Annual Report 2010/11

Welcome to our Annual Report.

It has been another very busy year and a successful one too.

We are delighted that we have completed the Decent Homes Programme on target and

residents Tell us they are really pleased with the quality of the work.

We have begun installing photovoltaic panels onto homes with suitable roofs, which will help control energy costs as well as reduce harmful carbon emissions. Over time, we hope to create a fund to carry out a range of further sustainable energy

measures to reduce carbon and fuel costs for residents.

From next April, the “self financing” Housing Revenue Account is due to begin. This will help with the financing of future investment requirements for the housing stock. Things will remain tight, but will be an improvement on the current position.

For the third year running we have been rated as one of the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Small Companies to Work For and we were also awarded 3* Best Companies

Accreditation by the Sunday Times – the only Arms-Length Management Organisation (ALMO) in the country to achieve this.

We have a great team of staff and contractors, and a close relationship with residents and, continuing to work in partnership, we can face the future with

confidence.

Bill Constance

April 2010The Sheltered Housing

Team achieved 5 A’s in the Qualitative Assessment

Framework

At PHP we pride ourselves in providing services which are accessible to all residents.

Are you pleased with your customer service?

We offer residents:• Easy-to-get-to offices• PHP website (www.yourphp.org.uk) allows residents easy access

to information about our services• Freephone number for reporting repairs available 24/7 and a

new standard call rate number for mobiles• At Home newsletter sent out three times per year providing up-

to-date information, news and events• Wide variety of leaflets and handouts available for all key

service areas which are regularly updated

2010/11: 55 Complaints125 Compliments

We have a well-developed, easily accessible complaints policy.We encourage comments on our services, whether good or bad, as they provide the most important feedback. All complaints and compliments, together with any actions resulting, are reported throughout PHP.

Complaints Policy

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Joe

Loga

n

Chair of the PHP Board

Chief Executive

Annual Report 2010/11

A key strategic objective for PHP is to deliver excellent value-for-money services.

Each year we benchmark ourselves against similar housing organisations nationally. The most recent year’s results showed that we had some of the lowest costs in terms of the delivery of repairs and maintenance services but at the same time our performance was one of the best. This focus on comparing with other organisations has helped us to ensure that we focus resources on delivering excellent services at the right price to our residents.

Are we providing value for money?

Management costs per dwelling

£9.26 in 2010£17 in 2005

Staff Suggestions

Staff suggestions have achieved some great

value for money savings including:

• £297,000 saved as a result of delivering

Sheltered Housing in a different way and

reducing posts.• £2,750 saved by having key safes fitted

by our own handyman service rather than

using outside contractors

• £46,500 saved by negotiating capital

contract increases below annual agreed

levels

During 2010/11 we also assisted other

organisations to invest in services which

raised nearly £17,000 for PHP.

In 2010/11, efficiency saving target was 10.3% (£829,000). This was exceeded, with actual saving totalling £1,302,000.

May 2010PHP hosted a best practice day for 50 staff, residents

and Councillors from Wiltshire Council

Any efficiency savings achieved by PHP are passed back to the

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to be used to reinvest in the Council’s housing stock.

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Cumulative Efficiency Targets & Savings

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

2008/09 - 3% 2009/10 - 6.1% 2010/11 - 10.3%

£'s

Target

Achieved

Annual Report 2010/11

June 2010PHP staff collecting the

Customer Service Excellence Award

The Borough of Poole awarded PHP with the contract

to provide a support service to

all Poole residents between

the ages of 18-64 in January

2010.

Our support service aims

to help people to live

independently by giving

them support when they

need it most.

Sustain

This successful restructure of services has created one Housing Support Team that works across three areas to improve service delivery for residents.

Sheltered Housing

We have listened to residents and implemented positive and efficient changes to save money whilst continuing to deliver excellent services.

How is our Housing Support Team performing?

All applicants for PHP-managed homes are nominated to us by the Borough of Poole who operate the choice-based lettings system and keep the Housing Register.

Reducing the time that properties lie empty is a high priority for PHP.

97% of new tenants satisfied with the allocations and letting process

94% of new tenants satisfied with their new home

18 days is the average number of days taken to re-let a home

£1,400 is the average cost to repair an empty home

Are we delivering on new homes?

In 2010/11 PHP let 248 properties to new tenants.

In 2010/11 PHP oversaw 61 mutual exchanges.

- the New Support Service

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Following cuts to Supporting People funding, PHP chose to undertake a restructure of the service to reduce costs but keep an on-site staff presence across all sheltered housing.

Annual Report 2010/11

At PHP we are committed to ensuring that residents are placed at the heart of everything we do.

How involved are PHP residents?

Residents can get involved with a wide range of groups that make decisions at every level within PHP.

We currently have an incredible 272 residents working with us on a number of groups including:

• Estate improvements• Mystery shopping• Stronger Neighbourhood Committee• Cleaning and ground maintenance• Anti-social behaviour work• Housing Strategy Panel

Some particularly successful community projects include the resident-led inter-generational gardening projects at Phyldon Close and the grow-your-own project at Selby Close.

Resident Involvement Champions!In March 2011 PHP became Resident Involvement Champion for the South West. Through this role we will promote resident involvement to other housing organisations.

A key development for 2011/12 is the re-vamping of the scrutiny and monitoring arrangements for our services and changing the role of the Service Improvement Review Board to make it more accessible to residents.

Residents, young people from the Parkstone Football Focus Team and PHP staff from the Phyldon Close Gardening Project.

Case Study: Skills for Residents

Involved residents have had the opportunity to:• Undergo training on their skills in writing reports -

this has equipped them to scrutinise and challenge our services more effectively

• Attend computer training• AttendenergyefficiencytrainingThere will be even more training for residents in the future!

July 2010Respect Fest

Inter-generational gardening project at Phyldon Close

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Annual Report 2010/11

We know that our repairs and maintenance service is the most important service for residents. We aim to even further improve performance and resident satisfaction.

How is the Repairs team performing?

Communal heating improvements -

Puddletown CrescentCommunal outbuilding improvements -

Belben Rd, Dolbery Rd North and South

Windows - Baiter Gardens and Ralph

Jessop CourtWater mains - Trinidad HouseRailings - King John Close, Stanley

Pearce and Poole Town flatsRe-roofed garages - Sterte Close

Footpaths - Sherrin CloseLift - Lagland Court

A Selection of Completed Works in 2010/11

Decent Homes Standard Success

97% satisfaction of residents with the response repairs service

93% of response repair jobs completed on first visit

99% of emergency response repair jobs completed on time

99% of urgent response repair jobs completed on time

98% of routine response repair jobs completed on time

97% of residents satisfied with disabled adaptations to their home

All PHP properties met the Decent Home Standard by our target of December 2010.

All PHP properties met the Decent Home Standard by our target of December 2010.

Residents were fully involved in the development of the programme and the monitoring of progress through our Reinvestment Panel. Residents also had a role in a range of estate improvements focused on reducing crime, providing play facilities and generally supporting strong communities.

Our contractors continue to perform excellently and resident satisfaction confirms this.

Photovoltaic Electricity GenerationThe ‘Your Solar Power’ project began in 2010/11 and we are looking forward to its development. There will be more about this in next year’s report.

August 2010ASB satisfaction hits 100%

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Annual Report 2010/11

Achieving a high rent collection is a key PHP objective to ensure as much rent income as possible is availablefor services and to help residents avoid getting into debt.

How much rent are we collecting?

PHP charges rents in accordance with national guidance using a formula where 70% has been based on average wages across Dorset, and 30% is based on the ‘value’ of your home.

2010/11: 99.2% of rent collected!

Trained resident advisors are now spreading the word about fuel poverty and how to save money and carbon emissions by improving energy efficiency.

The financial inclusion work undertaken

by the Rents and Income Team has

made a real difference for residents. This

has been helped by the £91,000 grant

from Scottish Power that we received

last year that enabled us to appoint a

Welfare Benefits Officer. Through this

role all tenants are offered a completely

free, confidential finance check in their

own home to make sure that:• All benefit entitlement is claimed

• Ways to reduce energy costs are

investigated• Advice on savings and low-cost loans

Financial Inclusion

Household Energy Advice Team

“I was in fuel poverty but with the help of the Smart Meter I reduced our electricity usage by 20% and am now out of fuel poverty.” - Mr Gill

88% of residents who installed a smart meter and found ways to save moneyAverage saving of £57 per household per year

What are we doing to help residents who are struggling financially?

Number of finance checks undertaken – 419% of people entitled to more benefits than they were claiming – 52%Total annual benefits gained for residents – £685,819.49Average increase in household income – £1,427.88

BEST EVER!

October 201012 PHP residents attended

the Trust Conference for training for involved residents

November 2010Youth Takeover Day

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In the last twelve months we have reviewed our ASB policy and have been a key partner in developing the new multi-agency protocol for high risk victims of ASB. We work very closely with the nine Safer Neighbourhood Teams that operate across Poole with other agencies in tackling and preventing ASB.

The resident-led ‘Focus On ASB’ group successfully provides scrutiny of our policy, working practice, monitoring of ASB and general feedback on performance.

Annual Report 2010/11

Neighbourhood management is an important part of the work we do to help support strong communities.

How well are we looking after our neighbourhoods?

Improvements and OpportunitiesWe have continued to build on our relationships with AJL Cleaning and the Council’s services. We have also improved ways of monitoring their performance. There has been more resident-led improvements planned and completed including: • £50,000 funding for Bourne Valley play area• £40,000 gardens and pathways improvements at Sheltered Housing

schemesThere has been a fantastic take-up by residents for the Kingston Lacy garden allotments following several ‘taster’ sessions and we hope to showcase the vegetable garden achievements of residents at Selby Close too.sessions’

We carried out 70 official estate walkabouts for 2010/11 with residents, Councillors, the Police and other local partner organisations.

December 2010 Completion of Decent Homes

Programme! Robert Syms MP, Mr

Middleton and Joe Logan, PHP Chief Executive, (left-to-right) at the handover of the last home in the programme.

PHP has a major part to play in identifying and dealing with the problems of anti-social behaviour (ASB) faced by individual tenants and the communities in which they live.

How are we doing on ASB?We now make greater use of injunctions and

other interventions to tackle specific issues. In

2010/11 we gained:

5 anti-social behaviour injunctions5 suspended possession orders6 outright possession orders3 Court undertakings7 pending court applications1 nuisance premises closure1 tenancy breach injunction

92% of all our ASB in 2010/11 was resolved through non-legal interventions.S7

Annual Report 2010/11

PHP is committed to ensuring that those living in leasehold properties receive the same quality of service that our tenants expect.

How well are we serving leaseholders?

We hope that you found the 2010/11 Annual Report useful. We are delighted with the improvements made for residents in the last year and will continue to increase our levels of service for the future.

The following are a selection of areas that we plan to improve and develop in the coming year:

• Your Solar Power project• Customer Challenge (the new Service Improvement Review Board)• Helping to get people back into work through our work in Financial

Inclusion• New gas contract• Sterte tower block improvements• Sustain Team

Please contact Sue Phillips, Head of Performance and IT, for any comments or questions about this Annual Report. Write to: Beech House, 28-30 Wimborne Road, Poole , Dorset, BH15 2BU or email: s.phillips@poole.gov.uk or (Tel:) 264428

Looking ahead to 2011/12

February 2011PHP announced 19th in

Sunday Times Top 100 Small Companies List!

In 2010/11 40 leasehold properties changed hands

& 3 leasehold properties were

sold under the

‘Right to Buy’.

January 2011PHP awarded 3 Star Best

Companies Accreditation by the Sunday Times

“My first year as a Leasehold Board Member has been extremely interesting and rewarding. I attend Board meetings at the end of each month, which are always very informative and give me the opportunity to have an input into the running of PHP from a leaseholder’s perspective. I have learned a lot about housing management and have confidence that PHP will always do their best to provide value-for-money for both tenants and leaseholders.” - Adele Kitson Leasehold Board Member

We manage 545 leasehold properties all over Poole.

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