Rooftop Housing Group Business Plan 2021 - 2022

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Our Mission is to build Great Homes and support Successful Lives by being a Better Business. It is why we exist and guides everything that we do.

Our Corporate Plan and Strategic Objectives We have set six Strategic Objectives to achieve by March 2026. The detail of this is in our Corporate Plan 2021-2026.

Our Annual Business Plan and Annual Objectives This plan contains our Annual Objectives for 2021-2022 and a summary of what we will deliver in this first year of our Corporate Plan 2021-2026.

Our Values Our values are how we work, for our customers and each other.

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Contents ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Our Mission Introduction Responding to a changing working environment Customer consultation Great Homes Successful Lives Better Business Annual Objectives in 2021-2022 Key Performance Indicators in 2021-2022 Value for money New homes Risk management

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Introduction We remain in the midst of a global pandemic some 12 months on from the first lockdown in the United Kingdom. The impact on our customers and the communities where we work has already been significant, and we will face several on-going challenges in the year ahead. While our plans reflect our long-term ambitions in areas such as the delivery of new homes and investment in existing properties to tackle Climate Change and address fuel poverty, our immediate focus is on supporting local social and economic recovery. In doing this, our strong partnerships with the key local authorities, charities and other agencies in South Worcestershire and North Gloucestershire will be more important than ever. We stand ready to do whatever is needed, and whatever we can to help.

Who we are Rooftop is one of the country’s leading place-based Housing Associations. We manage 6,600 homes, mainly in South Worcestershire and North Gloucestershire.

We provide a range of accommodation and support services for older people, younger people leaving care, those with dementia, people who are homeless, and survivors of domestic abuse.

Rooftop is also a specialist in providing culturally appropriate homes for the Gypsy and Traveller community at three sites, in partnership with Solihull and Bromsgrove Councils.

Where we work The majority of our homes are in market towns and rural villages, with the exception of Gloucester City where we have 639 homes. The rural communities which we predominantly serve are generally characterised by an older population, although that demographic is slowly changing over time. Issues such as loneliness and social isolation are a particular challenge for rural areas that has been exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic.

Increasing financial hardship is evident, alongside growing demand and unmet need in social care. There is significant demand for social housing in our core operating areas, with local people increasingly priced out of the market, or facing challenges in affording good quality housing in the private rented sector.

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Responding to a changing operating environment

As a dynamic, modern social business we are embracing the challenge of responding to the changing expectations of customers, stakeholders, Government, and the Regulator of Social Housing. These are comprehensively set out in the 2020 Social Housing White Paper and in the new National Housing Federation Code of Governance which we formally adopted in March 2021. This will require us to strengthen and improve our approach in six key areas which will be a significant focus for the year ahead:

1. Customer service and complaints handling – this year we launched our new complaint policy that is fully aligned to the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code and we will continue our work to deliver against our Customer Strategy commitments.

2. Stakeholder engagement – we will work in partnership with our stakeholders in the co-design, development and scrutiny of our services through effective engagement and consultation.

3. Investing in homes and addressing Climate Change – we will implement a new Asset Management Strategy.

4. Safety and Compliance – we will continue to strengthen our approach in this area aligned to new requirements of the Fire Safety Act and Building Safety Bill.

5. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion – we are committed to EDI and we will adopt a new strategy reporting regularly on our progress.

6. Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) standards – Rooftop, as an early adopter, will report annually on progress.

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Customer Consultation

We have set 17 annual outcomes for the next financial year - do you agree that these are the types of areas we should focus on?

In forming this plan, we received feedback from more than 40 stakeholders and 30 customers on our draft plans.

Strongly disagree Disagree 3% 4%

We asked both our customers and our stakeholders whether they agreed that our 17 Annual Outcomes for 2021-2022 are the type of areas we should be focussing on. 73% answered that they either agreed or strongly agreed that these are the areas that we should focus on.

Neither agree nor disagree 20%

Strongly agree 37%

While the feedback did not identify any significant gaps, we have ensured that key themes from the consultation, such as sustainability, are reflected within the plan in Annual Agree Objectives relating to delivering 36% energy efficiency works and achieving Band C energy performance in all homes by 2030. We also added an additional target around tackling the pandemic repairs backlog. To reflect customer feedback, we have also placed more emphasis on current homes and services within our plans.

To gain more qualitative reaction and to take stock of the way that we are perceived by customers and stakeholders, we asked both groups to give 3 words that summed up their experience of Rooftop, and that described Rooftop. These words were then put into a word cloud. The more times a word is used the larger it appears in the image.

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Successful Lives Our biggest measure of success remains to be an effective landlord. This means ensuring that our customers are kept safe, live in good quality homes, and are satisfied with the services which they receive from us. Our new housing management system and tenant app is now offering customers much-improved online services to support our key target of achieving 90% satisfaction with landlord services.

There are two key strategies that set an ambitious pathway in the year ahead. Our new Community Investment Strategy sets out a vision for the kind of future we would like to see for our communities, and lays important foundations recognising our role in strengthening community resilience from which we will build stronger communities. In addition to this our new Supported Housing Strategy outlines our pathway to provide quality, safe and secure homes with person centred services and supports to help people live independent lives.

This year we will continue to support hundreds of customers into training and jobs, as well as providing money advice and health and well-being activities. Our domestic abuse service saw an increase in referrals and will continue to be an important part of our work this year.

Great Homes Our new Asset Management Strategy defines how we will invest in existing homes, some £7million this year, as well as a further £2.5million in upgrading up to 170 low-energy performance properties through Government-supported schemes. We will also develop the Rooftop Living Homes Standard, confirming our long-term customer commitments to provide housing which meets energy performance and quality criteria. All new homes we build already meet this specification, and we will replicate as much of this as we can for existing properties over the coming years.

Our new Development Strategy to deliver up to 1000 homes by 2026 is based on working in partnership with local authority stakeholders and meeting identified and growing housing need. We will deliver homes for social rent across our operating areas, and homes for those who aspire to own their own home using the now well-established Shared Ownership product. An independent annual review of our housing market area sets out what and where we will develop new homes for local people. In partnership with Homes England and key stakeholders we will deliver 133 new homes this year.

Better Business During the first year of the pandemic, colleagues across Rooftop responded fantastically to the changing and challenging environment at work and at home, and we will build on our strong One Team ethos by continuing to invest in and engage our people. We will also continue to develop as a digital by design and data-led business by implementing new Finance and Human Resources IT systems.

The anniversary of the first lockdown provided an opportunity to reflect on the changes to the way we work and what we learned in responding to the pandemic; we will have undertaken a COVID annual review to help us continue to improve, evolve, and grow as a business.

Our Customer Strategy is how we will work with our customers to achieve development from customer focussed services, to embracing customer centricity and meet our target of 90% customer satisfaction.

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Annual Objectives in 2021-2022

Great Homes

Strategic Objectives

Successful Lives

Start

End

Tackle the pandemic repairs backlog and implement an optimisation plan for the Cost Sharing Vehicle

Apr

Dec

Rooftop Living Deliver £2.5million of energy efficiency Home works to 170 homes Standard Define the Rooftop Living Homes standard for existing homes and a fully costed plan to achieve energy Band C 1,000 New Homes

Excellent Customer Service

Digital by Design

Strategy ➢ Development ➢ Sales and Marketing

Apr

Dec ➢ Environmental Sustainability

Apr

Jan

Deliver 133 homes and start 255 homes

Apr

Mar

Maintain a rolling land bank of 170 plots

Apr

Mar

Deliver sales income of £5.6million

Apr

Mar

Deliver 90% overall customer satisfaction

Apr

Mar

Develop and implement new Customer Service Standard and Tone of Voice

Apr

Feb

Deliver revised local offers that support investment in communities

Apr

Mar

Apr

Mar

Implement a new HR and payroll system

Apr

Jan

Deliver Leadership and Professional Development program

Jul

Mar

Enhance and develop the Project Management Framework

May

Dec

Deliver the Housing Management System (QL) development plan to enhance customer service

Apr

Mar

Implement Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) reporting to enhance data maturity

Apr

Mar

Implement a new Finance system

Apr

Mar

Building Stronger Communities Achieve £300k of Social Return on Investment

Leadership and Learning Excellence

Better Business

Annual Objectives

➢ Asset Management ➢ Health & Safety ➢ Supported Housing ➢ Customer ➢ Community Investment ➢ Income Collection & Maximisation ➢ Supported Housing ➢ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion ➢ People ➢ Communications ➢ Treasury ➢ Tax ➢ Value for Money

Implement a new Telephony system

➢ ICT Apr

Mar

➢ Data

➢

Procurement

- project or multiple for QL

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Key Performance Indicators Our Key Performance Indicators are set out in the table below. These include the measures that we routinely report to the regulator, the metrics that form part of our measurement of Value for Money (VFM) and other indicators that are important to our customers, stakeholders or Rooftop as a social business.

Regulatory Metrics

Key Performance Indicators

2019-20 2020-21 Actual Target

2021-22 Target

Metric 1 - Reinvestment Percentage

5.20%

11.10%

3.6%

10.5%

Metric 2a - New supply delivered (social housing units)

2.70%

2.30%

0.7%

3.5%

Metric 2b - New supply delivered (non-social housing units)

0.00%

0.10%

0.0%

0.0%

58%

61%

56%

62%

153%

154%

173%

132%

£3,284

£3,391

£3,291

£3,561

Metric 6a - Operating Margin

32.00%

31.90%

31.7%

29.8%

Metric 6b - Social Housing operating margin

40.10%

40.30%

37.3%

36.2%

Metric 7 - Return on capital employed (ROCE)

4.30%

3.60%

3.8%

3.55%

Customer Satisfaction with Services Provided

89.2%

90%

84.7%

90%

Customer Satisfaction with Repairs

90.6%

90%

85.4%

90%*

£0.04

£0.04

£0.04

£0.05

0.66

0.6

0.8

0.5

12.80%

12.20%

11.1%

11.0%

90

180

190

180

83.2%

85%

90.9%

85%*

17.6

14

16.1

14*

Rent Arrears as a % of Rent Debit

4.0%

3.5%

4.5%

4.0%

Void Loss as a % of Rent Debit

2.5%

1.7%

3.3%

2.0%

Average Days to Re-let

19.8

12

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No of plots secured in the rolling land bank

143

170

196

170

4.3%

4.5%

2.6%

4.5%

15.5%

13%

14%

13%

Metric 3 - Gearing Metric 4 - EBITDA MRI Interest Metric 5 - Headline social housing cost per unit

£s invested for every £ generated from operations in communities Ratio of responsive repairs to planned maintenance spend Overheads as a % of adjusted turnover

Other Key Metrics

2020-21 Actual

Average Time to complete a SO Sale % Routine Repairs right first time Average no of calendar days to complete a responsive repair

% Colleague Sickness Absence % Colleague Turnover * Subject to agreement with Platform Property Care

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Value for money Rooftop’s accounts include an annual self-assessment of how we are achieving Value for Money in delivering our annual and long-term Corporate Plan objectives and complying with the regulatory Value for Money standard. Our assessment is based on the ‘Sector Scorecard’ metrics, which include key performance indicators covering customer satisfaction, financial security, and our effectiveness as a business. This year our focus will be on identifying efficiencies and savings from our new IT system, as well as driving better value and achieving savings targets through our new Procurement Manager.

We capture Social Return on Investment and will be reporting on the value of the social outcomes delivered as part of our Environmental Sustainability and Governance (ESG) reporting in the autumn.

New homes Despite the impact of the pandemic, Rooftop is committed to continuing to deliver as many new homes as it can. In refreshing our five-year Corporate Plan, we have once again set a target of an average of 200 homes a year. The table below sets out our pipeline to 2026.

Development Programme 2021-2026 (indicative from 2023/24 onwards) 21-22

22-23

23-24

24-25

25-26

Total

Social Rents

20

103

55

55

49

282

Affordable Rents

79

98

45

45

50

317

Shared Ownership

34

79

95

95

98

401

133

280

195

195

197

1,000

Total

In addition to our mainstream development programme, we will work with Local Authority Partners to deliver specialist support to the Gypsy and Traveller Community.

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Risk Management We have a comprehensive and well-established risk management system, which allows risks to be identified for all parts of the business. We have adopted the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Three Lines of Defence Model in our framework. This ensures that risks are assessed, prioritised, and control measures are implemented by first line of defence managers, supported by second line specialist teams, overseen by Heads of Service and the Executive Team.

At the third line of defence, we have maintained an independent Internal Audit function working with the Audit and Risk Committee. The Board has overall responsibility for risk management and has set out clear risk appetite statements and metrics, including Golden Rules covering covenants with our lenders. The risk process is dynamic with strategic risks and controls assurance being reviewed quarterly.

A Group Board Risk Workshop is held annually to ensure strategic risks are aligned to our objectives and overall Mission. This year we have identified two crosscutting risk themes: ‘Customer Voice’ and ‘Reputation’ to further develop the way the Board monitors the effectiveness of risk management.

The following selection of key business risks for 2021/22 have been agreed with the Board: Title

Description

Mitigation

Safety of Customers / Colleagues

Our number one objective is to maintain a high level of safety for our customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders. Particularly important during a global pandemic.

Rooftop Health and Safety Strategy. Continuous improvement of controls and assurance framework, including a new Health and Safety compliance team.

Board approved COVID-19 response strategy, special protocols, and precautions in place.

Repairs service (including Cost Sharing Vehicle)

Reducing customer satisfaction with repairs. Partnership with PPC no longer able to deliver an appropriate repairs service for Rooftop customers and/or there is a decision not to provide the service long-term.

Reviewing dashboard and data reporting from PPC as part of new contract management framework.

Strengthening the repairs team including complaint resolution.

Comprehensive review of the CSV with PPC and refreshing our Plan B contingency for repairs.

Income loss due to COVID-19 and Universal Credit

The effects of the national COVID19 lockdowns lead to reduced or delayed income and job losses.

Welfare Reform and Work Act challenge through the implementation of Universal Credit.

An Income Collection and Maximisation Strategy. Dedicated income / tenancy sustainment team, including money advisors

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Liquidity – insufficient cash

Rooftop does not have available sufficient financial resources to enable it to meet its obligations as they fall due.

Treasury Management Policy – Rooftop maintains a cash balance of £5 million, or three-months cash outflow, whichever is greater.

Data Integrity / ICT systems

Effective ICT systems are essential to ensure efficient data processing, security, and service delivery.

Digital and ICT Strategy, Secure ICT environment, GDPR and cyber security training, QL support, system review, optimisation via subject matter experts.

Ensuring that all properties are well maintained in terms of capital Maintaining stock condition and investment and planned sustainable asset investment / maintenance to ensure every decarbonisation.

Rooftop home is fit for habitation, environmentally sustainable and affordable.

Data led approach to asset investment based on quality stock condition data.

Asset Management Strategy and Investment Programme for component replacement.

Alignment of Rooftop Living Homes Standard to existing stock and planning for decarbonisation and achieving EPC Band C standard by 2030.

Housing market sales exposure

Rooftop’s development programme includes shared ownership sales. It is recognised that there is therefore exposure to the variable nature of the housing market.

Rooftop has in place a risk appetite set by the Board to limit maximum exposure, a marketing strategy to ensure sales are achieved as planned and early warning indicators to assess changes in the market.

Failure to meet Homes England targets

Ensuring that Rooftop complies with commitments made under New Ways of Working, Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme and the conversion of voluntary right to buy receipts.

Scrutiny by Matrix Board.

Programme management meetings. Proactive communication with Homes England.

Regulatory downgrade of Governance

A robust governance and risk Rooftop fails to retain its G1 rating framework is in place agreed by which has the potential to impact the Board. Proactive engagement on funding and development. with the Regulator, maintenance of our G1 grading.

Projects

A significant proportion of Rooftop’s plan is to be delivered via special projects with associated delivery, cost, and scope risks.

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Key projects will only commence following the approval of an investment report. Key deliverables and milestones will be tracked in line with the Group Performance, Projects, and Strategy Policy.

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Risk management We have a comprehensive and well-established risk management system, which allows risks to be identified for all parts of the business. Risks are assessed, prioritised and control measures are implemented. The risk process is dynamic with risks being reviewed quarterly.

We have identified the following key business risks that could impact the achievement of business objectives.

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