics that cover such activities as handling of anti-social behaviour and how safe people feel in their homes.
We sent a survey to every resident around the anniversary of their tenancy start date, and have had a very encouraging response rate of about 24%.
We have collated the responses for 2023/24 and submitted these to the RSH. We will publish the results of the TSMs to residents and the Board, along with any benchmarking data the RSH makes available, when this is published.
Adam Gould, Head of Customer Service and Engagement at CCHA, said:
“To us, TSMs are another way to help us understand how satisfied our customers are with the service we provide and where we can improve.
“In addition to the TSMs, we will carry on conducting our usual satisfaction surveys, following residents receiving a service from us, to ensure we have as much feedback as possible about our services. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete any of our surveys; they really do help.”
Satisfaction service survey feedback
It’s important to monitor the feedback we receive on the services we deliver, as it helps inform how we can make improvements. The table below gives an overview of the resident service satisfaction feedback we received during 2023/24, and the period from October 2023 to April 2024, from our service satisfaction surveys. Note: these are not the same as TSMs.
The overall satisfaction with CCHA services is in line with our targets, with most service areas meeting or exceeding the targets we’ve set, for 2023/24, and for October 2023 to March 2024.
Satisfaction with our aids and adaptations service was below target, though only two of the 28 responses were dissatisfied during 2023/24.
Our planned works service was slightly under target for October 2023 to March 2024 but exceeded our target of 90% for the full 2023/24 year. Satisfaction with communal cleaning and grounds maintenance both marginally missed the year-end target.
As these service areas are below target, we’re quality monitoring them closely over the coming months, to identify where improvements can be made. Towards the end of 2023/24 we procured new communal cleaning contracts.
Resident satisfaction data is shared with our Residents’ Scrutiny Panel (RSP). If feedback for a service area is falling short of expectations, the RSP may choose to select this area as the topic for their next scrutiny exercise.
Based on previous results, the RSP recently undertook a review of our grounds maintenance services and their findings were reported to our Audit & Risk Committee in February 2024. There is now an action plan in place to make service improvements.
Other resident satisfaction surveys
Between October 2023 and March 2024, we asked residents for their views on other areas of our services, through Resident Feedback Groups. We've asked for feedback:
• About the service provided to residents when they contact CCHA. This feedback was used to continue to improve our customer service when residents contact the Customer Services team.
• On our Unreasonable Behaviour & Unreasonable Demands Policy. This feedback was used to update the policy.
• As part of the process of updating our Rechargeable Repairs Policy, which sets out the circumstances where residents would be recharged for repairs.
• On the Residents’ Charter and how well its commitments are being met, to help the RSP with their next review of the charter.
We also carried out two further surveys relating to emergency call systems:
• We recently replaced the emergency call system within one of our independent living schemes. After the works were completed, we asked all the residents for their views on how smoothly the works had been carried out and their satisfaction with the new system.
• We asked all residents who benefit from an emergency call system to give their views on the effectiveness of their current system, and any suggestions for improvements.
If you would like to be part of our Resident Feedback Groups, or would like to find out what’s involved, please get in touch with our Customer Experience team by emailing feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk or by using any of the other contact details on page 39 of this report.
Resident involvement
Residents’ Charter
Our Residents’ Charter, which was co-created using feedback from over 1,000 residents, outlines CCHA’s commitments to residents, along with how these commitments are measured. There are six key commitments within the charter:
• Communication
• Accountability
• Quality
• Relationships
• When things go wrong
• Voice and influence
Please click here to read the full Residents’ Charter.
Our RSP reviewed performance against the six commitments set out in the Residents’ Charter during the last business year and found that they were being met. This was a highly satisfactory outcome, arrived at following many hours of discussion, during which evidence provided to the RSP was reviewed in detail.
The next review took place during May 2024, and the findings will be reported to our Audit & Risk Committee and to our Board and residents within the next issue of the Residents’ Voice Report.
An update from our Residents’ Scrutiny Panel (RSP)
Following a recruitment exercise in March 2024, we now have 11 RSP members. As part of the recruitment process, we contacted CCHA residents to let them know about the vacancies. Four new members joined the group.
Our RSP members represent all CCHA residents and live in a range of different property types, and across many of CCHA’s communities, helping to ensure we have diverse views. The areas we operate in are shown on the map below:
Key Blue pin – areas with CCHA homes Green circle – RSP member
Scrutiny Exercise 10 - Grounds Maintenance
CCHA provides a grounds maintenance (GM) service for many residents. The aims of this scrutiny exercise were to examine the reasons behind lower resident satisfaction levels in some areas, find out how well the GM Standard was meeting the needs of residents, examine ways the GM service could be provided in a more ecologically effective way and recommend measures to further improve the service provided.
The panel found the service provided to residents to be adequate with several improvement recommendations. The panel also found that the information provided by CCHA to residents about grounds maintenance could be improved.
The recommendations included changes to the GM Standard, to include winter works, communication, site plans, the standard of works and actions to tackle the challenges posed by climate change.
Delivery of these recommendations will be tracked by our Audit & Risk Committee, who are a sub-committee of our Board, and progress will be reported back to the RSP.
Key strategies
To help us make sure we’re providing a high quality service that meets the needs of our residents, we have two key strategies in place:
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Strategy
Our ED&I work continues, to make sure we embed the strategy throughout CCHA. This is mainly delivered through the Strategy’s Delivery Plan. The actions in the plan are centred around supporting our residents, colleagues and communities as well as focusing on communication.
We have a number of ED&I Champions across the organisation who raise awareness of the nine protected characteristics with colleagues, and help us to assess the services we deliver to our residents.
We recently had an audit on our ED&I practices, which achieved the highest rating of ‘substantial reassurance.’
Click here to read our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
Customer Service and Engagement Strategy
It’s been just over two years since we launched our Customer Service and Engagement Strategy (CS&ES) and we’ve made so much progress!
The strategy is supported by a Delivery Plan. This is a living document and will be further strengthened with more actions to support the delivery of the aims within our CS&ES and to make sure our strategy and the actions we take are fully aligned to best practice, customer feedback, and the requirements set out by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), within the Consumer Standards.
In March 2024, the RSH published an updated set of Consumer Standards, and we are committed to making sure we fully deliver against these.
There are four strands within the Consumer Standards these are:
1. The Safety and Quality Standard
2. The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
3. The Neighbourhood and Community Standard
4. The Tenancy Standard
You can find out more about the Consumer Standards here: Regulatory standards for landlords - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
To read our current CS&ES, please click here
Our homes and communities
OUR AIM:
Independent living
We will offer our residents a safe, high quality home that is affordable, in a place that they are proud to live. We will invest our resources wisely to achieve this.
This year, the Independent Living team has focussed on letting empty properties and making further improvements to our processes so that residents are even safer in their homes. They have worked with colleagues to improve fire safety in our buildings and have been working hard to make sure we are ready for the digital switchover when it happens.
Key statistics for the year:
Homes allocated 99
Wellbeing calls to residents 55,250 Visits to complete personal emergency evacuation plans with residents 750
Homeownership
TheHomeOwnershipteamhavehadabusyyear, attendingnewbuildsignupsandcompleting pre-saleinterviews.Thisallowsourcustomers tomakeinformeddecisionsandhelpsustobuild trustfromtheverystartofthecustomerjourney.
We’reapproachingthefinalstagesofprocuringa newCarelineresponseserviceforourleaseholder homeswithtelecareservices,aspartofawider project Thiswillgiveleaseholdresidentsthe flexibilityofan‘opt-out’servicewhilestillcomplying withthetermsofthelease.Thiswillbegreatly welcomedbyourleaseholdersandprovidea potentialreductioninservicecharges.
Lettings and neighbourhoods
Key highlights
Tenancies
489 New tenancies
98%
Resident satisfaction for lettings process
£54,629
Funding to give a helping hand where needed
Anti-social behaviour (ASB)
772
New ASB cases logged 91%
ASB cases successfully resolved 85%
Resident satisfaction with ASB service
Safeguarding
340
Safeguarding cases logged 100%
Safeguarding cases acknowledged within agreed timeframe
The Lettings and Neighbourhoods team are committed to supporting residents. We welcomed hundreds of new residents with 489 tenancies starting this year, including 125 moving into new build homes. On average it took eight days to sign residents up from the day a home was ready to let, and only 9% of tenancies ended within the first year. We’ve also supported new and existing residents with our tenancy sustainment fund, helping with items like white goods or floor coverings for people who really need help.
Key areas of focus for the team were partnership working and being more visible on estates. We’ve again worked pro-actively with residents and partners to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) so that residents can live peacefully in their homes. We took part in Resolve’s ASB Awareness Week and arranged estate walkabouts across our region, and also joined awareness days arranged by local Focus Hubs, including Cumberland Council’s Operation Respect week.
A key part of helping residents stay in their homes is working closely with external agencies and putting the resident first. This case study shows what a difference extra support can make for someone.
Donna can now see a brighter future
When Donna* found herself struggling to look after herself and her home, our Tenancy Sustainment and Safeguarding Partners (TSSPs) were there to help.
Donna was struggling to pay household bills. In poor health, it had also become harder for her to keep her home and gardens free from clutter.
The TSSPs supported Donna a lot over the past few months.
They’ve helped Donna look at her finances so that she can plan better, supported her with a declutter and tidy up, and removed the excess rubbish from the gardens and surrounding areas.
“I can
now finally see the wood for the trees and see a brighter future. I’m so grateful for your support. It’s given me the motivation to want to look after the house.”
They have also secured funding from the hoarding hub to fund a deep clean of her home and arranged for the installation of a new bathroom.
The support didn’t stop there. Donna had previously been in an abusive relationship and a lot of her ex-partners belongings were hoarded in her home. He is not allowed to visit the home anymore, and Donna is getting help from the TSSPs to apply for the ID she needs to be able to change the tenancy into her name alone. Once that’s in place, the TSSPs will arrange for all those belongings to be taken away and kept in a storage facility for him to collect, which is much safer for Donna.
Donna said: “I can now finally see the wood for the trees and see a brighter future. I’m so grateful for your support. It’s given me the motivation to want to look after the house.”
* Name changed to protect our resident’s identity
Working with partners to improve communities
Cumberland Community Safety Partnership
CCHA took part in the official launch of the new Cumberland Community Safety Partnership (CSP), pledging to make communities safer.
The partnership aims to prevent and reduce crime and disorder by creating healthy and secure communities.
The CSP has set out a strategy to prevent crime, disorder, and reoffending, and tackle substance misuse, anti-social behaviour, and serious violence. The strategy has a focus on key areas such as violence against women and girls, hate crime, anti-social behaviour, sexual abuse and exploitation, reoffending, and domestic abuse.
It also looks at creating stronger communities, safer roads and improve residents’ health and wellbeing.
The CSP board comprises of six statutory partners and works with the voluntary and third sectors including social housing providers like CCHA, voluntary organisations, and community groups.
Please click here to read the CSP's Partnership Plan.
North East Housing Partnership
A group of North East based housing providers have joined forces to support the Mayoral Combined Authority to deliver the social housing the region needs.
David Brown, Head of Development at CCHA, attended the launch in Newcastle in November 2023. He said: “The launch event was very worthwhile. We’ve made an excellent start in improving the approach to housing in the North East through collaboration, which I hope will really drive progress.”
The North East Housing Partnership (NEHP) is made up of 17 North East social housing providers with a strong presence in the seven local authority areas covered by the new North East Mayoral Combined Authority.
Cuppas and cakes raised almost £850 for Macmillan
Coffee mornings held at two of CCHA’s independent living schemes in Whitehaven in October 2023 raised an incredible £846.75 for Macmillan.
One of the events was held at Dickinson Court and was organised jointly with CCHA’s Catherine Mill scheme. Residents from both sites attended, along with family and friends. As well as enjoying hot drinks and delicious cakes (pictured), the residents also organised pie and peas, bingo and a tombola, raising an impressive £679.25.
Commemorative tree planting ceremony
A special tree planting ceremony took place at Greta Gardens, our extra care scheme in Keswick, in October as part of a Freemason’s initiative to commemorate the Coronation of King Charles III.
Each Freemason lodge in the UK planted a tree to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and this was repeated in 2023 for King Charles III. The Derwentwater Lodge approached CCHA to ask if a Keswick ‘Coronation tree’ could be planted in the grounds at Greta Gardens.
The tree of choice for Greta Gardens was a cherry blossom, and Derwentwater Lodge was the first to undertake the tree planting for the new initiative.
Louise Blackburn-Graham, Independent Living Scheme Manager at Greta Gardens, said: “We’re hugely grateful to Derwentwater Lodge for donating this beautiful cherry blossom and commemorative plaque. It’s a really lovely way to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III and will be a lasting reminder of the occasion for residents and colleagues for years to come. We can’t wait to see it grow and bloom.”
Repairs and maintenance
As well as our commitment to building new homes, we also aim to make sure we invest time and resources into our existing properties by making sure they are well maintained, safe and benefit from ongoing improvement programmes. Customer feedback is very important to us and 90.8% of customers told us that they were happy with the repair service they received, while 96.5% of residents were satisfied with their new home.
Key repairs statistics for the year:
Repairs completed 19,900
2,638 of these were emergency repairs
Repairs completed within target time 91% Resident satisfaction with our repairs service 90.8%
Castles & Coasts Services (CCS) had another successful growth phase last year and some services that were previously contracted out to other suppliers were successfully brought in-house, giving us more flexibility and better value for money.
There are now 90 colleagues in the team, which is responsible for delivering repairs to 91% of our properties in Cumbria.
Key CCS highlights:
14,774 repairs to occupied homes
3,103 grounds maintenance visits
3,528 communal cleaning visits
Investment in your homes Compliance
The planned investment programme for the year included ongoing works to maintain homes and make sure we complied with the government’s Decent Homes Standard.
We also used stock condition information, alongside Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data, to prioritise works that we knew would improve the thermal performance of homes such as our window replacement programme.
Component replacements completed during 2023/24
The compliance team have been able to maintain high standards of safety checks and replacement programmes, including the replacement of 250 fire door sets and repairs to around 600 fire doors, to make sure residents and visitors continue to be safe in their homes and communal areas.
We’re delighted that the gas servicing programme stayed above 99.9% completion throughout the year. The team also carried on implementing the change to the electrical safety inspection regime to a five year rolling programme, which should be complete during 2024-25, as the team continues working with CCS.
Key highlights:
Growth and environmental sustainability
OUR AIM:
We are committed to developing new, high quality and affordable homes across the North of England and Borderlands area and will actively work towards a net zero future.
Energy efficiency and net zero carbon
We remain committed to helping our residents keep the cost of their energy use as low as possible by improving the energy efficiency of our homes.
Positive progress was made towards our goal of getting all properties to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2028, ahead of the Government Deadline of 2030. Within our planned investment programme, we focussed a lot on replacing thermal elements in homes such as windows, doors and roofing to help them keep in the heat. We have a major window replacement programme planned for the 2024/25 financial year which will benefit over 500 homes.
Key highlights
254 properties had their EPC ratings improved to Band C or above within the year
73% of our homes were Band C or above by the year end
New homes
168
New affordable homes brought to our region
2023/24 has been an exceptionally busy period for the Development team, delivering 168 new affordable homes in areas across Cumbria and the North East with high housing need.
Working with development partners, new homes were delivered in Carlisle, Longtown, Workington, Stainburn, Broughton Moor, Kendal, Cockermouth, Blyth, Cramlington and Wallsend with more homes on some of these developments planned for next year and on new sites in Wigton, Whitehaven, Aspatria and North Tyneside.
Most of our new homes were for either social or affordable rent. Working with developers to add solar PV panels and smart batteries to homes to drive down energy costs for residents, all have met or exceeded the energy efficiency targets set by the CCHA Board.
We are also delighted to have supported 18 households into homeownership options.
We achieved planning approval for another mixed tenure scheme in the Lake District National Park, of 25 new homes in the village of Staveley. We continue to work closely with communities and partners to progress new developments and submitted planning applications for developments in Durham, Northumberland and Carlisle.
Work started on site for our mixed tenure development in Gosforth, in the Lake District National Park, and we look forward to completing the 20 new homes in late 2024.
We are excited to have new shared ownership homes that will shortly be available to buy in Stainburn, Gosforth in Cumbria, Blyth and Cramlington.
Work started on site in Gosforth
New homes in Longshore Village, Byth
Innovation –how we add value and support residents
OUR AIM:
We will be commercial, innovative and ambitious, continually looking at ways we can improve our services, ensuring everything we do comes back to our social purpose.
Our Community Fund
Our Community Fund provides much-needed funding to local organisations and groups, to create opportunities for projects across our communities that support the following objectives:
• Sense of community – bringing communities together.
• Training and employability – supporting residents to gain or develop skills.
• Health and wellbeing – improving the health and wellbeing of residents.
• Improving communities – reducing anti-social behaviour.
• Increasing financial and digital inclusion for residents.
In the past year, our funding has helped support more local organisations across Cumbria. A selection of worthy causes are highlighted on these pages. Details of how to apply for the fund can be found on our website by clicking here
The Vulture Club, a registered charity operating in Whitehaven, received £1,000 towards their Health and Wellbeing Coordinator.
Established in 2012, the charity has been instrumental in supporting individuals in the area facing various challenges, including mental ill-health, addiction, trauma, and social isolation. With a team of two part-time staff and seven trustees, the Vulture Club operates from the Health and Wellbeing Centre on Church Street and Michael Street, and offers a diverse range of activities five days a week.
Wigton Sea Scouts received a £1,000 contribution towards equipment and materials for activities. With a dedicated team of ten trustees and 808 volunteers, Wigton Sea Scouts is committed to the development of young people.
In line with this, they are launching a new division, Squirrels, for children aged 4-6. By investing in this developmental stage, Wigton Sea Scouts will enrich the lives of young people in Wigton and lay the groundwork for future self-sustainability.
Harrington Youth Club received £1,000 towards the refurbishment of its building. The club is committed to providing art and leisure activities to young people in the Allerdale area and engaging with the community regardless of age.
The building serves as a vital hub for local community groups, including children and young people’s dance groups, over 55’s groups, learning disabilities groups, and mental health support initiatives. The refurbishment project aims to enhance the facilities, ensuring they can continue to provide a safe and welcoming environment for social events and youth club activities.
Maryport Rescue
We provided funding to train volunteers in the use of defibrillators – a vital service in the community provided by the inshore rescue team.
Kendal Torchlight Procession
The torchlight procession is a much-loved community event that has been running in Kendal since 1970. Our funding helped to ensure the event could take place in 2023.
Speech and Language UK
The Early Talk Boost project supports children aged three to four in Cumbria who have been identified as having delayed language development. Our funding meant the charity could deliver a one-day training session for local practitioners to gain skills and knowledge to identify children who need the service, measure their progress and deliver the intervention.
ParkPlay
ParkPlay delivers safe, welcoming and inclusive play sessions every Saturday morning. Our funding supported the employment of a play leader at Lightburn Park, Ulverston.
Safe Families
Funding for a Family Support Manager (FSM) will help towards Safe Families providing a dedicated FSM for each family in need. The FSM gets to know the family, their challenges and works with them to establish goals. They then match each family with the right volunteers based on the family’s needs.
Financial inclusion
Our Financial Inclusion service continues to be very busy. The service supports a high number of residents who may have found themselves struggling with their finances.
Below is an example of the difference a helping hand can make to residents.
297
residents were supported by the Financial Inclusion service this year with a total gain of £1,160,387 in benefits.
Backdated pension payout for happy resident
Susan* is a single person and was coming up to pension age. She claimed her State Pension but had a query about an NHS Pension. A letter from the provider came with an application form, but she didn’t understand how to complete it or fully understand the two options she was given. She completed the application form with the help of our Financial Inclusion team. This was sent off, but nothing was heard back.
A month after her birthday, a colleague from our Financial Inclusion Team suggested Susan went to her bank to see if any monies had been paid. After she checked, she messaged back in a panic about her bank balance. She had expected a lump sum of under £20,000 but her balance had increased by more than double that amount.
A colleague supported Susan while she called the Pension Helpline. They confirmed that she had been eligible to claim the pension since her 60th birthday so had been paid the money that she was due from this date. They also confirmed the monthly payment that she was entitled to receive each month.
Susan said: “I am very grateful for the help. Without it, I would not have been able to cope with the paperwork and phone calls needed, due issues with anxiety.”
* Name changed to protect our resident’s identity
Supporting communities
Volunteering
CCHA’s Charity and Volunteering Committee (CVC) have been busy over the last few months.
Following the success of the CVC’s first volunteering day at Susan’s Farm, our relationship with the farm continues to thrive. CCHA colleagues returned to the farm, eager to contribute their volunteer time and effort once more.
Susan’s Farm, a working Care Farm and registered charity, remains dedicated to providing invaluable opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop new skills and gain practical work experience. Through purposeful outdoor activities, the farm endeavours to transform lives and empower people to reach their full potential.
Farm Manager Helen expressed her gratitude for the support, emphasising the significant impact of the collective effort in achieving meaningful work outcomes.
Supporting local food banks
This year, CCHA colleagues continued to support local food banks. Thanks to the efforts of our CVC, a charity raffle raised £297 benefiting The Trussell Trust (Newcastle), Carlisle Foodbank, and North Lakes Foodbank (Cockermouth).
Colleagues also donated food and toiletries, and hope that together, these contributions will help those most in need within our communities.
Christmas cheer
At the Northside Community Centre in Workington, CCHA colleagues came together to spread holiday joy. With CCS colleague Garry stepping into the role of Santa Claus, local children received gifts, creating memorable moments of happiness. The presence of our ASB Officers and partner organisations, including Cumbria Police, further reinforced our commitment to building stronger relationships and community cohesion.
Residents of Laybourn House, one of our independent living schemes for over 55s, experienced a heartwarming afternoon of carol singing, courtesy of pupils from St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School. As residents and children sang together, they shared joy and laughter.
Life-saving defibrillators being installed across the region
CCHA is in the process of installing ten life-saving defibrillators at our Independent Living schemes and one at a CCHA office, after securing some funding from defibrillator charity, London Hearts in November 2023.
The units, which will be accessible to the public, will all be registered with the ‘circuit’, the national defibrillator network that lets 999 call handlers direct people to the nearest registered defibrillator.
The schemes that are benefitting from the defibrillators are in Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland, Carlisle, Cockermouth, Maryport and Workington. The sites have been carefully chosen after CCHA carried out research and found that there were no other defibrillators within a three-minute walk of the schemes identified.
Value for money –how we use your rent
We aim to make sure every pound we spend delivers the maximum benefit to our residents and the communities we serve.
We use our income, from your rent and other sources, in a prudent and effective way to make sure we get the best value for money that we can for the services we deliver.
How we spent your rent in 2023/24
Investment in residents’ homes:
The money we spent in residents’ homes on repairs and improvements.
Improvement projects:
The money we spent on making large scale improvements to residents’ homes, such as new roofs, kitchens or bathrooms.
Cost of providing services:
The money we spent delivering services in residents’ homes and communities.
Interest on loans:
We borrow money to invest in residents’ homes and to build new ones. We use some rental income to pay back interest on borrowing.
Total:
*You’ll notice the total is over 100%. That’s because, as well as all your rent being spent on the categories above, we also used other income such as house sales to help fund our planned improvement projects throughout the year.
38% 22% 35% 9% 104*
How you can get in touch with us
We aim to make it as easy as possible for residents to access our services, in a way that meets individual needs and preferences, and have lots of ways for you to keep in touch.
Visit us at our offices at 5 Paternoster Row, Carlisle or Stoneleigh, Park End Road, Workington on a Tuesday or Thursday between 10am and 2pm.
0800 085 1171
cs@castlesandcoasts.co.uk
View your account, pay your rent or log a repair anytime via our Residents’ Portal, which can be accessed here
Visit the ‘Contact us’ page on our website at castlesandcoasts.co.uk/contact
On our ‘Contact us’ page, you’ll find lots of ways to get in touch:
Webchat
The ‘Chat now!’ button (pictured above) connects the resident with a member of the Customer Service team to help with any queries.
Callback service
Request a callback
If you click the ‘Request a callback’ button (pictured above), you’ll be asked for your name and the number you’d like us to call you back on, free of charge. Then, as soon as a Customer Services Adviser is available, they’ll give you a call back.
Reachdeck website accessibility tool
The Reachdeck website accessibility tool is on every page of the website. Clicking on it gives you the options of adding a ‘screen mask’ in different colours, having the page read out loud, translated, displayed in larger text or simplified.