ANNUAL REPORT TO RESIDENTS 2017-18

HOW WE ARE DOING

With our Housing & Neighbourhoods teams spending more time out and

about in the community, using mobile and online systems to deliver efficient

and effective services straight to your homes, we are now better equipped

to deal with your concerns far more quickly.

I hope you enjoy reading about all the

improvements we have made, and how this

helped us perform better over the last year.

Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to

our involved residents, who over the last

year have played an even bigger part in

helping us improve our services. Their input

has been invaluable, and we are lucky to

have such a dedicated group of people

highlighting the issues that really matter to

residents but which otherwise may not have

been tackled.

CHRIS ASHTON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF HOUSING

Over the past 12 months we have started to see real

and measurable benefits for our residents after making

significant changes to how we work.

We are pleased to see that

many more of you are

signing up to myhomeonline

to access our services, and

our Facebook page is also

proving a popular way for you

to get in touch with us, share

your views and get a swift

response.

INTRODUCTION

https://www.myhomeonline.org.uk/emhhomes/www/dashboardhttps://www.facebook.com/emhhomes.org.uk/

Every year we produce an annual report

to residents which provides information

on how we performed in the previous

12 months. This report covers the

period from April 2017 to March 2018.

We worked with the Communications

Special Interest Group to ensure that it

contains information on the service areas

that matter most to residents.

The Communications group also work on

echo, the residents’ magazine, and this

approach is starting to show in improved

customer satisfaction and better

performance.

Our volunteer residents work hard on your behalf to make sure you receive high quality, relevant, and value-for-money services. They play a vital part in challenging us by reviewing the standards of what we offer in return for your rent and service charges.

*Does not include staff time

RESIDENT INVOLVEMENT

2016-17 2017-18

Amount spent on resident involvement* £48,444 £48,910

HOLDING US TO ACCOUNT

This icon is used throughout this annual report to identify the areas involved residents have shaped and influenced how we deliver our services.

As a profit-for-purpose organisation, net profits are invested back into the communities we serve. This includes meeting the demand for new homes, creating apprentices for local young people, supporting social enterprise and community projects, and improving services to our residents.

INCOME SPENT ON HOMES AND SERVICES HOW IS MY SERVICE CHARGE SPENT?

2016-17 2017-18

TOTAL SPENT £61.31m £60.06m

Property management £17.47m £15.97m

Maintenance £13.64m £14.55m

Rent losses 0.2m 0.9m

Interest on loans £21m £20.16m

Investment on existing properties £9m £8.48m

2016-17 2017-18

TOTAL SPENT 6.11m £6.72m

Equipment maintenance 0.89m £0.97m

Utilities 0.66m £0.65m

Cleaning 0.90m £0.91m

Grounds maintenance £1.31m £1.53m

Staffing £1.03m £1.0m

Other costs £1.32m £1.66m

WHERE DOES MY RENT GO?

2016-17 2017-18

TOTAL RENTAL INCOME COLLECTED £72.2m £72.3m

Weekly arrears 2.73% 2.93%

Monthly arrears 1.77% 2.66%

Arrears collected from former tenants £179,000 £163,000

Number of homes relet 1,042 1,041

Average relet time for general needs properties 33 days 29 days

Average cost of relets £2,620 £2,629

The Housing & Neighbourhoods SIG

reviewed our process for sending out rent

statements. After establishing the scope

of the review, the group consulted with

a number of residents before submitting

their recommendations, which included

changing the frequency of statements and

how the change should be communicated.

The recommendations were all ratified,

resulting in cost savings while ensuring

residents still have access to their rent

statement information.

TENANTS STREAMLINE RENT STATEMENT DISTRIBUTION

£103,371on replacement door entry systems and communal entrance doors

Several tenants involved in scrutinising

our services played a crucial role in

selecting a new contractor to carry out

repairs on our properties after being

invited by Director of Property Services

Adrian Cheetham to take part in the

tender process.

Worth £10m over five years, the contract

was awarded to Nottingham-based J

Tomlinson Limited and will see them

working alongside our internal

maintenance team to deliver a responsive

repairs service and refurbishment of

vacant properties.

TENANTS HELP SELECT NEW £10m REPAIRS CONTRACT

LOOKING AFTER YOUR HOME2016-17 2017-18

TOTAL SPENT ON PLANNED MAINTENANCE £7.8m £7.8m

ON REPLACING:

Heating systems 307 240

Kitchens with electrical upgrade 390 510

Fascia/soffits 163 137

Roofs 115 187

Bathrooms 32 12

30,633 repairs completed84% on time / 93% customer satisfactionThis is the first full year that we used the new system, Cloud Dialogs, to process our repair requests, and therefore it is not possible to make a meaningful comparison with previous figures.

REPAIRS 2,585properties painted

AIDS AND ADAPTATIONS

£258,588spent on 625 aids and adaptations

DID YOU KNOW?As our Property Services operatives are multi-skilled we are able to deliver a far more efficient and effective service to our customers.

Over the last year we worked with the Customer Services SIG to improve

our reporting process, so it is not possible to make a meaningful

comparison with previous figures.

The increase in formal complaints was mainly due to the impact of the Beast

from the East and the changing of our landscaping contractor in Erewash.

We are pleased to report that due to the lessons learned we have improved

the landscaping service and satisfaction levels are now higher.

We welcome all feedback, whether it is a compliment or complaint, as we

use all data and information to help us look for areas of improvement.

Our four SIGs have been hard at work

on your behalf this year.

The Customer Services team

reviewed our Complaints policy and

are developing a new leaflet. We have

seen a four per cent rise in

satisfaction with staff being able to

deal with queries, and a five per cent

increase in satisfaction with the final

outcome. All indicators suggest

that over the next 12 months these

satisfaction levels will further

increase.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPSCUSTOMER SERVICES

COMPLAINTS

2016-17 2017-18

Phone calls 175,000 149,000

Emails 24,000 28,500

Contact through myhomeonline 9,777 19,258

2016-17 2017-18

Formal complaints received 200 554

Concerns* N/A 4,264*Resolved at the first point of contact without having to go through a formal investigation

HELP AND SUPPORT

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR (ASB)

BEING A CONSIDERATE NEIGHBOUR

2016-17 2017-18

New cases recorded 255 243

Evictions for ASB 5 3

To help keep anti-social behaviour to a minimum, we encourage residents to be considerate and mindful of their neighbours at all times. Day to day noise is usually part of our everyday lives, and we should all learn to be tolerant when living in a community where people lead different lifestyles. However, we do know that anti-social behaviour can cause a great deal of distress, which is why we are committed to working with the police and local authorities to investigate and resolve any case that is reported to us.

We advise residents to first try talking to the person responsible, as some people may not be aware their behaviour is unacceptable. But we do understand that this may not always be possible, and if that is the case then please call us.

Our approach to income management breaks from traditional ways of working to offer tailored support and advice to help residents reduce or avoid debt. It reflects the fundamental changes in our sector created by demographics, welfare reform, support funding, and technology.

Rooted in our values, we are making the best use of our resources to respond to residents’ diverse and individual needs, focusing on people and the real-life pressures they face.

The results show that it works. We now have our lowest ever percentage level of current rent arrears, and are one of the best performers in the East Midlands.

*Plus an additional £131k through the Erewash Money Advice Universal Credit service

HELP AND SUPPORTMONEY MATTERS

Compared to average arrears of 18% for Universal Credit, we have kept arrears below 12%.

2016-17 2017-18

Households evicted for rent arrears 50 43

Helped to claim in grants and additional benefits £0.8m £1.2m*

Residents offered support by Financial Inclusion Officers 1,146 1,339

SAFETY

FIRST

FIRE

KEEPING YOU SAFE

Over the last 12 months the

Scrutiny Panel completed four

investigations:

e gas servicing

e our website

e internal cleaning

efiresafety

The latest investigation looked

at fire safety and how we can best

give you advice to ensure you

know the systems and protections

in place in your home.

You can read their annual report on

our website.

SCRUTINY PANEL

2016-17 2017-18

Fire risk assessments performed 202 316

Properties with a valid Gas Safety certificate 100% 99.9%

Surveys for Asbestos Containing Materials carried out on new dwellings 1,941 404

Surveys for Asbestos Containing Materials carried out on communal areas 507 54

Re-inspection of homes at medium risk of having Asbestos Containing Materials 455 246

Re-inspection of communal areas with Asbestos Containing Materials 394 49

Properties that have had Asbestos Containing Materials removed 495 531

MEETING THE DEMAND FOR MORE HOMES

253 51 12 new homes built by emh group:

rental properties for emh homes

low cost home ownership properties for hello homes

properties on behalf of Northamptonshire Rural Housing Association

316

There are 850 new homes in the pipeline that will be completed in the next two years.

BREAKING NEWS: CASH BOOST FOR NEW HOMES HELLO HOMES

In July 2018 we were appointed as a Strategic Partner of Homes England, the

government’s homebuilding agency, securing £30.5m in grant funding to

increase development of new housing in the region. This will enable us to

boost our development programme by 80% over the next four years, and see

around 600 affordable homes being built in the East Midlands every year.

2016-17 2017-18

New homes sold 79 67

Resales 71 62