2019 Inspiral Annual Report

2019 Inspiral Annual Report 1 Contents

Map of 3 About Inspiral 4 Message from the chair 5 Key Figures 6 Steven’s Story – From customer to colleague 8 Our service 10 Customer Satisfaction 11 Community Associations 14 Key People 16 2019 Inspiral Annual Report Map of Oldham

Chadderton – Crossley 372 properties 1 x retail unit 1 x community centre

Werneth & Medlock Vale, Primrose Bank, 238 properties 1 x community centre

Coldhurst 36 properties

3 About Inspiral

In 2011 Oldham Council chose the Inspiral team to maintenance. Both Great Places and Wates repairs team deliver its £113 million Gateways to Oldham housing and are based in Oldham Town Centre. HCP provide operational regeneration project to transform four areas across the management on behalf of Inspiral to manage Great Places Borough – Crossley in , Dew Way in Westwood, and Wates service requirements. Primrose Bank in Medlock Vale/Coppice and the old primary school site of Keswick Avenue in Fitton Hill. Inspiral are About HCP contracted to manage the new neighbourhoods for a HCP provide operational management on behalf of Inspiral total of 25 years. to manage Great Places and Wates service requirements. The project includes a total of 646 homes, a mixture of About Great Places newly built properties or refurbished existing homes as well Great Places also manage 19,000 properties across the as 2 x new community centres and 1 x retail unit. In addition North of . 3 x new public open spaces have also been constructed.

Jura are the lead investor and are a joint investment About Wates company consisting of Dalmore Capital Limited and Equitix Wates are one of the largest family owned construction Investment Management Limited. Great Places Housing companies in the , trading since 1897. Group is co-investor and developer and will provide neighbourhood and estates management services while Wates Living Space have built new homes, modernised existing council homes and are providing long-term

4 2019 Inspiral Annual Report Message from the chair

2019 has proved to be another challenging also proud to have developed a partnership with Oldham Athletic and ultimately successful year for the Community Trust to deliver employment opportunities by way Inspiral Gateways to Oldham housing of training and guaranteed interviews for residents. project. We are proud to be a long term Primrose Bank has seen significant transformation since the partner with Oldham Council delivering a start of the project, and we are excited to work with partners range of services and facilities that meet in delivering a completed site that includes a number of much the needs of our neighbourhoods. needed family homes, both rented and privately owned. Primrose Bank and Crossley Community Associations, now Partnership working to continue to improve local assets has registered charities, have made significant progress. Both have been demonstrated this year in the development of working worked closely with local residents and volunteers to complete groups looking at local land and facilities that we can improve. a community needs survey to develop an events programme to Feedback from customers is essential for us to understand meet local needs. I’m pleased to say that at the time of writing where we are doing the right things and where we need to this report over 230 responses have been received, helping both improve. Satisfaction survey responses, attendance at resident charities apply for £20,000 of National Lottery funding. The estate inspections, forums and panels as well as complaints charities also donated over £5,000 this year to local projects, investigations all contribute to this vital area of work, and we and have been working closely with local schools, partner are pleased to be able to present information from these charities and community groups to identify joint areas of work activities in our annual report. for the coming years. We remain committed to adding value and building a legacy of the PFI investment. Being able to report that We are proud to be a partner of Oldham Council and be an we have been able to recruit Steven, a local resident, onto an active member of the Oldham Team. apprentice program is a significant achievement. In addition, we have worked with subcontractors to offer members of the wider Vicky Everett Oldham area employment opportunities on the project. We’re Chair Person, Inspiral

5 Key Figures 92% of calls answered within 15 seconds

100% 2 Gas service tests employment completed placements fulfilled

358 92% repairs post of repairs inspections completed completed on day of reporting 48 Estate 3714 walkabouts calls received

6 2019 Inspiral Annual Report £5,000+ donated by Primrose and Crossley Community Association resident groups

28 homes adapted to meet residents needs

6000+ 93% people using overall customer community centres satisfaction 186 community peer research surveys completed

12 days 2613 average time to Responsive repairs re-let a home completed

7 Steven’s Story From customer to colleague

We first met Steven Keatley when he moved into one of our Oldham PFI properties in 2017. Little did we know that two years later he would be supporting customers himself. “I really appreciate being given the opportunity to learn”

8 2019 Inspiral Annual Report

Steven joined the Great Places Oldham PFI Team in As part of his role Steven attends Salford College every October 2019 as a Caretaking Apprentice. However, Thursday, which he is really enjoying, and at the end of his Steven had been working with the team long before he apprenticeship he will be a qualified Level 2 Property applied for the role, as he has been an Oldham PFI tenant Maintenance Operative. since he moved out of his family home in March 2017. When we asked Steven how he is finding his role, he said: When Steven moved into his new home, he was “I’ve really enjoyed my time at Great Places so far and I introduced to Amjad (Neighbourhood Coordinator), who love who I work with. My colleagues have been nothing encouraged him to start volunteering with the Crossley but welcoming and supportive since my first day here. I Community Centre to help tackle the social isolation he really appreciate being given the opportunity to learn the was struggling with. role of a caretaker and I hope to secure long term employment at Great Places.” Volunteering at the Crossley Centre helped him immensely and through his hard work and dedication as a volunteer, Amjad added: “It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Steven was encouraged to apply for the Caretaker Steven, who on a daily basis presents an infectious positive Apprentice role. attitude that spreads to his colleagues helping create a joyful atmosphere. Steven started his role as Caretaker Apprentice in October and immediately made his presence felt. He is fast “Clearly ambitious, senior management figures need to be becoming an invaluable member of the caretaking team worried about Steven coming for their positions!” – offering his experiences as a PFI tenant to help improve caretaking service delivery.

9 Our service

Target Performance

Repairs post inspected 10% (238) 13.6 % (358)

Customer satisfaction 85% 93%

Customer satisfaction 402 survey returns

10 2019 Inspiral Annual Report Customer Satisfaction

Ensuring that our customers remain happy with the Tenants satisfaction summary service that we provide will always be a driving force of Tenant and Leaseholder 21 everything that we do. We are incredibly pleased that involvement during 2019 we were able to collect over 400 customer Customer care – 03 satisfaction feedback transactions. In late 2018 we agreed Great Places with Oldham Council to employ a range of methods to Customer care – 0 collect feedback. This includes text messages, tablet based Wates surveys at home visits and PDA responses following repairs Cleaning of being completed. As a result, posting feedback that has communal areas scored an overall satisfaction figure of 93% is something we are incredibly proud of. This is 0.5% increase on the Grounds maintenance previous years result. Tenancy management We do however acknowledge that we don’t always get things right and we have continued to promote feedback Rent collection from customers where we need to improve. This year has seen 5 stage 2 complaint investigations, 2 of which were Void management 0 reviewed by local councillors, a local MP and the Housing Ombudsman service. In each of these cases no Overall satisfaction 2 maladministration was identified as part of their reviews. 0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

11 12 13 Community Associations

In 2019 both Crossley and Primrose Bank Community Both Charities have also played a Centres changed their management arrangements to significant role in supporting the local economy and being part of become fully registered charities. This was a key milestone “Over £5,000 the wider Oldham Team. Over for the Gateways to Oldham project from its inception has been donated £5,000 has been donated to in 2011 – with both charities now being governed by a to worthy causes” board of trustees made up of local residents and key worthy causes – local community stakeholders. The change from a management committee led groups, homeless support to a charities commission registered organisation opens services and facilities to assist people up significant opportunities for increased funding to in gaining new skills and/or employment deliver activities, not just in the community centres, are just some of the beneficiaries. but also the wider communities - empowering local The successes of the Charities are now also demonstrated residents to take ownership and control in the process. on both new websites, which launched in late 2019. During 2019 both Charities undertook a community peers survey, aimed at identifying what matters most to people in the local area. Over 230 responses were received and processed by local volunteers, which are now being analysed by the Charity Trustees and our chosen consultant. This form the basis of the Charities work over the coming year.

14 2019 Inspiral Annual Report

15 Key People

Inspiral Inspiral VICKY EVERETT JEREMY FRYER Chair of Inspiral Board General Manager

Great Places Housing Group Great Places Housing Group RYAN-JAMES SMITH MIKE GLENNON Oldham PFI Manager Head of Neighbourhoods (GM North)

Wates Living Space ANTHONY GRUNDY Facilities Management Manager

16 PERFORMANCE KPI KPI DESCRIPTION END OF YEAR CATEGORY REF PERFORMANCE Tenant / LH participation 2.1 Minimum of 4 newsletters issued: 1 per quarter P 2.3 Arrange monthly meetings for estate bodies and 1 per quarter for P overarching body Customer care 3.2 Reply to written correspondence within 7 working days and to emails within 2 days P 3.4 Telephone calls answered in 15 seconds P Customer satisfaction 4.1 Contractor to issue customer satisfaction survey P 4.4 Number of services where BVPI score is attained (achievement of 80% for BVPI 74/ 66% for BVPI 75) P 5.1.2 Provide full set of data within 5 days P Working with the council 6.1.1 Invitation to council to at least one estate inspection each month P 6.1.2 Number of reactive actions completed within agreed timescale P Quality control 7.4 Produce performance report to residents panel every quarter P Plans 8.2.2 Submit Disaster Recovery Plan by 31 March P Sustainability 9.2 Show commitment to Community Cohesion Strategy P Repairs and maintenance 10.1.2 Average time to complete non-urgent repairs P 10.4.1 Number of repair jobs for which appointment was made and kept P 10.8.1 Percentage of repairs inspected within 20 days of completion P Caretaking and cleaning 11.1 Undertake & action cleaning checks P Grounds maintenance 12.2 Comply with grass cutting output spec P Tenancy management 13.1.1 Inspect each estate quarterly and provide feedback newsletter within 1 month P Rent 14.2 Collect 98% of rent P Voids 15 Average number of days for void re-letting (21 days) P Leaseholders 16.1 Collect the appropriate proportion of charges excluding rents P Supply of Information 16.1.1 Supply information as reasonably requested by the council within 14 days P Great Places Housing Group 119 Union Street Oldham OL1 1TE

0300 123 2003

[email protected] [email protected] www.greatplaces.org.uk

@MyGreatPlace @CrossleyCentre @Primrose_Centre @WatesGroup

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