We aim to be a landlord who:
- provides safe and high-quality accommodation
- engages meaningfully with our tenants by being transparent
- supports tenants to influence our services, and hold us accountable for our performance
We know we do some things well. We also know we have room for improvement and want to improve.
Rebuilding the Housing Service Programme
Our Rebuilding the Housing Service Programme is the way we manage our improvements.
We started it after self-referring to the housing regulator to make sure we have all the basics in place for a compliant service, and to achieve our goals.
Our goals
We will know that we have achieved what we want to, when:
- every tenant has a safe and well-maintained home
- we have excellent customer engagement and customer care
- our services are financially healthy and sustainable
- we are fully compliant with social housing regulation
- we have efficient and effective processes and decision-making enabled by modern integrated digital solutions
- a stable, motivated and highly skilled permanent workforce
Achievements
Although we have a lot more work to do, we have made good progress towards achieving these goals between 2023 and 2024, including:
- we have improved our repairs and maintenance delivery, both by onboarding a new contractor, and improving our systems, data and contract management
- we have improved the way we respond to reports of damp and mould to make sure our action is both timely and effective
- we have developed and implemented a new Resident Engagement Strategy, working with our tenants’ forum and other groups, and piloted new approached to service delivery, including at Havelock and Medlar Farm
- we have nearly completed our stock condition survey which will allow us to target and prioritise capital investment to improve the condition of our properties and prevent disrepair issues before they happen
- we have developed and agreed a 3-year housing revenue account business plan. This allowed us to operate within budget in 2024 to 2025 (and make a contribution to reserves) and helps us to ensure our longer-term financial sustainability
- we have nearly completed a significant staffing restructure. This makes sure we have the right staff doing the right roles to really make a difference. It also makes sure we operate within our budget and without the need to use large numbers of agency staff
- we have completed the discovery phase of our digital programme, as well as delivering some tactical improvements. Data is important to our services working effectively and to meeting the needs of our tenants
- we are working with our tenants to design our customer access model to make sure our services are easy to access and meet the needs of all of our tenants