annual tenants’ report 2016 2017

ANNUAL TENANTS’ REPORT 2016-2017

ANNUAL TENANTS’REPORT 2016/2017 1

CONTENTS

Welcome ................................................................................................ 2

Our performance vs our service pledge............................................. 4—5

Best bits of the year .......................................................................... 6—7

Resident Impact Assessment ............................................................ 8—9

Financial assistance ...................................................................... 10—11

Resident Involvement Statement ......................................................... 12

Value for money ................................................................................... 13

This is the 2016/17 Annual Tenant Report which publicises our performance

against the Resident Involvement pledge and provides performance outcomes

against targets.

2016 was an unprecedented year for change: the Brexit vote, a new Prime Minis-

ter, a new president in the USA and the associated impact and uncertainty on the

world economy and the UK.

The Housing world has also changed – The Department for Communities and Local

Government (DCLG) published their White Paper seeking to address the housing

crisis. It contained proposals to shift solely away from home ownership to an in-

crease in affordable housing. Universal Credit continues to roll out and the 1% an-

nual rent reduction for tenants is still in place. Lastly we

should all remind ourselves that the Grenfell fire trag-

edy in June 2017 will profoundly change the way

we all work.

TVH had a successful year and deliv-

ered 331 homes for rent and 147

for shared ownership. We

have a further 456 new

homes starting on

site and have

undertaken a thorough review of fire safety measures on our own schemes.

We recognise the need to support our residents and last year helped 321 residents

into work and training. We have also been in touch with 100% of residents affected

by Welfare Reform. Furthermore we gave support to 189 of our most vulnerable

tenants through Tenancy Support and most importantly, all are still maintaining

their tenancies.

We continue to work in partnership with Axis Europe to improve our responsive

repairs (95% satisfaction) and re-lettings service has reduced turnaround time to

20 days. We were 100% compliant for gas safety checks and also maintained high

levels of satisfaction for kitchen, bathroom and cyclical redecoration programmes.

In 2016 the Board approved our Customer Experience Strategy which is the linchpin

of our approach to service delivery in the future. We want to make every interac-

tion positive and easy and focus on customer needs rather than having customer

work around internal processes. We have started this journey through Service De-

sign and a pilot around Estate Services. Outcomes from these will influence future

service delivery.

We are also pleased to work with the Resident Scrutiny Group who have reviewed

a number of services areas including The Corporate Plan, Customer Experience

Strategy and Communications Strategy.

WELCOME TO THE ANNUAL TENANTS’ REPORT 2016/17

If you would like to know

more about any of the information

contained in this please contact us at

Margaret _ Buchan@tvha .co.uk


ANNUAL TENANTS’ REPORT 2016/17

OUR PERFORMANCE VS SERVICE PLEDGE

3

HOW WE PERFORMED AGAINST OUR SERVICE PLEDGE

2016-17 Target

2016-17 Performance

Performance against target

Respond to le�ers within 10 days 95% 96% ☺

Office visitor wai$ng $mes 96% 93% �

Visitors to the office are given an appointment $me. Occasionally the staff mem-

ber they are mee$ng can be delayed. Our performance has increased by 3% on

last year but we are s$ll trying to increase this to reach our target.

Respond to emails within 2 days 95% 94% �

Calls returned in $mescales 90% 93% ☺

Sa$sfac$on with complaint handling 55% 51% �

Stage one complaints closed in 30

days 65% 75% ☺

We are working on improving areas of complaints handling. We aim to keep resi-

dents up to date on issues/ac$ons within set $mescales. We aim to;

• Improve communica$on - ensure informa$on is clear and accurate before it’s

sent to residents and make service charge informa$on easier to understand.

• Apply refunds within reasonable $mescales.

• Improve communica$on with residents for ongoing repair ma�ers

• Have clearer informa$on on systems so we can clarify repair responsibili$es.

We have;

• Introduced a new complaints monitoring processes. We also capture learning

when we receive formal complaints. This will mean quicker service improvement.

• Improved working between TVH and our main repairs contractor (Axis). Deliver

a be�er repairs service and resolve issues more quickly when things go wrong.

• Introduced MySCH for service charge enquiries. This will provide more trans-

parency and allow us to manage service charges more proac$vely. MySCH will

also allow users to query costs and maintain an audit trail.

YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD AND COMMUNITY

2016-17 Target

2016-17 Performance


Communal Repairs within response times 95% 75% �

When our repairs contractor (Axis) took over the contract there was a backlog of

overdue repairs. We have worked with Axis to improve target performance. Axis

have since appointed more opera$ves and admin staff.

Tenants satisfaction with cleaning & grounds maintenance

80% 72% �

Although we didn’t achieve the target of 80%, we saw an improvement in perfor-

mance in a number of areas from our Estates Services contractors during 16/17.

The grounds sa$sfac$on of 70% was an increase of 3% on the previous year, and

in the last three months of the year we recorded the highest average since the

contracts began.

Dissa$sfac$on has also fallen from 18% at the start of the year to 11% by year

end.

Our cleaning contractors maintained their excellent performance with four out of

the last eight months averaging over 80% sa$sfac$on.

We realise that the target is a tes$ng one, but the first three months results from

2017/18 have been extremely encouraging and we con$nue to work closely with

our contractors and our customers to increase sa$sfac$on.

Resident Inspector sa$sfac$on was 91% sa$sfied with cleaning and 86% with

grounds.

Percentage of sites meeting standards with cleaning & grounds maintenance

97% 98% ☺

MANAGING YOUR RENTED HOME 2016-17 Target

2016-17 Performance


Re-letting empty properties 21 days 20 days ☺

REPAIRS TO YOUR HOME 2016-17 Target

2016-17 Performance


Satisfaction with repairs 95% 96% ☺

Satisfaction that repairs done right first time 95% 79% �

We recognised sa$sfac$on that repairs are done right first $me was far below

target. We have a project that is looking at the whole repairs process from be-

ginning to end. From I.T. systems, materials, scheduling, communica$on and res-

idents needs. We will be working closely on this project with our main repairs

contractor, Axis.

Satisfaction with contractor’s behaviour 95% 98% ☺

Technical post-inspection repairs 10% 5% �

Assessments for adaptations 2 weeks 5 days ☺

Satisfaction with gas safety checks 85% 87% ☺

% of gas appliance serviced this year 100% 100% ☺

TOTAL NUMBER OF RESPONSIVE REPAIRS 15,237

PLANNED REPAIRS 2014 - 15 Number of units completed

Boiler replacement 98

Kitchen replacement 142

Lift replacement 1

Bathrooms replacement 21

Window replacement 162

Aids and adaptations 44

Extractor fans 92

Total - Units 560

We expect fiGngs in your home to last a certain $me - for example 15 years for a

gas boiler, 20 years for a kitchen and 30 years for a bathroom. We aim to survey

all our proper$es every five years. This survey allows us to see if the fiGngs are

las$ng as long as they should do. It means that if the kitchen is in poor condi$on

we may replace this earlier than normal. Residents can refuse the offer of the

replacements provided it does not mean their homes fail housing standards. The

survey will also show if residents have replaced any fixtures (like kitchens or

bathrooms) and we will not need to replace them.

Our programme for renewing fiGngs will fluctuate from year to year, so one year

we may replace more kitchens than the previous year, but fewer windows for

example. We are currently up to date with our renewal programme.

ANNUAL TENANTS’ REPORT 2016/17 4

NEIGHBOUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

We ran our revamped Neighbour of the Year award and went online. TVH resi-

dents could nominate a neighbour they thought deserved recogni$on for the

contribu$on they’d made to their local community. Receiving almost 50 nomina-

$ons, a panel created a shortlist and the top eight were put to TVH staff to vote.

A resident in Guildford, Surrey won the award for the care and support he had

given to his local community. He had recently recovered from cancer and cared

for his wife full-$me. In addi$on to this, he remained ac$ve by taking a neigh-

bours dog for regular walks and made $me to check in on elderly neighbours

whilst on his travels. The neighbour who nominated him said, “He is a genuinely

caring man that not only looks aMer his wife, but also takes care of those around

him. I am delighted that he was chosen as TVH’s Neighbour of the Year. He truly

deserves the recogni$on.” The winner received £250 worth of vouchers and the

nominee received £50.

TENANCY SUPPORT

Our tenancy support team con$nued helping residents to

sustain their tenancies. We completed 189 cases, 46 of

which came as a direct result of welfare reforms.

We prevented 29 court cases and nine evic$ons;

all together, this saved £80,400 - money that

can be used to improve services for all

residents. We helped resident’s ac-

cess services such as fuel and

food banks. We also helped

residents move house and buy essen$al furniture. Overall 94% of residents were

happy that we fully resolved their case, with one resident commen$ng “Your

support, empathy and genuine care has given me a new beginning”.

SUPPORTING OUR RESIDENTS & SECURING THEIR FUTURE

Over the course of the last year, £267,000 of personal and rental income support

has been provided by our Tenancy Support Service. Although currently there are

uncertain poli$cal $mes, there has been success not only of our Tenancy Support

Service but also our commercial ventures. This has allowed us to put over £40m

aside to con$nue providing homes for those in need and ensuring that our resi-

dents are not affected by factors out with their control.

BUSINESS START UP COURSE

We launched our business start-up courses in partnership with Enterprise Cube.

The courses were free and aimed at people who were considering star$ng

their own business or even those who wanted to grow and expand their

exis$ng businesses. Each course is 12 weeks and focuses on crea$ng

a brand, a business plan, marke$ng, product or service develop-

ment and sales and customer rela$ons. It ended with a Drag-

on’s Den style event where par$cipants pitched their

business to a panel of judges who offered feedback

and some$mes funding or trading opportuni$es.

Last year 23 people graduated from the

course and 10 businesses are trading or

set to trade and two people went into

employment.

5

BEST BITS OF THE YEAR

5 ANNUAL TENANTS’ REPORT 2016/17

6 6

LEVEL UP COURSE

18 residents began our pilot Level Up course. This

is our 12 week wellbeing project to support

residents facing mul$ple barriers to work in

Hounslow and Richmond. None of the a�endees had engaged with the Training

and Employment team over the past five years. The ini$a$ve takes a holis$c

approach to wellbeing, addressing issues such as low confidence and poor mon-

ey management, and is aimed at residents who would like to work but have

faced challenges in doing so. The course was designed to help people develop

confidence and life skills to get them nearer the job market. Following the

course, five par$cipants have started working and nine have moved to the next

level including training and volunteer placements.

TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT

There is a significant long-term impact of residents geGng into work - health

benefits, reduced management costs and decreased arrears. On average it costs

us £200 less per year to manage households where residents are in employment.

This year we con$nued to support residents into employment and train-

ing. We engaged with 515 residents, inves$ng £464,000 helping 321 residents

into training and employment. 67 of these got training in star$ng and growing

their businesses. 36 people went into volunteer placements both within TVH and

through our partners. Over the last year,

� 124 into employment

� 159 into training and qualifica$ons

� 33 into volunteer placements

� 5 business start-ups

WORKING IN WOKING

We were given funding to deliver a food based course in Woking. Open to our

residents as well as the wider community, 12 people finished the course includ-

ing four TVH residents. The tailored course had specific modules and was deliv-

ered by food entrepreneur, the Community Chef. At the end of the course par$c-

ipants presented at a Dragon’s Den event as well as taking part in a Christmas

Market at The Lighthouse Community Centre in Woking. The market gave the

businesses an opportunity to trade for the first $me - all of the traders sold out!

BUILDING NEW HOMES AND COMMUNITIES

Over the course of last year we built 331 brand new homes for rent

and 147 for shared ownership, with 458 currently in the process

of being built and 1250 more in the pipeline. The ambi$on we

have for the next five years is to be building around 1000

new homes each year.

PROVIDING THE BEST SERVICE

In February 2017, our regulator, the

Homes and Communi$es Agency

(HCA), conducted an in depth

assessment of TVH and

awarded us with the

highest possible

ra$ng of G1/V1.

ANNUAL TENANTS’ REPORT 2016/17


RESIDENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT 2016/2017 Our Resident Impact Assessment summarises what has improved as a result

of feedback from residents as well as their involvement in the services we

provide.

We’ve listed each resident involvement ac$vity and given the costs, numbers

involved and the impact of their involvement. Our aim is to show how resi-

dents’ experiences of our services have improved as a consequence of their

feedback and involvement.

7

AcAvity

Cost Staff hours

Resident Scru$ny Group £8,110 74

Resident sa$sfac$on surveys £32760 168

Local mee$ngs and local involvement -

Housing officers /property managers

mee$ngs with residents

£200 60

Mystery Shopping £2600 40

Resident Inspectors – £9,940

(vouchers) plus

£1,500

1 full $me staff

member

Trips for older people

Hever Castle and The Petersham Hotel

£5295 151 hours

8 RESIDENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT 2014/2016

Inputs Outputs

Residents involved

Tenants Leasehold Keyworker Cost per resident involved Impacts

6 5 1 £676 The group monitor and ques$on areas of our service notably repairs and leasehold is-

sues

The group gave input on a number of new strategies and policies:

� Redesigning the annual report, impact assessment and statement for 2015/16

� Finalising ASB policy and procedure

� Development of Corporate plan

� Views on Customer Experience & Communica$ons Strategy

5,000 2,500 1,000 £3.85 Data from dissa$sfied surveys is sent direct to the service manager each month and

where possible the resident is contacted for more informa$on. A report is compiled

each month and the data from survey is used at senior mangers and Board mee$ngs.

We plan to move surveys on line from April 2017 - this will bring considerable savings in

both $me and money.

40+ 50+ £2.20 Local mee$ngs have covered things like parking, service charges, managing agents, ASB

and estate improvements. Staff are able to work directly with residents to keep them

informed and work with them to improve services.

7 4 1 £217 74% overall response rate. The results from each round of mystery shopping are used in

staff one to ones, so anomalies can be picked up with individual staff. Staff response rates

show an overall rise since we started Mystery Shopping and email signatures, answerphone

messages and call responses are more consistent with company guidelines.

68 66 £85.37 Sa$sfac$on on estates with a resident inspector is higher

Grounds – 70% compared to 86% with Resident Inspector

Cleaning – 80% compared to 91% with Resident inspector

46 12 0 £91 93% sa$sfac$on with Hever trip

Summer trip is one of most posi$ve ac$vi$es we offer


FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE This sec$on of the report details the money given to residents or community or-

ganisa$ons in areas where we work.

SMALL GRANT FUND

We fund small, generally one off projects in estates and local communi$es. Any

TVH resident, group of residents or community organisa$on are able to apply for a

grant of up to £300. The scheme is a quick, simple and responsive way to fund

small-scale projects. It allows applicants to lead on projects in their community

with li�le fuss.

� Value of Small Grants funded £472

� 2 estates

� Christmas trees and garden tables

� Staff $me – 1 hour per applica$on = 2 hours = £30

BACK TO WORK FUND

We’ve created a fund to encourage and enable people to enter the work force and

sustain employment. Residents can apply for a maximum of £500 funding per ap-

plica$on to pay for things like training or qualifica$ons, travel to and clothing for

training, job interview or a work related ac$vity. We want to enable people to step

up their career with no financial barrier.

� 13 applica$ons received

� 10 applica$ons approved

� £3,950 funds granted

� Staff $me - 56 hrs (includes 2 hrs per applica$on) = £840

BUSINESS START UP GRANTS

We have grants available to residents who complete the business start up

course and present their business at our Dragons Den event at the end

of the course. The grants help residents who have completed the

course to kick-start their business and

� 12 grants provided

� £12,018 grants provided

� Staff $me - 44hrs (includes £2.5hrs per grant) = £660

We have a full $me business opportuni$es

officer who manages the business startup

courses and the back to work fund.

9

10 RESIDENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT 2016/2017

COMMUNITY CHEST

Our community chest makes small grants to fund community projects. It is open

both to our residents and to other organisa$ons working in our areas. The pro-

jects fall under the following 3 themes; building neighbourhoods, celebra$ng her-

itage and culture and working for community change. We have a panel who meet

4 $mes a year to make decisions on applica$ons. Successful applica$ons can re-

ceive grants of up to £5000. The programme allows us to help fund established

projects.

� 70 applica$ons received

� 25 projects funded

� £49,500 funds granted

� Staff $me – The Community Chest administra$on falls under the community

investment officer’s role. 17.5 hours of prep per mee$ng, 2 hours per

mee$ng for 10 staff, 4 mee$ngs a year, 150 total staff hours = £2250

RESIDENT INVOLVEMENT STATEMENT 2016 - 2017

The TVH Resident Involvement Statement tells you how we will involve and feed back to residents in the coming year. We aim to improve our services by geGng resi-

dents involved in the widest possible range of ac$vi$es. We have defined our aims in four ways which describe what we want to achieve to ensure this involvement is

meaningful and effec$ve.

Our resident involvement aims are:

Be inclusive by making our involvement ac$vi$es accessible to as many residents as possible.

Ensure the type of involvement residents commit to is meaningful, and reflects what they tell us.

Raise awareness of Value for Money and include it in as many ac$vi$es as possible.

Be accountable and transparent so residents are able to see they have influenced their services.

Ke

ep

ing yo

u

invo

lved

Undertake monthly sa$sfac$on surveys and review methods and ques$ons � � �

Completed

Review and promote resident involvement opportuni$es � Completed

Consult with residents on changes in resident involvement and TVHA � � � Not completed

Improve the way we involve residents in designing and improving services � Completed

Involve residents in reviewing our equality objec$ves and services � Not completed

Ke

ep

ing yo

u

info

rme

d

Publish an Annual Resident Report, Impact Assessment & R I Statement � � Completed

Engage with residents via social media � � � Completed and ongoing

Review and maintain website informa$on � � � Completed and ongoing

Develop yearly communica$ons plans � Completed

Keep residents informed about changes � Completed

Ke

ep

ing

local

Publicise how residents can access funding for community projects � Completed

Organise events related to our work � Completed

Ge

Dn

g value

for m

on

ey

Ensure resident involvement costs are publicised in the Resident Impact Assessment � Completed

Measure and maintain the effec$veness of the Resident Complaints Panel � Completed

Use the TVH intranet to create virtual mee$ng spaces � � Completed

Use technology to introduce new op$ons for consulta$on � � Completed

11 ANNUAL TENANTS’REPORT 2016/2017

Each year we have to produce a Value for Money Statement for the Govern-

ments Homes and Communi$es Agency. This statement sets out what we have

done over the year to ensure we provide value for money.

Highlights from the statement are;

� Major repairs remain below average for our sector.

� We made 30% savings following the reprocurement of a new gas servicing

contract.

� Both re-let $mes and arrears are below target for the third year running.

� Axis, our repairs contractor, is delivering a comprehensive repairs service

and we now rely far less on second $er contractors. This means that more

repairs are subject to contract monitoring and there is an improved book-

ing of appointments at first point of contact.

� When we work with residents to support them in their tenancy the aver-

age rent arrears is reduced from £2,230 to £787.

� Average SAP ra$ng of our homes is 79% , the na$onal average is 50.6%.

� 64% of transac$ons have moved online, leading to a reduc$on in manage-

ment costs in staff processing telephone payments - a poten$al saving of

over 1,000 hours.

Our Customer Experience Strategy is in the process of being developed to im-

prove services for residents at a lower cost. We are designing services to focus

on what ma�ers to residents and make internal processes more efficient. The

number of residents registered on our digital plaVorm, MyTVH, con$n-

ued to increase during the year. This will enable us to con$nue to deliver effi-

ciencies following the investment we have made to develop our online services.

Our Community Investment strategy works to develop our communi$es across

four objec$ves: (i) improving the life chances of residents, (ii) working with

young people, (iii) increasing access to support services, and (iv) empowering

communi$es. We look to bolster the funding for the various projects with a com-

bina$on of match funding, external funding and in-kind funding. Many projects

that we fund, par$cularly the Community Chest projects, receive significant fi-

nancial and in-kind contribu$ons from partner organisa$ons. Other TVH projects

are funded through external contribu$ons, typically through engagement with

our supply chain. In 16/17 for every £1 we spent (£125,000) was matched by

£5.39 from external sources (£674,576).

12

VALUE FOR MONEY

Major repairs 5p

Managing

our homes including

staff costs 8% Bad debts 1p

Repairs 19p

Oth

er costs 1p

annual tenants’ report 2016 2017

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