November 2020 Issue 17 Education, People & Business What’s Inside Housing Management Repairs & Maintenance Meeting the Needs of Homeless People Housing Development & Regeneration Tenant Participation & Project 101 Antisocial Behaviour Your Housing News November 2020 Issue 17 Page 3 Annual Report to Tenants Foreword by the Chair of the Housing, Health & Care Forum As Chair of the Housing, Health & Care Forum, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read the ‘Your Housing News’ tenant newsletter, covering Housing and Repairs services within East Dunbartonshire Council. The newsletter sets out a summary of the key achievements of housing, homelessness and repairs services for 2019/20, and highlights areas for further development. The report details performance information on a range of service areas that we have reported on for a number of years, as well as some Scottish Social Housing Charter indicators, which have been set out by the Scottish Housing Regulator. The Social Housing Charter is a way of monitoring how social landlords are performing and meeting customer expectations. The Charter sets out the standards and outcomes that all social landlords should aim to achieve when performing their everyday housing activities. This is the seventh year we have reported on the Charter. At the heart of the Charter is delivering good customer service and meeting customer expectations - something that we are committed to at East Dunbartonshire Council. The Charter aims to improve upon quality and standards of service across all social landlords. This will be achieved by customers having a clear idea of what they can expect from their landlords. These outcomes have been agreed through consultation with tenants. In line with the Charter, we will also monitor our own Councillor Vaughan Moody performance and publish an annual performance report. In this Chair of the Housing, report we have detailed the Charter indicators in blue font, to Health & Care Forum highlight the differences between these indicators and our own local performance indicators. The report will be made available on the Council’s website and we will also send out copies to tenants and residents groups on demand. Your Housing News November 2020 Issue 17 Page 4 Housing Management About us What’s Inside The Council currently owns and manages 3576 houses and flats across East Dunbartonshire. Table 1 shows a breakdown of Council Housing Management stock per area. Information about Council housing stock, Council house sales, allocations and rent arrears. The Council continues to deliver an extensive capital programme to ensure that homes are maintained to the highest standard and is Repairs & Maintenance committed to delivering the best service possible to our tenants. How the Council has improved Housing conditions though investment How the Council is delivering the repairs service. Table 1 Current stock of houses and flats in East Dunbartonshire Houses Flats Total Meeting the Needs of Homeless People. Bearsden 116 163 273 What the Council has been doing to deal with the challenges. Milngavie 329 251 577 Lennoxtown 208 184 385 Housing Development & Regeneration Milton of Campsie 108 68 176 Initiatives to provide and improve homes and communities across East Dunbartonshire. Torrance 43 24 67 Twechar 120 74 194 Waterside 56 74 130 Tenant Participation & Project 101 What the Council is doing to make sure tenants have their Bishopbriggs 245 343 581 say on the development of their services. Kirkintilloch 531 639 1170 TOTAL 1756 1820 3576 Antisocial Behaviour Initiatives to tackle antisocial behaviour. Customer Satisfaction The Council commissioned an independent market research company, Research Resource, to carry out a Tenant Satisfaction Survey during early 2020. The purpose of the research was to find out tenants’ views on housing and repairs services provided by the Council so that we can try to make improvements to those areas identified as being weak. Some of the key responses, which are a requirement of the Scottish Social Housing Charter, are detailed in Table 2 below. We have also included a comparison with the national average for satisfaction in these areas. As well as Research Resource carrying out an independent survey for Housing Services, Property Maintenance (PM) also carried their own survey asking tenants to complete a short questionnaire after a repair was carried out to their home. Based on a total number of 1,889 surveys carried out, 91% of tenants were fairly or very satisfied with the repairs service provided at completion of works. Satisfaction has increased in all areas but there is room for improvement. If you would like a copy of the 2020 Tenant Satisfaction Survey please contact Housing on 0300 123 4510. Collecting Rent The Council is committed to maximising the rental Table 2 Customer Satisfaction income we receive from rents. This is important as the Satisfaction EDC EDC National rent pays for many of the housing services we provide. 2019 2020 Average During 2019/20, the rent collected as a percentage % of tenant satisfaction with 81% 82% 88% of the total rent due was 98%. This compared to a services overall national average of 99%. % of tenants satisfied with being 84% 87% 91% Total rent due from all properties has increased from kept informed about services and £13,269,411 in 2018/19 to £13,623,537 in 2019/20, outcomes and an average weekly rent increase of 2.90% was % of tenants satisfied with 87% 87% 87% applied for 2019/20. opportunities to participate A summary of our housing stock by size and average % of tenants satisfied with last *80% 91% 91% weekly rent is detailed in Table 3 below. The Council repair carried out within last 12 strives to ensure that our rents remain affordable and months are currently below the national average that includes Housing Associations as well as Councils in Scotland. *% of tenants satisfied with the last repair carried out in the last 12 If you require more information please contact the months – Research Resource Housing service on 0300 123 4510. Table 3 Stock Information Average Number EDC National weekly rents Average Average weekly rent weekly rent 2019/20 1 Apt 27 £65.41 £73.42 2 Apt 990 £71.14 £77.44 3 Apt 1399 £76.36 £79.44 4 Apt 1011 £80.56 £86.20 5 Apt 149 £87.70 £95.29 Total 3576* - - *An additional 6 units are let as multi-occupancy. Your Housing News November 2020 Issue 17 Page 6 Management of Empty Homes As Graph 3 shows, the average number of days to re-let a house/flat was 57.24 days, compared to a national average of 32.51 days. Since the beginning of the financial year, the average time taken to re-let has been monitored on a monthly basis and officers continue to work with Property Maintenance to Rent Arrears Trend meet the revised target of 50 days. The amount of current tenant rent arrears, as at 31 March 2020, was £693,459 compared to £873,626 the previous Graph 3: Average Re-let Times year. The service had set a rent arrears target of £810,000 70 and therefore managed to achieve and surpass this target. This was a very positive outcome during a financially 60 challenging climate, such as downturn in the economy and changes to welfare benefits. We are currently reviewing our 50 policy and procedures in this area to ensure performance can be further improved. 40 Graph 1: Amount of Rent Arrears 30 £900,000 20 £800,000 Average days to relet Number of days to relet £700,000 10 £600,000 0 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 £500,000 YearYear £400,000 There was an increase in lost income from empty homes £300,000 from £131,364 to £143,481, as detailed below. Amount of Rent Arrears This represented 1.03% of rent lost as a result of properties £200,000 being empty, compared to the national average of 1.10%. £100,000 Graph 4: Void Rent Loss £0 180,000 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 Year 160,000 140,000 Former tenant arrears decreased from £638,050 in 2018/19 to £622,204 in 2019/20. 120,000 empty homes 100,000 Income lost from Graph 2: Former tenant Arrears 80,000 15/16 16/17 17/18 18/19 19/20 £700,000 Year Common Housing Register £600,000 The Council and Caledonia Housing Association share £500,000 a Common Housing Register (CHR). The CHR enables applicants to register for housing with all participating landlords. One local landlord along with the Council £400,000 has agreed a common system for prioritising housing applications. £300,000 If you want information on applying for a council house call 0300 123 4510. Amount of Rent Arrears £200,000 Key Achievements for 2019/20 £100,000 • Continuation of local initiatives to ensure engagement with tenants using various communication methods £0 • Allocated Housing Association new build developments 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 • Allocated Council new build developments Year Day-to-Day Repairs A high proportion of the day-to-day repairs are emergencies such as having no heating, blocked toilet etc. Table 4 below shows how this is broken down into emergency and non- emergency categories. Year Repairs Category Emergency Urgent Routine Total 2016/17 4686 1949 3556 10,191 2017/18 4662 2859 2803 10,324 2018/19 4289 2437 1887 8,613 2019/20 4214 2511 2054 8779 The average length of time taken to complete emergency repairs was 4.19 hours, while the average length of time taken Repairs and Maintenance to complete non-emergency repairs (urgent and routine) was The Repairs Team provides a valuable repairs service to 14.25 days.