Value for Money Self Assessment

Value for Money Self Assessment 2012-13 ABOUT THIS REPORT In April 2012 our regulator the Homes and communities Agency (HCA) published their new regul...
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Value for Money Self Assessment 2012-13 ABOUT THIS REPORT In April 2012 our regulator the Homes and communities Agency (HCA) published their new regulatory framework for Social Housing in England. Registered providers are now required to articulate and deliver a comprehensive and strategic approach to achieving Value for Money (VFM) in meeting their organisation’s objectives. To meet this requirement, Teign Housing developed a Value for Money strategy 2012-15. This has been updated during 2013-14. This report sets out a summary of the key aspects of our VFM activities. TEIGN HOUSINGS’ DEFINITION OF VALUE FOR MONEY VFM is about reviewing what we do and how we do it in order to make informed choices about how resources are effectively channelled towards the delivery of services and corporate priorities. The aim is to make the best use of our customers’ money whilst balancing the cost and time with quality as well as stakeholder benefit, reasonable customer expectations, organisational benefits and business survival. Value for money is about balancing the three E’s: ECONOMY

EFFICIENCY

Cost, time and other resources

Performance, quality “Doing things right”

EFFECTIVENESS Services based on residents’ known needs and priorities “Doing the right things”

HOW WE MEASURE OUR VALUE FOR MONEY Teign Housing is a not for profit charitable company. This does not mean we do not make profits (or surpluses as they are known in not for profit organisations). The surpluses we make enable us to invest in our homes and in service improvements in order to meet the company’s objectives. Return on assets Return on assets is a way of showing what we get back from the assets of the business. The assets are mainly the homes that our tenants live in plus the other assets the company owns in order to operate such as our IT equipment and the caretakers vans. The surplus is calculated before interest costs. The figures below are taken from our audited accounts. The comparison figures for 2011/12 are taken from the HCA’s global accounts data. The 2012-13 comparative data had not been released at the time of publishing this report.

Organisation

Year

Return on Assets

Teign Housing

2012/13

7.68%

Teign Housing

2011/12

7.28%

Average Housing Association

2011/12

4.93%

It can be seen that our Return on Assets is higher than the average indicating that we are getting good value for money from our assets; this is further evidenced through the corporate objectives: For the year ending 2013, Teign Housing had 7 corporate objectives. 1.

To achieve upper quartile operating costs.

By ensuring that the Value for Money is embedded into all of Teign Housing activities we have been able to keep our operating costs low. This has helped maintain our return on assets. 2.

To achieve new borrowing

During the financial year ending March 2013 Teign Housing secured new long term funding to enable us to continue to grow as an organisation.

3.

Develop new homes

We take great pride in developing good quality homes that people will want to live in. Building new affordable homes in Teignbridge is one of our top priorities. Now that the new funding is in place we can continue our development programme. In 2013-14 we will complete 1 new development that will deliver 3 new homes and will have started on another 8 schemes. 4.

Expand our housing provision

We are committed to providing low cost homes within the Teignbridge area. As well as developing new homes we also look to increase our stock by taking part in the mortgage rescue scheme and by occasionally purchasing back suitable leasehold properties. In addition to growing the stock we also look to expand our housing provision by working to reduce under occupation and by tackling tenancy fraud. 5.

Estate regeneration

During 2012-13 we completed our multi-million pound regeneration project of five prominent blocks of flats in Teignmouth. The transformation of these blocks has been well received by both our tenants, who have benefited from reduced fuel costs due to the improved insulation, and the wider community. 6.

Partnership working

We are members of two procurement clubs which enable local housing associations to work together to achieve better value through bulk buying. We recently worked with another local housing provider to jointly procure our Responsive Repairs and Voids contractor. We purchase our development service from another housing provider which gives access to a much broader development service than we would be able to support in house at a significantly reduced cost. We will continue to actively seek more opportunities to share costs whenever possible. 7.

Customer influence

As at 31 March 2013 we had 29 involved tenants sitting on three core groups who represent the tenants’ view on many aspects of our business. We are committed to supporting up to five tenants to complete an NVQ through their voluntary work as involved tenants. In addition to the three core groups we also have 9 mystery shoppers and our customer panel.

During the year, our board and our tenants worked together to develop a new set of corporate objectives that will ensure that we keep working together to achieve common planned goals. The new set of objectives will be put in place during 2013-14. During 2012-13 the Scrutiny panel undertook a general overview of the Value for Money practices at Teign Housing. The panel found evidence of good working practices with regards to value for money and social value. The recommendations from the panel will be incorporated into our future reporting. COSTS TO DELIVER OUR SERVICES The table below shows the cost per property and comes from the information we submit to Housemark on an annual basis. Our comparison group in the table below is made up of 32 other stock transfer organisations in the Southern region that have between 2,500 and 7,500 properties. The figures are shown without any increase for inflation on the prior years data. At the time of writing this report the full 2012-13 data was not available for the comparison group and therefore the 2011-12 data has been used.

COMPARISON GROUP

TEIGN HOUSING COST PER PROPERTY Department

2008-9

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2011-12

£3,837

£1,499

£1,418

£1,524

£2,006

£1,906

£771

£727

£688

£661

£723

£744

Housing Management

£353

£361

£352

£361

£354

£409

Estate Services

£144

£191

£192

£201

£196

£235

Corporate Overheads

£548

£521

£512

£531

£521

£512

No of Properties

3,645

3,642

3,703

3,713

3,705

5,724

Major and Cyclical Maintenance Responsive and Void Repairs

Major and Cyclical Maintenance fluctuates each year depending on the programme of works. In 2012-13 we spent £1.3m more on major works than in 2011-12. WHAT DO OUR TENANTS THINK Tenant feedback on our services is very important to us. The information we receive back from our service satisfaction surveys is used in our balanced scorecard to monitor our performance against challenging targets that are set by our Audit and Performance Committee.

In addition to the feedback we receive from our satisfaction surveys we also survey our customer panel twice a year and also from our consultation events. The table below shows the customer satisfaction results for 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Balanced Scorecard Results

Performance 2011/12

Qtr 1

Qtr 2

Qtr 3

Qtr 4

Performance 2012/13

Target 2012/13

Customer satisfaction with repairs

96.96%

95.05%

94.37%

92.54%

92.98%

93.64%

95.00%

Customer satisfaction with caretaking

89.5%

88.0%

96.7%

95.0%

100.0%

94.8%

90.0%

Customer satisfaction with grounds maintenance

83.7%

82.1%

90.7%

-

-

87.2%

85.0%

Customer satisfaction with standard of property at letting

91.1%

100.0%

97.0%

100.0%

90.9%

99.1%

95.0%

Customer satisf. with management of ASB

73.9%

70.0%

100.0%

60.0%

80.0%

74.3%

85%

OUR APPROACH TO VALUE FOR MONEY We have developed a Value for Money culture within Teign Housing and there is a focussed approach to budget setting and managing costs within those budgets. Practical examples of our approach include: •

Below inflation budget increases



Focus on voids to minimise rent loss



Affordable rents tenancies to increase revenue and help fund development.



Audit committee continual performance improvement through KPI’s



For the past few years we have had a very close focus on controlling and reducing our operating costs. This fits with our corporate objectives to achieve upper quartile operating costs, achieve new borrowings, develop new homes and estate regeneration. As a result of these measures, we have achieved new borrowings at costs that are affordable yet significantly above the interest rates secured in 2004. Our new funding will enable the delivery of new comes and continued investment in our existing stock.

SOCIAL VALUE Teign Housing has an important role in addition to providing good quality homes and services. This role can extend to shaping places and communities, providing opportunities to address disadvantage, enhancing our environment and improving the health and wellbeing of our tenants. The regeneration of the blocks of flats in Teignmouth is a good example of this extended role in practice. By over cladding the buildings, fuel poverty was addressed through vastly improved insulation, the visual impact on the environment of a seaside town reliant on tourism has been greatly enhanced and the wellbeing of the tenants improved through the care and attention they feel that they have been afforded. Measuring value can be an industry in itself and the field has still not settled on a simple method that can be used to benchmark our performance against others. The method used at Teign Housing is to carry-out out a three-yearly neighbourhood profile, leading to the development of the community development strategy. The neighbourhood profile also influences the regeneration strategy. In addition, social value is considered in other areas of work, such as our employment of apprentices and using local businesses where appropriate. CONCLUSION This self assessment demonstrates that Value for Money is part of the culture of Teign Housing and touches on all aspects of the company involving staff, customers and suppliers. The result is that we deliver the best service we can within the resources we have available.