INTRODUCTION FROM MARTIN HURST
The last year has been a momentous one for Shepherds Bush Housing Association. After nearly 60 years as an independent housing association the board recommended, and the resident shareholders voted, to partner with The Guinness Partnership.
It wasn’t a decision taken lightly, but the cost of replacing cladding from our tower blocks, coupled with some challenges across recent developments, meant that this was the best way we could improve our service to tenants.
We have already seen a number of benefits: we can now invest more in our homes, the banks who lend to us have offered us better deals, for the first time since I became chair all our homes are expected to meet the ‘decent homes standard’, and we have £350k to invest in new community activities and partnerships over the next three years.
Most importantly, we have improved our handling of complaints and our call waiting times. So if we make a mistake we can put it right more quickly, and if you need to speak to us that too is easier. We’ve also successfully bid for £2.5 million of match funding from the government’s social housing decarbonisation fund, to help make many of our street properties more energy efficient and reduce the cost of keeping these homes warm.
Finally, we have not been distracted from what is most important to us and our residents, providing safe and decent quality homes. In particular, we have strengthened our focus on addressing damp and mould.
But please don’t think we don’t continue to value our history, and our commitment to west London. When we had our event to celebrate the history of Shepherds Bush Housing Association I stressed that we must retain our community focus, and our personal contact with residents. We were founded by a church to meet a desperate need for housing in west London. That need is every bit as strong today.
Martin Hurst Chair
OUR CUSTOMERS AND HOMES
We provide homes for a wide range of people, all of whom want a secure, decent and affordable home that enables them to make the best of their lives. Our customers include those moving into their first home, young families with children, and older people.
Just under half of our homes are in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham where SBHA was founded back in 1966. We also operate in eight other local authority areas across west London.
10,095 Customers (residents and household members) 21%
BUILDING A STRONGER FUTURE TOGETHER
In December 2023, we entered into a new partnership with The Guinness Partnership Ltd (TGPL).
Throughout the summer of 2023 residents provided feedback on the partnership and the Boards of both SBHA and TGPL carefully considered this feedback.
BETTER FOR RESIDENTS
Involving and empowering residents
▶ Residents will have access to new methods of having their say on how services can be improved.
▶ There is a place for SBHA residents on the Guinness Customer Committee
▶ Residents will be able to apply for grants under Guinness’s Aspire scheme – helping pay for education courses, training and equipment and support start-up businesses.
Following this, our former shareholders, most of whom are residents, approved the partnership at the end of October. The partnership has already started to deliver benefits and will continue to make us stronger and enable us to do more for our customers and the local communities we serve across west London.
BETTER FOR COLLEAGUES
BETTER FOR PARTNERS
Improved colleague offer Building on our shared relationships
▶ A more secure future and exciting career development opportunities.
▶ Access to in-house housing management training as recognised by the CIH and managers will have access to accredited Leadership and Management Training.
▶ Access to a suite of new wellbeing offers provided by Guinness for colleagues.
▶ Guinness benefits from SBHA’s knowledge and local relationships in west London. The Guinness Partnership’s scale and social value expertise can help SBHA do more for these relationships. SBHA can act as a strategic bridge for Guinness and in doing so facilitate partnerships that create stronger development opportunities.
▶ Combining our strengths at a national and local level will create a powerful partnership in west London.
When the partnership was announced, our Resident Voice (RV) Scrutiny Panel said: “The RV has welcomed the opportunities over the year to continue to review services and support SBHA on their journey to deliver high quality customer focused services for all. The RV recognised the challenges faced by the business to meet expectations of customers with reducing financial resources and increasing demands for home improvements, and actively participated in partnership discussions with the SBHA Board and Executive to deliver a positive partnership with Guinness. We look forward to ensuring that change brings new opportunities but not losing our local connection to our customers and the community of west London.”
There have been no immediate changes for our residents as SBHA remains their landlord and continues to provide them services.
We have already started to see some of the benefits. In early 2024, SBHA began the process of developing a Community Investment offer that will provide £350k of funds to be invested in areas that most benefit our residents and the communities in which we operate. We look forward to launching the offer later in 2024. The fund has been made available by Guinness as part of the partnership.
By providing greater financial stability, the partnership has also enabled SBHA to speed up its investment in residents homes to ensure they meet the standards expected. We expect to see major improvements to the quality of our lowest performing homes in the coming years.
HOW ARE WE PERFORMING
We think it’s important for our residents to see how we are performing. We regularly scrutinise our services and get feedback on where we can improve. This year we have begun to collect Tenant Satisfaction Measures (“TSMs”) which are a new regulatory requirement. These measures provide tenants with greater transparency about their landlord.
Below are the results of our TSMs from March 2024. Whilst these results are not as high as we would like them to be, they provide us with a baseline to build from and they highlight the areas where we know we need to improve. We began to address this feedback in 2023 and have clear plans to respond further in 2024 and beyond.
Keeping properties in good repair
Satisfied with overall repairs service
Satisfied with the time taken to complete repairs Percentage of non-emergency repairs completed within target timescales
Maintaining building safety
your home is safe
safety checks carried out
Satisfied the home we provide is well maintained
Respectful and helpful engagement
Satisfied we listen to your views and act on them
Satisfied we keep you informed about things that matter to you
Agreement we treat customers fairly & with respect
Effective handling of complaints
Satisfied with our approach to handling complaints
Number of complaints per 1,000 homes – Stage 1
Number of complaints per 1,000 homes – Stage 2
Complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code timescales – Stage 1
Complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code timescales – Stage 2
Responsible neighbourhood management
Satisfied we keep
Number of ASB cases that involve hate incidents per 1,000 homes
Looking after your home: Over the last year we have completed 20,808 repairs, roughly 4 jobs per home. 85% of our repairs were completed first time and the average time to complete non-emergency repairs was 16 days against a target of 20 days for the year. Responsive customer service: It took us just over 3 minutes on average to talk to our residents when they called us last year, compared to 5 minutes in 2022/23.
Resolving complaints: During the year we saw a reduction in the number of complaints being raised, with Stage 1 complaints 38% lower than 2022/23 and just over 30% less cases being escalated to Stage 2 of our complaint process. We received 388 new complaints in 2023/24. The average time to respond to a complaint was 10 days.
Supporting our residents: We have supported 275 residents to access additional benefits and welfare support to the value of £971k. This is a significant increase from £505k in 2022/23.
Keeping your neighbourhoods clean and safe: We received 43 reports of high-level anti-social behaviour and took legal action across 4 serious cases. We completed 619 estate inspections and invested over £80k in estate improvements like new
block signage, CCTV cameras, line marking car parks, new bin sheds, new bicycle racks, jet washing paved areas and installing new flooring in communal areas of some of our blocks.
Building Safety: Resident safety is our priority. We do all we can to make sure you are safe and feel safe in your home.
During 2023/24 there were several buildings over 11m (the height of multi-occupancy buildings that fall under the Building Safety Act) which had cladding remediation works completed. This has meant that leaseholders in these buildings now have an EWS1 in place which means their external walls have been subject to a fire-risk appraisal and have been deemed safe. This provides assurance that these buildings are safe for our residents and, for leaseholders, will also allow them to sell their properties.
Properties that have gained an EWS1 include the Townmead estate (incorporating Cairns, Dwyer, Ismalia, Spackman and Downs House); Kelway House; Celtic House; and Issigonis House. The teams are now working on Central West, Windmill Court and Morris House and will be moving on to Art Wood Apartments, Bedfont Lane, William Gattie House and Holland Gardens later in 2024.
Learning from complaints: We use complaints as an opportunity to learn and to improve our services. We are focused on creating a positive complaint handling culture.
We have four key improvement themes aligned to the top reasons for complaints:
1 Time taken to resolve complex issues
2 Inconsistent communication and time taken to update residents
3 Lack of understanding individual resident needs and vulnerabilities
4 Poor management of contractors causing delays in work and quality of record keeping
Theme
1. Time taken to resolve complex issues. For example, flooded properties, Issigonis House defects.
2. Inconsistent communication and time taken to update residents
3. Lack of understanding individual resident needs and vulnerabilities
Improvements delivered in 2023
• New resolution action reporting in place
• Escalation model introduced with fortnightly case panel chaired by Director of Operations & Customer Service
• Improved resourcing across key services areas: Complex Repairs, Damp & Mould and Tenancy Enforcement
• Customer Support Specialist role introduced to improve case management and complaint prevention
• Improve decant policy, procedure and communication to ensure residents are updated throughout process
• New Damp & Mould and Disrepair framework includes risk rating that considers residents individual needs
• Resident Portal updated to make it easier for residents to update their personal information
Actions to deliver in 2024
• Embed case management model across Asset Investment and Major Works services
• Establish a new resident liaison team within our responsive repairs and planned works team
• Deliver “Positive Conversations with Residents” training to all frontline colleagues to improve tone of voice, resolution focus and prevent escalations
• End to end review of Vulnerability Policy and introduction of a new model
• Review repairs policy and service to ensure vulnerabilities are prioritised appropriately
• Improve overall data and insight on the ED&I of our residents
4. Poor management of contractors causing delays in work and quality of record keeping
• Reduced reliance on external contractors delivering repairs and increased capacity within in-house repairs team
• New contractors sourced across key services: Disrepair and complex repairs, Damp & Mould, and investment delivery
• Further improve contract management and supplier relationship management
• Involve key suppliers in voice of customer sessions
YOU SAID, WE DID
We think it’s really important to listen to our residents. Below you will see some feedback from our customers and what we are doing in response to it.
Satisfied Customers
66% said they are treated fairly and with respect
• Focusing on ensuring “Positive Conversations with Residents” through training front-line colleagues and improving our written and verbal communications
• Acknowledging that our residents can become frustrated by our actions and inactions, so continuing to act with courtesy and respect and asking them to do the same
• Understanding individual resident needs and vulnerabilities and providing additional support to ensure equal access to services
What we are doing well
Satisfied Customers
60% are satisfied with being kept informed about things that matter to them
Satisfied Customers
75% believe we are easy to contact and deal with
Satisfied Customers
55% believe our customer service has improved or remained the same over the last 12 months
• Providing more care, support, empathy and answers at the first point of contact so that residents aren’t passed from colleague to colleague to get an enquiry resolved
• Reviewing complaints where ‘poor communication’ has been the root cause to understand what happened and what can be done to prevent this happening again
• Continuing to use resolutions cases and a ‘single point of contact’ to ensure that regular updates are provided and issues are fully resolved
• Improving call handling capability and training
Satisfied Customers
20% state we could do more to improve the quality of the ground maintenance and cleaning
• Improving response times
• Improving first contact resolution
• Implementing complaint triage and prevention
• Providing more channels for our customers to contact us through, such as live chat on our website
• Rolling out an estates service improvement plan
• Procurement of new cleaning contracts (e.g. windows)
• Engaging with residents to build neighbourhood specific action plans
Dissatisfied Customers
31% said that they have made a complaint in the last 12 months; of these, only 18% are satisfied
Dissatisfied Customers
33% said they are not kept informed when they raise an issue with us
Where we need to improve
Dissatisfied Customers
25% said they are not happy with the quality of their home
Dissatisfied Customers
10% with the quality of their repair and the repeat patch repairs carried out in their home
• Ensuring that we make every effort to speak to the resident at the start of Stage 1 and Stage 2 to get a better understanding of the issues
• Asking for feedback about the way the complaint was handled as soon as possible after it is fully resolved so that we can learn and improve
• Providing guidelines to colleagues to help them resolve any level of dissatisfaction at the earliest opportunity
• Launching Service Level Agreements for customer cases to drive performance
• Daily repairs courtesy calls to keep you up to date
• Further digital improvement plan, allowing customers to report and see the status of repairs 24/7 online
• Mobilising our window and roofs programme
• Delivery of Decent Home Standard failure programme
• Our operatives now work in patches so you’ll have more continuity through the repairs process
• Reviewing repairs more regularly to make sure they are up to standard and lessons are learned from any failings
HOW WE SPEND OUR INCOME
The income we receive is used to pay for the management and maintenance of our homes and estates, investing in existing homes and developing new homes for the future. For every £1 of income we receive, we spend:
Surplus available for future reinvestment
Interest on previous borrowings to build homes and invest in homes
HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED
There are a number of ways you could get involved with the Resident Voice Panel. You could be reviewing policies, joining estate walkabouts or even interviewing prospective SBHA colleagues.
Any SBHA resident can apply, and we are particularly interested to hear from our shared owners.
Joining could be a pathway to future Board or committee roles and professional development courses are provided.
For more information visit www.sbhg.co.uk/resident-voice
You can also get involved by joining our Customer Committee.
We are looking for two enthusiastic and passionate SBHA tenants to join our Customer Committee to influence how services are delivered. The Committee supports the Guinness and SBHA Boards by monitoring and providing assurance on a wide range of resident matters. This includes monitoring service performance and compliance with laws and regulations as well as ensuring that resident views are fed into Board decisions.
The position is paid and comes with training and induction. If you are interested in applying, you can find out more at: www.sbhg.co.uk/customer-committee
