Easthall Charter 15:Easthall Charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 2
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Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 2 EASTHALL PARK Meeting the Scottish Social Housing Charter 2015 Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 3 2 Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 5 Introduction Welcome to our third residents greatest thing we can achieve is our tenants’ approval. So charter report! In it you can see how we were delighted with the results of our Satisfaction we performed over the last year Survey carried out in the autumn which showed continued against the standards set out in the high levels of satisfaction with what we do and how we do it. Scottish Social Housing Charter. Although we are doing well we also know that there are We are very proud of what has been areas where we could do better. We want to improve on achieved in the past year. We have brought the estate satisfaction levels with our repairs service and we want to caretaker service in house and I am sure you can see how ensure that you get the best service for the least amount of much more clean and tidy the area is. rent charged so we have not increased rents for this year. We were a finalist in the ‘Small Social Landlord of the Year’ I would like to thank the Committee, Residents Panel, category in the CIH/Inside Housing awards and we won Staff and everyone who has worked with us for all their the best Small Social Landlord of the year in the Housing hard work and I hope you enjoy reading about what has Excellence Awards. been accomplished. It was great to see our work noticed by experts but the Mary Davidson, Chairperson This report will give you a clear picture of how Easthall Park Easthall Park aims to provide excellent services and quality is performing as your landlord. In it you will see our homes and we charge some of the lowest rents in performance figures for the last two years which will let you Easterhouse (and indeed in Scotland) we want to see where we are improving and where we are not. You understand why tenants are thinking that way. will also see details about the performance of other social landlords to let you compare our performance with others. We believe that the best services are delivered by We give you figures for the Quality Efficiency Forum (QEF), organisations that listen to their customers and really a group of 30 landlords including ourselves who share best understand what they want. We are committed to putting practice and compare performance, as well as SHBVN residents first and listening to what you say so we can be figures – around 90 housing associations and the best we can. You can judge for yourself how well we co-operatives, including Easthall Park who submit are doing by reading this report. Its format and content has performance information to the Scottish Housing Best been agreed by the Residents Panel who gave comments Value Network (SHBVN). and ideas on the sort of information tenants want. We always welcome feedback, so if you want to tell us As our Chairperson has said, during the coming year, we what you think of the report, or will be focussing on a number of functions where we want comment on our performance to improve. We want to make improvements in our service please get in touch by email at delivery and in particular increase satisfaction with our [email protected] repairs service. or phone us on 781 7277. We would love to hear from you. Also, we are concerned that only two thirds of our tenants think our rents represent value for money. Given that John McMorrow, Director 3 Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 6 What is the Charter? The Scottish Social Housing Charter has been introduced by the Scottish Government as a way of monitoring how well social landlords perform in providing their services to tenants and other customers against the standards set out in the Charter. The Government wants to improve the quality and value for money of services provided by social landlords by: • Setting out the outcomes and standards which tenants and other customers should expect from their landlord. • Helping tenants hold their landlord to account about their performance in delivering services. If you would more information on the Charter please visit www.housingcharter.scotland.gov.uk Each year landlords have to report how they have performed against the Charter to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR). This information is then published on the SHR website www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk at the end of August which means that you can compare Easthall Park with all Scottish landlords. On top of this all landlords are expected to tell their tenants about their performance and their plans to improve. This is where this report comes in. We have to measure our performance against 14 different outcomes laid out in the Charter - these are grouped under 5 key questions which cover the questions that the Scottish Government thinks all tenants want to ask of their landlord. 1. Do we provide good value for money? 2. Do we provide quality housing and a good maintenance service? 3. Do we manage our estates well? 4. Do we have a positive relationship with our tenants and our community? 5. Do we provide access to housing and support to those who need it? The purpose of this report is to provide information to allow you to make your own assessment of how well 4 we are doing in delivering these outcomes. Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 7 Do we provide value for money? We know that rent levels are really important to our tenants. We know that many of our residents are on low incomes. We aim to keep rents as low as we can but at the same time we need the income we get from rents to deliver the range of services tenants want, and to repair your homes now and in the future, so it is a bit of a balancing act. We think we are getting it right – tell us by letting us know if you think we are doing things that are not value for money. Average weekly rent Easthall Park £65.80 Did you know that on QEF £73.97 average our rents are lower Calvay £66.89 Gardeen £65.35 than most Easterhouse Blairtummock £66.61 landlords and amongst the Ruchazie £67.38 lowest in Scotland? Lochfield Park £72.36 Wellhouse £69.13 We didn’t raise our rents for 2015/16 – only a handful of Scottish landlords did the same! The average increase for QEF members was 2.3% and SHBVN members was 2%. Our annual income from rent is 2.4 million pounds We need the income from rents to deliver our services – so we work hard to minimise the amount of rent we lose from tenant arrears and by properties being empty. 5 Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 8 ...Do we provide value for money? Reducing rent arrears In last year’s report we told you that our performance in dealing with rent arrears didn’t compare well with other landlords. We have worked hard on improving this and are pleased that our efforts have had an impact. We reduced the amount of money owed by tenants to the Co-operative from £139,615 in March 2014 to £97,780 in March 2015. The table below shows how the gross rent arrear has changed over the last 3 years and how we compare now with the QEF average. Easthall Park 2015 Easthall Park 2014 Easthall Park 2013 QEF 2015 4.0% 5.9% 5.2% 4.3% Letting empty houses quickly We re-let 36 properties in an average of 8.75 days. This is slightly longer than the previous two years but we still performed well in comparison to others, and more importantly the amount of rent lost decreased from £3,513 last year to £2,332. We will be working this year at trying to reduce the average time to re-let properties while at the same time trying to balance bringing all properties to an acceptable standard that new tenants want. Easthall Park 2015 Easthall Park 2014 Easthall Park 2013 QEF 2015 Average number 8.75 days 8.3 days 8 days 20.65 days of days to re-let % of rent lost while 0.1% 0.15% 0.1% 0.65% properties are empty 6 Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 9 ...Do we provide value for money? How every pound is spent Day to day repairs 11p Cyclical repairs 9p Funding for current and future major repairs 10p Environmental management 4p Interest on loans 14p £1 Administration 23p Salaries 27p Community Development 2p *figures are rounded down or up to the nearest penny. 7 Easthall Charter 15:easthall charter 25/08/2015 11:57 Page 10 ...Do we provide value for money? Easthall Park aims to be ‘more than a landlord’ - we support and fund a wide range of initiatives that make a difference and make Easthall Park a better place to live. Only 2p in every pound of rent money is spent on these community development initiatives such as: • Delivering a community facility at the Glenburn Centre which has almost 25,000 attendances each year • Providing assistance and volunteering opportunities for 8 people with supported needs and delivering services to supported needs groups with over 100 attendances per week • Providing an annual bursary for residents in further education We think these things provide value for money - do you? We restructured our staff team to give a greater focus on front line services.