Value for Money – what’s it about?

VFM - What’s it all about

Value for Money – we look at it all the time …

Waitrose, M & S compared with Aldi & Lidl

Sky Sport & BT Sport compared with a Season Ticket

It’s in the Charter – Outcome 13

VFM on the Charter

Indicator 29 – the percentage of tenants who feel that the rent for their property represents good value for money

Indicator 30 – rent collected from tenants as a percentage of the total rent due in the previous year

Indicator 34 – percentage of rent lost through properties being empty in the last year

Indicator 35 – average length of time taken to relet properties in the last year

Reasons for it

Providing value – for whom ? Customers? … but also funders and other stakeholders

It’s not about cheapness, it’s about getting value, but more importantly, quality that we can agree upon at a price we can accept

We need to specify the standards we expect and the outcomes we are measuring them by

This is where the hard work begins …

East of Scotland HUB

Future funding for new affordable homes

Future of Scottish RSLs

The Tenant Led Inspection story

How we looked at Voids

Tenants came up with a wish list – including decorating every Void (empty) property – at a cost of around £1,500 per property

Tenant Inspectors inspected Voids – before and after, and asked tenants questions about their homes and experiences when moving in

Report presented and Action Plan responded to the recommendations made (copies here)

Comparison between DCH and the Council

How did we compare?

Target length of time to relet: CEC = 29 days DCH = 20 working days  Length of time to relet houses inspected: CEC = 35.87 DCH = 27.25  Average cost of repairs per property: CEC = £1200 DCH = £940  Average cost of properties we inspected: CEC = £3100.30 DCH = £982.16

Lessons from TLI Team

It takes a lot of time for Inspection Teams to visit properties before and after, and interview other tenants

The quality of the process is good, but also has costs in terms of resources, transport, etc

TLI process has the advantage of bringing in people who might never have been involved in any consideration of landlord’s services

CEC/ETF planning more TLIs, DCH now focus on Scrutiny, which is the another story

DCH’s Customer Panel

Scrutiny - strategic but not TLIs

Took on a huge role for DCH ‘customers’ Decided on Voids as some had ‘done it

before,’ and the Voids situation wasn’t good Focussed on the performance, rather than

the TLI type process, trusted the process of information gathering & staff interviews, etc.

First report might have been a bit hurried, but that was to be expected, Review taking place and more importantly Panel now ‘built in’

Void figures – Monthly rent loss

Voids – Total Re-let Times

Voids – Average cost per unit

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug

979 1031 690 586 877 894 849 1112 939 1052 823 848

Not just Voids but VFM on Rents

Tenants views on whether rent for their property represents VFM

DCH 79% GHA 75% Cube 62% CEC 65% CRE 89% Scottish Aver. 76%

• And more importantly - How do we demonstrate that rents give VFM? What is an ‘affordable rent’ for tenants? How can Panels/RTOs/Tenants Groups/Feds

influence this in the longer term?

Summing up on VFM

Cost we are prepared to pay for the quality we expect to deliver(landlord)/receive (tenant)

Balancing cost with performance/satisfaction Right service for the right people at the right

time & of course delivering the right outcomes Also look at the 3 E’s - Economy

Efficiency

Effectiveness

This will all be down to - Evidence!

Over to you!