HFI NEWS - Islington Council

HFI
NEWS
SPRING 2012
2
Contents
2 Message from HFI’s Board of
Directors
3 Goodbye from HFI
4 Help is around the corner
5 Resident engagement and
consultation
6 Community vegetable gardens
7 Tackling housing fraud
8 Safer neighbourhoods
9-12 Home Owner News
13 Contact Us
14 Changes to working tax credits
15 Partnering to success
16 Young and active
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your Area Housing Office.
Visit Contact our HFI website News at at
hfi.communications@homesforislington.org.uk
www.homesforislington.org.uk
Local news - making a difference
Goodbye from HFI
Message from HFI’s Board of Directors
From 1 April 2012, responsibility for housing management services will transfer from
Homes for Islington back to Islington Council.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank HFI residents and staff for their input,
support, hard work and dedication over the last eight years. This has resulted in HFI being
placed amongst the top ten highest performing housing management organisations in
the country and enabled us to complete the delivery of the Decent Homes Programme to
benefit the residents of Islington.
We hope that you will continue to support the council as they aim to further improve
services to all residents.
Business as usual
Things are unlikely to look different when the council takes over in April.
This is because the council wants to focus on the services you receive and
on providing more affordable homes.
Name Surname
Housing and Adult
Social Services
HFI Board of Directors
So the HFI logo will not disappear overnight - things
like uniforms and some estate signage will only
change when they need to be replaced.
There will be new signs on our area housing
offices and new identity badges for staff (like
the one shown here).
Our email and web addresses will
eventually change but you’ll still be able to
use the old ones until you get used to them.
The freephone number, 0800 694 3344, is for “Housing
Direct” which will be the new name for our call centre (previously
known as HFI Direct).
Family moves to new family home
This will be the last edition of HFI News following
the decision to return housing services to council
management.
We thought we would sign off by remembering some of
the key achievements over the last eight years and assure
you that we will continue to deliver the same level of service
from April when we return in-house.
It also marks an opportunity to say goodbye to our Chief
Executive Eamon McGoldrick. Under Eamon’s stewardship,
HFI became one of the few large inner city landlords to
achieve a 3 star award by the Housing Inspectorate for its
services, a factor that led to the award of £175million by
the Government to complete the upgrade of over 24,000
homes.
• When HFI opened its doors in 2004, 52% of our tenants
were satisfied with the services they received. By April 2011
this figure had risen to 72%.
• As stated above, we completed the Decent Homes
Programme on time and to budget, with 14,000 new
kitchens, 9,000 new bathrooms and 16,000 window
renewals/improvements. Over 90% of our tenants have
stated they are happy with these works and over 87% were
satisfied with their accommodation in 2011 compared with
64% in 2004.
• Our reputation as an organisation with a 3 star award
meant that we were successful in obtaining funding to build
new council homes in Islington on behalf of the council.
With 22 units completed so far it is planned that 236
homes will be provided by 2014.
• Over the last seven years, we have completed 1,525 housing
investigations of tenancy fraud resulting in the recovery of
700 properties for re-allocation to residents in housing need.
• We have reduced rent arrears from £8.2m in 2004 to
£3.2m in 2011 meaning we have more money to spend on
providing services.
• We have worked hard to help those who have problems
paying their rent with nearly 1,000 people a year receiving
free welfare advice and support at our offices. At the same
time as increasing our rental income, we have reduced the
number of evictions from 231 in 2004 to 48 in 2011 and
made sure that those who need help get it.
• HFI has one of the best records in the country for re-letting
empty properties with an average of 20 days in 2010/11.
This reduces rent loss and lessens the time that our
prospective tenants have to spend in expensive temporary
accommodation.
• Through the Arsenal Positive Futures partnership over 1,000
young people a year are involved in a range of activities
across nine estates, from arts and drama projects, football
and homework clubs, to coaching and job mentoring
opportunities.
• Nearly 1,000 residents signed up to the Resident
Involvement Register enabling them to have a say on how
our services are run.
• We have created 40 large family sized homes by
deconverting street properties, creating an additional 125
bedrooms with 206 additional bed spaces.
Chief executive at arts on estates event
Visit our website at
www.homesforislington.org.uk
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