Annual tenant report 2012 13

Our journey with you

Annual Report 2012-13

A year in Watford and Three Rivers with the facts, achievements, images and figures

Our year in pictures

April 2012 Grand opening of the Sports Legacy Zone at Meriden Park

May 2012 Our Community

Champion Awards and fun day

June 2012 Opening ceremony for our new homes and improved flats in Foxhill

July 2012 Our big community

event, Watford 2012

January 2013 Trust opens

the refurbished Harebreaks

Community Hub

February 2013 Young people create community mural for our building site in Croxley View

November 2012 Watford Cycle

Hub launched with start-up

funding from the Trust

December 2012 The Trust runs

a competition to give away 25

recycled computers

August 2012 Improvement works at the high rise completedSeptember 2012 Our fifth birthday –

we raised £46k for the Peace Hospice

October 2012 New multi-use games area opens at Radlett Road, part-funded by the Trust

March 2013 Trust holds successful

dementia awareness event at

Horwood Court

www.wcht.org.uk

3Annual Report 2012-13

Contents

4 Welcome

6 For your home

8 Working with you

10 In your community

12 Value for money

14 Our year by numbers

16 Our priorities

18 A message from the Gateway Leadership Team

19 Who’s who

4 Our journey with you

Welcome

Our Chair

I am delighted that we have done so much to be proud of over the past year. We completed the promises we made to you at transfer, which has seen so many of you benefiting from new bathrooms, kitchens and double glazing, and improved heating and insulation. And we have led many innovative projects, from the visual transformation of Foxhill to the start of the new external wall insulation project at Boundary Way – which is not only making the estate more attractive but lowering residents’ energy bills.

The Trust has always been about much more than homes. Now, more than ever, it is important for us to provide additional support for our residents. That is why we have helped to create four new community businesses which are providing jobs and apprenticeships for residents, and it is also why we have played a major role in setting up the Watford Foodbank.

Shortly I will be stepping down from the Trust, having been the Chair for the maximum six year term set out in our Rules. It has been a hugely rewarding experience. Along the way I have met many tenants whose lives have been changed for the better by the Trust’s work, from the couple who were thrilled with their new kitchen, to the young man who had been given a pathway to his dream job by one of our social enterprises. While these achievements have been delivered by a committed and talented staff team at the Trust, it is gratifying to know that I have played a part.

As ever I would like to thank my fellow Board members and the Trust’s staff for their dedication and hard work over the year. It is with some sadness that I leave the Trust, but I do so knowing it will continue to provide excellent services and deliver our vision of ‘better homes, friendlier communities – together’.

Diane LeeChair

www.wcht.org.uk


Our Chief Executive

Last year was a turning point for us as we celebrated the completion of our transfer promises on our fifth Birthday in September and launched our new 2012-2017 Business Plan, Everyone Matters – Our Journey Together.

To celebrate our fifth birthday we closed our office and went out into the community to make a difference to people’s lives. Some of this was about doing small things like litter picking, whilst others were transformational such as painting the Meriden subway and raising over £46,000 for the Peace Hospice. Although this was only for one day, all our regular community activities are about us working in partnership to deliver our vision of better homes and friendly communities…. together.

The relationship we have with our members is key to making this happen. Our main form of contact is through our Gateway Leadership Team and the associated programmes. Following a successful election process the new team was elected in September and they have been working together to make sure our members have a voice. You can read about their experience on page 18.

After launching our 2012-2017 Business Plan in September we started work on reviewing our staffing structure to make sure it is fit for purpose to deliver our ambitious plans, which includes building 500 new homes. This has been a stressful time for a number of our staff and I would like to personally thank everyone for their hard work in delivering excellent services throughout this time.

This annual report gives you a flavour of our achievements over the last year and I hope you enjoy reading it. I also hope you will continue working with us to make Watford and Three Rivers a better place to live.

Tina BarnardChief Executive


For your home

What we are proud of

Home improvements

Last year we completed our £66 million programme to bring our homes up to the Watford Quality Standard, delivering the promise we made at transfer in 2007. We fitted new kitchens, bathrooms and boilers, rewired properties and installed new doors and windows; ensuring that all single-glazed windows were replaced. We also improved the exterior of our properties by replacing gutters, rainwater pipes, fascias and soffits. High rise refurbishment

Our improvement programme included the £4 million refurbishment of two high rise blocks and four low rise blocks on the Meriden estate, which was completed in July.

Foxhill facelift and new homes

We completed our second housing development, 12 affordable family homes in Foxhill. To complement the new homes, we used our Better Communities Fund to transform the existing flats with modern timber cladding.

Boundary Way external wall insulation

Working with Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough Council, we started a new project to provide energy efficient external wall insulation to over 100 homes in Boundary Way. We have secured over £300,000 in government funding for this project, which will not only improve the appearance of the homes but make them cheaper to heat.

www.wcht.org.uk


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WHeRe We WILL IMPROVe

Last year around 75% of repairs were completed right first time and we need to improve on this.

We want to get all of our repairs right first time but we know that this isn’t always possible. We have set ourselves a target of getting at least 79% of repairs right first time over the next year. Our actions will include improving the equipment in our vans so we have the right tools for the job, and getting better at identifying the work that needs to be done when you report a repair.

Lucy’s story Lucy moved into her new home in Foxhill last year with her two sons, Alfie, 3, and Josh, 7.

Moving here is like a dream come true. The boys have made friends and they can play out the front, and the house is just perfect. It’s great because the solar panels keep the bills down.

Making it simpler to report a repair

To make our repairs service more efficient, we now put your repair requests into one of three categories:

Emergency Priority (within 24 hours)

Urgent (within 7 calendar days)

Routine (within 31 calendar days)

Remember, you can report a repair at any time on our dedicated repairs number, 0800 218 2247, which is free from landlines, or at our website, www.wcht.org.uk.


Working with you


Although we are good at collecting our rent, by March 2013 we were owed £854,023 by current tenants, which means our rent arrears were at 3.44% of what we should collect for the year. With the money owed to us we could fit 190 new kitchens or 260 new bathrooms.

We have set a target of improving rent arrears to 1.97% by the end of March 2014. We know this will be challenging with the recent changes to benefits – which is why we are increasing the financial advice and support we provide, and doing extra work to help create jobs and apprenticeships.


Helping you cope

We know that many of you are finding it hard to get by and we took steps to prepare you for the changes to welfare benefits taking place from 2013 onwards. We took on two members of staff – a Tenancy Support Officer and an Under Occupancy Officer – to help you cope with these changes, and our Income team has been referring tenants to the training and skills agency TCHC to help them find work.

New Gateway Leadership Team elected

Last year we reviewed the way we involve our tenants and residents, leading to the creation of the Gateway Leadership Team – a group of nine elected residents who are working with us to improve our services.

Raising money for charity

To celebrate our fifth birthday, tenants and friends of the Trust joined us in an abseil down 17-storey Munden View on the Meriden. We raised over £46,000 for the Peace Hospice.

Your Trust – your say

We are a Community Gateway, which means that all tenants and leaseholders can become a Member – this entitles you to vote at our Annual General Meeting and have a say on other key decisions. We also allow residents in our community areas, who are not Trust tenants or leaseholders, to be Associate Members. We currently have 2814 members.

Improving the Meriden

For our fifth birthday celebrations, we got all of our staff working in the Meriden to deliver community improvements that were suggested by Meriden Residents’ Association. These included weeding and planting flowerbeds; painting garages and the estate office; and redecorating the Meriden underpass with artwork designed by local schoolchildren.

New Foodbank service

Working with Watford New Hope Trust, local community groups and volunteers, we helped to set up a new service providing emergency food supplies to people in crisis: Watford Foodbank.


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www.wcht.org.uk


Just 69% of you feel it is easy to get hold of the right person at the Trust. We want you all to feel that you can get hold of the right person, and have set a target of improving this to at least 75% over the next year.

Call waiting times to the Trust also increased from 21 seconds to 89 seconds, we improved by answering your questions from your first call without having to call you back – this rose to 75%.

We have recently trained our customer service staff to handle basic rent and repairs enquiries, so this can mean they spend more time on the phone. You might have to wait a little longer for your call to be answered, but it also means we can solve your problem in one go.

Watford 2012

We worked with the Community Action Group to stage a day of entertainment and family fun at Knutsford Playing Fields in July. This free event was also a chance for our local community groups to provide information about their services, fundraise and recruit new members.

Community Champions

We celebrated local unsung heroes in May 2012, at a fun day for all the community.

Music projects with the Purcell School

The Trust linked up with Purcell School to bring music to our sheltered schemes with the ‘Singing in the Schemes’ workshops. We also ran the Impulse music project with Central Primary School, giving children the opportunity to perform at a gala concert.

I really like art so as soon as I heard about this I said I definitely want to do it. I had a good time and I feel really proud that I did it. I don’t usually come this way but I’m going to start walking here more often as I like looking at it so much!

Terrain’s story In February 2013 Terrain Gray helped to create a stunning community mural at the building site for our new homes in Croxley View. We wanted to brighten the area while giving young people new skills as part of our Yo – Youth Opportunities project. Terrain wants to be an animator when he’s older.


In your community


Only 60% of you feel that your views have been taken into account and acted upon – this is not good enough, especially for a community gateway organisation.

We know that many of you were not happy when we contacted you about service charges in November 2012. We had complaints about the way we gave this information, and a number of you were concerned about the cost of the charges and our proposal to charge for grounds maintenance.

We took your comments on board to make our communications about service charges clearer. We have also introduced the charge more gradually to make it more affordable and are delaying the grounds maintenance service charge until 2014, while we review the fairest way to do this.

Our target for ‘views taken into account’ over the next year is at least 67% but we hope to beat this.

Community Maintenance Team

Working with Construction Gateway, we created the Community Maintenance Team to give experience to local apprentices while improving our homes. We took on six apprentices last year and will be recruiting more this year.

Play and games areas

We funded fantastic new play and fitness areas at Meriden Park, Radlett Road and South Way.


Jobs at Home

Together with Thrive Homes and the Housing Leadership Foundation we created the country’s first Jobs at Home business, providing home decorations and adaptations while offering job opportunities to our residents. Now other housing providers around the UK are following our lead.

Green Canteen

We partnered with Herts Mind Network to transform some scrubland in the Meriden into the Green Canteen – offering volunteering opportunities and ‘Learn to Garden’ courses for just £10. The Green Canteen sells the produce that is grown, such as bedding plants, hanging baskets and vegetables, to create more income for the business.

Watford Cycle Hub

We provided start-up funding to Watford Cycle Hub, a non-profit business based at Holywell Community Centre which offers repair services, maintenance courses and training to the local community.

www.wcht.org.uk


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Patricia’s storyPatricia Bell was surprised when her kitchen replacement was carried out by apprentices working for the Trust’s new social enterprise, the Community Maintenance Team.

I was thrilled to bits when the Trust said I would get a new kitchen. And when they came to do the work the lads were straight from school! I think it’s a fantastic idea as there aren’t many jobs around in Watford. They were good workers, clean workers and respectable too. They did a great job and I couldn’t be happier. They can come back any time!


Around 82% of you were satisfied with our overall service last year. This is a high figure but we know we can do even better.

We hope that all the improvements we are making over the next year – in listening to your views, improving repairs, reducing arrears and making it easier for you to contact us – will lead to a higher overall satisfaction with our services.

We’re aiming to reach at least 85% by the end of the year.

Community Hubs

Last year we took on two former community centres to transform them into new community hubs. We agreed a 20 year lease to manage Harebreaks Hub, refurbished the building and reopened it in January. The ground floor is being rented by the Dan Tien performing arts school and has been

equipped with a dance floor; the first floor is available for hire by the local community. We also agreed a 99 year lease to manage Leavesden Hub and started an ambitious refurbishment programme which will be completed in September 2013; this will be

available for a wide range of activities including early years childcare, indoor sports and community meetings.


Value for money

How every £1 was spent in 2012/13

Management costs including staff

35p Interest on borrowing

10p

Service costs

1p

Costs of maintenance of properties

24p

Depreciation

9p

Supporting People

1p

Surplus for reinvesting in the business

15p

Management services

1pWater rates

4p

Management costs including staff – 35pMoney we spend on staff wages and providing services to tenants.

Costs of maintenance of properties – 24pFor general repairs and maintenance work and for the maintenance of grounds and communal areas.

Supporting People – 1pA government-funded programme to provide housing related support to vulnerable people to help them live more independently.

Management services – 1pThe costs of managing a small number of properties on behalf of Watford Borough and Hertfordshire County Councils, who pay us for providing this service.

Service costs – 1pHeating, lighting, cleaning and other costs.

Interest on borrowing – 10pInterest we have to pay back to the bank for money we borrowed to spend on improving properties.

Depreciation – 9pAn accounting adjustment that reduces the value of our assets due to wear and tear and ageing.

Surplus for reinvesting in the business – 15pMoney that we have to put back into the business for future years.

Water rates – 4pWe collect water rates for tenants through their rents and then pay this to Affinity Water for the supply of water to our properties, who give us income for running this collection service.

www.wcht.org.uk


31st March 2012 (£m) 31st March 2013 (£m)

Value of our housing 135.2 191.8

Value of our office 8.4 8.3

Value of our shops 2.1 3.5

Value of our computers 0.5 0.4

Money people owe to us 51.3 44.6

Cash 1.5 5.7

Money we owe to others short term -11.5 -11.4

Total £187.5 £242.9

31st March 2012 (£m) 31st March 2013 (£m)

Money we owe to the bank 75.6 79.0

Work we will be carrying out on our houses 39.4 34.8

Net pension liability 0.9 1.5

Value of the business 71.6 127.6

Total £187.5 £242.9

Value of our business

Understanding the MoneyValue of our housing – has increased by over £52 million as a result of the home Improvement Programme.

Money people owe to us – money and work owed to the Trust including rent arrears.

Money we owe to others short-term – covers money owed to suppliers involved in improving our properties. This decreases as more and more work is completed.

Money we owe the bank – has risen by £3.4 million to cover the loans we needed to carry out improvements.

Work we will be carrying out on our houses – money to carry out works on improving your homes to the Watford Quality Standard.

Value of the business – has improved as a result of the increase in the value of our properties. The Trust made a surplus in the year which means more money has been received than spent. This surplus will be reinvested in the Trust.


Our year by numbers

82 69

90 74

25 89

Satisfaction with your neighbourhood as a place to live

easy to get hold of the right person

Satisfaction with how anti-social behaviour cases were handled

Staff were able to deal with a problem

Average time to re-let vacant homes

Call waiting times

% %

% %

days seconds

2011/2012 – 83.5% 2011/2012 – 65%

2011/2012 – 90% 2011/2012 – 80.5%

2011/2012 – 21.5 seconds2011/2012 – 20 days

www.wcht.org.uk


75 867660

22,533

76

First call resolution Percentage completed right first time

Satisfaction with the condition of your property

Satisfaction with views taken into account

Number of repairs carried out

Satisfaction with our repairs service

% %

%

%

%

2011/2012 – 63% 2011/2012 – 89.7%

2011/2012 – 79%2011/2012 – 18,645

2011/2012 – 76%

2011/2012 – 62.2%


Our priorities

Our priority for 2012/13 How we did

Complete the elections and training of the new, more representative Gateway Leadership Team, and promote their new programmes of work.

Our Gateway Leadership Team was elected in September 2012 and we are inviting all our members to join their three programmes of work, see page 18.

Inform tenants which repairs are re-chargeable and reclaim them.

We did not achieve this, but it has been included in our new Property Policy which is due to be approved in August.

Complete a review of rent arrears and identify support needed to reduce them.

We carried out a ‘Lean Review’ of rent collection. This means we give help and advice as soon as arrears occur and take firm action against those who do not reduce their arrears.

Resolve more complaints at the informal stage.

We worked with tenants to change our complaints processes and now seek to resolve complaints at the informal stage wherever possible. Nearly half of complaints have been resolved informally since we made this change.

Complete the improvement programme promised in the transfer document.

Improvement plan completed, see page 6.

Streamline repairs and improve appointment times by introducing two categories (within 24 hours and 20 days).

We have changed our repairs categories, see page 7.

Offer support and advice to new tenants to enable them to keep their tenancy.

We have appointed a Tenancy Support Officer to do this.

Reduce the number of anti-social behaviour complaints.

Anti-social behaviour complaints fell from 172 cases in 2011/12 to 146 cases in 2012/13 - a 15% drop.

Complete the consultation for the cleaning contract and include key results into the specification.

We invited tenants and leaseholders who will be receiving the cleaning service to send us their comments, and their comments have been taken into account in the specification.

Develop a ‘foodbank’ social enterprise.We worked with Watford New Hope Trust and others to set up Watford Foodbank, see page 8.

Commence the refurbishment of the Harebreaks Community Centre.

The refurbished Harebreaks Community Hub reopened in January 2012.

Our priorities for the last year… how did we do?

www.wcht.org.uk


We will carry out a ‘lean review’ of our Customer Services Centre – this means we will look at the service we provide at the moment and find ways of making it more efficient and better for you.

We will launch a £250,000 per annum Community Development Fund to invest in projects which make a difference to our neighbourhood areas.

We will increase the use of our existing community hubs, and plan the development of new ones.

We will continue to support ‘social enterprises’ (local businesses that are good for the community) to create jobs and volunteering opportunities.

We will let you know how you might be affected by benefit changes and where you can get help. We will work with our partners such as Watford Credit Union and Watford Foodbank to give you extra support.

We will start a new five-year programme of ‘Community Option Studies’ to find out what changes you would like to see in your area.

We will develop a plan to sell the Trust’s services to other organisations, to bring in more investment for homes and communities in Watford and Three Rivers.

We will launch a graduate trainee scheme to support local employment, and review our staff benefits package so enable us to attract and retain the best staff.

We will continue our commitment to build 500 new homes over five years.

We will ensure the Trust is well managed and that our values of Personal Ownership, Integrity and Innovation are central to everything we do.

Our priorities for the last year… how did we do? Our priorities for this year


A message...

...from the Gateway Leadership Team Last year we made some changes to the way we involve residents in our work, leading to the election of our first Gateway Leadership Team. This is a group which represents residents and helps us to improve our services.

Here is what they have to say about their first year of working alongside the Trust.

Working with the Trust has been a positive experience for us and it has certainly raised our awareness of all the Trust does for its residents.

The Trust has made some real achievements over the last year, such as the new homes in Foxhill, apprenticeships, the Foodbank, and phasing in the service charge to make it more affordable for tenants. And of course setting up the Gateway Leadership Team!

Being on the Gateway Leadership Team has helped many of us to gain confidence, and some of us have picked up new skills which we can transfer to daily life.

We feel that we have helped to make a difference and that the Trust is listening to us. We have made some helpful suggestions as to how the Trust can improve its services, particularly spreading the message about benefit changes as we think this is very important.

These difficult economic times will be a real challenge to the Trust over the next year and it is important that it can support people who are struggling, and still collect the rent to deliver improvements in the community.

With all the training we have had it has taken the group a while to get up and running so we will have more of an impact in the future, including

more working with the Trust’s Board so we can get involved in strategic decisions.

And we need to raise more awareness of who we are and what we do, and the Trust can help by shouting louder about us. To see a short film about our work, go to www.wcht.org.uk/film.

We plan to get out and get more involved with tenants over the coming year so we look forward to meeting you!

Five of our Gateway Leadership Team members. Left to right: Brian Trowbridge,

Avril Barclay, Shenaz Ghani, Geoff O’Connell, Naomi Welch.

The Gateway Leadership Team is working on three programmes: Communications, Communities and Making Membership Meaningful. You are welcome to join in with these - call us on 01923 209183 to find out more.

Board of Directors

Diane Lee (Chair)

Bernadette Laventure (Vice Chair)

Peter Hammond

Kareen Hastrick (took up post December 2012)

Steve Johnson (resigned May 2012)

Jeremy Kape

Helen Lynch (took up post May 2012, resigned August 2012)

Chris Meade

Judith Moores

Robert Rabinowitz

Robert Robinson

Dave Smith

John Swinney (took up post October 2012)

Executive Management Team

Tina Barnard Chief executive

Gareth Lewis Director of Property and New Business

Ruairi McCourt Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services (Director of Housing and Community Services from 1 July 2013)

Julie Robinson Director of Resources

Gateway Leadership Team

Members in post as at August 2013

Avril Barclay

Shenaz Ghani

Mazie Gibson

Hope Isoka-Onwordi (co-optee)

Geoff O’Connell

Kara Smalley

Brian Trowbridge

Naomi Welch

Who’s who

Contact us:Gateway House59 Clarendon RoadWatford WD17 1LAT: 01923 209000 e: [email protected]

watfordcommunityhousingtrust @watfordgateway

Watford Community Housing Trust is an Industrial and Provident Society registration number 30183R and registered with the Homes and Communities Agency number L4495

Annual tenant report 2012 13

Documents

new homes

new community businesses

new bathrooms

new kitchen

year term

past year

community mural

chief executivelast