arhag...arhag is regulated by the tenant services authority (tsa). from april 2010 the tsa...

HOUSING ASSOCIATIONarhagTenants’ Annual Report2010

Producing This ReportArhag has a database of tenants who have registered an interest in being involved. To ascertain what tenants want to see in the annual report we sent out questionnaires to tenants on the resident involvement database.

Some 16 tenants responded and from this we were able to ascertain that the purpose of the annual report, how we are meeting the national standards, how tenants can complain about poor performance and how and where the budget was spent is of most importance to tenants.

We also found that how tenants have been involved in producing the report, information on the types of homes we manage, our mission and objectives, information on the tenant profile and how we are developing local offers of service was most useful to know.

Tenants indicated the preferred options for presenting performance information was tables, followed by arrows/traffic lights and colour codes.

The majority wanted a summary report of 5-8 pages, with links to where more detailed

information could be obtained. In practice this was quite difficult to achieve given the TSA’s requirements.

Prior to publication the report was reviewed and approved by the tenants’ steering group and the Board.

Special thanks go to the following tenants who volunteered to sit on the steering group and worked with us to identify gaps in services, to highlight tenant priorities, and to sign off this report.

Angela OgboozorDemeke Wolde-MichaelAndrew MurphyHabbib AzizLucas ObengRosemary ArthurSalaheldin TahaTedla AlemeyhuRon TootillAnthony SherrifMukhtar Osman

Celebrating 30 years of givingPg 1

About ArhagArhag’s Aims

Arhag was set up in 1979 as a community organisation to support African refugees that were experiencing housing problems. We registered as a housing association in 1988 and started to develop permanent homes in 1989. In the mid 1990’s we found that many other refugee and migrant groups were experiencing the same housing problems as Arhag’s tenants so we extended our remit to house people from all countries and continents.

Meeting the needs of refugees and migrants remains an important part of our reason for being. We work in boroughs with high housing need from our traditional customer group but we provide homes to all in housing need.

Our mission is to improve the well-being of refugees, migrants and those in housing need by providing good quality homes, services and community initiatives.

Our principal goals are to:

Deliver the highest quality service for tenants and stakeholders Grow to meet our customers’ needs by working effectively with strategic partners Improve the quality of life and opportunities for refugees, migrants and those in housing need

Our principal goals are underpinned by our desire to:

Be a high performing and efficient organisation with good governance, financial management and quality standards

Attract, develop and retain high quality staff Be a beacon for equality and diversity in the sector

Arhag Tenant report 2010 Pg 2

HOUSING ASSOCIATIONarhag

Property Profile

The table below shows how many general needs properties we own and manage. It does not include the hostel (13 bed-spaces) or temporary social housing accommodation (113 homes).

When developing new homes we will work to ensure that at least 50% are 3-bedrooms or more to meet tenants’ needs for larger accommodation.

Tenant Profile

Information obtained from tenants is covered by the Data Protection Act. We gather information on tenant’s backgrounds to ensure all tenants have a positive living experience and to ensure that we adapt our services to meet individual tenants’ needs. Over 70% of tenants have provided information on their ethnicity, gender and disability. However, less than 30% have provided information on age-group, religion and belief and sexual orientation so further work is needed to gather more information to get a full picture.

The information we gathered indicates that 93% of Arhag tenants are from a black or minority ethnic group including 60% who describe themselves as Black African. Some 60% of tenants are female and 25% are disabled. We appear to have a relatively young tenant group with 60% indicating that they are aged 26-45.

The majority of tenants are Christian (52%) however Muslim tenants make up 35%. Only 20% of tenants responded to the question on sexual orientation and 98% of the tenants that responded indicated they are heterosexual.

Female headed households are in the majority and we appear to have a high proportion of tenants with a disability. We need to do more work to find out what support needs they may have to ensure services are appropriately delivered.

Further information on the profile of Arhag tenants can be found in our 2009/10 Equalities Report on our website at http://www.arhag.co.uk/cms/pdf/EqualityReport2009-10.pdf

BoroughBed size

1B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B Total

Brent 0 4 1 1 0 0 6

Camden 23 18 14 10 10 0 75

Enfield 24 6 5 0 0 0 35

Hammersmith & Fulham 17 19 5 2 0 0 43

Haringey 15 27 40 10 0 0 92

Islington 11 24 3 2 0 0 40

Kensington & Chelsea 3 2 1 0 0 0 6

Lambeth 9 10 4 0 0 0 23

Lewisham 6 0 5 0 0 0 11

Newham 56 74 35 16 1 1 183

Southwark 10 15 7 1 0 0 33

Tower Hamlets 3 3 3 0 0 0 9

Westminster 0 34 6 4 0 0 44

Total 177 236 129 46 11 1 600

Percentage 29.5% 39.3% 21.5% 7.7% 1.8% 0.2% 100%


Arhag is regulated by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA). From April 2010 the TSA introduced a new approach to regulation. Tenants are at the heart of the new regulatory approach and we must ensure that tenants are involved in deciding local priorities and empowered to carefully examine our performance and hold us to account.

In the past we were required to comply with various codes of practice, guidance notes and circulars. We are now required to meet six standards which tenants across the country agreed was most important to them. The six standards that we must meet are:

• Tenant Involvement and Empowerment• Home • Tenancy• Neighbourhood and Community• Value for Money• Governance and Financial Viability

The purpose of this report is to explain:

• What is expected for each standard• How we are meeting the six standards• What we need to improve• How we will work with you to agree local

priorities• How tenants can hold us to account for our

performance

The next sections will summarise how we are meeting the standards and what actions we need to take to meet the standards if we are failing to do so. We have used several independent reports to validate our performance including:

• STATUS tenant satisfaction survey (May 2009)• TSA regulatory judgement (July 2009)• Audit Commission Inspection report

(March 2010)• Housemark Phase 1 cross sector report –

summary benchmarking results (July 2010)

The table below shows the symbols we have used to illustrate how we are performing. The arrows show how we are performing against our service targets. The circles show how we are performing in comparison to other housing services in England.

Target achieved and performance improvingNot achieving target but performance is improving

Target achieved and performance staying the same or going up and down

Not achieving target and performance is staying the same or going up and down

Target achieved but performance is getting worse

Not achieving target and performance is getting worse

Slightly below the target but performance is improving

Amongst the best housing associations for service quality or low cost

Slightly below or just meeting the target but performance staying the same or going up and down

Average service quality or costs

Slightly below or just meeting the target but performance is getting worse

Below average service quality or high costs

NA Not applicable NR Not recorded

The Purpose Of This Report


Tenant Involvement And Empowerment StandardWhat is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. Provide choices, information and communication that is appropriate to tenants diverse needA range of information leaflets are available in hard copy and on the website. Translation and interpretation is available on request

2. Have an approach to complaints that is clear, simple and accessible that ensures complaints are resolved promptly politely and fairly

We provide a 3-stage complaints process with the ability to take unresolved complaints to the Housing Ombudsman

A copy of the complaints procedure can be found at http://www.arhag.co.uk/cms/PDF/ComplaintsProcedureFeb10.pdf

3. Offer tenants a wide range of opportunities to be involvedThere is a range of ways for tenants to get involved including: Board membership; the Equality & Diversity Steering Group (EDSG); the Tenant Forum; tenants associations; contractor selection panels; estate inspections; best value reviews; focus groups; consultation events and surveys; and the annual tenants’ conference

4. Consult with tenants and act reasonably in providing opportunities to agree local offers for service delivery We are at an early stage but have set out our consultation plans in this report

5. Provide tenants with a range of opportunities to influence how we meet the TSA standards and to scrutinise performance against all standards and in the development of the annual report

We are at an early stage of tenant scrutiny but we have outlined how tenants were involved in the development of this report and our plans to take forward tenant scrutiny

6. Provide tenants with support to build capacity to be more effectively involved Some training has been provided for tenants but we need to build on this

7. Treat all tenants with fairness and respect 78% of tenants rate Arhag as good at keeping tenants informed about the things that affect them

8. Demonstrate that we understand the different needs of tenants, including in relation to your ethnicity, gender, disability, age group, religion/belief, sexual orientation and gender identity

We have collected tenant profile information for 76% of tenants but further work is needed to address under-recording of some categories

Performance Trends

At the 2009 Tenants Conference we introduced interactive voting to collect the views of tenants on resident involvement. We found that:

• Nearly 30% were involved in a faith based community group• Nearly 40% would be motivated to get involved if they felt they could make a difference


Key service commitments TargetPerformance

Trend2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

Answered telephone calls in 4 rings 100% NR 98.5% 97.5%

Visitors to reception seen within 5 minutes 100% NR 100% 100%

Visitors are interviewed within 15 minutes 100% NR 93% 97%

Letters acknowledged within 2 days 100% NR 89% 100%

Letters responded within 10 days 92% NR 68% 84.8%

Complaints received and acknowledged within 2 working days 100% 75% 100% 100%

Complaints received and responded to within 10 working days 92% 75% 65.8% 90.9%

Complaints resolved at Stage 1 85% NR 84% 90.2%

Tenant satisfaction with complaint process 92% 71% 25% 100%

Tenant satisfaction with complaint outcome 70% 57% 50% 67%

Tenant Involvement And Empowerment StandardWhat is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. Provide choices, information and communication that is appropriate to tenants diverse needA range of information leaflets are available in hard copy and on the website. Translation and interpretation is available on request

2. Have an approach to complaints that is clear, simple and accessible that ensures complaints are resolved promptly politely and fairly

We provide a 3-stage complaints process with the ability to take unresolved complaints to the Housing Ombudsman

A copy of the complaints procedure can be found at http://www.arhag.co.uk/cms/PDF/ComplaintsProcedureFeb10.pdf

3. Offer tenants a wide range of opportunities to be involvedThere is a range of ways for tenants to get involved including: Board membership; the Equality & Diversity Steering Group (EDSG); the Tenant Forum; tenants associations; contractor selection panels; estate inspections; best value reviews; focus groups; consultation events and surveys; and the annual tenants’ conference

4. Consult with tenants and act reasonably in providing opportunities to agree local offers for service delivery We are at an early stage but have set out our consultation plans in this report

5. Provide tenants with a range of opportunities to influence how we meet the TSA standards and to scrutinise performance against all standards and in the development of the annual report

We are at an early stage of tenant scrutiny but we have outlined how tenants were involved in the development of this report and our plans to take forward tenant scrutiny

6. Provide tenants with support to build capacity to be more effectively involved Some training has been provided for tenants but we need to build on this

7. Treat all tenants with fairness and respect 78% of tenants rate Arhag as good at keeping tenants informed about the things that affect them

8. Demonstrate that we understand the different needs of tenants, including in relation to your ethnicity, gender, disability, age group, religion/belief, sexual orientation and gender identity

We have collected tenant profile information for 76% of tenants but further work is needed to address under-recording of some categories

External Validation

The Audit Commission inspection report published in March 2010 concluded that there is a range of ways for tenants to get involved, that we have a clear commitment to involving residents in the work of the Association, that there is a strong focus on customer care, that the way complaints are handled is positive and that Arhag works well with its partners to promote equality and diversity. They however felt that tenants are not involved at a strategic level, and there are limited outcomes from the approach to equality and diversity.

How do we compare with others?

Our costs for resident involvement are high but we view this as a positive thing as it reflects our commitment to improve resident involvement. Our costs have been compared to some large housing services who can spread their costs across a larger pool of tenancies.

What will we do to improve?

To improve our offer to tenants we will:

• Continue to work with tenants to better understand tenants’ local priorities and adapt our offer to meet local needs

• Review the resident involvement methods to improve tenant scrutiny, obtain critical feedback on how services are being delivered locally, and to address the under-representation of women

• Consider the use of a crèche for Tenant Forum meetings• Ensure frontline officers attend Tenant Forum/Scrutiny

meetings from time to time• Develop resident involvement performance measures to

help us to report how we are doing• Provide more training and support for tenants to develop

skills that will ensure Arhag is accountable for the standard of services we offer

• Take follow up action to improve under-recording of tenant profile information


Cost 2009/10

Cost per property – resident involvement

Quality 2009/10

Percentage of tenants satisfied (52%) that their views are taken into account

Percentage of tenants satisfied with complaints handling

Home StandardWhat is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. Maintain ‘Decent Homes’ to ensure they meet statutory minimum standards for housing, are in a reasonable state of repair, have reasonably modern facilities and services, and provide a reasonable amount of warmth

We have achieved 100% Decent Homes

2. Maintain the standards of design and quality that applied when your home was built We maintain homes by carrying out responsive, planned and cyclical maintenance

3. In agreeing a local offer, ensure it is not a lower standard than standards 1 and 2 above We are at an early stage but have set out our consultation plans in this report

4. Provide a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service to homes and communal areas that responds to the needs of, and offers choices to, tenants and has the objective of completing repairs and improvement ‘right first time’

Our costs for repairs are lower than average when compared to other housing associations. We provide a choice of colours, fixtures and fittings for planned maintenance and cyclical works

5. Meet all applicable statutory requirement that provide for the health and safety of the occupants in their homesWe provide an out of hours emergency repairs service. Electrical testing and upgrades are carried out on a rolling programme over 5 years for the landlord supply and 10 years in tenants’ homes. Fire risk assessments are carried out on all blocks of flats. We aim to carry out gas servicing to 100% of homes before certificate expiry


Trend2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

Decent Homes 100% 98% 100% 100%

Emergency Repairs carried out in 24 hours 95% 87.5% 100% 98.6%

Urgent repairs carried out in 7 calendar days 96% 89.9% 97.6% 95.2%

Routine repairs carried out in 28 calendar days 96% 97% 98.4% 93.4%

Completed gas service inspections 100% 99.4% 99.7% 99.8%

New aids and adaptations requests acknowledged within 2 days

100% Introduced 2010/11

Contact made with Occupational Therapists within 5 days 100% Introduced 2010/11

Non Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) works orders raised within 1 day of receipt of OT specification

100% Introduced 2010/11

DFG works completed in target time (6 months) 75% Introduced 2010/11

Percentage of tenants satisfied with responsive repairs 85% 66%

All repairs

80.7%

All repairs

88.8%

Percentage of tenants satisfied with planned/cyclical maintenance

90% 94.3%

Percentage of tenants satisfied with aids and adaptations service

85% NR 84% 100%

Performance Trends

At the 2009 Tenants Conference we introduced interactive voting to collect the views of tenants on repairs. We found that:

• Over 50% felt the number of repair satisfaction forms sent out was about right• Over 60% want the repair satisfaction survey form sent out when the repair is completed• 40% prefer postal surveys and 47% prefer postal or telephone• 84% find it easy to report a repair• 94% were satisfied with the initial response from the customer care team• 73% are happy with the repairs service


External Validation

The Audit Commission found that all properties meet the Decent Homes Standards, that satisfaction with responsive repairs has improved, and that properties let to new tenants are in a good condition. They did however feel we could do more to ensure Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) applications made to the local authority are processed within a reasonable time.


We compare well with others on the cost of the service and meeting the Decent Homes Standard. We have more work to do to increase tenants overall satisfaction with the repairs service (59%) and the quality of home (68%). It should however be noted that there is a much higher level of satisfaction with repairs when this question is asked when a repair has just been completed (as shown on the table on page 7).



• Work towards offering 2-hourly slots for appointments

• Look at the data we have collected on repairs being completed ‘right first time’ and report how this is working in practice

• Work with tenants to agree our approach to providing services to people who may be vulnerable due to age, disability, long-term illness or for some other reason

• Gather more detailed information on aids and adaptations to ensure requests are processed within a reasonable time

What is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. Maintain ‘Decent Homes’ to ensure they meet statutory minimum standards for housing, are in a reasonable state of repair, have reasonably modern facilities and services, and provide a reasonable amount of warmth

We have achieved 100% Decent Homes

2. Maintain the standards of design and quality that applied when your home was built We maintain homes by carrying out responsive, planned and cyclical maintenance

3. In agreeing a local offer, ensure it is not a lower standard than standards 1 and 2 above We are at an early stage but have set out our consultation plans in this report

4. Provide a cost-effective repairs and maintenance service to homes and communal areas that responds to the needs of, and offers choices to, tenants and has the objective of completing repairs and improvement ‘right first time’

Our costs for repairs are lower than average when compared to other housing associations. We provide a choice of colours, fixtures and fittings for planned maintenance and cyclical works

5. Meet all applicable statutory requirement that provide for the health and safety of the occupants in their homesWe provide an out of hours emergency repairs service. Electrical testing and upgrades are carried out on a rolling programme over 5 years for the landlord supply and 10 years in tenants’ homes. Fire risk assessments are carried out on all blocks of flats. We aim to carry out gas servicing to 100% of homes before certificate expiry


Cost 2009/10

Cost per property - responsive repairs

Cost per property of major works and cyclical maintenance

Quality 2009/10

Repairs completed right first time NR

Overall satisfaction with the repairs service (GN)

Percentage of tenants satisfied with the overall quality of home (GN)

Percentage of dwellings failing to meet the Decent Homes Standard

Tenancy StandardWhat is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. Let Arhag homes in a fair, transparent and efficient way

We provide tenants with a summary of our lettings policy within 5 days of your request and allocate homes in accordance with our policies and procedures. We maintain a register of homes that have been adapted so they can be re-let to a person with similar needs. We also work with local authorities where we have properties to assist them in addressing wider housing needs in the borough

2. Charge rents in accordance with the Government’s Direction to our regulatory body, the TSAWe charge rents within the guideline limits for rent changes and rent cap levels and provide tenants with a range of payment options

3. Offer the most secure form of tenure compatible with the purpose of the housing and the sustainability of the community

We let general need homes on an assured tenancy agreement and all temporary homes on assured short-hold tenancy agreements



Trend2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

To let a reasonable proportion of homes through local authority nomination or choice based lettings

70% 67% 86% 87%

To let a reasonable proportion of homes to Arhag transfer applicants

30% 11% 5% 13%

To re-let general needs homes in a timely manner 28 days 49 24 34

To conduct viewings of vacant homes in a timely manner 5 days 9 days 12 days 14 days

Percentage of New Tenant satisfaction surveys returned 40% NR 40% 42%

Percentage of tenants satisfied with lettings service 85% NR 82% 76%

Percentage of tenants satisfied with property condition 85% NR 82% 85%

Rent collected 105% 98.5% 98.3% 97.8%

Current tenants arrears 6.5% 12.1% 9.8% 9.5%

Former tenants arrears 2% 2% 1.1% 2%

Performance Trends

A higher proportion of homes were let through local authority nomination as the majority of vacant properties were temporary social housing accommodation. A breakdown of who our vacant homes were allocated to can be found in the 2009/10 Equalities Report which is available on request or online at http://www.arhag.co.uk/cms/pdf/EqualityReport2009-10.pdf


1. Let Arhag homes in a fair, transparent and efficient way

We provide tenants with a summary of our lettings policy within 5 days of your request and allocate homes in accordance with our policies and procedures. We maintain a register of homes that have been adapted so they can be re-let to a person with similar needs. We also work with local authorities where we have properties to assist them in addressing wider housing needs in the borough

2. Charge rents in accordance with the Government’s Direction to our regulatory body, the TSAWe charge rents within the guideline limits for rent changes and rent cap levels and provide tenants with a range of payment options

3. Offer the most secure form of tenure compatible with the purpose of the housing and the sustainability of the community

We let general need homes on an assured tenancy agreement and all temporary homes on assured short-hold tenancy agreements

External Validation

The Audit Commission inspection found that we have an effective ongoing audit of tenancies, and that the allocations policy is clear and properly implemented by staff. There was however significant weaknesses in collecting rent and managing rent arrears. Processing requests for re-housing was also considered to be slow.


Our costs for housing management are high but we are getting better. High costs are partly because we are a small housing association and we have been compared to some very large housing services. Costs per property should improve as we grow.

Rent arrears are high and there has been a history of ineffective action to maximise income. We have reviewed our approach and we are beginning to see signs of improvement.

The 2009 STATUS tenant satisfaction survey revealed that 67% of tenants were satisfied with the overall service. Two-thirds of tenants (69%) expressed satisfaction with advice on rent payments and six in ten tenants (63%) expressed satisfaction with the value for money for their rent. To achieve above average satisfaction we would need to increase satisfaction levels to over 80%.



• Review the strategy and approach to rent collection and rent arrears case management

• Update our accessible homes register and review the process to maximise the opportunity for adapted homes to be let to households that need them

• Review the number of homes being let through local authority nomination to ensure a fair balance between existing tenants and potential tenants

• To get back on track and ensure empty properties are let as quickly as possible

• Introduce and monitor a target for processing re-housing applications

Cost 2009/10

Cost per property – housing management

Quality 2009/10

Average time in days to re-let empty properties

Percentage of tenants satisfied with the overall service

Current tenant rent arrears as % of rent due


Neighbourhood & Community StandardWhat is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. Keep the neighbourhood and communal areas associated with your home clean and safeWe carry out a range of services on estates and for blocks of flats including communal cleaning, grounds maintenance, pest control and controlled parking. We carry out estate inspections every 3 months for schemes with less than 10 homes and every month for schemes with more than 10 homes

2. Work cooperatively with relevant partners to help promote social, environmental and economic well-being in the areas where we own properties

We have organised community events on 5 estates including a football programme to tackle youth ASB. We have established the community chest, education bursary scheme and provide funding for estate improvements but we need to encourage tenants to make use of these funds. We will continue to work with a voluntary organisation called HACT to provide work experience for refugees. We successfully applied to the Future Jobs Fund which allowed us to offer a work placement to a long-term unemployed young person

3. Work in partnership with other public agencies to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhoods where we own homes

We need to develop partnership working with other public agencies and we will consult tenants on how we should approach this as part of the local offer consultation


Trend2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

% of completed estate inspections 100% NR 60% 79%

Minimum score for estate condition 7 NR 7.6 7.4

% of schemes that score 7.0 and above 85% Introduced 2010/11 NA

Offensive and hate crime graffiti removed within 24 hours of being reported

100%Method to measure performance

changed for 2010/11NA

Other graffiti removed within 7 days of being reported 100%Method to measure performance


Emergency hate crime or anti-social behaviour interviews done within 24 hours



All other hate crime or anti-social behaviour interviewed within 3 days



% of ASB satisfaction surveys returned 40% NR 6% 0%

Satisfaction with how ASB case dealt with 85% NR 0% 0%

Satisfaction with ASB outcome 85% NR 0% 0%

Educational/employment initiatives 2 NR 1 3

Financial inclusion initiatives 2 NR 0 0

Performance Trends

At the 2009 Tenants Conference we introduced interactive voting to collect the views of tenants on neighbourhood and community. We found that:

• 57% felt fly tipping/dumping was an issue in their area• 85% preferred to use the local authority bulk refuse collection service• 42% said they had experienced ASB• Less than half of the tenants who had experienced ASB had reported it to Arhag• 72% felt a part of their neighbourhood• 47% felt the neighbourhood could be improved with activities for the children



1. Keep the neighbourhood and communal areas associated with your home clean and safeWe carry out a range of services on estates and for blocks of flats including communal cleaning, grounds maintenance, pest control and controlled parking. We carry out estate inspections every 3 months for schemes with less than 10 homes and every month for schemes with more than 10 homes

2. Work cooperatively with relevant partners to help promote social, environmental and economic well-being in the areas where we own properties

We have organised community events on 5 estates including a football programme to tackle youth ASB. We have established the community chest, education bursary scheme and provide funding for estate improvements but we need to encourage tenants to make use of these funds. We will continue to work with a voluntary organisation called HACT to provide work experience for refugees. We successfully applied to the Future Jobs Fund which allowed us to offer a work placement to a long-term unemployed young person

3. Work in partnership with other public agencies to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhoods where we own homes

We need to develop partnership working with other public agencies and we will consult tenants on how we should approach this as part of the local offer consultation


External Validation

The Audit Commission inspection found that communal areas of estates are in good repair and cleaning and grounds maintenance is reasonable. We do however need to improve our approach to anti-social behaviour.


Our costs for anti-social behaviour are low which is not necessarily good as our performance in this area is also low. Costs per property for estate services are high but in the STATUS tenant satisfaction survey three-quarters of tenants (74%) expressed satisfaction with their area as a place to live. The most commonly cited neighbourhood problems are rubbish/litter and car parking.



• Work with tenants to agree our approach to addressing anti-social behaviour more effectively to reflect local priorities

• Take a more pro-active approach to collect satisfaction surveys for anti-social behaviour

• Increase the number of community initiatives particularly activities for children

• Work with tenants to agree how we can empower them to take a greater role in inspecting local services

• Re-tender the estate service contract with input from tenants on the contractor selection panel

• Review the method of scoring estate inspections to ensure they are easily understood

• Develop and implement an abandoned vehicle policy and procedure

• Improve value for money by reflecting the cost of bulk rubbish removal in service charges

• Improve information on scheme notice boards to reflect matters of importance to tenants

• Take a joint-up approach to neighbourhood management on consortium developments by working closely with partner housing associations and other local agencies

• Continue to explore ways of working with local agencies to promote social, environmental, and economic well being in the areas where we own properties

Cost 2009/10

Cost per property for estate services

Cost per property for anti-social behaviour

Quality 2009/10

Percentage of tenants satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live

Percentage of respondents satisfied with anti-social behaviour case handling

NR

Value For Money StandardWhat is expected from this standard? How are we meeting this standard?

1. We must have a comprehensive approach to managing our resources to provide cost-effective, efficient, quality services and homes to meet tenants’ and potential tenants’ needs

Over the past 3 years we have significantly reduced operating costs year on year whilst improving the quality of service. Tenants are however not routinely involved in decisions around value for money. We are currently working with the Tenant Forum to address this


Spend was reduced by 2.3% by March 2009

and by a further 10.7% by March 2010.

Over the same period our operating surplus went

from £3,000 to £848,000.

Operating costs (£000’s)£3,800

£3,700

£3,600

£3,500

£3,400

£3,300

£3,200

£3,100

£3,000

£2,9002008 2009 2010

Operating surplus (£000’s)£900

£800

£700

£600

£500

£400

£300

£200

£100

£02008 2009 2010

51%

35%

35%

10%

5%6%

6%

9%

6%

34%

51% 53%

Management Costs

Repairs & Maintenance

Loan Finance

Estate Services

How Rent is Spent

20082009

2010

Year ending 31st March


1. We must have a comprehensive approach to managing our resources to provide cost-effective, efficient, quality services and homes to meet tenants’ and potential tenants’ needs

Over the past 3 years we have significantly reduced operating costs year on year whilst improving the quality of service. Tenants are however not routinely involved in decisions around value for money. We are currently working with the Tenant Forum to address this


Management Costs

Management costs covers expenditure for overheads (central costs for running Arhag i.e. office costs, information technology, legal, finance etc), property lease costs, tenant involvement, tenancy management, estate management and all staff costs. Overhead costs are gradually reducing, and we have made savings from buying goods and services. We used quite a few temporary agency/interim staff during 2009/10 to cover vacant posts which pushed up staff costs. We have now filled these vacancies and expect staff costs to stabilise.

Repairs and Maintenance

During 2009/10 we achieved efficiency savings of 10.5% on the repairs and maintenance budget by re-negotiating the contractors’ fees and increasing the number of repair inspections. We completed the third year of our 5-year planned maintenance programme and this has reduced the number of responsive repairs that needed to be carried out. Tenants have been involved in contractor selection to ensure service quality. The cost of decorating empty properties is however high and we need to ensure there is a balance between quality and cost.

Loan Finance

The association has benefited in 2009/10 from the prevailing low base interest rate regime in the UK as the Bank of England (BoE) base rate was 0.5% throughout the year. In the previous year the BoE base rate peaked at 5% (April 2008). Some 72% of the Associations loans are currently based on a variable rate so this brought the cost of loans down sharply. In 2009/10 our average cost of borrowing was 4.21% compared to 7.3% in 2008/9.

Estate Services

In 2008 we carried out an extensive consultation with tenants to agree the standards and cost of

estate services. We will review this as part of our local offer consultation.

External Validation

The Audit Commission inspection found that we are taking a more systematic approach to driving service efficiency, repairs are managed efficiently and there are some examples of savings achieved through the procurement process. They did however feel that the drive for value for money is not yet fixed firmly across all services as some elements of void works were not maximising value and value for money was not a standard element of the appraisal system.


To improve our approach to value for money we will:

• Build on our resident involvement structures to involve tenants at the strategic level in planning the cost and quality of service delivery

• Provide training for tenants to develop skills to absorb value for money information and use it to make service improvement decisions

• Review, in consultation with tenants, the cost of repairing empty properties and make systematic use of decoration vouchers

• Provide rigorous case management of rent arrears to ensure earlier intervention and consistent follow up action

• Introduce an annual survey of the rent service to better understand and take account of tenants’ preferences

• Re-tender the estate cleaning and grounds maintenance contract, with tenant involvement on the selection panel to improve the cost and quality of the service

• Review the housing information database to ensure we have good information technology that will help us to improve our processes

Governance & Financial Viability StandardWhat is expected from this standard?

To meet this standard we must:

1. Ensure effective governance arrangements that deliver the aims, objectives and intended outcomes for tenants and potential tenants in an effective, transparent and accountable manner

2. Manage our resources effectively to ensure our viability is maintained

How are we meeting this standard?

Arhag will comply with National Housing Federation’s “Excellence in Governance” code which provides a framework to demonstrate the highest standards of corporate governance.

We have in place a Governance Handbook which defines the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for the board, chair and chief executive.

We submit an annual return to our regulatory body, the Tenant Services Authority, each year.

External Validation

In July 2009 we received a regulatory judgement from the TSA which reported that:

• The association meets the expectations set out in the Regulatory Code in terms of financial viability

• The governing body, supported by appropriate governance and executive arrangements, maintains satisfactory control of the organisation


We will adjust our board appraisal process to reflect the revised National Housing Federation’s code published in July 2010 and will produce an annual assessment of the effectiveness of our arrangements.


In the previous sections of this report we have set out how we currently meet the national standards and, where we don’t meet the standard, our plans to meet them.

Over the coming months we will be arranging consultation events to help us to better understand tenants service expectations. We will use this information to determine whether we need to set standards in each of the service areas across all Arhag tenancies or whether we need to adapt standards to meet local circumstances or particular needs.

The service areas we will look at in more detail are:

• Tenant Involvement and Empowerment,• Home, and • Neighbourhood and Community

We have set ourselves a target to make contact with 20% of tenants in each borough. The table below sets out our consultation plan.

Method Indicative Dates Purpose

Work with the steering group to outline the key questions we need to ask tenants

September 2010 To ensure we take a consistent approach to gathering information that will assist us to set out local offers

Publish the quarterly newsletter October 2010, December 2010 and March 2011

To keep tenants up to date with the development and introduction of local offers

Estate visits October 2010 to February 2011 To knock doors and ask tenants what they want from the local offer – ensuring contact with vulnerable tenants

Home visits October 2010 to February 2011 To target vulnerable tenants in street properties and small schemes

Telephone survey November to December 2010 To target tenants in street properties and small schemes

Drop-in/coffee mornings Dates to be agreed To increase local accessibility and target tenants less likely to get involved

Hostel house meeting September to December 2010 To consult hostel tenants

Work with the steering group to scrutinise and sign off the local offers

March 2011 Ensure early involvement of tenants in setting the framework for tenant scrutiny

Agreeing Local Priorities With Tenants


What is tenant scrutiny?

Tenant scrutiny involves examining information in some detail. The purpose is to check that what we are saying about service performance is correct and that we are taking reasonable steps to improve performance or address service failures. The process includes having a close look at performance information, tenant satisfaction surveys and complaints.

To move things forward we will seek to formally establish a Tenant Scrutiny Panel. It is hoped that the steering group that has worked with us to steer the development and introduction of the Local Offer will evolve into a tenant scrutiny body.

The role of the Tenant Scrutiny Panel will be to monitor and scrutinise our performance against the standards for Tenant Involvement and Empowerment, Home, Tenancy, Neighbourhood and Community and Value for Money. We will provide training and coaching to assist the Tenant Scrutiny Panel to carry out their functions.

If you would like to join the Tenant Scrutiny Panel please contact Steven Hill on 020 7424 7381 or by email at [email protected]

We will continue to report service performance in the quarterly tenants’ newsletter. For tenants who are not happy with the service received, a copy of the complaints policy and procedure is available on request or can be downloaded from the website at www.arhag.co.uk

Tenant Scrutiny


Staff And Board Members HOUSING ASSOCIATION

arhagStaff Team

Blessing Adebayo


Sheron Carter, Chief Executive

Karen Meacher, PA and Office Manager

Clive Green, Quality and Performance Manager (from 9th August 2010)

Cornelius Sanwo, Head of Finance & IT

Lena Renghen, Junior Accountant

Funmi Gbadomosi, Junior Accountant

Fisnik Sojeva, Trainee Work Placement

Anthony Alexander, Head of Housing (from 26th April 2010)

Laura Babb, Housing Operations Manager (from 6th April 2010)

Oyewande Adeyemi, Income Officer

Vivienne John, Housing Officer (from 9th August 2010)

Yaw Antwi Frimpong-Mansoh, Housing Officer

April Aul, Housing Officer

Steven Hill, Community Engagement Officer

Mak Akinyemi, Head of Asset Management

Victor Edeki, Surveyor

Goddie Eke, Surveyor

Marzena Odzimek, Senior Customer Service Officer

Celeste Camayah, Receptionist/ Customer Service Officer

Irene Apio, Customer Service Officer

Erika Rojas, Hostel Coordinator (from 6th May 2010)

Susanne Peterkin, Hostel Worker (from 3rd August 2010)

Board MembersBarrington Billings, Chair

Robert Johnson, Deputy Chair

Leslie Laniyan

Gera Patel

Chris Grace

Olu Kunuyi

Phil Jenkins (co-optee)

Sue Lukes

Abdurahman Sayed

Mukhtar Osman

Shanaz Begum

Arhag Housing

Unit B, Ground Floor

Mary Brancker House

54-74 Holmes Road

Kentish Town

London NW5 3AQ

Tel: 020 7424 7370

Fax: 020 7267 6200

Email: [email protected]

www.arhag.co.uk

Housing Corporation reg no. LH3811

Industrial & Provident (Friendly Society) reg no. 23520

HOUSING ASSOCIATIONarhag

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arhag...arhag is regulated by the tenant services authority (tsa). from april 2010 the tsa...

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