ANNUAL REPORT 2017

GROW LEADTHRIVE

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Our business priorities over the past twelve months have been to respond appropriately to the challenges of: rent reductions, challenging Welfare Reform and proposals for supported housing funding whilst continuing to deliver new housing and great services. Our core purpose remains as “creating homes, building futures” whilst further developing relational culture at every level across the organisation. This cultural change has kept North Star strong with great outcomes, including high levels of performance, increased surplus and additional investment in new properties.

During the year, we started our next five year visioning process: Leading and Growing North Star 2023, involving everyone in the organisation. This will be an ambitious and stretching vision to ensure that we remain at the forefront in terms of housing and service provision. During the year, we also welcomed Darlington Housing Association into the Group, enabling us to realise further efficiencies that will be re-invested back into our tenants and communities. The Tenant Scrutiny Group continues to hold us to account, and helps us improve services. Stock condition is good with constant levels of investment and we have ramped up our approach to the digitalisation agenda recognising that technology has a critical role to play in service delivery.

We believe that our relational approach is a major differentiator and helps to create great partnerships with mutual benefits. It also feeds our approach to innovation and creativity.

The business remains strong at every level, as demonstrated by a robust business plan, focussed risk management, a skilled board and strong financial management. We are intent on growing the business to achieve further efficiencies and influence, and we believe we have a lot to offer.

In July 2017 we were the first English Housing Association to achieve Investors in People Platinum, with 99% of staff stating that the organisation has a future plan to ensure continued success.

We look forward to 2018 and all that it brings.

Angela Lockwood, Chief Executive & Jed Lester, Chair of Board

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FOREWORD

C R E A T I N G H O M E S , B U I L D I N G F U T U R E S

Foreword 3

GROW

Our homes 4-9

LEAD

Our people 10-13

THRIVE

Our performance 14-19

Our tenants & communities 24-30

Financial statement 31

CONTENTS

54

Number of homes we own and manage by service area.

OUR HOMES

3667

3066GENERAL

NEEDS

TOTAL

SUPPORTEDHOUSING

SHARED EQUITY /

LEASEHOLDERS

MANAGED ON BEHALF OF OTHERS

472 360 42

In 2016/17 we delivered

56 high quality homes, with support of grant funding from the

Homes and Communities Agency.

In 2016/17 we invested

over £5.2m into new homes.

GROW

GR

OW

9 live / work units.

These innovative live/work homes are the first to be developed as part of the Urban Pioneers scheme – we really are pioneers here and we hope that it’s the start of an exciting new community.

The Urban Pioneers project is a key element in the delivery of Middlesbrough’s regeneration framework for Middlehaven.

Along with contractor Gus Robinson Developments and architects Halsall Lloyd Partnerships, we built nine new two bedroom homes which sit alongside the Urban Park, at the heart of the Middlehaven site. The new homes are live/work units, which means not only do they offer affordable accommodation but they create the ideal environment for new enterprises to flourish.

We’re excited to be able to deliver something new to the area; the homes provide a place for tenants to run and grow a business from home, or provide a place for residents to work comfortably from home. We’re dedicated to being so much more than a

landlord, and the flexibility, versatility and support these new homes bring demonstrates this.

Mark Parham, 41, is a curator and a tenant in one of the new live / work homes in Middlehaven:

£980,000 development

The scheme, built by local firm Gus Robinson Developments, brings much needed specialist accommodation to the area, with several of the new homes designed to meet the needs of elderly and disabled residents. The site includes eight two-bedroomed houses and four bungalows.

CHURCHLAND GARDENS, STOCKTON

12 new homes

£1,3000,000 development

This year, we added a further seven units of two bedroom homes to the Lingfield Point scheme, which will include 41 affordable rented homes in total.

LINGFIELD POINT, DARLINGTON

7 new homes

£540,000 development

This scheme is a mix of family homes and bungalows. The site consists of three two-bedroom properties and five bungalows intended to help older people remain independent in their own homes.

WILLOW COURT, STOCKTON

5 new homes

£625,000 development

URBAN PIONEERS,

MIDDLEHAVEN

76

“For me the Middlehaven development has the potential to really change perceptions people have of the town – most people that visit me are genuinely surprised by the area. Yes, it’s in its infancy, however, the general consensus is positive – it’s a blank canvas, that’s exciting and the whole point of regeneration.

“Under the shadow of Middlesbrough College and the Football Stadium, living here is great – you’re suspended somewhere between the old and the new and for me, without a doubt, it’s the best place to live in the town. It’s vital that it continues to support small businesses, local people, and maintains a fresh and brave approach – for now maybe it’s Boro’s best kept secret.”

HART VILLAGE,

HARTLEPOOL

2 new homes

£155,000 development

The homes include five two-bedroom homes and four three-bedroom homes. They are the final properties in a larger development scheme, with a total of 15 homes for North Star on this site.

CASTLE VALE, BARNARD CASTLE

9 new homes

£703,000 development

These eight affordable rent properties of bungalows and two-bedroomed houses are on an attractive larger development by Taylor Wimpey.

GRANGEFIELD, STARTFORTH

8 new homes

£633,000 development

We now have 10 properties in total at this rural scheme, and these new homes are two-bedroom properties suitable for three persons.

FIELD VIEW, NORTH YORKSHIRE

4 new homes

£304,398 development

98

The Darlings in Hart Village is a quaint development of 23 houses in an idyllic setting close to Hartlepool and only minutes from the A19. The scheme, developed by Gentoo construction, is a mix of 2, 3, 4 and 5 bed homes and a small percentage of these new homes are affordable housing. North Star own two semi-detached two bedroom houses on the site.

Kristine Davies is a Fundraiser for Dementia at the Hospital of God at Greatham in Hartlepool, and could not be happier with her new home,

“It’s like a dream come true getting this house, and it’s absolutely gorgeous! From the lovely village, the great community feel and the stunning house itself – both inside and out – we just love it! We didn’t think it was possible to get such a fantastic, vibrant, affordable rented home like this from a housing association, but they have been brilliant and when you see the house and the area, it just speaks for itself.”

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WE’RE LEADING THE WAY WITH OUR APPROACH TO PEOPLE…

MAKING A DIFFERENCEOur staff are very passionate about the work we do, and they go over and above to help the people living in our communities. That’s why it’s important to us that we grant up to 10 days per annum, paid special leave to undertake voluntary work and community engagement activities. This not only benefits our local communities, but it provides opportunities for our staff to develop.

LEADIn 2016/17 staff volunteering generated social value of £12,954.

96% of staff feel that they have the ability to develop and grow

99% of staff felt that the organisation has a future plan to ensure continued success.

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Our vision, values and organisational strategy are all centred on creating and sustaining great places for people to live and work in.

This year, we were delighted to be the first Housing Association in England to receive Investors in People Platinum, and one of the elite 0.5% of companies in the UK to be accredited with the highest award for people management and leadership.

We are thrilled to receive the Platinum Award; it’s a great testament to the cultural change process we have undertaken at North Star. We adopted a shared leadership model where we have strong relationships and high levels of trust.

The IIP Assessment Report describes North Star as demonstrating ‘exemplary practice in many areas’ and a ‘values-driven organisation’ with ‘strong leadership that constantly reflects on the future’.

The IIP Assessment Report revealed that...

CUSTOMER EXCELLENCE

AWARD

UK DIVERSITY GLADIATOR

This year, we were awarded the Customer Service Excellence Standard.

We were awarded the highest achievement for Customer Service Excellence, Compliance Plus, because we successfully demonstrated that our behaviours and practices exceed the requirements of the standard. We were viewed as exceptional and an exemplar to others.

We came number 18 in the National Centre for Diversity’s UK Top 100 Index 2017.

We were recognised for our commitment and drive to diversity.

We are dedicated to championing diversity within our organisation and in our communities, so to receive recognition for this is a great achievement. Embracing equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of the work we do and we’re firmly committed to continual investment in these areas.

LEAD1312

North Star is a medium-sized housing group operating in highly challenging

areas of the North East.

We want to continually create the financial capacity to build more homes and support

our communities.

This means that it is critical that we constantly review and challenge all aspects of expenditure investment,

services and processes.THRIVE

THRIVEHow are we doing?

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SATISFIED CUSTOMERS

STRONG FINANCIAL

PERFORMANCE

92%

1.19% 1.53%

1.4%

93%

95%

of customers satisfied with repairs service - TOP QUARTILE*

Income lost from empty homes

rent arrears MEDIAN QUARTILE TOP

TOP

of customers satisfied with the overall North Star service - TOP

of customers satisfied that their rent delivers value for money - TOP

Our financial performance continues to improve. This enables us to invest in our existing communities and deliver more new homes.

• Absence due to sickness

*Performance quartile when compared to the regional benchmarking group

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THRIVE

Despite the economic challenges facing many households and the impact of

Welfare Reform, our income collection remains strong when compared to our

peers. We bucked the trend and reduced patch sizes to ensure that staff have the capacity to support people and manage

arrears effectively.

The Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) Global Accounts

Social housing cost per unit (CPU) (£k)

Management (CPU) (£k)

North Star 2.99 0.59

Median performance – All HA’s 3.37 1.02

The savings plan, developed with tenants and staff in response to the four-year rent reduction delivered....

29p

26p19p

15p

8p3p

Routine & PlannedMaintenance

Left to invest in new homes

Servicedelivery

interest on our loans

improvem

ent

costs

oth

er costs

HOW EACH £1 OF RENT

IS USED 2016/17

1918

savings of £1.5m

against a target of £1.3m

Smart procurement is delivering savings, efficiencies and additional social value. In the year this totalled...

savings of £640K

During 2016/17 we reviewed our 30-year business plan and assumptions. This has led to increasing the numbers of new homes that we can deliver (63 from 2017/18 vs our previous assumptions of 24).

Levels of customer satisfaction

at 97.95%, is very high.

Our vision is to not only create homes, but to build futures. We work together to build on community strengths and to really help make a difference.

This can be seen in the various community investment and tenant involvement activities we have coordinated over the last year.

From work hubs and placement opportunities, to training initiatives, reading groups and helping improve young people’s employability skills, we have delivered and supported a whole range of initiatives across the North East.

We’re building futures at a local primary school with help from the Foundation of Light.For the past two years, we have provided funding which has allowed Foundation of Light to inspire pupils from Evenwood Church of England Primary School and their families through a range of sports and education programmes.

North Star has invested £52,000 in Community Investment Activity.

In total, 63 people have benefited from this project.£47,186 has been invested to

support specific projects in the Priority neighbourhoods.

These projects have levered in an additional £111,613.57

Projects have benefited 1,083 people

£

was generated in social impact.

For every invested £1 £64.04

WORKING WITH OUR

COMMUNITIESPROJECTS:

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PRINCE’S TRUST

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE

For a number of years we have maintained a close working relationship with the Prince’s Trust Team, run by Stockton Riverside College. The 12 week programme gives young people a number of key life skills that can support them to find employment.

This year, we employed two of the Prince’s Trust students as apprentices, following their successful work experience placements.

We are helping young people across the North East find jobs through our New Directions Youth Employment Initiative.

New Directions is a European funded project designed to support young people aged 15-29 years into employment, education and training, providing support with CV building, interview preparation and providing funding where necessary.

So far the team have engaged with over 130 young people, and made a real difference to their lives. At present we have 65 active learners on the books, we have supported 32 young people into further training, found employment for 16 and 2 more have offers of employment we are waiting to hear from.

Alex Cummins, 21, from Darlington, was struggling to find employment and had almost lost hope until he met with North Star’s Youth Employment team. Alex said: “I had been looking to get into work for a while and not had any luck, but I met with North Star at a job search session at the Evolution Centre in Darlington and they helped me apply for a few jobs there. I was lucky enough to get an interview after that, but I had never had one before and was really worried about it.

Alex secured work with Capita, a leading provider of business process management, and will be working in the Pensions department as an Administrator.

THRIVE

2322

“The staff are fantastic; really supportive and understanding of everything. They treated me as an individual, I wasn’t just a number or anything to them; I really mattered and they did everything they could to help me. They coached me to get me ready for my interview and they even provided funding so I could get some interview clothes. I can’t thank them enough because without them I don’t think I would have had the confidence and the skills to get any job, never mind my dream job. I love working with computers and I will be inputting data and working for a leading technology company, the job is perfect for me!”

A Tees Valley YEI initiative

£North Star invested £34,000 into resident involvement activity and achieved a Social Return of

£124,347

For every £1 spent, £3.66 returned in social impact

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WORKING WITH OUR TENANTS

4UFundraising and organising social activity for the elderly

and disabled community

TVSPLooking at North Star services in

depth, making recommendations of improvement

LINKRepresents tenant views and

promotes the interests of all tenants. Talking on an active role to help shape

and influence our service

Resident Involvement Activity

This diagram is to show the variety of resident

involvement, activity at North Star, leading to

strong co-regulation

The size of the hexagons represents the time commitment of each resident involvement activity.

TENANT ADVISORS

Mystery shopping/procurement activity/contractor operational

meetings/void property site visits

Recommendations that have been or are being delivered (and there is evidence to substantiate this)

Recommendations outside of the original target date

Recommendations are now retired/on hold

94

2 5

10 reviews

105 recommendations 101

accepted

have been carried out since 2011

have been made by TVSP

by Board

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IMPACTOF SCRUTINY REVIEWS

THRIV

E

SOCIAL VALUE IN PROCUREMENT

All of the contractors we work with are expected to deliver social value activities to make a difference in our communities.

This has delivered £35,698 worth of social value.Through our contractors’ commitment to deliver social value, we have also seen the following results:

5 Work placements – SVB Value of

£6,439

1 Full time job created and person

employed – SVB Value

of £12,268

1 Part time job created

and someone

employed – SVB

Value of £1,000

3 Apprentices employed on our contracts –

SVB Value of £5,597

4 Community labour days with

over £8k worth of

work completed

£2,394 Cash donated to

local groups

and charities

£

SUPPORTING OUR TENANTS

We worked with over 351 households across the North East and attended nearly 460 appointments with tenants.

A North Star tenant, Mr Turnbull received support to manage his money and was extremely happy with the results,

“Andrea helped us with so many things: our rent, disability allowances and even opened our eyes to money that we never even knew we were entitled to. She was so understanding and sympathetic – she spent real time with us to sort everything out. She also came out to see us, which was great. If we could give a gold medal to anyone it would be Andrea.”

We have used the HACT Social Value Bank Financial Inclusion Impact Measurement tool on a small sample of the households the Welfare Benefits Officer has visited over the year.

The results show that £112,860 of social value has been generated from the sample surveyed.

351 households

460 appointments

£112,860 of social value

In 2016/17 our fantastic Welfare Benefits Officer, Andrea Peacock, helped increase tenants’ income by over £362,000.

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WE CONTINUALLY INVEST IN OUR COMMUNITIES SO THEY CAN CONTINUE TO THRIVE…

We want to create the best possible environments for our tenants to live in, which is why year on year we commit to a range of investment and

improvement works across our properties.

We have invested over £2.1m to improve 507 homes in 2016/17.

MANOR GROVE GETS A MAKEOVER

Our flats at Manor Grove, in Teesdale, have undergone some major refurbishment work, helping to give them a new lease of life. The block of 24

two-storey terraced flats were built in 1957 and received a makeover consisting of new alternating grey and white windows, Juliette balconies, new kitchens

and bathrooms, as well as improved access to footpaths and gardens.

Ted Pickering, a tenant at Manor Grove, said: “I couldn’t be happier with the work that’s been done. It’s made such a massive difference for me, and I know

it will to others. We’ve got a brand new heating system which is great, it’s so much warmer but it’s also saving me money. And it all just looks fantastic, with the new kitchens and bathrooms. Now we’ve got great views inside and out!”

A STRONG FUTURE WITH DARLINGTON

HOUSING ASSOCIATION…

During the year, we welcomed Darlington Housing Association (DHA) into the Group.

We’re very excited to have DHA join the North Star Group. We can now share resources, costs and expertise for the benefit of so many more tenants across the North East. By joining forces with DHA we can make strategic decisions, efficiencies and cost savings that will help provide a better future for tenants

and our local communities.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Consolidated Statement of comprehensive income

for the year ended 31st March 2017

2017 2016

£’000 £’000

Turnover 19,530 18,602

Operating expenditure (12,741) (13,400)

Surplus on disposal of fixed assets 90 360

Operating surplus 6,879 5,562

Interest receivable and similar income 11 9

Interest payable and similar charges (2,828) (2,591)

Extraordinary item (incorporating Darlington Housing Assoc. into the Group) 4,285 0

Surplus for the year 8,347 2,980

Other comprehensive income/(expense) (48) 63

Total comprehensive income for the year 8,299 3,043

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

for the year ended 31st March 2017

2017 2016

£’000 £’000

Fixed assets

Housing properties

Other tangible fixed assets

Intangible assets

Total fixed assets

183,051

1,608

291

184,950

171,738

1,692

323

173,753

Current assets

Debtors

Cash & cash equivalents

3,061

3,413

6,474

3,979

1,645

5,624

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (5,886) (5,366)

Net current assets 588 258

Total assets less current liabilities 185,538 174,011

Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year (157,338) (153,380)

Provisions for liabilities and charges 1,048 1,778

Total net assets 27,152 18,853

Capital and reserves

Restricted reserves

Revenue reserves

Pension reserves

252

27,198

(298)

190

18,913

(250)

Total capital and reserves 27,152 18,853

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GROW LEADTHRIVE

North Star brings together the skills, resources and values of Endeavour, Teesdale and Darlington Housing Associations.

We are a strong organisation with a clear vision of what we want to achieve for the people who live in our region – creating homes, building futures.

GET IN TOUCH 03000 11 00 11

customer.services@northstarhg.co.uk

www.northstarhg.co.uk

@northstarhg

/NorthStarHG

Visit / Write:

Endeavour House, St Marks Court, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6QN

14a Redwell Court, Harmire Enterprise Park, Harmire Road, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8BN

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