On the House - Annual Report Special Edition

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housing news for Winchester City Council tenants and leaseholders

Tenant News, produced by Tenantsfor Tenants can be fou nd at the back of this edition

Dear ReadersWelcome to your 2009/10Annual Housing Report. Inthis report, we have includeddetails of how WinchesterCity Council, your landlord,has performed in the year to31 March 2010. We hope youfind the information useful.

As with all public services, the Council is facingsignificant financial pressures this year. Despite thepressure on services to tenants, the Council is committedto maintaining and improving all Landlord Serviceswhere possible. We are grateful for the understandingand support from all tenants’ groups consulted on thesepressures, and are committed to lobbying Government toensure a fair settlement for Winchester on the currentreview of national housing finance.

I did not support the policy to sell much needed “estate”homes to help address Government under funding inhousing and I’m pleased to say this policy will notcontinue. Some “non estate” buildings which are notsuitable for family housing and cost too much to maintainmay be disposed of this year. Our priority is to improveservices to tenants, increase investment in your homes,reduce void times and to ensure we meet yourexpectations of the Council as your landlord.

The regulator for housing, the TenantServices Authority (TSA) requires us toissue an annual report to tenants everyyear. The TSA is ourequivalent of Ofsted forschools, or the FinancialServices Authority.

This annual report must give you an honest andhelpful view about how well Winchester CityCouncil is doing against the TSA standards.

We must also say what we are doing on tailoringagreements on services with particular groups oftenants.

The report details our pledges to you. How well wedo on meeting those pledges is checked by the TSA(www.tenantservicesauthority.org).

The Winchester district wide tenantsgroup TACT (Tenants and CouncilTogether), the Newsletter WorkingParty and the Reading

Panel have been consulted on thecontents and design ofthis report.

What is this report about?

Annual Report2009-2010

Cllr Lucille ThompsonPortfolio Holder for Communities

houseSpecial Edition

Fill in thequestionnaire inside

this edition for achance to win an ipodtouch or equivalent inLuv2Shop vouchers

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If you have any particular needswhich affect how you are able touse or be involved in our servicesor how you would like to receive

information - for exampletranslation, interpreters, Braille,

audio tape, large print, sign language - please contact theCustomer Service Centre either bytelephone: 01962 840 222 or by

email: [email protected]

Winchester City Council, City Offices, Colebrook Street,Winchester, SO23 9LJ.telephone 01962 840 222 fax 01962 841 365email [email protected] website www.winchester.gov.ukTelephone calls may be recorded.Printed on 75% recycled paper.

T E X T P H O N EThis facility is available for readerswho are deaf or hard of hearing.Please telephone 01962 878 982.

get it tapedIf you would like any of theinformation in on the house madeavailable in large print or audioformat, please call Glynis Cole onFreephone 0800 716 987.

thebigwordtelephone interpreting service

The Council uses a 24-hourTelephone InterpretingService, which also provideswritten or recordedtranslations including audiotapes and CDs.

If you, a relative or aneighbour would like to talkto the Council through aninterpreter, please contactyour Area Housing Manageron 01962 840 222.

A summary of the last year

Priorities for this year

Key achievements last yearincluded:

Decent Homes – All of ourproperties are now classified as“Decent”. These homes werebrought up to the Government’sstandard by March 2010 – 9months ahead of schedule.

Gas Servicing and CleaningContracts – New contracts forthese services were awarded thisyear and both are working well.

Tenant Involvement – Youcontinued to play an active role inhelping us develop services.

In particular, tenants undertook aformal inspection of the LeaseholdManagement service and took part intwo “mystery shopping” exercises totest the quality of our services to you.

Customer Service – LandlordServices once again achievedaccreditation against the nationalCustomer Service Excellencestandard following an independentreview.

Disabled Adaptations – Over£750,000 was spent on providingdisabled adaptations to assistCouncil tenants to remain in theirown home.

Maintaining Decent Homes –We will be investing over £8 millionon maintaining and improving yourhomes this year.

Housing Revenue AccountReform – The Council and TACThas lobbied Government for reformof the current Housing financesystem which could see moremoney for Council housing. Furtherannouncements are expectedshortly and it is hoped that changeswill be introduced by April 2011.

New Repairs Contract – Theservice provided by Serco is beingreviewed and a new contract willbe let from April 2011. Tenants aredirectly involved in the selectionprocess.

Review of Local Standards –This annual report forms part of thework on reviewing our current localstandards as required by the TenantServices Authority. The review ofexisting standards has to becompleted and new standardspublished by April 2011.

Energy Efficiency – The Councilwill continue to improve the energyefficiency of your homes. Theenergy efficiency of Council homesis already significantly higher thanprivate homes in Winchester andhigher than most other councilhomes in the country. This year, wewill be increasing investment innew boilers and will be workingwith partners to test renewableenergy options such as solar panels.

Improving Performance – Weaim to improve the time taken torelet properties from an average of44 days last year to 30 days.

We also aim to ensure that 100% ofhomes have a current gas servicingcertificate.

Tenant Involvement – We willcontinue our programme of TenantInspections of our services and alsoundertake at least 3 “mysteryshopping” tests as well. The resultsof each will be reported to youthrough “On the House”.

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National and Local Housing StandardsThe Tenant ServicesAuthority has this year setdown national standardsthat all social housingtenants can expect fromtheir landlord. In addition,all landlords are expectedto agree local standardswith their tenants.This document sets out the existingstandards for Council tenants inWinchester. These standards havebeen developed, reviewed andagreed with tenants in recent years,both through TACT and its subgroups and through wider surveysand consultations. They now needto be reviewed in light of the newnational standards. Over the next 6months, tenants will be asked tohelp us agree which standards aremost important to you, which needchanging and which, if any, need todiffer from one area to another totake account of local need.

We have developed a wide range oflocal standards in recent years andthey are set out in the TenantsHandbook. The standards aresummarised on the next few pages,along with information on how weperform against those standards.

The standards have been developedthrough close working with tenantsgroups and taking account of feedbackfrom previous tenant’s surveys.

The National Standards are:

In June we held our first TenantsConference and exhibition linkedwith TACT Annual General Meeting.The purpose of the conference wasto talk to you about standards andservices, what is important to youon your estate and ask you to giveus your views.

The conference was a great successwith over 60 tenants attending. Itwas opened by the Chair and ViceChair of TACT with special guestspeaker Peter Marsh, Chief Executiveof the TSA.

There was general support at theConference for the existingstandards, although we now wantto provide all tenants with thechance to tell us what you think.

The Council’s Local Standards

Are Our Current Standardsthe Right Ones?

� Tenant involvement and empowerment page 4

� Maintaining your home page 6

� Allocating homes and setting rents page 8

� Looking after your neighbourhood page 9

and communal areas

� Value for money page 10

Go to Page 12 to find outall the different ways youcan let us know what youthink about the Winchesterlocal standards and whathappens next ...

�

For localstandards see:

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� Treat you fairly and respectfully.� Try to get things right first time

and put them right if they gowrong.

� Listen to your ideas and useyour feedback to improve ourservices.

� Respond to letters and emailswithin 10 working days andanswer telephone calls within20 seconds.

� Respond to complaints within10 working days and escalate itif you feel our initial response isunsatisfactory.

� Providing financial support forrecognised tenant and residentgroups including an annualgrant, and start up grants fornew groups.

� Providing access to meetingrooms, photocopying andstationery and help to set upand encourage accountabletenant and residents’ groups inyour area.

� Encouraging individual tenantsand leaseholders to give us theirviews on our services throughregular surveys, Tenant Talk, andthrough ad-hoc groups ontenancy issues, rent or servicecharges.

� Aim to know the needs andprofile of all of our customers.

� Train officers with the skills to beable to respond to different needs.

� Provide translations, tapes andbig print leaflets on request, orarrange for an interpreter tosupport you at meetings aboutyour tenancy.

� Provide a portable hearing loopfor meetings or interviews atyour home or in our offices.

How well are we doing? Tenant Involvement and Customer Care

Giving you what

you want…Last year 125 of our

tenants received all our

communications in larger

print, because that’s what

they asked for.

92% thought the informationand advice was good

89% liked the new designand format

��

The Council’s current local standards in this area are:

Mystery ShoppingDid you know that 11tenants carried out 2mystery shops oncontacting the Counciland writtencommunication last year?

We launched our new Tenants Handbook in 2009

Custom er Service, Choice and Complaints

Involvement andEmpowerment

Understanding andResponding to Diverse Needs of Tenants

We Will:We Will:

We will support formaltenant involvement by:

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What you think of usYour

ResponseNationalAverage

National Rank

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with theservices / overall service provided by us 85.7% 79%

Top 25%performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied withhow enquiries are dealt with generally by us

82.6% 72.1%Top 25%performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied thattheir views are being taken into account by us

65.5% 60.78%Above average

performer

% respondents who feel we are very or fairlygood at keeping them informed about thingsthat might affect them as a tenant

89.3% 78%Top 25%performer

Letter ResponsesOur average time to respond to a letter is 8 days

76% of our letters are answered within 10 days

96% of our letters are answered within 20 days

Phone Response Times89% of our calls are answered within 20 seconds

14 of the 16 complaints received by rents were aboutthe arrears notice which was sent out in error. Anapology was issued to those tenants and was repeatedin “On the House”.

Lessons Learnt from complaints received

Landlord Services changed the following due tocomplaints being raised:� The tenants’ handbook was reworded to avoid

confusion about rent for properties completing amutual exchange.

� The Community Alarm Service has extended theirhours to cover the reduced Customer Service Centreopening hours .

ServiceTotal

NumberUpheld In target

HousingManagement 10 5 100%

SupportedHousing 7 5 57%

Rents 16 14 94%

PropertyServices 15 8 73%

TOTAL 48 32 83%

Complaints

Ourinformation…Did you know all our

leaflets and documents are

checked by a group of

tenants to make sure they

are easy to read and

understandable?

Lifeline 400 Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually

Rental £1.72 £6.88 £22.37 £89.44

Cover £0.96 £3.84 £12.58 £49.92

Total + VAT £2.68 £11.65 £34.95 £139.80

Lifeline 400 Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually

Rental £1.72 £6.88 £22.37 £89.44

Cover £2.58 £10.32 £33.55 £134.20

Total + VAT £4.30 £18.64 £55.92 £223.68

Lifeline Connect Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually

Rental £2.23 £8.92 £29.08 £116.32

Cover £0.96 £3.84 £12.58 £49.92

Total + VAT £3.20 £13.89 £41.66 £166.64

Lifeline Connect Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually

Rental £2.23 £8.92 £29.08 £116.32

Cover £2.58 £10.32 £33.55 £134.20

Total + VAT £4.82 £20.88 £62.63 £250.52

Lifeline Rental Charges

Subscriber supplies the service with three contacts to call an emergency

Mobile Warden response to emergencies 24 hours a day

Standard Cover

Mobile Warden Cover

Extra Equipment

Weekly Monthly Quarterly Annually

Safe Socket £0.76 £3.04 £9.88 £39.52

Smoke Alarm £0.50 £2.00 £6.50 £26.00

Telecare (mobile) £5.50 £22.00 £71.50 £286.00

Telecare (standard) £3.98 £15.92 £51.74 £206.96

Co Detector £0.99 £3.96 £12.87 £51.48

Extra Pendant £0.50 £2.00 £6.50 £26.00

Please be advised to contact lifeline if your contact details change by calling

01962 856 488 or press the red button to speak to an operator.

Turn Your Phone Into a LifelineLifeline is an alarm system that allows you to call forhelp day or night, 365 days a year. It is available to

all residents living in the Winchester district andprovides peace of mind for you and your family.

Updating your

home…Fitted during the year:

90 new kitchens

112 new bathrooms

406 heating upgrades

96 insulation upgrades

141 new front doors

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How well are we doing? Maintaining Your HomeThe Council’s current local standards in this area are:

Quality of Accommodation

Repairs and Maintenance

� Meet the basic Decent HomesStandard by 2010.

� Maintain current levels ofservice.

� Continue to give priority toproviding showers and otheraids and adaptations (subject toassessment).

� Work with other organisationsto improve safety and parkingon estates.

The “Winchester Decent HomesPlus” standard, agreed withtenants in 2005, states that theCouncil will:

We Will: � Complete 98% of jobs withintarget times.

� Aim to achieve 98% satisfactionlevels on all satisfaction surveyquestions for repairs, plannedworks and disabled adaptations.

� Arrange appointments for 100%of pre-inspections and worksissued to Serco for completion(except emergencies) and offer amorning or afternoonappointment.

� Operate an out of hoursemergency service, 5pm – 8.30am Monday –Friday, weekends & bankholidays.

� Inspect external and internalcommunal areas of ourproperties every 5 years andcarry out repairs and painting asnecessary.

� Carry out 100% of gas servicingby appointment.

� Check annually all carbonmonoxide detectors and smokedetectors.

� Carry out aids and adaptationswork for elderly or disabledpeople after an assessment byan Adult Services OccupationalTherapist.

� Carry out a programme ofplanned maintenance to homesincluding replacement kitchenswithin available resources.

Repairs202 complaints were made onRepairs Customer Care Cards.This means that of the 24,618jobs completed in 2009/10less than 2% led to complaints.Those complaints werereviewed with the contractorand have led to improvementsof the repairs service over thelast year.

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How we perform against ourstandards Target 2008/09

Value2009/10

ValueLocal

Comparison*

% non-decent council homes 0% 0.3% 0% Top performer

Energy Efficiency of Housing Stock (SAP rating) 75 78 75 Top 25%

performer

Responsive repairs - % of jobscompleted within target 98% 93% 91% Not available

Responsive repairs - % ofappointments made and kept 98% 99% 98% Not available

Gas servicing - % of homes with acurrent gas servicing certificate 100% 99.7% 98.94% Bottom 25%

performer

What you think of us Yourresponse

NationalAverage

NationalRank

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with theoverall quality of their home 88% 81% Top 25%

performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with thegeneral condition of their property 83.5% 77.43% Top 25%

performer

% respondents very or fairly satisfied with theway we deal with repairs and maintenance 85.2% 75.95% Top 25%

performer

Making lifeeasier…564 tenants receivedDisabled Adaptationsthroughout the year.These included:90 showers17 stair-lifts24 assisted access works

(e.g. ramps)1 major building change

* Performance has been compared with 32 local authorities and housing associations in the South East.

� 100% of social lettings to whichthe Councils have nominationrights to be made through thescheme.

� Help customers make bids forproperties across the Councilareas.

� To meet housing need.� To let social housing in a fair

and open way.

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How well are we doing? Allocating Homes and Setting Rents

How we perform against our standards Target2008/09

Value2009/10

ValueLocal

Comparison

Amount of rent collected and arrears recovered 99% 98.92% 98.71% Top performer

Average time it takes us to re-let our properties(days) 30 41.89 43.5

Bottom 25%performer

Type Bed-sit1

bedroomhomes

2bedroomhomes

3bedroomhomes

4+bedroomhomes

Total number 39 1631 1683 1629 57

Let this year 15 215 165 93 1

Average rent £60.78 £67.01 £77.62 £89.61 £97.95

Our Homes in 2009/2010

We Will:

The Council’s current local standards in this area are:

� Offer a wide range of paymentoptions.

� Take a firm but proactive andpersonal approach to managingrent arrears. Provide options andassistance for repaying yourdebt, taking legal action as alast resort.

� Provide basic debt advice or referyou to the Citizens Advice Bureauspecialist money advisor or asupport agency if you are havingdifficulty paying your rent.

� Give introductory tenancies toall new tenants.

� Give secure tenancies if you arean existing secure or assuredtenant or if you havesuccessfully held an introductorytenancy with us for a periodusually of 12 months.

� Meet all new tenants at a signup interview and arrange ahome visit for all tenants in thefirst 4 weeks of their tenancy.Introductory tenants also receivea home visit after 9 months.

� Aim to relet all properties within30 days once the tenancy hasbeen terminated.

� Provide you with a TenantsHandbook at the start of yourtenancy.

Allocations Rents Tenancy

The Hampshire Home ChoiceLettings Scheme includes allsocial housing providers in theEast Hampshire, Havant andWinchester council areas. We allallocate using the following rules:

We Will:

Anti Social8 Anti-Social Behaviour(ASB) notices were servedduring the year4 tenancies wereterminated because of ASB1 crack house was closed

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What did youthink?… This year we worked with

our tenants in Stanmore to

find out what they wanted

in their neighbourhood

and how to improve the

community.

How well are we doing? Looking After YourNeighbourhood and Communal Areas

� Keep your estate clean and tidy.� Carry out annual inspections of

all our communal areas anddeal with any issues quicklyand efficiently.

� Attend at least two estatewalkabouts a year and dealwith any issues quickly andefficiently.

� Remove racist or obscenegraffiti within 24 hours.

� Work with other agencies tomake our estates and homessafe and peaceful environmentsfor people to live in.

� Make an active contribution tothe work of the WinchesterCommunity Safety Partnership.

� Provide money to the CitizensAdvice Bureau for anindependent Money Adviceservice to tenants.

� Treat all reports of nuisance,anti-social behaviour,harassment and domestic abuseseriously and confidentially.

� Contact or visit any victims ofharassment or domestic abusewithin 24 hours of receiving acomplaint.

� Take swift legal action whereappropriate.

� Support victims or witnesses tobe re-housed where thesituation is very serious or lifethreatening.

� Provide witness support, accessto assessment and mediationservices and supported housingservices for both victims andperpetrators where appropriate.

The Council’s current local standards in this area are:

Neighbourhood Management Local Area Co-operation Anti-Social Behaviour

We Will: We Will: We Will:

Get in thegame…Last year we arrangedreally successful 5-a-side football matchesfor kids in Stanmore.

What you think of usYour

responseNationalAverage

National Rank

% respondents very orfairly satisfied with theirneighbourhood as aplace to live

88.10% 78.05%Top 25%performer

Annual cost per propertyOur Average

CostLocal Average

CostHow we compare locally

Resident Involvement £35.94 £39.86 Better than Average

Repairs and Empty Property Servicing £463.44 £628.51 Top 25% performer

Housing Management £193.00 £249.70 Top 25% performer

Estate Services £69.66 £136.56 Top 25% performer

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We will:� Aim to be in the top 25% for

performance for all keyperformance indicators.

� Aim to keep our managementcosts below average for districtcouncils.

� Report our performance to alltenants in the Annual Reportand monthly on our website.

� Compare our service costs andquality against other landlordsand learn from them.

How well are we doing?

Value for Money

More Efficient…By changing Mobile

Wardens and Scheme

Managers to Older

Persons Support Officers,

they can now help more

people for the same

amount of money.

What you think of us Your response National Average National Rank

% respondents very or fairly satisfied withthe value for money for their rent

81.20% 77%Above average

performer

ReducingCosts…By renegotiating one ofour repairs contracts thisyear we have savednearly £500k for thisyear and following years.

Better Quality…We have joined theHampshire DistrictResidents Forum to shareideas with tenants fromother areas in Hampshireand find out what wecould do better.

GovernmentCharge (‘NegativeSubsidy’)

£8,565,000

ShelteredHousing

£1,024,000General Repairs & Maintenance

£3,923,000

Tenancy Services

£2,404,000

Capital Costs

£3,757,000

General Management

£1,363,000

This chart shows how we spent your money in 2009/2010

Value For Money is a balance of good performance, good quality with reasonable costs. We have shown you ourperformance and what you think of the services we provide in the earlier pages. This table shows you whether ourcosts are reasonable when compared locally.

The Council’s current localstandards in this area are:

We offer opportunities for our older people tohave their say throughscheme InformationSharing Sessions & theSheltered Housing Forum.

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Get Fit 1-2-1 is running

in 8 of our sheltered

schemes offering tenants

an opportunity to get

together and keep fit at

the same time.

98.5% of all alarm calls to the CommunityAlarm Service are answeredwithin 1 minute.

TelecareAs people get older they are manytimes more likely to have anaccident and when you live alonethese accidents can have majorconsequences. We help older peoplewithin our own sheltered schemesand out in the community tocontinue to enjoy living in their ownhome, knowing help is at handthrough “Telecare” solutions.Telecare offers a wide range ofsensors which will automatically callthrough to the Community AlarmService in certain events (such as afall, flood, fire, inactivity etc).

The City Council aims topromote independenceand choice for olderpeople by providingquality housing andsupport. Specific servicesto older people include:

Sheltered Housing

We provide support to 850 olderresidents in sheltered flats andbungalows across the districtproviding a safe, secure andsupportive environment wheretenants can choose tojoin in regular socialactivities.

Community AlarmServiceAll properties in oursheltered schemes areconnected to the Community AlarmService, which provides emergencyassistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Extra CareOur extra care schemes, MatildaPlace and Victoria House are bothbased in central Winchester andhave a capacity to house andsupport 44 tenants. The service

prevented 5tenants movinginto residentialcare last year.

Additional care isprovided to helptenants continue to

live independently in their own homefor as long as possible and to preventadmission into residential care. Coveris provided on site 24 hours a day,every day, by care assistants providingpersonal care as required, includinghelp with bathing, dressing and mealpreparation.

Older Persons Housing

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In addition to the survey enclosed,we will shortly be asking a randomsample of tenants to complete adetailed tenant satisfaction survey.

We will use the information fromthis survey and what you havealready told us through previousconsultations to agree new localstandards for 2011. We will discussthe results with resident groups andforums later this year and will agreewhat more we can do to tailorservices to meet your needs andexpectations.

We will report progress in theMarch edition of “On the House”.

Between now and nextApril, we need toagree with you if ourcurrent standards meetyour needs.

What happens next?

You may be among the 30% ofCouncil tenants who have beenasked to take part in this year’ssurvey on tenant satisfaction.

Last time over 57% of forms werereturned which allowed the Councilto find out what was reallyimportant to tenants and improveservices further.

Now, the Council is asking for yourhelp to achieve another highresponse rate!

If you have been chosen to takepart in the random sample you willhave already received aquestionnaire and we would begrateful if you could spare a fewmoments to answer the questions.

We will use this important informationto help improve our services in thefuture, and to report back to you onthe progress we are making.

Your views are really important.Fill in the questionnaire insidethis edition for a chance to winan ipod touch or equivalent inLuv2Shop vouchers. Alternativelyyou can complete it online atwww.surveymonkey.com/s/housingreport

Now turn the magazine over to read

Tell us what you think!

Agreeing New Standards or‘Local Offers’