Board of Directors, Executives 2014/15 and Advisors

Value for Money Statement Villages Housing Association

1

Value for Money objectives 1

We have a number of linked strategies to ensure value across our services. These include Value for Money, Risk, Asset and Treasury Management. A large part of this year was spent in preparation for joining ForViva Group and aligning the Villages Plan to ForViva Corporate Objectives.

We place tenants at the heart of Engaging Residents everything we do. You help us to develop new services and improve existing ones. We support the development of tenants by providing regular training and attendance at relevant conferences.

Our core principles Embed

A VfM culture across all service areas

2

Support

A culture of continuous improvement

Achieve

The right balance between cost, quality and local economy

Benchmark

Our costs and the quality of our services with other housing providers

How we used our resources in 2014/15

We received a total of £13.3 million from all of our activities during the year. This includes the rent we get from our properties, income generated by the Tenants Extra Support Scheme in Stockbridge Village, landscaping and retail income from our shops.

How each pound was spent in 2014/15:

31p

Properties and estate maintenance

9p

Bank loan interest

2p

Third party contracts

17p

Management

6p

Sundry

1p

Community development

16p

Home improvements

5p

Service charges

1p

Commercial management

9p

Bank loan repayments

4p

Support costs

I have been a Villages’ tenant for 29 years. Everything I have asked them for they have done for me. They are very helpful.

Villages resident

Customer Survey

82.0%

81.4%

Customers were satisfied that their rent provides value for money.

Customers were satisfied that their service charge provides value for money.

* results from the 2015 STAR Survey, which was carried out in March 2015

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How we performed in 2014/15 We constantly review our services to see whether they deliver value for money. These highlights show weekly cost comparisons for 2014/15 against the previous year and the industry average.

Rent Arrears

Responsive Repairs & Voids £16.98

£16.68

£2.25

£16.62 £1.67

2013/14

2014/15

Sector average

By improving our stock and being more efficient, we’ve reduced the price of responsive repairs & voids. Our costs are now in line with our peers. Our new contract with ForWorks should help us reduce costs even further.

2013/14

2013/14

2014/15

100p 84p

64p

Sector average

The cost of providing ASB services to tenants has fallen by 25 pence per week per property. Our Tenancy Enforcement Officer is doing much of the legal work, which is much more cost effective than using solicitors. 4

Sector average

Letting Service 89p

55p

2014/15

Our rent collection rate was 99.08%, down from 100.09% last year. This is due to an increase in former tenant arrears. We are continuing to work hard with our tenants to reduce rent arrears.

Anti-social Behaviour 77p

£1.39

2013/14

2014/15

Sector average

The cost of our letting service increased by 11 pence per week per property. This was due to an increase in charges for the Choice Based Letting service at Knowsley and Oldham, and additional costs for marketing our properties.

How we our usedpromises our resources in 2014/15 Meeting In our last VFM Self Assessment, we listed eight areas that defined the future direction of our Value for Money approach. Good progress has been made on all fronts:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Future direction

Progress made

Evaluate the benefits of partnership working with another Registered Provider

Villages became a ForViva group member on 1st June 2015

Continue to address fuel poverty in our communities by securing grants via the Energy Company Obligations (ECO) scheme and other initiatives

The final EWI scheme on low-rise homes has been completed. A Biomass Heating project for our multis is being considered as a joint project with City West Housing Trust

Develop the Business Development Group model to strengthen our budgetary process

A Team Plan model has been created so that core activities are aligned to budget spend

Secure funding and prepare to re-finance existing loans

This will be achieved as part of ForViva group

Review our teams to ensure they are fit for purpose and responsive to the challenges of Welfare Reform

We’ve re-organised the Income Management, Surveying and Tenants Extra Support Scheme teams

Develop improved ways to measure We ‘re using the HACT model to measure Social and understand our Returns on Assets Value (see page 7 of this report)

Develop the Fitton Hill and Stockbridge Village masterplans

Attain recognised Quality Assurance standards to drive consistently high levels of service delivery to all customers

This will link to ForViva partnership. The first scheme due to be developed is a £9m Extra Care Scheme in Stockbridge Village, which is due to start in spring 2016 We have recently attained ISO 14001 and are working towards ISO 18001 accreditation. We have also recently been awarded IIP Gold and the Health and Wellbeing Standard

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How wedelivery used our resources in 2014/15 Service highlights Investment in the selection of our partners, with our tenants, for the delivery of key services, and investment in Tenant Scrutiny, continues to be Villages’ approach to drive quality and improvement.

We were successful in our tender bid for the Tenants Extra Support Scheme to manage Knowsley MBC’s floating support contract for a further two years. The service has four floating support officers and one specialised substance misuse project officer. TESS supported 219 tenants during the year. The service issued 135 food bank vouchers and secured over £25,000 in backdated Housing Benefit awards.

We built on our successful track record of fighting fuel poverty by securing £14,000 of funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change to deliver the Big Energy Saving Network (BESN). Villages delivered energy advice to 297 residents and 111 officers about how to reduce energy costs by switching supplier, moving to a new tariff or changing payment methods.

We held several successful events in our communities, including the Gala Days in Fitton Hill and Stockbridge Village, the Garden Competition and a wide range of Easter, Halloween and Christmas events. Both estates were also entered into the North West in Bloom 2014 competition and Fitton Hill once again supported the very successful ‘Schools Out’ programme of summer events and activities.

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Wellbeing Valuation Last year, we said we were working to measure the social and environmental impact of our community investment, in line with the Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT) ‘Wellbeing Valuation’. Results from our pilot projects confirm that our activities are generating significant social value.

Stockbridge Village Job Club The club started in September 2014. Since then, seven attendees have found work. 20 residents are engaged in regular voluntary work and 26 have undertaken employment training. According to the HACT model, the job club generated a net Social Impact Benefit of £122,402, with a Budget to Social Impact ratio of 1:39. This means that £39 pounds of Social Impact value were generated for every £1 spent.

Fitton Hill Job Club The successful Fitton Hill Job Club has continued to thrive and now runs two weekly sessions. On 31st March 2015, there were 194 active members. Since the club started, 57 job seekers have found employment, three members were helped to claim Employment Support Allowance (ESA), two members were helped with Pension Credits and one moved into Further Education. This achievement produced a Social Impact Benefit of £182,430 and a Budget to Social Impact ratio of 1:31.

Respect Our Communities Awards (ROCA) We also applied the model in our work to support ‘Respect Our Communities Awards’ (ROCA) with partners from the public and private sectors. A recent review by ROCA using the HACT Social Value Model shows that for each £1 invested £5.04 of Social Value was created. This was the seventh year that Villages has invested in ROCA. £12,000 has been invested to date. The social return into the community of Fitton Hill is calculated at over £23,000. 7

To find out more about our performance, take a look at our Annual Report.

If you would like to know more about Villages Housing Association or any of our services, please call us or visit our website: Stockbridge Village: 0151 480 1313 Fitton Hill: 0161 633 4060 www.villages.org.uk /VillagesHousing