YHN Delivery Plan 2012-13 - Your Homes Newcastle

flexibly to customers in high-riseblocks. To ensure we are able torespond promptly to customerrequests, we are also investing inmobile working technology, providingappropriate staff with hand-helddevices to which the customer requestis sent.We will continue to help our customersto meet their needs through onlineservices delivered through ourwebsite, and will be linking up withNewcastle City Council in a campaignto promote digital inclusion.ICT security is an important part of ourwork, ensuring that information held onour ICT systems is properlymaintained and protected.We continue to support our efficiencyagenda through ICT, and will introducesystems to make PCs turn themselvesoff at night when not in use.Environmental SustainabilityWe adopted our EnvironmentalSustainability Strategy in April 2011,setting our vision to become the mostenvironmentally friendly housingorganisation in the North East. Toensure we achieve progress in thisarea we have become a member ofthe Sustainable Homes Index forTomorrow (SHIFT), a sustainabilityassessment tailored to the housingsector, and will undergo a public auditlater in 2012/13.We recognise that our businessactivities are both contributing factorsto and at risk from climate change andare making efforts to adapt ourpractices accordingly. In addition werealise that many of our customersface fuel poverty and we want to helpthem minimise these impacts in future.Both of these areas are addressed inour Environmental SustainabilityStrategy and Action Plan, the key aimsof which are to:Achieve a 6% reduction in ourcarbon footprint by 2013 againstour 2005 baseline;Reduce the environmentalimpact of the housing stock wemanage and build; andInform and encouragebehavioural change by ourtenants and staff.To date we have put a lot of effort intoimproving the environmentalperformance of our existing and newbuild properties; for example during2011/12 we upgraded 472 windowsfrom single to double glazing andinstalled 398 cavity and loft insulationmeasures. We also carried outassessments to support the creation of1547 new Energy PerformanceCertificates.We have built 15 properties to theCode for Sustainable Homes levelthree, and a further 41 to level four;our customers in these properties havereceived comprehensive home userguides to help them minimise theenvironmental impacts of living in theirnew homes. To support tenants in ourexisting properties we also have aservice level agreement with theEnergy Centre at Newcastle CityCouncil to provide home visits totenants struggling with fuel povertyand to provide advice at public andcommunity events. We have installeda further 43 Solar PV systems at ournew build properties and also hope, bythe end of the financial year, to haveinstalled PV systems at 30 blocks toprovide electricity for communallighting, elevators and external lighting.In 2012/13 we will continue the goodwork we have been doing, not only byimproving building fabric but also by18