Welcome to Crawley Homes Annual Report 2023 to 2024
As Cabinet member for Housing, I found this year to be exciting, interesting and challenging. Our continued decarbonisation work is exciting as we work to lower our carbon emissions to help tackle climate change.
I am proud of our work with Crawley College on the Green Village which will train the workforce of the future and provide employment for the town.
Successfully getting funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and the Towns Fund has allowed us to insulate many of our homes, making them warmer and more energy efficient for our residents.
Providing new homes is vital and its disappointing that the planning restrictions in place have meant we have put on hold most of our development projects. We appreciate the risks to water supply in the area and continue to look for ways to save water in our homes so that we can build more.
As well as building new homes we look for opportunities to buy suitable properties and this enabled us to purchase Raj Sharma House in Southgate whist it was being built and the bonus for me was to find EV (electrical vehicle) charging points in the car park.
We also increased our temporary accommodation with the purchase of a large house of multiple occupation that has been refurbished for us to use as a temporary accommodation hostel. This provides a welcome home for homeless families as well as helping in a small way to decrease the council’s bed and breakfast costs.
The Meet the Housing Ombudsman event was interesting, and I learnt more about their work and how we as a landlord fit in.
The new duties and regulations will be challenging but will make sure we continue to pay attention to the safety of our homes and residents. It will also help us understand and compare our performance with others to see what we do well and where we could do better.
I’ve enjoyed meeting residents at the engagement events I’ve been to this year, hearing first hand their views about Crawley Homes.
I am looking forward to more opportunities for engaging with our residents in the coming year.
Councillor Ian Irvine
Cabinet member for Housing
Crawley Homes is a multi-million-pound business and most of our income comes from your rents. We also get income from service charges, leaseholder service charges and Lifeline charges. When government or other grant funding becomes available, we submit bids to ask for additional money for specific works. Last year we were successful in our bids to help with energy efficiency work.
Crawley Homes’ simple balance sheet
A full set of financial accounts is published on our website. We hope this simple balance sheet helps you to understand where our money comes from and where it goes.
Councillors have the overall responsibility for managing the council’s money and make the final decisions on spending, but they have rules to follow.
Our money must be held in a specific bank account called the Housing Revenue Account and can only be spent on housing-related items. We can’t use it to pay for other council services such as rubbish collection, maintaining parks or bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless people. These are paid for from your Council Tax.
In 2023 to 2024, every £100 you paid in rent was spent in the following way:
Setting your rent
There are rules for setting your rent and increasing rents too. These are set out in the government’s policy statement on rents for social housing.
For social rents a formula, set by government, that takes into account, local earnings, property value, and the number of bedrooms is used. Service charges are then added to that.
For affordable rents there is a calculation that follows guidance from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. This sets affordable rents at 80 per cent of market rents in the private sector and includes service charges. The council also has a policy that affordable rents will not be more than the Local Housing Allowance rates (LHA) for Crawley.
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates are used to calculate Housing Benefit for tenants renting from private landlords.
Rent increase April 2023
The rules we must follow allow for registered social landlords to increase rents by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) (as at September of the previous year) + one percentage point in any year. The CPI for September 2022 was 10.1 per cent. The government took into account other cost of living pressures and set a limit of seven per cent on rent increases for social housing.
Average rent levels
Our tenancy policy allows us to charge both social rents and affordable rents. Affordable rents are set at 80 per cent of market rent or the local housing allowance level and we use them for most of our new build properties. These are calculated by an independent qualified surveyor using guidance from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Social rents are set by a government formula.
The following table shows the average rents at 31 March 2024. These do not include any additional service charges you may pay.
General needs housing:
Rent arrears
On 31 March 2023 the money owed to us by tenants was £1,122,147. We call this money rent arrears. This was 2.95 per cent of our rent roll, the total amount of rent due for all our homes. Rent makes up most of our income and as a business we need it to be paid so we can pay for the repairs to homes, pay wages, and provide all our services.
We realise that circumstances play a part when tenants don’t pay, and the cost-of-living crisis and rising fuel bills affected everyone, but keeping a roof over your head is essential and rent is a priority payment. If tenants are struggling, our housing officers can give some basic help and advice and we can refer people to our financial inclusion (Money Help) team for help. The council’s help with money worries web page is also a great place to start.
Money help wins
There have been many wins for tenants who have worked with the team throughout the year. One tenant who had health problems and four young children was struggling with rent arrears, the cost of living and other debts. She was referred to our Financial Inclusion team by her housing officer.
Working together they reviewed her benefits and made sure she was getting everything she was entitled to. They applied for a Discretionary Housing Payment to help clear her arrears. Once this was done, they started on her debts. After several weeks a way forward had been found and although not debt free, it now seemed manageable.
Household Support Fund (HSF)
The Household Support Fund, is a Government Fund started in October 2021 and originally due to end in March and was extended to 31 March 2024. The additional funding is to be used by local authorities to support vulnerable households. Our Housing Officers have been able to access this West Sussex County Council managed fund to help many of our tenants who meet the definition of vulnerable.
They have been able to supply help with energy bills, food vouchers and other items, but no cash is given. This has been greatly appreciated by those who have had help.
Below are a few of the thanks we have had and show just how important a bit of kindness and help can be.
“I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and help. About three hours ago, I felt like my mental health was about to take another dip and my anxiety was going to make me unwell again. I cannot explain how grateful to you I am for the vouchers. It certainly takes some stress off and allows us to sort something small food wise for Christmas and New year and hopefully give us some breathing space pay some bills”.
“This is really going to help me out so much and take away some of the anxiety I’m facing. I felt so much better after talking to you. Thank you for being supportive and giving me help.
Your support and the vouchers were really what I needed to get me though the next couple of weeks so I can face my job next week with a clearer positive outlook”.
Resident engagement
The Big Event
We learned a lot from our first large event in August 2022.
It was too big to start with and stretched our resources, but we and the residents we spoke to found it to be useful and interesting. So we ran it again but focused on one neighbourhood and visited all tenants in the morning. Forge Wood was the venue in September 2023, our newest neighbourhood with a brand-new community centre.
The event coincided with the opening of the community centre, and we set up our ‘stalls’ inside for the afternoon. As the rain came down, this turned out to be a very good idea, but didn’t deter the children from eating a free ice cream from the van outside.
From speaking to tenants at their homes in the morning and further comments in the afternoon, we found out tenants in Forge Wood were generally happy with our services, but we needed to inform tenants about the role of Preim, the managing agent for Forge Wood, we needed to respond to residents in a timelier manner and that local amenities still needed to be developed or improved.
All this was put into a short feedback newsletter, that included the information on Preim and sent to our tenants.
Milton Mount engagement event
2023 saw major works completed at Milton Mount. These affected every flat in the block and an engagement event in the grounds of the flats was organised to gather feedback on the works and general cleaning in the block and consult on our good neighbour agreement.
To encourage attendance free ice creams were organised for the children of residents.
The event also allowed us to share information and advice on cost-of-living help and damp and mould.
Results of the surveys were shared with residents and discussed at future building safety meetings.
Greenfields residents’ engagement meeting
Tea, coffee and cake were enjoyed at Greenfields sheltered scheme, as we met to hear residents’ thoughts and discuss some specific issues they had.
Following the meeting we produced a newsletter to confirm the actions we were taking and provide information on how residents could get parking vouchers
Neighbourhood inspections
We got out and about in the neighbourhoods during the year, with neighbourhood inspections and engagement events.
We’ve met many residents on our neighbourhood inspections, who raised questions about repairs, both inside their homes and in communal areas, trees, grounds maintenance and drying areas.
New repairs and problems with previous works were reported and surveyors did some on the spot visits. Fly-tipping was identified in communal areas and cleared. The reasons why keeping communal areas clear for safety reasons were reinforced with posters and letters.
Parking issues were highlighted in all areas, we listened carefully but most of the problems are outside our control. Crawley was built when vehicle ownership was low and with families frequently having more than one car, space to park becomes an issue.
Some suggestions were to change green spaces in front of houses into car parking. Although we appreciate the thought, doing this would remove amenity space and does not fit with the council’s approach and commitment to decarbonisation.
The Neighbourhood Services team manage most neighbourhood grass cutting, shrub beds, weeds and trees in Crawley and we’ve been talking to them about the queries raised.
Some residents enquired about their housing register applications, which we referred on to the Housing Options team. Find out more about neighbourhood inspections on the tenant engagement section of our website.
Meet the ombudsman event
Tenants and leaseholders had the chance to meet the Housing Ombudsman in March when we held a hybrid meeting at the Town Hall, with delegates in the room and online via Microsoft Teams.
A well-attended session that didn’t quite go to plan when the Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway, couldn’t make it on the day. Instead, Andrea Keenoy, Chief Operating Officer, took the chair for him.
Delegates found out about the work of the Housing Ombudsman and the free support they can provide to help residents resolve issues with their landlord. Although the team from the ombudsman couldn’t comment on specific cases, delegates still came up with some interesting questions and after the event a drop in surgery took place where delegates could discuss any personal issues with Crawley Homes’ staff. This was specifically mentioned by the ombudsman’s team as good practice.
They also felt that there was a strong approach from the landlord and that the residents who attended in person and online were really engaged and asked some excellent questions.
Visit the Housing Ombudsman website to find out more about their service.
Tenant and Leaseholders Action Panel (TLAP)
TLAP is our resident’s scrutiny group, and the year was a busy one for them. As well as their quarterly meetings they have been involved in subgroups, and other focus groups and workshops. TLAP represent residents at Crawley Homes Maintenance Core Group and the tenants group of the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH).
Complaint handling subgroup
Meeting monthly to review a selection of closed complaints, they look at how we dealt with the complaint, our processes, our approach and our communication. Their findings are discussed by the Senior Management Team and have led to changes in process and a template letter.
Maintenance Core Group
This monthly meeting of Crawley Homes maintenance staff with its main contractors, reports on and discusses the current issues for the responsive repairs and planned maintenance teams. As well as educating members of TLAP about the service, they provide a tenant viewpoint for issues.
Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH)
ARCH represents councils who still have council housing, promoting a positive future for council housing, lobbying central government and giving the sector a voice.
Our tenant representative on the ARCH Tenants Group takes part in discussions on policy changes and government policies considering the bigger picture for councils. This group hold an annual conference run by tenants for tenants. In 2023, two members of TLAP attended the conference, which helped them to get a greater understanding of policy and future changes.
Annual Rreport workshop
The opportunity for TLAP to influence the layout and content of both the short version and full version of the Tenants Annual Report.
Ombudsman self-assessment working group
Members of TLAP play a key part in the completion of the Housing Ombudsman self-assessment against the code of practise.
The event and neighbourhood inspections
Members of TLAP are involved in our events and neighbourhood inspections, listening to tenants’ views and promoting resident engagement.
Contractors social value
Both Mears and Wates have a commitment to adding social value to the community, and last year this included a makeover of the communal garden at Carey House. In August 2023, Wates and the Mears Foundation completed a project to enhance water sustainability by supplying and fitting six water butts in some of our sheltered housing schemes.
Looking forward
We will be continuing to hold neighbourhood inspections, along with pop-up events for specific blocks of flats and areas with specific issues or where works are planned.
More workshops and focus groups will take place and we are looking to develop the role of TLAP.
2024 to 2025 is looking as if it is going to be very busy and engaging.
Repairs and maintenance
Our performance:
Repairs calls chart:
This wordcloud shows the top 50 words used in the comments on our maintenance satisfaction survey.
Damp and mould
We have been continuing to refine our approach to damp and mould. We have put in place a working group that specifically focuses on how we deal with damp and mould, created a specific email address for our residents to use, and changed our processes so that we can promptly deal with reports of these concerns.
We also created a new leaflet with a quick quiz on the ways tenants can help to reduce condensation.
Contractor code of conduct
During the year in response to complaints we produced a comprehensive contractor code of conduct, making it clear to our operatives what behaviour we expected and what was unacceptable.
The standards in this document included expected behaviour when working in your home, garden or communal areas.
Staff and operatives will:
• respect different cultures and religious beliefs
• not behave or speak in a racist, sexist, or other unpleasant/aggressive manner towards you,your family or any visitors
• refrain from using bad language in or near your home
• refrain from smoking in your home
• not play music from any means such as mobile telephones or radios
• not give any opinions or suggestions outside of the planned work, so please do not ask us
Other sections included: standards to ensure the safety of residents, the home, visitors and operatives; acting in a professional manner, steps to take not to inconvenience residents, and using social media in an appropriate way. The code of conduct can be found on the council’s website on the repairs page.
Apprentices
Continuing our commitment to local employment, eleven apprentices started with Crawley Homes and our contractors in August 2023. A housing apprentice and apprentice surveyor started in Crawley Homes, Liberty started one, three joined Mears and Wates started five.
Planned maintenance
Planned maintenance consists mostly of work we can schedule in to get the best value for money and can be programmed or cyclical work.
Programmed works
Examples of programmed works are roof replacements, new windows, insulation, new kitchens and bathroom.
In 2023 to 2024 we:
Fitted two homes with heat pumps
Fitted new windows in 140 homes
Insulated 592 homes
Installed 234 new kitchens and 226 new bathrooms
Replaced 214 roofs
Installed 88 new boilers
Cyclical work
This is work we must do on a regular basis and includes external decorations and most of the things we must do to comply with legislation such as annual gas safety checks, electrical safety checks, and fire safety checks and work.
We are pleased to say that at 31 March 2024 we had a 100 per cent compliance rate for all the necessary:
• gas safety checks
• fire risk assessments
• asbestos surveys
• Legionella risk assessments
• lift safety checks
Gas safety week
In September, to promote gas safety, Liberty Gas and Crawley Homes took part in Gas Safety Week by joining Crawley Wellbeing Team with their van during at three separate locations in Crawley including the town centre.
Liberty also took home Awareness Campaign of the Year for its Gas Safety Week initiative at the debut Heating and Plumbing Monthly Awards on 23 February 2024.
Our contribution to the week may have been small but helped play a part.
Insulation and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF)
This Government fund is available to social housing to improve the energy performance of social rented homes, saving tenants money on their bills and reducing carbon emissions.
We were successful in our bid for Wave 1 funding for energy efficiency work in Bewbush and Broadfield and we were also successful in our bid for Wave 2 funding.
We received £6.8 million in Wave 2 grant funding, which the council matched for work to homes in the Norwich Road area of Furnace Green, some homes in Bewbush, North Broadfield and Ifield West.
Towns Fund
Involving tenants
Before work started in Bewbush our contractors Wates held an engagement in the Community centre, to meet tenants and explain more about the works and answer any questions.
In Furnace Green one of the properties was used by Mears as a project base and tenants were welcome to pop in and discuss how the works were going. This slowly became a regular weekly coffee morning with residents raising money for St Catherine’s Hospice.
The Towns Fund was a billion-pound government fund investing in towns across the UK as part of the government’s plan to level up our regions. Crawley Borough Council was successful in its bid for £4 million from the Towns fund to improve energy efficiency in its housing stock through a ‘fabric first’ approach.
This funding has allowed us to install cavity wall insulation into blocks of flats and throughout the year hundreds of flats benefited from warmer homes. This work will continue in 2025.
Green Village
The Green Village at Crawley College, is a construction skills hub with a focus on sustainable technologies and skills training, set up to ensure students leave the college with the green skills urgently needed by industry.
This has also been funded through the Towns Fund. Crawley Homes and our contractors were actively involved in getting it off the ground.
In November 2023, interested staff and members of the Tenant and Leaseholder Action Panel joined Councillor Irvine to visit the centre to find out more about.
This project was also nominated for national Aico & HomeLINK Community Awards where they were runners up.
Building Safety
The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022), along with the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and the Fire Safety Act 2021, was introduced to reform building safety legislation following Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future Report, which was commissioned and published in direct response to the Grenfell Tower fire.
Part of the act means we have new duties for managing fire and building safety risks in higher-risk residential buildings. These buildings are at least 18 metres in height or at least seven storeys, with two or more residential units.
Crawley Homes has two blocks of flats that qualify, Milton Mount and Bridgefield House.
Resident engagement in high-risk buildings
Our homes
We are required by the act to have a Resident Engagement Strategy, that is influenced by residents and residents need to have a voice in building safety decisions, not just major works but any safety work.
To discuss the strategy we held meetings with residents from both blocks of flats who gave their thoughts and told us how they felt about different communication methods, and both sets of residents felt a mixed approach, including letters, emails and meetings.
In the future we will be holding meetings and other events to engage with residents of these blocks to allow them to have a say in the safety of their flats and building.
As of 31 March 2024, we had:
8,251 rented homes added 25 new homes
1,675 leasehold flats
14 homes sold under the Right to Buy scheme
Raj Sharma House
We bought a newly-built block of flats in Brighton Road, Southgate to provide much needed housing. The block has 20 flats over 3 storeys, 15 of these are two bedroom and five one bedroom. All flats have a balcony or terrace and there are EV charging points in the car park.
Before tenants moved in, they were invited to a welcome meeting in the Town Hall, where they met their new neighbours and got an overview of the building and who it was named after.
The flats are named after the late Raj Sharma, who was twice Mayor of Crawley, and one of the biggest champions of the youth of Crawley. He was Neighbourhood Youth Worker at Crawley Youth Centre and then Centre Manager at Crawley Youth and Community Centre.
The dedication ceremony was attended by family and friends of Raj, along with the Mayor of Crawley, current and former councillors and council officers.
More temporary accommodation
We added to the number of hostels we manage in 2023 to 2024, with the purchase of a house of multiple occupation in West Green. This added another 27 rooms providing temporary accommodation.
Moving homes
368 homes re-let during the year
39 new tenancies in sheltered housing
98 tenants moved by mutual exchange
Evictions
3 evictions
Of the three evictions carried out in 2023 to 2024 one was for rent arrears; one was where the tenant had illegally sublet the property and one for breaching their tenancy.
Eviction is seen as a last resort, when we have tried and exhausted all other options.
HomeSwapper
Thinking about a mutual exchange? You may be able to find someone to swap with on HomeSwapper. Crawley Borough Council tenants can register with HomeSwapper for free. As well as being a source of potential swaps the site also has pages of useful information and tips about mutual exchanges.
Make sure you tell potential swappers about your home, a bit about the area, how big the rooms are and anything that will encourage swappers to look and add photos, some swappers won’t even look at a swap that has no photos. It’s simple to register online at homeswapper.co.uk
The team at HomeSwapper also have an app to help swappers have the best chance of finding a match. It’s free and brings together matches and messages, meaning potential swappers can be contacted while on the go. HomeSwapper matches is available from both the App Store and Google Play.
Anti-social Behaviour
Good neighbour agreement
Working with residents we developed a good neighbour agreement to help tenants create a welcoming and friendly community. It’s about showing respect, not creating nuisance, talking to each other, keeping pets under control, looking after communal areas and gardens and showing tolerance of different lifestyles.
Anti-Social Behaviour Awareness Week
3 to 9 July 2023
Some of the anti-social behaviour team attended an event at Pembroke Park on the Monday to assist MOAT and the police. This was really successful in engaging with residents and there were a few conversations around noise issues.
We held an event in memorial gardens during the week alongside the police and Crawley Wellbeing services. It was an opportunity to engage with the public and talk about ASB and what they can do if they experience it. The issues raised were around the street community being aggressive to people walking past, which we encouraged people to report. These events were backed up with social media posts in collaboration with the police.
Complaints and compliments
Complaint Performance and Service Improvement Report 2023-2024
Last year we produced a comprehensive report on out complaints performance this can be found on the tenant engagement page of the council’s website.
This Complaint Performance and Service Improvement Report looks at complaint handling performance and any patterns or key issues by stage, outcome, service and reason for complaint. It includes a full complaints service improvement plan, capturing learning from complaints throughout the year and suggestions for improvement.
How did we do?
378 stage one complaints received on behalf of tenants and leaseholders plus 57 stage one complaints from members of the public other than those directly using services provided by Crawley Homes. 48 complaints were escalated to stage two.
The repairs service received the most complaints. Communication and delays to service were the main reasons complaints were made. A closer look showed the reasons for communication, including not being kept updated, not informed about appointments or when work would take place. 47 per cent of the stage one complaints were upheld, where we agreed with the complainant we have provided a poor service.
We received one Housing Ombudsman’ determination in February 2024, which related to a complaint made in the previous year. The determination found maladministration in relation handling of new build defects, and service failure in response to complaint handling, repairs to front door and handling of queries about solar panels. Find out more about our performance and the steps we are taking to improve in the report at crawley.gov.uk/housing
Compliments
As well as complaints, we also receive many compliments throughout the year. Here are just a few:
“Thank you loads, This is really going to help me out so much and take away some of the anxiety I’m facing. I felt so much better after talking to you, Thank you for being supportive and giving me help”
“This is all sorted now. She is a lovely person to chat with as well as deal with and is very understanding. In my opinion she is the right and exact person for the job she does”
“She has such a great way of explaining things, which helps to understand complicated issues. She was also able to provide help with my queries around other issues that I had. She is fantastic in her job and I want to thank her”
“Very knowledgeable person and took his time to fix everything making sure that I was happy with everything”
“Thank you again for helping me so very much in all of this; you have felt less like a housing manager and more like a friend and family member throughout all this”
“Thank you so much it really means a lot to me to have someone around that understands and cares”
“Thank you for everything, I know you have gone out of your way to help me”
“Brilliant job fixing toilet and stopcock, lovely guy and he took pride in teaching his apprentice”
Regulation
Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023
Significant events in social housing such as the Grenfell fire tragedy and the death of Awaab Ishak lead the government to consult on how housing was run and how tenants were involved in decision making. This led to the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 which received royal assent in July 2023 and came into effect on 1 April 2024
As part of the changes, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) will assess social housing landlords against four new consumer standards and hold them to account by carrying out regular inspections and scrutinising data on tenant satisfaction and repairs. These apply to both housing associations and council housing.
The four consumer standards are:
• the Safety and Quality Standard which requires landlords to provide safe and goodquality homes for their tenants, along with good-quality landlord services
• the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard which requires landlords to be open with tenants and treat them with fairness and respect so they can access services, raise concerns when necessary, influence decision making and hold their landlord to account
• the Neighbourhood and Community Standard which requires landlords to engage with other relevant parties so that tenants can live in safe and well-maintained neighbourhoods, and feel safe in their homes
• the Tenancy Standard which sets requirements for the fair allocation and letting of homes, as well as requirements for how tenancies are managed by landlords
To hold landlords to account, the RSH will:
• inspect larger landlords regularly to check they are meeting the outcomes in the standards The inspection programme will start from April and run in four-year cycles
• scrutinise data about tenant satisfaction, repairs and other relevant issues
• continue to push landlords to protect tenants and put things right when there are problems
• use a range of tools when needed, including new enforcement powers
More information about the RSH can be found at gov.uk
Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM)
Part of the new regulatory process is the completion of an annual tenant satisfaction survey.
This survey collects satisfaction levels on a set of proscribed questions. We have to enter the results along with some data on measures generated from our management information.
We will then publish these on our website and the RSH will publishes the results collected from all social housing providers.
Headline results
We’ve put in a few of the results from the 2023 to 2024 survey
Overall satisfaction with the service
Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied with the overall service from their landlord.
Keeping properties in good repair
TP02
Proportion of respondents who have received a repair in the last 12 months who report that they are satisfied with the overall repairs service.
Maintaining building safety
Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied that their home is safe.
Respectful and helpful engagement
Proportion of respondents who report that they agree their landlord treats them fairly and with respect.
To find out more about the survey and the rresults visit crawley.gov.uk/measures where you will also find the management data we submitted.
Please help us by completing the survey if you receive one next year.
Directors’ remuneration and management costs
The new Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, requires all registered providers to provide tenants with accessible information about their directors’ remuneration and management costs and the RSH has given detailed guidance on how this is calculated.
For the purposes of this calculation, director means the members of the governing body and the Chief Executive (or equivalent) of the registered provider.
The remuneration payable to the highest paid director relative to the size of the landlord. This is Crawley Borough Council’s Chief Executive and is £19 per unit (per house/flat).
The aggregate amount of remuneration paid to directors, relative to the size of the landlord. This is Crawley Borough Council’s Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive and is £27 per unit.
Management costs relative to the size of the landlord
This is the total management costs for 2023 to 2024, management costs include: management, routine maintenance, planned maintenance, major repairs expenditure, bad debts, resident engagement and depreciation of housing properties.
The total management costs are £5,420 per unit.
Looking forward
Councillor Irvine’s exciting, interesting and challenging year sums it up for me too.
Realising our bids for decarbonisation funding had been successful was exciting. It meant we could progress our plans to insulate some of our homes to keep tenants warmer and lower their energy bills.
We will continue to bid for funding as it becomes available to make sure we can continue with or work.
All our engagement events and opportunities have given us all a chance to find out what our residents think which has helped us to update and create our policies and strategies.
I would like to thank everyone who has got involved in any of our engagement events, with a particular mention for all the members of the Tenant and Leaseholder Action Panel (TLAP), who provide an essential critical eye for our services.
The coming year will see many more opportunities for involvement, as well as our existing events, we’ll be running themed workshops, more building safety events, a tenants’ conference and a review of TLAP, led by its members.
The work we have done on water saving has paid off and the next phase of development at Forge Wood will start. We also have plans in place for more homes off Breezehurst Drive in Bewbush.
We are considering future developments at Telford Place, Shackleton Road, Longley House, Ifield Avenue (Ambulance station site) and Deerswood Court. More work is needed to get these off the ground.
The new regulations will be our biggest challenge in the next few years, and we will need the involvement of our tenants to meet the challenge.
The first Tenant Satisfaction Measures survey has given us some positive results which we can use to identify areas we need to work on.
Next year we will continue to focus on providing excellent services to you.
We also need to consider the possibility of the Regulator of Social Housing announcing an inspection of our services and we will only get a few weeks’ notice of this.
Amanda Kendall Head of Crawley Homes