2015 annual performance report (Oct 2015)

NORTH VIEW
Housing Association
Annual Performance Report for 2014/15

“North View Housing Association
aims to provide a high quality
service that is responsive to the
needs of our tenants and service
users.”
Welcome to our Annual
Performance Report for 2014/15!
In the pages that follow we cover how we
are doing in meeting the demands of the
Scottish Social Housing Charter, we
compare our performance for the year
against other social landlords; we look at
how we did against our own Objectives and
Targets; we show what we spent money on;
we tell you who got the houses we re-let in
2014/15; and we include our ‘Landlord
Report’ issued by the Scottish Housing
Regulator. There is a lot in it!
We hope you find the time to have a read at
it!
The Scottish Housing Regulator
issues an annual ‘Landlord Report’
for every housing association that
operates in Scotland. Our Report
for the last financial year -
2014/15 - is on pages 3 and 4!
2

3

4

The customer/landlord relationship
Our latest satisfaction figures are based on the results of the 2014 Residents’ Survey, and last year’s figures
are based on the results of the 2012 Survey! On the whole, the 2014 results weren’t as good as the 2012
results and we’ve since spent a lot of time addressing the reasons as to why they weren’t as good. We are
hopeful that we’ll see an improvement in the next set of survey results.
In the infographics that follow, we have compared our performance for 2014/15 against that of the
Scottish average (for 2014/15), our Peer Group average (for 2014/15), how we did in 2013/14, and, in one
graphic, how our Peer Group did in 2013/14.
The Scottish average covers the results from housing associations and local authorities all across the
country, while the Peer Group average is calculated from our results and those of eight other similar type
associations operating in Glasgow.
Percentage of tenants who said
that they were satisfied with the
overall service that they received
from their landlord.
North View - 88.5%
Scottish average - 88.1%
Peer Group average - 90%
North View last year - 93.3%
Equalities
“
Social landlords perform all aspects of their housing services so
that every tenant and other customer has their individual needs
recognised, is treated fairly and with respect, and receives fair
access to housing and housing services.
extract from the Scottish Social Housing Charter
”
We have been doing okay in equalities. We
certainly aim to treat people respectfully and
fairly, and we are achieving that – the 2014
Residents Surveys’ results indicate that 90% of
our tenants think that we treat them fairly!
We have recently reviewed our Equalities
Policy and have done work on raising awareness
of equalities type issues.
5

Communication
“
Social landlords manage their businesses so that
tenants and other customers find it easy to
communicate with their landlord and get the
information they need about their landlord, how and
why it makes decisions and the services it provides.
”
Percentage of tenants who felt that
their landlord was good at keeping
them informed about its services
and outcomes.
North View - 90.8%
Scottish average - 89.3%
Peer Group average - 93.9%
North View last year - 97.8%
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6
At the tail end of last year and the beginning of this year, we held a few
residents’ Focus Groups to look at various aspects of our services.
Communication was one of the areas covered.
Our quarterly Newsletter remains our main mode of communication.
Through it we provide information on our services, news, and how
residents can have their say in what we are doing.
While there was high satisfaction with our Newsletter, the feeling
of the Focus Group was that our Newsletter focussed too much on
news and not enough on what is coming up. The Group identified
performance information, changes to services, and forthcoming
maintenance work as being the things residents want to know
about.
We took all that on board and have changed the format of the
Newsletter to include regular sections on performance, and
forthcoming maintenance work. We are now also trying to strike a
better balance between reporting on past and future events.
We joined Facebook as the result of a Focus Group discussion.
We have a website, but trouble is that none of our staff are
expert enough to keep it ‘all singing and dancing’, whereas it is
far easier for them to post to Facebook. We’ll be overhauling
our website to make it more of an information library, and use
our Facebook page for news and events.
One other thing that came out of the Focus Group was the
idea to hold small scale resident meetings so that folk had
the opportunity to come along and talk about issues in
their area. We held the meetings over a few weeks and
43 residents came along after which we addressed the
issues that they told us about.
All in all we have done a lot of work around communication.
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Participation
“
landlord’s decisions at a level they feel comfortable with.
”
The Focus Groups that we held last autumn and
winter were very successful – so much so that we
changed how we involved residents in scrutinising
our performance! We now do that through
Residents’ Focus Groups! The task ahead is to push
on with this!
We expect to hold another round of Focus Groups
in early 2016!
Percentage of tenants who were
satisfied with the opportunities to
participate in their landlord’s
decision making.
Social landlords manage their businesses so that tenants and
other customers find it easy to participate in and influence their
North View - 81.5%
Scottish average - 79.6%
Peer Group average - 83.7%
North View last year - 82.2%
Housing quality and maintenance
Quality of housing “
North View - 99.3%
Scottish average - 91%
Peer Group average - 94.6%
North View last year - 96.6%
Percentage of landlord’s homes
that meet the SHQS.
Social landlords manage their businesses so that
tenants’ homes, as a minimum, meet the Scottish
Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) by April 2015 and
continue to meet it thereafter, and when they are
allocated, are always clean, tidy and in a good state
of repair.
”
In 2014/15 we carried out heating upgrades to 18
properties to bring them up to the SHQS, but we weren’t
able to get in to do work on five properties, so those five
properties failed the SHQS at 31st March. We have
since replaced the heating system in one of the
properties and we are still trying to get in to do likewise
to the other four.
Regarding re-lets, last year’s Residents’ Survey
showed a lower level of satisfaction with the standard of
properties being re-let. In light of this feedback we
completely revamped our procedures to ensure we do
better. The downside is that it may take us a wee while
longer to get properties ready for re-let, but it’ll be worth
it to provide a better standard.
7

Repairs, maintenance and
improvements
“
Social landlords manage their businesses so
that tenants’ homes are well maintained, with
repairs and improvements carried out when
required, and tenants are given reasonable
choices about when work is done.
Scottish landlords
North View
3.4 days
7.9 days
”
Average time
taken to
complete non
emergency
repairs.
2.9 days
Percentage of reactive repairs that were
completed ‘right first time’.
With ‘right first time’ we are well adrift of both the Scottish and
Peer Group averages. We think we may be underreporting on
this one, but we need to look at this in a lot more detail to find
out exactly what’s going on. We’ll be doing that this year.
3.7 days
North View
Peer Group
2.4 hours
3.1 hours
Scottish landlords
Average time
taken to
complete
emergency
repairs.
5.9 hours
Our average time to address emergency repairs
is far better than the Scottish average, but not
quite as good as our Peer Group average, but we
bettered both in the ‘average number of days to
complete non-emergency repairs’ category.
North View
last year
North View - 79.2%
Scottish average - 90.2%
Peer Group average - 92.8%
North View last year - 84.1%
8
Percentage of tenants who had repairs or
maintenance carried out and were satisfied
with the service that they received.
Satisfaction levels with our repair service are down from last year
(which were taken from the 2012 Residents’ Survey). The latest
figures are based on the results of our 2014 Residents’ Survey, and in
response to the survey we quickly changed our gas and plumbing
contractor. One of the Residents’ Focus Groups also looked at our
repairs performance and we have acted on the outcome of those
discussions.
Earlier this year we ran a series of small scale repair based satisfaction surveys. The results were great, so
hopefully we are on the right track with repairs.
North View - 84.9%
Scottish average - 89.3%
Peer Group average - 88.5%
North View last year - 85.2%

Neighbourhood and community
Estate management, anti-social behaviour,
neighbour nuisance and tenancy disputes
“
Social landlords, working
in partnership with other
agencies, help to ensure
that tenants and other
customers live in wellm
a i n t a i n e d
neighbourhoods where
they feel safe.
”
We have recently reviewed our ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Policy’ –
involving tenants and Community Safety Glasgow in the process.
This policy sets out how we deal with reports of anti-social
behaviour. We take complaints about estate management and antisocial
matters seriously, and we work to respond to them all within
set timescales.
Comparison with our Peer Group shows we are doing okay here –
our average of 7.6 cases being less than the group average of 9.2.
Access to housing and support
6
Housing options
“
Social landlords work together to ensure that people looking for housing
get information that helps them make informed choices and decisions
about the range of housing options available to them, and that tenants
and people on housing lists can review their housing options. Social
landlords ensure that people at risk of losing their homes get advice on
preventing homelessness.
”
Our Housing Management staff regularly advise people who are looking for
rehousing.
We are also on hand to help any of our tenants who get into arrears, this
includes providing welfare advice – via our Welfare Rights Officer, giving
them information about getting independent advice and representation,
and setting up repayment arrangements to clear the arrear. If tenants’
come in to see us early doors when they get in to arrears, then we can
usually sort things out. Problems happen when tenants don’t stick to
repayment arrangements and don’t respond to our letters; that can lead to
eviction.
A project called ‘Housing Options’ is currently being rolled out among RSLs
in the south side of Glasgow. The key aim of the project is to reduce
homelessness, but it is also about improving support mechanisms to help
tenants keep their tenancy, and signposting people looking for housing to
the most suitable housing provider. In 2015/16, we will be considering
whether or not to sign up to ‘Housing Options’.
9

Access to social housing
“
Social landlords ensure that people looking for housing find it
easy to apply for the widest choice of social housing available
and get the information they need on how the landlord
allocates homes and their prospects of being housed.
”
This outcome covers what social landlords can do to make it easy for people to apply for the widest
choice of social housing that is available and suitable and that meets their needs. It includes actions that
social landlords can take on their own and in partnership with others, for example through Common
Housing Registers or mutual exchange schemes, or through local information and advice schemes.
We do alright against this Charter standard.
We have a joint housing form, which gives folk the option of applying to us for a house, or to us and
one (or more, or all) of four other RSLs who have houses in Castlemilk. It is a one stop shop for
applicants, in that they can put their application in to one of us and it’ll be copied on to the others ticked
in the selection boxes. They don’t have to trek round all five of us, nor do they need to fill in five separate
application forms.
Included in the package that we give applicants is information on our rules about how we allocate our
houses, the size of house that the applicant qualifies for, and an estimation of how many houses will
come up for re-let during the year.
We also promote mutual exchanges. Tenants can advertise their home in our office and in our quarterly
newsletter. We are also a member of HomeSwapper. This scheme gives our tenants the opportunity to
swap homes with someone from anywhere in the UK.
Who got our houses in 2014/15?
At the start of each new financial year, we prepare a ‘Lettings Plan’ in which we estimate how many
properties we expect to let during the year to each group of housing applicants that meet the aims and
objectives of our Allocation Policy. With the exception of ‘Aspirational Lets’ and Homeless referrals that
we get from Glasgow City Council, our properties are let to people on the housing list who we have
assessed as having the greatest housing need.
In 2014/2015, we let 64 properties to people on our housing lists. The breakdown of the number of
properties that were let to each group of applicants is illustrated below.
Properties let from our external housing list
Properties let to homeless persons referred to us by Glasgow City Council
13
Properties let to existing North View tenants through our internal housing list
12
Properties let to existing North View tenants through an aspirational move
6
33
It is worth noting that, of the 33 applicants allocated a house through our External Housing List, eight
resided in one of our houses i.e. they were not the tenant of the house, but were part of the tenant’s
household.
10

Tenancy sustainment
“
Social landlords ensure that tenants get the information they need on
how to obtain support to remain in their home; and ensure suitable
support is available, including services provided directly by the landlord
and by other organisations.
”
This outcome covers how landlords can help tenants who may need support to maintain
their tenancy. This includes tenants who may be at risk of falling into arrears with their
rent, and tenants who may need their home adapted to cope with age, disability, or
caring responsibilities.
Our Welfare Rights service is central to what we do here!
The current economic climate, together with Welfare Reform, makes this a particularly
difficult time for our tenants. Our Welfare Rights Officer assists tenants in many ways,
and we also ‘signpost’ tenants to other more specialised services, including food banks
and G-Heat.
We put a lot of effort into identifying support needs that new tenants may have, then,
where possible, spend time getting the necessary support in place. About six weeks
after a new tenant has moved in, we visit to see how they are getting on. This gives us
a chance to address any support needs that have come up since they moved in.
We carry out adaptations to tenants’ homes to meet their changing needs and to help
them to continue living in their home. Examples of adaptations provided include
handrails, level access showers and ramps. We get funding to do this, and last year
spent just over £24,000 on adapting 19 tenants’ homes.
11

Getting good value for rents and service charges
12
Value for money
North View - 99.3%
Scottish average - 99.5%
North View
this year
North View
last year
Peer Group average - 99.9%
15.8 days
15.3 days
North View last year - 99.5%
Average time
taken to re-let
empty
properties.
14 days
“
Rents and service charges
“
Social landlords manage all aspects of their
business so that tenants, owners and other
customers receive services that provide
continually improving value for the rent and other
charges they pay.
”
Percentage of rent due that the landlord
collected in the year.
The Regulator’s landlord report shows that we performed well in respect
of the percentage of rent we collected in the year, the percentage that
we couldn’t collect due to homes being empty, and in how quickly we relet
homes.
We did well in this area, and we are aiming to keep that up in the year
ahead.
36.8 days
Peer Group
North View
this year
Scottish
landlords
0.4%
Social landlords set rents and service charges in consultation with their
tenants and other customers so that a balance is struck between the
level of services provided, the cost of the services, and how far current
and prospective tenants and other customers can afford them; and that
tenants get clear information on how rent and other money is spent,
including any details of individual items of expenditure above thresholds
agreed between landlords and tenants.
0.4%
North View
last year
”
Scottish landlords
average
Percentage of
annual rent not
collected due
to properties
being empty.
0.3%
1.1%
Peer Group
average

The Regulator’s Landlord’s report indicates that our average rents for our 3 and 4 apartment properties are higher
than the Scottish average – however the difference is less than it was last year.
A fair proportion of our 4 apartment properties are houses which have higher rents than flats, so it stands to
reason that the average rents for our 4 apartments will be higher than the Scottish average if most social
landlords have a lot more 4 apartment flats than houses – which we believe is the case.
The Regulator’s figures give a steer on rents; the only way to get a true comparison is to compare the rent that
landlord’s charge for individual house types, like comparing what we charge for a 4 apartment 6 person semidetached
house against what another RSL charges. There are so many landlords with so many different house
types that that isn’t practical to do that exercise on a type by type basis, so the Regulator gets us to bunch them
all together based on apartment size and takes the average.
That is an explanation of what may be at play here, but the bottom line is that we need to keep an eye on these
figures and see what we can do to reduce the difference between our average rent levels and the Scottish
average.
Next year’s figures should move us in the right direction again as our rent increase
for 2015/16 was only 2.25%, which we believe was lower than most social
landlords. That will help, but we will be mindful of these figures
when we next review rents.
North View
this year
Peer Group
average this year
2.25%
2.3%
RENT CONSULTATION NEWSLETTER - February 2015
3.25%
Percentage of
annual rent
increase.
2.75%
Registered as a Scottish charity - SC032963
29A Stravanan Road, Castlemilk, GLASGOW G45 9LY tel:- 0141 634 0555 e-mail:- enquiries@nvha.org.uk
w e b : - w w w . n v h a . o r g . u k
Peer Group
average last year
North View
last year
Every February we consult tenants via our Newsletter
about the rent review, and set out what we will be
spending money on in the year ahead. We always
aim to keep any rent increase at as low a level as
necessary to fund the housing management and
maintenance services that we provide. We will be
redoubling our efforts to achieve that next year.
INSIDE
YOUR
NEWSLET TER
RENT INCREASE OF
2.25% UNDER
CONSIDERATION!
2 - 9 EXPENDITURE
10 INCOME & CONSULTATION
11 NEWS & GRASS CUTTING
12 RIGHT TO REPAIR
13

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS OF 2014/15
Income and Expenditure
Income - approx £2,688,000
Expenditure - approx £2,721,000
Our expenditure exceeded our income by (approximately) £33,000. The overspend was as a
result of us having to carry out unplanned render repairs to many of our tenemental
properties. We covered the shortfall from our reserves.
What did we spend money on?
The infographic below shows where each £10 we received in rent was spent in 2014/15!
Management Costs
Repairs
Services
£4.20
£1.04
£3.07
£1.52
17p
Depreciation
Loans
MANAGEMENT COSTS include things like salaries for the office staff, property insurances, bank
charges, legal fees, factoring, wider role activities, and bad debts. DEPRECIATION is an operating
cost which covers the notional reduction in the cost of our properties and other fixed assets – like the
Office and computer equipment etc.. REPAIRS cover items such as salaries for the maintenance
team, our vans, reactive repairs, kitchen replacements, window replacements, bathroom
replacements, estate maintenance, plus the render repairs that we had to do to several of our
properties. LOANS are, in effect, our ‘mortgage’ payments to the bank for the money that we
borrowed from them to build and buy houses and flats. SERVICES cover things like the close
cleaning, the skip weekend, cutting grass in tenants’ gardens, and replacing wheelie bins.
14

Objectives and Performance Targets
Listed below are our Objectives and Targets that we set ourselves for 2014/15, and a report about how
we did against each!
Our Objectives for 2014/15 were:-
To carry out a large scale Residents Survey by 31st July 2014
We completed the Survey by the target date.
To ensure that all our properties comply with the SHQS by 31st March 2015
5 of our properties did not comply with the energy criterion set out in the Scottish Housing
Quality Standard.
To replace kitchen units in the homes of 40 tenants by 31st March 2015.
In 2014/15, we replaced the kitchen units and worktops in the homes of 38 of our tenants.
We missed our target by two.
To replace the windows in the homes of 40 tenants by 31st March 2015.
In 2014/15, we fitted new windows in the homes of 39 of our tenants. We were only one short
of target.
Our Key Performance Targets for 2014/15
Housing Management
That the average re-let time for empty properties
not exceed 15 days from the date on which the
property became empty.
The average re-let time for empty properties
was 15.8 days, so we were just over our target.
That rental income lost through empty properties
does not exceed 0.5% of the rental income (as
measured over the preceding twelve months).
In 2014/15, we lost 0.38% in rental income as a
result of properties being empty. We met this
Key Performance Target.
That rent arrears not exceed 3.5% of the amount
of rent chargeable for the year.
The figure was 2.57% (for actual rent arrears -
excluding technical arrears and former tenant
arrears), which is within target.
That, on average, applicants be placed on our
Housing List within fifteen working days of the
Association receiving his/her/their application.
In 2014/15, the average time that it took us to
process applications and place them on our
housing list was 4.5 days This is well within our
target timescale of 15 days!.
Repairs
That at least 95% of Emergency Repairs be made
safe within 4 hours of being reported, and made
good within 24 hours.
98.85% of Emergency Repairs were completed
within target timescale!
That at least 90% of Urgent Repairs be completed
within 3 working days of being reported.
98.7% of Urgent Repairs were completed within
target timescale!
That at least 90% of Routine Repairs be
completed within 10 working days of being
reported.
97.16% of Routine Repairs were completed
within target timescale!
That the average time taken to address an
emergency repair be no more than 3 hours.
The average time taken to address emergency
repairs was 3 hours and 6 minutes!
That the average time taken to address a nonemergency
repair be no more than 7 working days.
The average time taken to address nonemergency
repairs was 3 days, 9 hours, and 36
minutes.
That at least 75% of our repairs be ‘right first time’.
79.2% of our repairs were ‘right first time’.
15

November Surveys!
Research Resource will be doing a
telephone survey of our tenants in
November. They will be contacting about
250 of our tenants!
The survey will consist of about a dozen
questions, so it won’t take too long to
complete. If they contact you, we’d really
appreciate you sparing a few minutes to
talk to them.
We have voucher prizes on offer! Those
tenants who take part in the survey will be
entered into a prize draw where two £50
vouchers, two £30 vouchers, three £20
vouchers, and four £10 vouchers will be up
for grabs! Research Resource will make the
draw!
The results of the draw and the outcome
of the survey will be covered in our Winter
Newsletter which will come out just before
Christmas!
North View Housing Association
29A Stravanan Road
Castlemilk
GLASGOW
G45 9LY
t:- 0141 634 0555
e:- enquiries@nvha.org.uk
w:-www.nvha.org.uk
North View Housing Association is a registered Scottish
charity (Scottish charity number SC032963), and a
registered Property Factor (Property Factor number
PF000246).