link group annual review 2013

Annual Review 2013

valuing people, providing homes, building communities, working together

Link Group Annual Review 2013 1

Annual Review 2013

Contents

Chair’s review ........................................................ 2

Happy 50th Birthday Link........................................5

Our vision, values and objectives ..........................8

Valuing people ........................................................9

Providing homes ..................................................23

Building communities ..........................................31

Working together ..................................................41

The Link group......................................................50

Company informationand contact details ..............................................52

2 Link Group Annual Review 2013

Chair’s review

> Peter Foreman, Link Group Chair.

When I became chair of Link Group in 2011there was unprecedented uncertaintysurrounding the future of registered sociallandlords (RSLs) as a result of the recession(already three years old by then) and theemerging austerity measures which includedsignificant reductions in subsidies for housingdevelopment and cuts in local authorityservices budgets. These combined seriously tocurtail the potential for RSLs to continue toprovide the level and range of high qualityhomes and support services which anincreasing number of people had come toexpect and to need.

Yet when I reflect on this latest Annual Review of ouractivities and achievements, I can’t help but beimmensely proud of Link having weathered thestorm by turning such threats into opportunities andhaving positioned itself to remain a vibrant, diverseand effective service provider whilst retaining itscore values and objectives. I would like to focus onsome of the key outcomes.

Link completed more new homes this year (299)than in any other previous 12-month period in its 50-year history. This is an excellent outcome in view ofthe economic environment and it is particularlypleasing to recognise that 248 of these were forsocial rent, i.e., affordable for people in low-paidemployment or on limited fixed incomes. Reducedcapital subsidy and tighter lending constraintscombine to encourage a move to more ‘up-market’development – and Link itself will have to do so to agreater extent in future – but meantime we willcontinue to deliver for those who need us most foras long as we can.

We have always recognised the need not only toprovide top quality homes and environments butalso to offer support, advice and local facilities in aholistic approach to community and individualsustainment. We have a long and proud tradition ofsuch activity to which has been added a newstrategic objective – to improve employability for all,

especially younger anddisabled tenants andother members of ourvarious communities.Our initial activity hasborne fruit – but weintend to do muchmore through furtherpartnerships anddeveloping ‘in-house’services, includingthe (re)establishment

of Link Property which willprogressively offer improved responsive repairs andmaintenance services to tenants. This confirms ourcommitment to the social enterprise business ethicwhich underpins everything we do. We recognisethat we are a business and that we need to makesurpluses. But what distinguishes us from privatecompanies is that we re-invest all such funds intothe business itself or into the various communitieswe serve. We also aim to support other socialenterprises. Our new west region office in Dalmuir(‘The Bruach’) will be a hub for a range of localsocial enterprise activity.


Link won the accolade ‘Housing Association of theYear’ in the Scottish Home Awards 2013.Nevertheless, we cannot rest on our laurels. Tworather large clouds loom on the horizon. One ofthem, welfare reform, has been discussed at lengthin other places and I do not need to dwell on it here.Suffice to say that, behind the politics, there are realissues for real people, and Link will continue toprovide advice and support for our tenants andservice users, while also pressing Government toseek to alleviate the situations where most harm isbeing caused.

Minister for Housing & Welfare,Margaret Burgess.

“Over the last 50 years Link has consistentlydemonstrated an outstanding commitmentto affordable housing. It is a respected,nationwide housing association that has grownbeyond its Edinburgh roots to offer a range ofhousing services to communities in theHighlands, the central belt and the Borders.Link are to be commended for 50 successfulyears that have been punctuated by acommitment to the welfare of tenants, socialjustice and social inclusion, all also priorities forthe Scottish Government.”

> Craig Sanderson, Margaret Burgess and Peter Foreman atLink’s 50th birthday celebrations.

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Chair’s review

The other potentially adverse effect on our businessis the increased use of competitive tendering bylocal authorities, often in inappropriate situations,and the apparent preference to consider price at theexpense of quality. We will take a keen interest in thepotential for procurement reform as relevantchanges in law progress through both Holyrood andBrussels later this year.

Meanwhile, I commend the enthusiasm,professionalism and dedication of all Link Groupstaff members, and the various Boards. To themand to our various partners, funders, tenants,service users, and other stakeholders, I say ‘Thankyou all!’

Peter ForemanChairLink Group

During the year we achieved:

• A surplus of £4m• Capital expenditure on new or

improved homes for rent or sharedownership of £32m

• Gross turnover of £39m

At 31 March 2013 the group held:

• Revenue reserves of £31m• Maintenance reserves of £17m• Total reserves of £48m

Happy 50th Birthday Link

Link Housing Association was formallyestablished on 13 September 1962, shortly afterthe Housing (Scotland) Act was created. Thename “Link” was chosen because the housesbuilt would help fill the gap between the privateand the public sectors. The aim was “to carry onthe industry, business and trade of providinghousing for letting and any associated amenitiesin Scotland.”

On 13 September 2012, Link celebrated its 50thbirthday with a reception at The SheratonGrand, Edinburgh.

More than 200 guests attended, including staff (pastand present), members, supporters, and otherswho have helped Link grow and evolve into one ofthe leading and most respected social enterprisesin Scotland.


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Happy 50th Birthday Link


The following day, staff from throughout the groupgot together for the bi-annual staff conference, notonly to celebrate Link’s first 50 years but also to lookforward to the next 50.

Staff were heavily involved in the organisation of theday and a number of them – otherwise known as the‘Link Players’ – presentedtheir take on Link’s history.Throughout the day, staffhad the opportunity to meetcolleagues from other partsof the organisation as wellas participating in a numberof activities.

In a video message (recorded as a surprise for staff)two former Link tenants wished Link ‘Happy Birthday’.

Craig and Charlie Reid revealed that getting into oneof Link’s cluster flats in Lyne Street, Edinburgh,when they were 19 was “one of the greatest bits offortune they ever had.” They stayed there for 18months after which they transferred to another Linkproperty in the Dean Village. It was in this flat thatCraig and Charlie started a band called TheProclaimers – you may have heard of them...

Craig remembered, “...we could rehearse there (inthe Dean Village flat), we wrote songs there ... and itkind of went on from there”. And as Charlieconfirmed: “the entire first album (This is the Story)would have been written in that flat.”

Craig and Charlie passed on their best wishes anddescribed how they had “nothing but goodmemories of Link... they treated us really well... theytreated tenants with respect and (we) wereextremely grateful that we got those flats.”

> Craig Sanderson with Craig and Charlie Reid.


Our vision, values and objectives

Mission statement

Our philosophy

• Valuing people• Providing homes• Building communities• Working together

Vision

What we want to achieve overall

Link’s vision is to be a provider of choice andexcellence in the delivery of a wide range ofsocially inclusive regeneration, housing andsupport services.

Values

Underpinning all our activities andworking practices

• Equality• Diversity• Customer engagement• Service quality• Wellbeing• Sustainability • Value for money• Continuous improvement

Objectives

Link’s strategic objectives are structuredaround our mission statement. They are:

Valuing people• Develop and provide excellent service and

support to customers to ensure health, wellbeingand tenancy sustainment

• Continue to develop and support our employeesand Board members

Providing homes • Enhance excellence in design• Invest in appropriate technologies to improve

customer service and quality of accommodation• Maintain an annual development programme

delivering new or improved ‘social rented’ homesincluding housing for disabled people

• Explore, develop or re-introduce alternativetenures to increase access to affordable homes

Building communities• Encourage community regeneration and reduce

homelessness• Seek and take opportunities for growth

according to social enterprise principles

Working together• Increase Link’s contribution to improving

individuals’ employability prospects• Explore new or changing markets to increase

profitability for reinvestment

Val

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Val

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Valuing people

People are at the heart of everything we do. Weserve more than 10,000 families andindividuals in 26 of Scotland’s 32 localauthority areas by providing affordable homes,offering personal support and care andworking with communities to regenerate localneighbourhoods. Our priorities are to reach anincreasing number of people, to continue toimprove our diverse range of services, tomaintain a strong focus on customersatisfaction and to equip our employees withthe skills to enable us to achieve these goals.

Caring for customersWe continue to listen to and engage with ourcustomers and service users and are responsive totheir needs.

We work to fulfil our commitment to recognisingdiversity and providing equal opportunities to ourcustomers using our services. To demonstrate this,Link continues to be a member of Happy toTranslate, a scheme which assists in ensuring thatour customers have access to support if theyrequire translation or interpretation services.

Welfare Reform

The Welfare Reform Bill became law in March 2012and since then Link has invested considerable timeand resources into assessing the impacts,reviewing and revising policies and procedures andtraining staff as well as supporting and advisingtenants on how the changes will affect them.

We prepared comprehensive guidance both for staffand tenants and contacted all those known to be atrisk of reduced income. This is not a static picture aspeople’s circumstances can change but following aquestionnaire issued to all our tenants on welfarereform, we found that 85% of 750 people whocompleted the survey would be affected. Weresponded positively to offer transfers and mutualexchanges to tenants who were affected by under-occupancy charges.

We have increased the staff complement in ouradvice team to advise and help those tenants whowill be worst affected by the changes now and in thecoming years.


Services for older people

There will be a dramatic increase in the number ofolder people living in Scotland. It is projected that by2033 the number of people aged between 64 and75 will have risen by nearly 50% and the number ofpeople over 75 by over 80%. Link already worksextensively with older people and almost one third ofour tenants are over 60.

We provide a number of services specifically forolder people including:

• 340 sheltered homes in 12 shelteredhousing complexes

• Major adaptations to housing• Advice and income-maximisation services • Care and Repair services in West Lothian and

North Lanarkshire• Capacity building projects in Midlothian and Fife

To help us do more, Link adopted a group-wideOlder People’s Strategy to provide clear direction forits work with older people.

We are also in the process of developing anAdaptations Policy and a pilot programme for tenantself-assessment of minor adaptations. We reviewedthe specifications for planned maintenance so thatwe can take the opportunity to improve accessibilityof mainstream stock and (where technically andfinancially feasible) make adaptations.

Our sheltered housing service received a “five”rating (very good) for its quality of care and support,staffing and leadership and management. Therating was achieved following a short-noticeinspection by the Social Care and Social Work

Improvement Service (SCSWIS – formerly the CareCommission Scotland). The inspection reportconfirmed that Link’s high quality housing supportservice is appreciated by tenants in its complexes.Tenants gave positive feedback about the quality ofstaff and advised SCSWIS that they benefit from thereassurance and peace of mind their livingarrangements afford them.

To reduce the effects of rising fuel costs, photo-voltaic (PV) panels were installed at Ben Lui Placeand Glen Lyon Court, Cumbernauld, and GlenParkRoad, Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire. Link alsoreplaced expensive electric white meter heatingsystems with gas central heating in St AndrewsGardens, Airdrie, and Glen Lyon Court,Cumbernauld. Individual meters were installed inKilsyth Road, Kirkintilloch, and Ben Lui Place,Cumbernauld, to enable tenants to control their owngas consumption.

Pilot befriending and computer awareness schemeshave proved successful. These will be developedfurther in the coming year as we strengthen ourlinks to community capacity building projects aswell as working with our colleagues in LinkLivingwho have developed a range of volunteer servicesin some of our complexes.


Advice services

Link’s Advice Service has transformed the lives ofhundreds of Link tenants, sharing owners andservice users by helping them claim £1.4 million inbenefits during 2012/13. The team dealt with 1300referrals and submitted more than 400 benefitclaims. Link’s Money Advice Officer also assisted184 clients and helped them with debts totalling£763,000.

Link’s award-winning Older Person’s Advice Service(OPAS) sadly came to an end in March 2013 becauseof a lack of funding for services for older people.

Since the project was originally launched in 2005 it:

• received three phases of funding from partnersincluding Castle Rock Edinvar, Dunedin Canmore,Paragon, Weslo and Wishaw and District HAs andFalkirk Council’s Fairer Scotland Fund

• became the Older Person’s Advice Service(OPAS) in 2009 and secured Scottish Governmentfunding of over £1 million to expand into NorthLanarkshire, West Lothian and Clackmannanshire

• also received funding from Glasgow HousingAssociation and Falkirk Council

• won the Chartered Institute of Housing Award 2009for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Housing inScotland’ and the Herald Society Award 2010 forService Provider of the Year (working with over-65s)

• achieved accreditation to Scottish NationalStandards for Information and Advice Providers

• operated as an ‘Alternative Office’ – accreditedby Department of Work and Pensions to workon its behalf generating claims and verifyingclients’ evidence

Since 2005 OPAS:

• Secured £13,680,000 of additional benefit incomefor tenants

• Took 9270 referrals • Made 11,480 visits • Made 7440 benefit applications

OPAS will be greatly missed both by clients and theorganisations that supported it.

Mr A suffered a severe stroke and spent a year inhospital and was then moved to a nursing home.Over time he recovered enough and was offered aplace in a sheltered complex. His family wereadvised by the local Social Work department thatOPAS would be able to help them sort out theappropriate benefits. Having received all theinformation needed from the family, an OPASadvisor was able to secure AttendanceAllowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefitand Pension Credit. It took three months ofworking with three different agencies and co-ordinating the dates before the benefits could bepaid. Thanks to OPAS, Mr A was entitled to anadditional £363.83 per week and had a backdatedbenefit of £3758. The family was delighted andMr A has now settled into his new home.

Support servicesFollowing a managementrestructure, LinkLivingwelcomed Tom Byrom asAssistant Director in April 2012to oversee all of its care andsupport services.

LinkLiving also completed arebranding exercise to promoteits reputation amongst

customers and partners. A new strapline"improving lives” was developed to highlight theindividual approach it takes to helping people livelife to the full. A range ofcommunications waslaunched including a newwebsite which showcasesthe positive outcomesLinkLiving achieves aswell as providinginformation for those whowant to buy services.


In 2012/13, LinkLiving had another successfulyear with high levels of service user satisfaction.

125 services users completed LinkLiving’s annualsatisfaction survey and rated the following asgood or excellent:

• the support they receive – 85% • the choice and control they have over what

happens in their support time – 88% • the skills and knowledge of the support

workers – 90% • the way LinkLiving and staff listen to their views

and take them on board – 85% • the way LinkLiving responds to a change in

support needs – 81% • their support workers’ timekeeping and

reliability – 86%

Overall, 89% consider their support workerprofessional and respectful and 95% wouldrecommend LinkLiving to others.

The Edinburgh Young Persons Service washighlighted as a high-performing service by City ofEdinburgh Council’s commissioners and anexemplar to other service providers.

In Fife, the Council commissions short-termHousing Support which is limited, in most cases, tofive hours of support per individual a week.LinkLiving therefore developed a Care and Supportservice to enable it to work with those individualsrequiring longer-term support with funding from theSocial Work department. The Housing Supportservice has been selected to take part in the ‘Smilefor Life’ initiative, which promotes good dentalhygiene to people affected by homelessness in Fife.

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Valuing people

In 2012/13, LinkLiving’s registered Care Home inMidlothian, Dougal Court, had a change of managerafter many years. Investment is planned to upgradethe building and will involve colleagues andresidents to ensure it is fit for purpose.

In its annual inspection from the Care Inspectorate,Dougal Court achieved positive results with gradesof very good for quality of care and support, staffingand leadership and managers. The demand forLinkLiving’s services in Midlothian remains high witharound 650 hours of support being provided eachweek. The service has had many compliments fromreferrers and has provided support to a number ofservice users who have exercised their choice tomove their support to LinkLiving.

Despite running a successful service for 11 years,LinkLiving lost a significant contract for providingHousing Support in Falkirk following a competitivetendering process. We were extremely disappointedto lose such a dedicated staff team when ittransferred to the new provider in January 2013.

LinkLiving services worked with more than650 people during 2012/13:

• Edinburgh Young Persons Service –172 young people

• Fife Housing Support Service –222 people at risk of homelessness

• Dougal Court Registered Care Home – five people• Edinburgh Mental Health Service – 77 people• Comely Green Service –16 people• Midlothian Service – 78 people• West Bridge Mill Supported Accommodation –

86 young people


Accommodation with support

Following a social return on investment (SROI)evaluation of LinkLiving’s accommodation withsupport service at West Bridge Mill, Kirkcaldy, in2011, it was found that for every £1 invested therewas a social return of £3.69.

The report was fully assured in 2012 by SROI UKNetwork, the national body for promoting andverifying SROI activity in the UK.

The report also gave LinkLiving a greaterunderstanding of its relationships with local serviceproviders and how it can improve how they worktogether to maximise the positive impact the servicehas on the lives of people staying at West Bridge Mill.

The service’s range of impacts was found toinclude:

• Increased independent living skills, employabilityand financial capability

• Increased ability to secure and sustainown tenancy

• Reduced costs of providing alternative temporaryaccommodation to priority-need individuals

• Reduced number of individuals presenting ashomeless due to tenancy failure resulting inreduced costs to the Council

• Reduced time and cost of staff engaging withtheir service users

The accommodation team also received £2000 tohelp set up a bike club at West Bridge Mill. Thefunding from Bike Club was used to buy bikes andhelmets for residents to encourage them to uselocal cycling routes and offer them opportunities tomountain bike.

> West Bridge Mill Supported Accommodation team receives their£2000 cheque from Bike Club and the ASDA foundation.


Valuing people

Supported Self Help

LinkLiving’s Supported Self Help Service (set up withfunding from Glenrothes and North East Fife MentalHealth Partnership) came to an end in September2012 following its establishment in January 2011.

The service helped clients use self-help materials todevelop coping strategies for their anxiety or mild tomoderate depression. The service worked inconjunction with GP practices in St Andrews and Glenrothes and 569 people were referred over18 months.

The success of this service helped LinkLivingsecure funding to pilot Supported Self Help withinNHS Fife’s Keep Well programme. As the targetpopulation was widespread, a number of clinicswere set up in NHS and community venuesincluding Carnegie Clinic, Queen Margaret Hospitaland Lochgelly, Methil and Kirkcaldy Fire Stations.

Using local venues meant that the self-help coachescould break down the barriers with which poormental health is associated. 56 people werereferred to the self-help service over six months, with45 people receiving at least one self-help session.

“The service offered by the Self Help Coach wasan outstanding success and has highlighted howeasily services for our patients can fit into PrimaryCare while making a great difference to patients’lives. It has also highlighted how badly off we arewithout the service.”

> Self help coach Rachel Riddle and Dr. Karen Graham fromFeddinch Medical Practice.

Self Directed Support andPersonalisation

In January 2013, the Social Care (Self DirectedSupport) (Scotland) Act became law. This has amajor impact on the way that social care servicesare provided and paid for in future and LinkLivingcontinues to plan for this change, working with otherorganisations as part of the Providers andPersonalisation Programme which is being run bythe Coalition of Care and Support Providers (CCPS).In Edinburgh, 36% of LinkLiving’s service users payfor their support using Direct Payments enablingthem to purchase and manage for themselvessome or all of the care they have been assessed asneeding. It gives them more flexibility, choice andcontrol over the care they receive allowing them tolive more independently in their communities.


Developing our people

Link continues to support and develop itsemployees.

We are proud to have retained the prestigiousInvestors in People and Healthy Working Lives GoldAwards and we continued to develop and worktowards maintaining these standards during theyear. Our subsidiaries, Horizon and Larkfield, haveattained their Bronze and Silver Healthy WorkingLives Awards respectively.

Link is ‘Positive about Disabled People’ and wecontinue to commit to inclusive working bycollaborating with the Glasgow Centre for InclusiveLiving and Edinburgh’s Shaw Trust. As a result, wehave supported a further three work placements.

A further strand of our inclusiveness work is our aimto meet the expectations of Stonewall (as part oftheir equality index and as a Diversity Champion)which champions the needs of lesbian, gay andbisexual people in Scotland. There is still progressto be made in our commitment to be inclusive, andwe are continuing on our journey towards being anInvestor in Diversity.

Our new Human Resource and payroll system wassuccessfully implemented and we are seeing thebenefits – allowing employees to update theirpersonal details and submitting expense claims andannual leave requests electronically. The finalmodules will be rolled out during 2013 with theestablishment of our Performance Managementand Learning and Development systems. TheLearning and Development module allows Link to

be more effective when co-ordinating training –including savings through the establishment of anin-house training programme.

Our fourth Leadership Development Programme[LDP] for newly-appointed line managers wascompleted in 2013. We aim to continue to run this soall employees with a leadership role will know andunderstand what is expected of them.

With our sights on the future – and as part of oursuccession planning – we developed our ownAspiring Leaders Programme. This personaldevelopment course is for employees who have thepotential to become managers.

We continue to encourage our employees toundertake formal qualifications and significantamounts of job-related training. Our trainingexpenditure across the group for 2012/13 was over£100,000 which highlights our commitment to thetraining and development of our employees. Link further supports its people by providing 24/7access to an employee assistance programme.Employees can contact Time for Talking if they feelthey would benefit from or need confidentialcounselling and/or support, including generalguidance and/or emotional support.

We also continue to involve staff through ourrecognition of the Unite trades union and workingclosely with the union’s staff representatives.


Valuing people

Repairs and maintenance

The delivery of reactive repairs throughout 2012/13was not without its challenges.

Whilst we continued to work hard throughout theyear to improve the level of service we deliver to ourtenants, one of our principal contractors withdrew itsservice to Link which stretched our resources.

We want to make sure that our tenants receive thebest service possible. That’s why in 2012 a decisionwas made to take the delivery of the repairs servicein-house. By taking control of the whole repairprocess, we intend to be in a better position todeliver the level of service our tenants expect.

In June 2012, the Link Group Board approved thebusiness model for the creation of an In-HouseTrades Team (IHTT) to deliver reactive and voidrepairs. The pre-mobilisation process started inJanuary 2013 with the new team delivering therepairs service to the west area from July 2013, thecentral area from October 2013 and the east areafrom October 2015. The new service will bedelivered under the banner “Link Property”.

In preparation for the roll-out (and to have a morejoined-up approach in administering the service) therepairs handling team was relocated to Link Group’sDevelopment and Asset Management directorate tobe the core administrative hub for the new team.

We continue to allocate resources to ensure weremain on track to achieve the Scottish HousingQuality Standard (SHQS) for all of our properties by2015. In 2012/13, we invested £5.5 million inplanned and cyclical maintenance and ourprocurement strategy has helped to increase valuefor money and assist contractor selection for theprogramme of works. We advertise our contractspublicly as well as using framework agreements toidentify suppliers and ensure “community benefits”are derived from our procurement activity.

The overall programme of works during 2012/13included:

• Renewing 329 kitchens• Upgrading 315 bathrooms• Replacing central heating systems or boilers in

326 properties • Electric to gas heating in 39 properties • Fitting new windows or doors in 79 homes• Major adaptations in 80 properties to meet the

needs of older or disabled tenants• Cyclical painter work to 1010 properties • Photo voltaic panels in three sheltered

housing developments• Servicing and repairing 4753 gas appliances

The customer satisfaction levels for planned andmajor cyclical projects were high in 2012/13 with anaverage of 93% satisfaction in kitchen, bathroom,windows and doors replacement as well as gascentral heating/boilers servicing, major medicaladaptations and cyclical painter work.

In January 2013, a friend and valued colleague, VicYoung, passed away. Vic was the ProjectManagement Officer overseeing gas appliancemaintenance compliance and was immenselypopular and greatly respected for hisprofessionalism, warmth, energy and spirit.


Larkfield Housing Association

As part of Larkfield’s commitment to improving thequality of its properties, work started in January2013 on phase one of a £2 million bathroom andkitchen upgrade to tenants’ homes. This workmeans that the properties will meet the SHQS by2015. Other investments to the stock includedexternal decoration works to its “Stuart” and “Atholl”cottages and a number of gas boiler replacements.Overall, a total of £705,300 was spent on majorrepairs work. In addition, Larkfield received a grantof £38,500 from the Scottish Government to carryout 20 medical adaptations to tenants’ homes.

Larkfield appointed new contractors in May 2012 toprovide repairs and maintenance services in 396 ofits properties for the next two years. Quality Gas waappointed to provide gas servicing and gasmaintenance services whilst Carillion EnergyServices will provide reactive maintenance services

The customer satisfaction levels for Larkfield’srepairs increased by 2% to 98% this year.

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Horizon Housing Association

Horizon invested £395,000 in its plannedmaintenance programme, replacing and upgradingkitchens, boilers, doors and windows and installingcavity wall insulation. In addition, Horizon carried out75 major and minor adaptations to tenants’ homesand 197 adaptations to the homes of older homeowners allowing them to remain living independently.

Horizon conducts satisfaction surveys after everyreactive repair, and this year also carried out a fullsurvey seeking tenants’ views on the wholemaintenance service, including gas servicing andplanned maintenance. Customer satisfactionlevels for Horizon’s maintenance were 99% for thereactive maintenance service (based on a 50%survey response rate) and 75% for the overallmaintenance service.

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Valuing people

Our performanceThe following tables show how Link, Larkfield andHorizon performed in key areas relating to arrears,voids, lettings and repairs.

Unless otherwise specified, the benchmarkinginformation is from the Scottish Housing Regulatorpeer group performance report for 2011/12.

Link Housing Association and Link Group Ltd

Measure 2012/13 2011/122011/12Benchmark

Current tenant arrears(net of Housing Benefit arrears)

3.13% 3.08% 3.1%

Former tenant arrears 0.78% 0.69% 1.0%

Average void days for all re-lets 30 29 26

% of re-lets let within two weeks 23.9% 30.3% 44.7%*

% of re-lets let within four weeks 56.3% 60.0% 73.07%*

Void rent loss 0.62% 1.12% 0.8%

Total number of lets during year 806 681Notavailable

Lets to ethnic minority applicants 5.6% 6.5% 7.5%*

Lets to disabled applicants 14% 10.5%Notavailable

Repairs response times achieved 94.15% 95.2% 94.9%*

Spend on planned & cyclical maintenanceand major repairs

£5.25m £5.7m

*SH

Notavailable

BVN 2011/12

Larkfield Housing Association


Rent loss on empty houses 0.3% 0.2% 0.6%

Rent arrears as a percentageof total rent receivable

3.5% 3.5% 3.5%

Average days taken tore-let empty properties

15 12 Not available

Average days taken to re-let emptyproperties excluding major repairs

14 12 23

Percentage of repairs completedwithin time

96% 95% 94.9%*

*SHBVN 2011/12



Valuing people

Horizon Housing Association


Rent collected as % of rent collectable 97.10% 98% Not available

Rent arrears (excluding housingbenefit) as % of rent collectable

2.40% 1.60% 2.7%

Rent loss on empty houses 0.27% 0.18% 0.49%

Average days to re-let a property 14 18

Average days to re-let a propertyexcluding Major Repairs

10 10 16

Average days to let a new property 1 1 Not available

Repairs completed on time 100% 99% 94.9%*

Care & Repair West Lothian

Horizon adaptations completedwithin 12 weeks

81% 73%

Owners’ grant aided adaptationscompleted within 16 weeks

57% 65%

Small repairs completedwithin 10 days

91% 88%

Care & Repair North Lanarkshire

Small repairs completed within 20 days 83% N/A

Handyperson tasks completedwithin 20 days

90% N/A

*SHBVN 2011/12

Prov

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Providing homes

Link was founded 50 years ago with thepurpose of providing homes for affordablerent. Today, we have evolved to offer a rangeof additional housing options includingshared ownership, shared equity andintermediate rent.

Designing for the futureLast year, Link developed a Design Guide whichsets out our vision to create sustainablecommunities, using innovative design andconstruction appropriate for the 21st century.

This year our current developments (either underconstruction or in the planning process) begin toillustrate this vision. Not only are we intent oncreating places where people want to live, but weare designing our homes in a manner moreassociated with private contemporary homes, usingsimple but high quality material.

Affordable HousingInvestment

With a programme expenditure of more than £28million and a pipeline programme of more than1000 homes to deliver in future, it has been achallenging year for the team.

Link remains committed to delivering social housingwithin its affordable house building programme.Nevertheless, the pressure of reduced grant fundingand increased long term borrowing costs hasresulted in a new template for growth in future years.Intermediate Rent (IR) growth will achieve 227new properties from the current three-yearprogramme which (compared with the 16 IRproperties delivered this year) clearly demonstratesa shift in development focus.


As a precursor to constitutional discussions withWest Highland Housing Association, Link is alsodeveloping 50 new homes for intermediate rent aspart of a phased development of the Dunbegcorridor in Oban.

Last year, Link established a new frameworkagreement to support the delivery of its affordablehousing programme over the next four years. Thecontractors appointed to the framework were:Cruden Building and Renewals Ltd, Dawn GroupLtd, Hadden Construction Ltd, J Smart & Co(Contractors) Plc, John Graham (Dromore) Ltd,Keepmoat Ltd, Lovell Partnerships Ltd, MacTaggart& Mickel Homes Ltd, McTaggart Construction Ltd,Morris & Spottiswood Ltd, Ogilvie Group Ltd andISG Construction Ltd.

The formulation of a framework agreement forcontractors allows a more responsive and lessresource-intensive approach to procurement. It alsensures the correct expertise and experience arebeing utilised to deliver each project. Linkestablished a number of goals which contractorsare expected to meet throughout the lifespan ofeach project. These include improving designquality, reducing risk, delivering excellent customerservice, focusing on quality, using sustainableconstruction, promoting continuous improvement,exemplary standards of Health & Safety anddelivering added value from community benefitswhich produce employment and trainingopportunities.

o

Land investment We continue to maximise opportunities from our£6 million Landbank Fund to acquire sites tofacilitate our development programme.

A range of pre-acquisition activities wasundertaken in readiness for project delivery in2013 including:

Argyll & ButeDunbeg Phase 2, Oban

City of Edinburgh The Mooring, RathoPlot 29 Forthquarter, GrantonBalmwell Terrace, Edinburgh

East RenfrewshireAyr Road, Hillfield and Barcapel, Newton Mearn

FalkirkFalkirk Road, BonnybridgeBellsdyke Phase 3, Larbert

InverclydeLower Mary Street, Port Glasgow

North LanarkshireOakwood Phase 2, CumbernauldMoodiesburn Hotel Site, Moodiesburn

RenfrewshireCo-op site and Arnotts Building, Paisley

ClackmannanshireAlva Academy

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Providing homes

Delivery of affordable homes

In 2012/13 we completed 299 properties, 256 for social rent, and 43 for other tenures including intermediaterent and shared equity. This included housing for people with particular needs with 18 amenity flats and eightwheelchair properties completed across five developments. This comprised:

Social RentShared Equityand Shared Ownership

IntermediateRent

City of Edinburgh

King’s Place – Edinburgh 31 27

East Dunbartonshire

Colston Road, Bishopbriggs 18

Taig Road, Kirkintilloch 16

Auchinairn Road, Bishopbriggs46 (8 for EastDunbartonshireCouncil)

East Renfrewshire

Kirktonfield Road, Neilston 16

Falkirk

Park Terrace, Brightons 10 6

Bellsdyke Phase 2, Larbert 15 6

North Lanarkshire

St Mungo's Gate, Cumbernauld 10 4

Gibb Street, Chapelhall 32

South Lanarkshire

Kirkwood Street Phases 1&2, Rutherglen 24

West Dunbartonshire

Dumbarton Road Phase 2, Dalmuir 38

27

The following projects will result in the completionof 217 new or improved affordable homes in2013/14:

Argyll & ButeDunbeg Phase 1, Oban 25

City of Edinburgh Lanark Road West, Edinburgh 32Greendykes School Site, Edinburgh 28

East DunbartonshireMeiklehill, Kirkintilloch 34

North LanarkshireBroadwood, Cumbernauld 33

RenfrewshireTannahill Crescent, Johnstone 33

South LanarkshireKirkwood Street Phase 2, Rutherglen 32

“Being offered this property was like a dreamcome true. I am delighted with the standardand quality and I especially like the big livingroom with bay window and garden”

> Link tenant Jacqueline Main with Link Chair Peter Foreman.


Providing homes

Helping aspiringhomeowners

Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE)

Link was successful in its bid to administer theScottish Government’s Open Market Shared EquityScheme (OMSE) in central and southern Scotlandfor a further two years (with a two year potentialextension) in the following areas:

Edinburgh, East and West Lothian, Midlothian,Scottish Borders, Fife, Angus, Clackmannanshire,Dundee, Falkirk, Perth & Kinross, Stirling, Glasgow,East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, East and WestDunbartonshire, Inverclyde, North and SouthLanarkshire, North, South and East Ayrshire, Argyll& Bute and Dumfries and Galloway.

The OMSE scheme is open to priority groupapplicants who currently rent from a social landlordor a local authority, to serving members of thearmed forces and to veterans who have left thearmed forces within the past year. Buyers purchasean equity stake of between 60% and 90% of thevalue of the property and the Scottish Governmentfunds the remaining stake.

Link has a dedicated team to help applicantsbecome home owners. The team not onlygenerates interest for the scheme by targetingagreed priority groups but also advises potentialbuyers, assesses eligibility for the scheme andprocesses applications.

Link successfully completed 413 OMSEtransactions in 2012/13.

New Supply Shared Equity (NSSE)

As with the OMSE scheme, buyers take an equitystake in the property, generally between 60% and80% of the value of the property.

Link successfully procured and completed12 NSSE sales within its own new builddevelopment programme.

New Supply Shared EquityDevelopers scheme(NSSE for Developers)

The NSSE scheme for developers launched by theScottish Government in 2011/12 helps those on alow income onto the housing ladder and alsosupports Scotland’s house-building industry tosustain construction jobs.

Link was selected by 10 developers to provideadministration services throughout Glasgow,Ayrshire, Kilmarnock, Edinburgh and the Lothiansand the Scottish Borders. The scheme operates onthe same principles as the NSSE scheme.

In 2012/13, Link successfully completed andprocessed 58 NSSE for Developers sales.


Intermediate Rent

Link2Let was formed in 2012 and has beensuccessful in marketing and managing all of Link’sintermediate rent properties.

To meet the changing and increased demand foraffordable rented housing, Link continues to growits programme of new homes at ‘intermediate rent’levels set between a social and market rent. Thesehomes support Link’s principles of mixed tenuredevelopments whilst also providing housing optionsfor people unable to access home ownershipbecause of the lack of mortgage availability orbecause they cannot afford full market rents.

In 2012/13, there were 16 properties available forintermediate rent in Cumbernauld and Falkirk aspart of Link’s development programme. During thisyear there are a further 37 properties scheduled fordevelopment and in 2014/15 this will increase to190 homes.

This year Link2Let will also manage properties takenon as part of the City of Edinburgh Council’s EmptyHomes Initiative which received £750,000 in fundingfrom the Scottish Government’s Empty Homes LoanFund to provide interest-free loans of up to £15,000to help owners meet the costs of refurbishing theirunused homes.

Once renovations are complete, Link2Let will rentout the property for between five and seven years tohelp provide affordable, safe and secure homes forpeople who cannot afford to buy, or who are not apriority for Council or housing association tenanciesin Edinburgh.

> Link tenant Danielle O’Connell (and Mason).


Providing homes

Helping to meet housingneed of disabled people

With support from Link and the CharteredInstitute of Housing in Scotland, Horizoncommissioned research into housing needamongst wheelchair-users.

The report – “Mind The Step: An Estimation OfHousing Need Among Wheelchair Users InScotland” – estimated that there are 119,800wheelchair-users in Scotland (5.1% of allhouseholds). Of these, one in four says his/herhome is not suitable. It also presents a nationalestimate of 17,042 households in significanthousing need (14.2% of all households).

The report highlights the diversity of circumstancesand makes recommendations for more effective andefficient allocation, adaptation and design ofhousing. It suggests how local authorities can betterassess the scale of housing need among wheelchair-users, that the Scottish Government’s AffordableHousing Supply Programme must produce a greaternumber of new homes suitable for wheelchair-usersand that a greater focus on adapting existing homesmust also be part of the solution.

Link and Horizon aim to increase their provision ofhomes suitable for wheelchair users. In support ofthis, a target has been set that, wherever possible,10% of all new developments should be fullywheelchair accessible.

In 2012/13, Horizon acquired two fully wheelchair-accessible properties in Boghall, Bathgate, as partof its partnership with Almond Housing Association

Chris and Julie Fisher, who bought and adapted asuitable home with the help of the LIFT schemeand Housing Options Scotland, described theimpact: “It’s a life-changing experience... withaccess to other rooms on a ground floor I canparticipate in most aspects of family life and enjoybeing outdoors, for the first time in 12 years.”

and Weslo Housing Management (the West LothianDevelopment Alliance) to increase the supply ofaffordable housing for rent in West Lothian –including new housing designed to meet the needsof wheelchair users.

Access Ownership

Horizon now manages seven Access Ownershipproperties on behalf of Link and has assumedresponsibility for the further development of theAccess Ownership scheme. Originally set upby Link and Housing Options Scotland (using£1 million of Link’s own funds) the programme helpsdisabled people across the country secureproperties on the open market on a sharedownership basis, thereby helping many people whowould not be able to afford to buy a home outright.Horizon has now purchased four properties to meetindividual needs in Edinburgh, West Lothian andSouth Lanarkshire.

Over the forthcoming year, Horizon will continueto develop the Access Ownership programme,with a £300,000 commitment from its own resourcesto enable the shared ownership purchase offurther properties.

Build

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Building communities

In addition to providing new and improvedhomes, we are committed to activities whichpromote mixed, safe communities and helpcreate places where people want to live andwhere they can enjoy family life, pursue careeraspirations and access health care and leisureactivities readily. We achieve this by workingclosely with individual residents, tenants’ andresidents’ groups, the Scottish Government,local authorities, health boards, emergencyservices, schools and other partners in a broadrange of innovative projects. We strive toensure that local communities are at the heartof the process.

Community Regeneration

We continue to establish Link as a “communityanchor” by delivering and supporting communityevents, developing community assets and workingwith community-based organisations to improveaccess to support and services.

Link’s community regeneration team exists toensure that Link works with its tenants, theirrespective communities and a range of partnersfrom the statutory and voluntary sectors to developand deliver a range of projects and initiatives thatmake a positive difference to people’s lives.

Throughout 2012/13, the team successfully securedfunding for a variety of projects and recipients(totalling £436,000):

• £168,000 funding from the Scottish GovernmentPeople and Communities Fund for SmartLiving tocontinue to pursue its employability activities withyoung people in Falkirk and Fife

• £66,494 funding from Falkirk Council for the OlderPeoples Advice Service (OPAS)

• The final instalment of £150,000 from a total£1.15m grant from Scottish Government for OPAS

• £81,800 from various RSL and local authoritypartners to support OPAS

• £16,653 in capital funding from ScottishGovernment People and Communities Fund forLink’s horticulture project at Blair Castle andLaw’s Close, Kirkcaldy

• £23,637 to establish an IT training suite at TheBruach which will complement Link’s aim ofincreasing digital inclusion for its tenants aswell as providing an IT resource for local groupsand organisations who wish to increase theirdigital capabilities

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The team also secured access to a range ofinitiatives for tenants including:

• Partnering with Scottish & Southern Energy todistribute energy-efficient appliances to our mostvulnerable tenants through the Free ApplianceScheme – 24 successful applicants receivinggoods worth £12,620

• Starter Packs Glasgow (SPG) – Link has a referralrelationship established so that housing officerscan apply for starter packs for new tenants whoneed assistance in establishing their tenancies inGlasgow, Renfrewshire, East and WestDunbartonshire, Falkirk, North & South Ayrshireand North & South Lanarkshire

• THIS Home Contents Insurance providing accessto affordable home insurance for Link, Larkfieldand Horizon tenants and sharing owners as wellas staff. The cover has been designed to helptenants insure their belongings as easily aspossible and from as little as £1.33 a fortnight(under 60s) and £1.02 a fortnight (over 60s) and82p a fortnight for tenants and residents ofsheltered housing. The take-up of new policiesover the first three months of 2013 was double thenumber applied for during the entire previous year.



Throughout the year Link also supported variouscommunity organisations, projects and initiativesincluding:

• Developing partnership working in Fife aroundhorticulture and heritage skills training withGreener Kirkcaldy, the Ecology Centre,Community Growing Solutions, Ore ValleyHousing Association, Scottish MineworkersConvalescent Trust and local councillors

• Supporting the Oatlands Development Trust’score costs to enable it to continue to examine thepotential for St Margaret’s Church to act as a localresource centre and to secure Lottery funds forthe development of a substantial play andrecreational facility

• Working with the Kirkshaws NeighbourhoodCentre to develop and submit funding applicationsin support of its local employability goals

• Supporting the Petersburn Development Trust’scontinuing youth diversion project and final phaseof the Petersburn Community Park

• Helping Larkfield to purchase a memorial plaquein honour of 20 Port Glasgow residents whodied as a result of a boating tragedy on theRiver Clyde in 1947

• Signing, along with Larkfield and other localpartners, the Armed Forces Covenant whichencourages support for the local armed forcescommunity working and living in Inverclyde andrecognises and remembers the sacrifices madeby members of the community

• Providing the funds to purchase 200 Green DogWalker armbands for pupils at Carmuirs PrimarySchool. The armbands signify that the children willalways clean up after their pets and it acts afriendly reminder to other dog walkers to do thesame. Link and Carmuirs Primary School EcoGroup won the ‘Green Dog Walkers Thinking Cap’award for reducing the amount of dog fouling inthe Camelon area at the Annual Litter Strategyawards organised by Falkirk Council’s LitterStrategy team

• Sponsoring and providing new strips forStenhousemuir Boys Football Club

• Supporting the Larkfield Children’s Centre SportsDay and a ‘Kings & Queens’ lunch for the localparent and toddlers group. Larkfield also held aChristmas party for the local parents and toddlersgroup “Weans World” and a number of teadances (in partnership with “Your Voice”Community Forum) for older local residents


Employment & training

The Westminster Government has chosen WelfareReform as its route to ‘make work pay’ – but thereare other ways. For example, Link is committed topaying the Scottish Living Wage to all employees,not only of Link Group itself but also its subsidiaries.We were pleased to note the Scottish Government’sand COSLA’s support for this principle.

As part of our new employability strategy we look atemployment opportunities for staff, tenants andservice users.

A 4-stage employability pathway has been created:Pre-employment Support, Transitional Employment,Getting People into Jobs and WorkforceDevelopment. The pathway echoes the ScottishGovernment’s Employability Pipeline whichprovides interventions that engage with individualsat all stages of their journey into employment, but inparticular focuses on those that are unemployed.

In the past year:

• We were awarded 19 places from the CommunityJobs Scotland Fund which supports 16-24 yearolds who have been unemployed for six months ormore as well as providing opportunities forrelatively older people in areas whereunemployment is high. We filled all the placementswith the successful applicants joining Link,Horizon and Larkfield on six-month contracts.

• Horizon partnered South Lanarkshire College toprovide six-week work placements for twoconstruction students to gain experience in joinery,plumbing, electrical and general labouring duties.

• We established a Mentoring Scheme in order tosupport placements and new or youngeremployees. 17 members of staff have beentrained to become mentors and the first matchingof mentors with mentees is in place.

• We provided work placements for eight highschool students as well as five HNC studentsstudying Health and Social Care.

• LinkLiving’s Employability Through VolunteeringProjects helped 12 people secure employmentand seven others into further education. Inaddition, six volunteer befrienders securedemployment after their involvement with the FifeRealLiving project.


Employment benefits in procurement

We actively encourage our contractors to provideemployment and training opportunities through ourprocurement process.

To support our Community Benefits in Procurement(CBiP) we adopted CITB-ConstructionSkills’ Client-Based Approach (CBA) into our procurementprocesses. This ensures future construction tendersinclude commitments to deliver employment andskills relevant to the project being procured, as wellas bringing added benefits to the local communitiesin which we develop.

By adopting CBA, Link became the first ScottishRSL to qualify as a National Skills Academy forConstruction (NSAfC).

Link’s development at Tannahill Crescent,Johnstone, Renfrewshire, is currently piloting theCBA framework with four work placements (16 +years), an apprentice and a graduate all being takenon by the contractor, McTaggart Construction, aspart of the benchmarks agreed during theprocurement of the project.

Link is in a strong position to maximise CBiP goingforward given the scale of its development andinvestment contracts. We anticipate that during2013/14 we will significantly increase the levels ofcommunity benefit achievable on our sites, withtargets of 18 apprenticeships and 12 workplacements.

> Colin Culross (Link Group asset management director),Conor Kirkum (apprentice), Phil Ford (CITB skills strategymanager), Jordan Devlin (apprentice), Craig Sanderson.


Volunteering as a route toemployability

At the beginning of 2012/13 LinkLiving’sSmartLiving project was without continuationfunding. The Scottish Government’s Wider Rolefund was being replaced by a new regenerationfund called the People and Communities Fund(PCF). A new application was made to PCF whileLink agreed to “bridge” the funding gap. InNovember 2012, SmartLiving was awarded£168,000 from PCF and match funding wasprovided by Falkirk Council and Young Start. Thishas provided SmartLiving with a stable fundingposition until March 2015.

Meanwhile, SmartLiving had begun to changedirection in order to focus more on employabilityoutcomes whilst still using the peer educationmodel as a vehicle to engage young people with theservice. A new course was developed which gives

young people practical employability skills throughvolunteering in Falkirk and Fife. Aimed at youngpeople between the ages of 16 and 25, the 12-weekcourse helped with skills such as preparing a CV,public speaking, understanding job advertisementsand completing application forms.

Despite funding uncertainties, SmartLiving wasnevertheless able to engage with 83 young peoplewho volunteered a total of 1677 hours and gaveinformation to 2965 young people throughout2012/13. SmartLiving also continued to berecognised, winning CVS Youth organisation ofthe year in Falkirk – and one of the Fife volunteerswas awarded Young Volunteer of the Year in the FifeCVS awards.

> SmartLiving Falkirk team at its new base atCastings House, Falkirk.



Quality of Life

Horizon delivers Care and Repair Services on behalfof West Lothian and North Lanarkshire Councils.

The West Lothian service manages adaptations forhome owners as well as providing small repairsservices, and fitting key safes on behalf of theSocial Work department. This year the servicemanaged adaptations for 198 people, a 25%increase in demand.

Following the successful outcome of a competitivetendering exercise, Horizon took on the delivery ofthe Care and Repair service in North Lanarkshire inApril 2012. From a new base in Airdrie, this servicehas helped over 3000 older and disabled peopleacross North Lanarkshire during the year, with smallrepairs and handyperson tasks, allowing them tolive in their homes in comfort and security and withgreater independence.

The feedback from those who have used theseservices has been extremely positive. One happclient said: “My husband is disabled and cannotmanage to do basic tasks anymore. Having theCare and Repair services gives us a great dealof confidence.”

y

The Care and Repair team held a ‘fun day’ inJuly 2012 to raise awareness of the services, andat the same time raised £300 for a MuscularDystrophy charity.

This year, working with LinkLiving, the service plansto develop further volunteering opportunities for thehandyperson service.

Larkfield continued to support two projects inInverclyde which provide support and information tovulnerable tenants.

“Advice 4 All” is a benefits and financial adviceproject, delivered by Financial Fitness Services,which is targeted at individuals who require benefitand income maximisation advice. Inverclyde’s“Tenancy Support Project”, delivered by The MungoFoundation, provides support and care packages tovulnerable tenants at risk from losing their homes.

EnvironmentLink is involved in a number of energy-relatedprojects to help make our tenants’ properties moreenergy efficient and to tackle the issue of fuel poverty.

These include:• Upgrading 127 inefficient gas central heating

boilers to ‘A’ rated efficient condensing boilers• Converting 278 electric storage heating systems

to gas central heating with condensing boilers• Replacing electric storage heating in an off-gas

development of 27 properties with a more efficientheating system

• Making a grant application to the Home EnergyEfficiency Programme Scotland to carry out arange of measures on two mixed tenuredevelopments. The proposed measures includeexternal wall insulation, heating upgrades, loftinsulation and window renewal.


We also completed our first Solar PV installationfocusing our affordable warmth efforts on elderlytenants in sheltered housing. The tenants of Ben LuiPlace and Glen Lyon Court, Cumbernauld, and GlenPark Road, Lochwinnoch, will now benefit fromsustainable energy to power their properties. Thesolar panels were completed in March 2013 in ahighly successful project, delivered on time andwithin budget by Keepmoat working in conjunctionwith its sub-contractor, Absolute Solar andWind Ltd.

Working in partnership with Changeworks, Link isusing a combination of sustainable energymeasures and individual advice to reducesignificantly residents’ monthly utility bills. Key to thesuccess of the project will be the ongoingmonitoring of the tenants’ experiences of theinstallations and gathering data, using remote metermonitoring technology which Changeworks willprovide for the first six months.

Capacity buildingBuilding the capacity of older people to engagemore actively in their communities is a key elementof Reshaping Care for Older People and LinkLivinghas successfully developed two RealLiving projects– in Fife and Midlothian – for older people, with£76,000 funding from the Change Fund.

In Fife, RealLiving works within the West Fife villagesto recruit volunteers to befriend and run groups forpeople over 65 who are socially isolated. Since itstarted, the project has brought together 20volunteers and 25 vulnerable older people, helpingthe volunteers increase their skills and confidenceand the older people to become less isolated.

RealLiving Fife also worked in partnership withAlzheimer’s Scotland to run a Dementia Social Caféin West Fife attended by eight older people.

The idea for the Midlothian project came fromLinkLiving’s experience in delivering housing

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support to older people in the area. Many olderservice users become socially isolated due to poortransport links, retirement, ill health or family andfriendships dwindling. The project provides one-to-one and telephone befriending – a cost-effectiveand accessible solution both for volunteers andolder people who have limited mobility.

Since the project started 16 volunteers haveprovided one-to-one befriending to 11 older peopleand provided telephone befriending for another four.

Feedback from volunteers and older people whouse both services has shown that confidence, selfesteem, health and wellbeing have all improved.

It was LinkLiving’s experience of providingbefriending and developing social networks forpeople with mental health issues that helped it todevelop these projects. The Fife mental healthproject worked with 32 volunteers who providedone-to-one befriending to 22 people. The volunteersalso ran a breakfast club in Glenrothes for 12 peopleand a lunch club in Kirkcaldy for 10 people. Six ofthe volunteers have since moved into employment –five within the Care and Support Sector in Fife.

In January 2013, LinkLiving was awarded £25,000funding from the Fife Health & Wellbeing AllianceHealth Inequalities Fund to establish a community-led health project based in Kirkcaldy. The project isfor people who are experiencing mental healthdifficulties and the aim is to help them connect withother individuals within their communities and to linkinto health opportunities available within theKirkcaldy area.

Wor

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Working together

We continuously seek to initiate newpartnerships in order to help meet the variedneeds of local communities. We buildrelationships with our tenants, service usersand customers, local partners, statutoryagencies and other housing providers tocreate homes and deliver meaningful,sustainable projects.

PartnershipsLarkfield celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2012.The organisation and its tenants have benefittedfrom its subsidiary status in the group for the pastfive years.

Larkfield and Link have worked together to improvethe former Port Glasgow HA housing stock. Since itwas transferred to Link in 2008, around £1.4 millionhas been invested to carry out improvement worksincluding replacement kitchens and bathrooms,central heating systems, external decoration worksand the installation of door entry systems.

After almost three years as a member of the Linkgroup, Horizon has developed a new image thatdemonstrates the partnership. The new logohighlights Horizon’s energy and optimism intackling the challenges of the coming years.

Both Larkfield and Horizon have been able to makeuse of partnership arrangements across a range ofoperations including IT, finance and humanresources.

Link is currently working with developers to delivermanagement and maintenance services for NationalHousing Trust initiative (NHT) developments inFalkirk, and the Lothian. The NHT aims to increasethe supply of affordable homes available for‘intermediate rent’ for people on relatively higherincomes – and to kick-start “stalled” sites andthereby create new jobs.


Link Group Ltd, Big Lottery Fund Scotland andSocial Investment Scotland worked together tosecure a positive future for the former SocialEnterprise Clydebank building in Beardmore Way.

The building, now named The Bruach, is the basefor Link’s west of Scotland team. In future it will alsoprovide a social enterprise hub offering businessaccommodation for local organisations which willdeliver a variety of employability and trainingopportunities. In addition, funding from the ScottishGovernment’s People and Communities Fund wassecured to equip, fit-out and establish an IT trainingsuite for computer training and to assist localtenants to access services on line. Both the letting ofunits and the establishment of the IT suite will berolled out in 2013/14.

Preventing homelessnessTenancy sustainment is fully integrated into all ourservices and is a part of everything we do.

We spend a substantial amount of time on pre-tenancy counselling, ensuring tenants are aware ofthe responsibilities of taking on a tenancy and ifappropriate we source support before the tenancystarts. Whilst this adds time onto our voids, it paysdividends for our tenants. Over 84% of our tenantsto whom we gave pre-tenancy support are still intheir tenancy after 12 months and we are delightedthat evictions are at an all-time low.

We recognise the difficulties for some peoplemoving into a tenancy or where some limitedimprovements to common areas can make a bigdifference. The housing teams have access to atenancy sustainment budget for small scaleinterventions that can make a big difference such ascarpets, a cooker and common area improvements.


Private Sector Leasing

Link has been managing the City of EdinburghCouncil Private Sector Leasing (PSL) scheme fortwo years and has successfully re-negotiated theterms of the contract to continue the service untilSeptember 2014.

The PSL scheme offers long-term contracts toprivate landlords whose properties are then let by theCouncil to people who are homeless and in housingneed. Link administers the property and tenancymanagement functions to 1700 properties andsupports the Council in delivering a quality service.

In addition, PSL works closely with colleagues inLinkLiving who provide support to people with mentalhealth issues who are housed within the scheme.

In 2012/13 the PSL team:

• Processed 745 voids and re-let properties in anaverage of 12 days

• Procured 290 new properties to the scheme

• Completed over 12,000 tenancy visits• Managed and provided tenancy sustainment with

only one eviction for anti-social behaviour • Only handed back 3.5% of the stock compared to

17.02% at the peak of last year

Since Link took over the scheme, 172 newproperties have been added which has generatedan additional annual income to Link of £286,000.

The team has focused on minimising handing backproperties which prove expensive in terms ofresources in moving often settled tenants into newaccommodation and maintaining the property to asuitable standard in terms of the lease.

The PSL in-house maintenance team deals withmaintenance in all PSL properties, including thosebetween leases. The dedicated team of 15manages an average 55 voids a month turninground each property in three working days. Therehas been a substantial increase in tenantsatisfaction with the works that have beencompleted by the team.


Tenant and customerinvolvement – working toimprove our servicesWe strongly believe that our customers have acrucial role to play in evaluating what we do to makesure it meets their needs and expectations. Thisinvolves engaging them in a range of consultationand service development activities. The number oftenants getting involved has grown this year withpeople from a broader age range and from across awide range of different areas showing they arecommitted to working with staff to improve servicesin their community. We continue to develop ourmethods of engagement to make sure tenants find iteasy to make their views heard. This includesworking with the Tenant Participation Advice Servicefor independent advice, support and accreditation.

Tenant-led inspection is a way for tenants toevaluate our services and make recommendationsfor change. The tenant-led inspection groupcompleted a review of our estate managementservices in 2012 and influenced and made changesto how the landscaping contracts are monitoredand delivered. It found a number of servicesuccesses and challenges and it will be inspectinganother service this year. We were overwhelmed bythe level of skills and experience amongst our tenantinspectors who volunteer their time to work toimprove the organisation.

Tenants and other customers have also been activelyinvolved in making changes to the repairs service.The development of a new in-house repairs team is ahigh priority for tenants and we are looking forward tocontinuing to working with them to make sure thenew service reaches its performance targets.

Horizon commissioned Research Resource to carryout a full tenant satisfaction survey and census inOctober 2012 comprising face-to-face interviewswith 69% of tenants (560 households). The resultsshowed that satisfaction levels were higher than inthe 2009 survey for almost every aspect of Horizon’sservices:

• 92% of tenants are satisfied with Horizon’s overallservice – an increase from 83%

• 95% of tenants are satisfied with the quality of itsservices – an increase from 82%

• 79% of tenants are satisfied with the repairsservice – an increase from 66%

• 86% were satisfied with the in-housemaintenance team

During the year, Link worked with Horizon to carryout a Social Return on Investment study on the WestLothian Care and Repair service. This study iscurrently with SROI UK for verification. Whenassured this will be the third such piece of workconducted by Link to be accredited


Working together

Gearing up for the ScottishSocial Housing Charter

The Scottish Social Housing Charter sets the 16standards and outcomes that tenants and othersshould expect from social landlords. Link will bemonitored by the Scottish Housing Regulator everyyear against these outcomes to ensure we areproviding good quality services.

The outcomes are divided into seven sectionsthat cover:

• Equalities• Customer / landlord relationship• Housing quality and maintenance• Neighbourhood and community• Access to housing and support• Getting good value from rents and

service charges• Gypsies and Travellers and other customers

We have been working closely with tenants, staffand Board members to make sure we are ready tomeet the challenge of the Charter, including:

• Developing plans for the tenant scrutiny panelwhich will play a key role in assessingperformance and recommending improvementswhere necessary

• Identifying gaps in the information that we need tocollect to measure customer satisfaction

• Holding sessions on the Charter at the tenantconference and participation in other nationalevents/consultations

• Establishing an operational staff group to plan ourAnnual Report on the Charter standards

• Consultation with tenants on how we measureour performance, with a priority on the repairsservice measures

• Board, staff and tenant development sessions onthe scrutiny panel

• Participating in the Scottish Best Value NetworkCharter Customer Reporting Project


Local residents groupsand family fun

Registered Tenants Organisations are important toour engagement with customers and we werepleased that three new groups were establishedlast year.

The groups are active in a range of local initiativeswith other partners to make sure Link tenants haveaccess to services and that their neighbourhoodsare attractive and safe places. They are involved inorganising activities such as Big Lunch events,community fun days, litter picks and othercampaigns.

In July 2012, 100 tenants joined Link staff on theannual family trip to Edinburgh Zoo. This was agreat opportunity for staff and tenants to meet andwe were lucky enough to meet the pandas Sweetieand Sunshine.

Larkfield also organised a trip to Largs for tenantsand residents from Port Glasgow. In September2012, it held its 3rd annual open day for tenants andresidents of Larkfield. The day was a great successwith over 100 tenants and residents taking theopportunity to come along and meet Larkfield staff.Over 30 local agencies were on hand to provideinformation and advice on a range of mattersincluding health checks, finance, dental health,energy and homeless advice.

Involving service users

A new central Service User Involvement groupcalled ‘Interlinked’ was established by LinkLiving inAugust 2012. The eight LinkLiving service usersinvolved in the group helped to:

• Create an action plan for the group• Develop personal objectives for each

group member • Provide feedback on LinkLiving’s new

newsletter and website• Design a leaflet for other service users• Develop ideas for a service user conference• Organise a sponsored walk• Train other service users to participate in

recruitment of staff

Before the loss of the Falkirk LinkLiving service, thelocal service user group was very active and wenton outings to the Edinburgh Tattoo, the localSalvation Army and Forth Valley College. It also gotinvolved in the redesign of LinkLiving’s new websiteas well as recruitment and ‘Health in theCommunity’ training.


> Award ceremony for LinkLiving volunteers and befrienders.


LinkGiving

In recent years, staff throughout Link havecontributed to local communities by helping toimprove facilities or raise funds throughsponsorship as part of our LinkGiving initiative.

This year, to mark our 50th birthday, we launchedthe LinkGiving Trust, a charitable trust with its ownBoard of Trustees, to provide a platform for ourphilanthropic activities and to facilitate thedistribution of LinkGiving monies for the benefit ofLink communities, tenants and service users. Linkstaff have the opportunity to make an applicationfor an award (of up to £500) on behalf of individualsor groups.

The aims of the LinkGiving Trust are to help:

• prevent or alleviate poverty and enhance the wellbeing of Link’s tenants, service users andother stakeholders

• those in need by reason of age, ill-health,disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage(including relief given by the provision ofaccommodation or care)

• the regeneration of communities in areas whereLink operates, by the maintenance orimprovement of the physical, social andeconomic infrastructure and by assisting peoplewho are at a disadvantage because of their socialand economic circumstance

Since LinkGiving Trust was launched it has helped:

• provide funding for an older couple to buy a livingroom carpet for their new tenancy as they wereunable to afford floor coverings. The new flooringhas improved living conditions and insulation inthe home, reducing their spend on heating bills.

• an individual who was proactively trying to returnto work while dealing with mental healthproblems. He was going further into crisis as atemporary work opportunity ended. The Trustgave a contribution to meet basic travel, clothingand heating needs to help him stabilise andcontinue to seek employment.


The Link group

The Link group of charitable registeredsocial landlords, voluntary organisations,and social enterprises offers a wide rangeof housing, support and regenerationservices to 10,000 families and individuals,primarily in Scotland’s central belt. In2013/14 Link plans to invest more than£34 million in new high quality, affordablehomes for rent and low cost ownership inareas where they are most needed.

Link Group Ltd is the parent company. It ownsmost of the group’s housing stock and other assets.It provides Asset Management, Business Support,Business Development, Communications,Community Regeneration, Corporate Services,Development, Finance, Health & Safety, HumanResources, Information Systems and Technicalservices to the whole group.

Link Housing Association Ltd is one of thelargest organisations of its kind in Scotland. Itprovides quality housing management services tomore than 6,500 tenants in social rentedaccommodation – both general needs andsheltered – with bases in east, central and westScotland and the Highlands. It also providesproperty management / factoring services to 4,500owners. Link Housing also provides first classAdvice Services that combat poverty by means ofassistance and advocacy.

LinkLiving Ltd provides support to people to behealthy, happy and fulfilled and to manage thechallenges of everyday life more effectively.LinkLiving works in partnership with people andorganisations to make a difference in Edinburgh,Fife, Falkirk and Midlothian. LinkLiving works witharound 1000 people with a diverse range of needsevery year including over 100 volunteers developingtheir skills and confidence to enable them to takeadvantage of opportunities and to be in control oftheir own lives.

Linkwide Ltd and Link Homes Ltd responsibilitieswere transferred to the Link Group as of 1 April2011. Linkwide was formerly the development andregeneration arm of Link. It also provided advice

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services, while its subsidiary Link Homes Ltd builtnew homes for sale, offered commercial factoringand delivered the Scottish Government’s LIFT OpenMarket Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme.

Larkfield Housing Association Ltd is aGreenock-based registered social landlord whichowns and manages a stock of 396 properties andprovides management services to an additional550 owner occupiers in the Larkfield area. Larkfieldalso provides management services to more than230 Link Housing tenants and 900 owners inPort Glasgow.

Horizon Housing Association Ltd is a nationalregistered social landlord which promotes andprovides affordable housing and services that enablepeople, irrespective of impairment, to live fullindependent lives in the community of their choice.Horizon owns and manages 819 properties for rent orshared ownership, integrating homes for wheelchairusers which comprise 25% of its properties. It alsoprovides factoring services for 31 owners and adviceand assistance to 1500 older and disabled people inWest Lothian through its Care and Repair service(which expanded to serve older and disabled peoplein North Lanarkshire from April 2012).

Lister Square is a company acquired by Linkwidewithin which ownership of Link’s new west areaoffice building is vested.

Link Property was until recently a dormantcompany having formerly delivered commercial(non-charitable) property management services.Link Property will now be the governing subsidiaryfor the newly-formed In-House Trades Team (IHTT).

Link Group Annual Review 2013

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Board of ManagementP Foreman (Chair)

R Stirrat (Vice Chair)

E BanksA Colston A Currie C Donaldson D Esslemont J HintonC MacneillM McBride (appointed February 2013)

J O’NeillB Reidford R RobertsonA Smith (appointed January 2013)

Cllr D Wilson

Chief ExecutiveC Sanderson B Com

Director of Finance andCorporate Services/SecretaryJ N Hall FCCA

Director of Human Resources H Bayne MCIPD LLM PG DipBA (Hons)

Director of Development andAsset Management C Culross BSC QS (Dist) ICIOB

AuditorsScott-Moncrieff CA

BankersBank of Scotland

SolicitorsBurness LLP

FundersRoyal Bank of Scotland plcLloyds TSB Scotland plcDunfermline Building Society

Registered OfficeLink House2c New Mart RoadEdinburgh EH14 1RLTel 08451 559 559Fax 0131 624 7801

Email [email protected] www.linkhousing.org.uk

Registered under the Industrial andProvident Societies Act 1965 withthe Financial Services Authority,registered number 1481 R(S) Registered in Scotland as a Charity,number SC001026, and an exemptcharity under the Co-operativeand Community Benefits andSocieties Act 2003. ScottishHousing Regulator registrationnumber HAL 148.


Board of ManagementA Currie (Chair)

J Myerthall (Vice Chair)

R BaxterC FancyR FarrellyL Fleming (appointed June 2011)

A Hyndman R Laley J Lennon C MacneillG McCreath (appointed June 2011)

C McGillivrayJ O’NeillM Reid A Welsh

Director of HousingM B Middleton

Registered OfficeLink House2c New Mart RoadEdinburgh EH14 1RL

Customer Service CentreWatling HouseCallendar Business ParkFalkirk FK1 1XRTel 08451 400 100Fax 01324 417184Email [email protected]

Private Sector LeasingLink House2c New Mart RoadEdinburgh EH14 1RLTel 08451 550 021Fax 0131 624 7801Email [email protected]

West Region OfficeThe Bruach81 Beardmore WayDalmuirClydebank G81 4HTTel 08451 400 100Email [email protected]

East Region OfficeLink House2c New Mart RoadEdinburgh EH14 1RLTel 08451 400 100Fax 0131 624 7801Email [email protected]

Email [email protected] www.linkhousing.org.uk

Registered in Scotland, CompanyRegistration number SC216300.

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Board of Management S Cargill (Chair)

E Banks L Brown (Resigned June 2012)

J HintonD KempM Lessels B MillarC MorrisonJ Quinn (Resigned February 2013)

A Taylor (Resigned March 2013)

DirectorE Johnston

Registered OfficeLink House2c New Mart RoadEdinburgh EH14 1RLTel 0845 002 0819Fax 0131 624 7801

Email [email protected] www.linkliving.org.uk

Limited by Guarantee, CompanyRegistration number SC220855.Registered in Scotland as a Charity,number SC032418.


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SolicitorsPatten & Prentice

FundersThe Co-operative Bank

Registered Office14 Lothian Road Greenock PA16 0PG

Tel 01475 630930Fax 01475 636111

Email [email protected] www.larkfieldha.org.uk

Larkfield Housing AssociationLimited is a Charity registered inScotland number SC042066.Registered as a Friendly Societyunder the Industrial and ProvidentSocieties Act 1965, registerednumber 2509 R(S) ScottishHousing Regulator registrationnumber HCB 293.

Board of ManagementM McBride (Chair)

M Bell (Vice Chair)

M Jones (Secretary)

F Beattie G Cameron J CanningP Folan (Appointed September 2012)

P Galbraith (Resigned March 2012)

A Keogh (Appointed September 2012)

K McDade (Resigned March 2012)

Rev A. McIntyreT Thompson (Appointed March 2012)

Area ManagerL Griffin BA MCIH


BankersBank of Scotland


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Board of ManagementD A McPhail (Chair)

(re-elected as Chair October 2012)

G Harper (Vice-Chair)

(re-elected as Vice Chair October 2012) [on 6

month leave of absence from 21 March 2013]

W F Rochford M.B.E.P Croft O.B.E. R B Hartness A Laan-Ra J Pritchard M C RodgersF Wood

Managing Director/SecretaryJ Fitzpatrick MA (Hons) FCIH

Operations DirectorIsla Gray MA, MCIH


BankersClydesdale Bank

SolicitorsT C Young

FundersDunfermline Building Society

Registered OfficeLeving HouseFairbairn PlaceLivingston EH54 6TN

Tel 01506 424140Fax 01506 400052

Email [email protected] www.horizonhousing.org

Registered under the Industrial andProvident Societies Act 1965 withthe Financial Services Authority,registered number 1827(R)S.Registered in Scotland as a Charity,number SC011534. ScottishHousing Regulator registrationnumber HEP 128.

Photography by:

Renzo Mazzolini, Richard Campbell, Roberto Cavieres

W przypadku, ze tutejsza informacja bedzie potrzeba w innej wersji n.p.duzy druk, kaseta audio, lub w innym jezyku, prosze sie sontaktowac znami pod numerem 08451 559 559.

Link will produce this information on request

in Braille, Audio Tape, Large Print and Community Languages

To find out more, telephone us on

08451 559 559

08451 559 559

08451 559 559

08451 559 559

08451 559 559

08451 559 559

Link House, 2c New Mart Road, Edinburgh EH14 1RLTel 08451 559 559 Fax 0131 624 7801 Email [email protected] www.linkhousing.org.uk

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