HOMES FOR HAR INGEY Annual Report 2016/17

www.homesforharingey.org

Introduction I am pleased to join Homes for Haringey and feel privileged to lead the organisation as we embark on a new chapter. We will need to carefully navigate the continuing challenges of the environment we work in and also build on our strengths to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. As a trusted partner of the Council we look

forward to playing an important role in helping it to deliver its new Housing Strategy 2017 – 2022 for the borough at this thought-provoking time.

I would like to thank Tom McGregor, who took over as interim Chair, for his leadership in driving improvements in governance and ‘keeping the ship steady’. I would also like to thank the Board and staff of Homes for Haringey for their continuing support, loyalty and passion for the organisation.

Looking ahead, the world of housing continues to be a challenging one. However, I am sure that Homes for Haringey has the strength and determination to meet those challenges. This report sets out what we have achieved, where we need to improve and demonstrates the impact that Homes for Haringey has on the local community it serves.

Aman Dalvi OBEAman Dalvi OBE Chair, Homes for Haringey

This has been a tumultuous year for the social housing sector and there is no doubt in my mind that we will continue to be faced with tough economic and social challenges for some time yet. I am pleased that we have been able to go against the tide of rising numbers of homeless people in temporary accommodation since taking over the service from the Council in 2016. This goes against the rising numbers experienced in neighbouring boroughs and is a credit to our dedicated staff who are continually expected to deliver more for less.

However, there remains much for us to do, including driving improvements in the organisation across areas of low performance and positioning Homes for Haringey so we are able to take advantage of new business opportunities. This will help us to contribute efficiency savings and support the Council with balancing the books – something we have a successful track record in doing.

We are proud to work with a wonderfully diverse community of tenants, leaseholders and stakeholders from all walks of life, and this vibrant community is at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we regularly ask our customers for their feedback and ideas; so that we can shape our organisation and services in the ways that matter to them and create a Homes for Haringey that is fit for the long term.

Chris LiffenChris Liffen Interim Managing Director

1. About Homes for Haringey

Homes for Haringey provides all landlord services on behalf of Haringey Council, managing around 21,000 homes. This makes us one of the largest Arm’s Length Management Organisations (ALMO) in England. Of our properties, 16,000 are general needs tenancies and 5,000 are leasehold properties.

Haringey, like most of London is in the midst of a housing crisis with demand outstripping supply. Working closely with Haringey Council, Homes for Haringey is committed to tackling this issue. We are continually looking for ways to increase the range of affordable housing options in the borough. Last year we helped over 3,000 people into temporary accommodation and prevented over 700 people from becoming homeless by offering early intervention and targeted support.

We regularly work with partner organisations to leverage additional funding and resources, as well as seeking new service opportunities. All this activity brings money into the business that can be redistributed to help those in need of homes.

Homes for Haringey also manages 51 supported housing schemes in the borough, which provide housing support services for 1400 older people with support needs. In 2017, we will modernise our offer by introducing a Support and Wellbeing hub and cluster model of care. These modern centres will enable us to extend our range of service provision to better meet the needs of the older population in the wider community.

While we manage, maintain and improve existing homes and estates and manage all of the Council’s new builds, we provide more than just homes. We seek to enhance the life chances of all our residents and develop neighbourhoods where people want to live.

We offer training and employment opportunities and run Hearthstone – an arm of the business dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence. Each year, our youth offering at Project 2020 is expanded to reach greater numbers of young people, helping to keep them away from gang violence and giving them a safe place to gather where they can play games and find support with school work.

300 residents

Digital championsOur Digital champions continue to work in the community offering support, advice and training to residents helping them to make better use of their devices and access more services on-line. Throughout 2016/17 our digital champions provided over

200 advice sessions with over 60 residents. During 2016/17 we recruited and trained up seven new residents. This will bring the total number of digital champions to 12.

Resident associations 50 We work with

estate play days run in partnership with Haringey Play Association were attended by an estimated

16Edgecot Grove Residents Association and Victoria, Kerswell, Culvert and Pagin Residents Association held a very successful open air cinema event which was supported by over

150 local residents

We held a successful supported housing conference attended by over

150 residents from our supported housing schemes.

Homes for Haringey Employment and Training team have provided

130 residents with one to one information, advice and guidance with accompanying individual action plans.

38 residents secured paid jobs 72 residents have gone into training and apprenticeships.

Estate Safety Days We have supported three estate safety days working in partnership with the Fire Brigade.

500 residents were offered fire safety information and advice.

We carried out 60 in-depth home fire safety visits by the Fire Brigade for those who wanted them and followed up with further visits on request.

Project 2020 Hub at Northumberland Park offers activities for young people two evenings a week and school holidays. Over

80 young people have taken part since April 2016.

Community Engagement and Health Action Days attended by over

5 300 residents 400 families

It is a great opportunity for me to show other residents the benefits of getting online. I’m self-taught and I want to tell people not to be afraid and give the internet a try.

Digital Champion, Tyrone Clarke helps residents to make use of online services.

National Apprenticeship WeekIn partnership with the College of Haringey Enfield and North East London, Homes for Haringey took on five apprentices (two carpenters, two multi skills and one plasterer). Each apprentice spends four days on site with a designated operative and mentor and has one day-release each week to attend college working towards achieving a Level 2 NVQ certificate.

C A S E S T U D Y

C A S E S T U D Y

Financial inclusionMs P is single and lives in a council flat in Tottenham. She lost her job in May 2016 and wanted to sign on at her local Job Centre Plus.

When she visited she was told she needed to apply online for the new benefit, Universal Credit but that it can take several weeks to assess and that her first payment would have to cover rent and bills for that entire time.

This would mean Ms P couldn’t pay her rent so she went to Homes for Haringey for advice. We were able to help Ms P get an advance from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which can be up to 50% of the first month’s payment. The rent advance was then deducted in instalments from Ms P’s Universal Credit payments over the next six months.

We gave Ms P advice on how to adjust from weekly to monthly payments and helped her apply to the DWP for the rent to be taken from her Universal Credit and to be paid directly into her Homes for Haringey rent account. This means her rent is paid and she can see how much she has left each month.

With our help, Ms P got back on track with her rent payments and is now able to manage her budget successfully.

Sean and Ngozi - The Homes for Haringey Financial Inclusion Team

2. How we work

Homes for Haringey is dedicated to working closely with all of its customers – tenants, leaseholders and people in need of housing, so that they have a real say in shaping the services we provide.

We have increased support to help residents to do more things for themselves, with local resident groups running more projects in their neighbourhoods, promoting a greater sense of community.

Involved residents are shaping the strategy for future investment in Council housing through the Asset Management Plan Task and Finish groups and we have worked with our Resident Complaints Panel to resolve five longstanding complaints over the course of the year.

We take any complaint seriously and make every effort to learn from feedback to improve our services.Compared to last year (2015/16), in 2016/2017 we made progress as follows:

Complaints 2016/17 2015/216

Number of complaints received (all HfH services) 1042 1168

% of timely responses for complaints* 94% 95%

Number of Member Enquiries received (all HfH services) 734 683

% of timely responses for Member Enquiries 91% 92%

% of resolution at first stage 93% 92%

% of complainants satisfied with the way we handled the complaint 83% 89%

% of complainants satisfied with the outcome of the complaint 85% 90%

*The response target has moved to 10 days since 1/4/17 instead of 20 days.

Compared to the previous year, the number of complaints has reduced, the response times are similar and the resolution rate has improved. Although satisfaction levels have fallen slightly, they remain high. In 2017/18 our focus will be on preventing complaints by being pro-active and completing service requests swiftly, as well as raising our customer satisfaction figures.

C A S E S T U D Y

service reviews - estate services inspection and complaints management

Three light touch reviews - repairs, leaseholder service and customer service

Nine mystery shopping experiences.

Resident Scrutiny PanelThe Resident Scrutiny Panel is an independent resident-led group that provides a scrutiny challenge to Homes for Haringey. These independent scrutiny activities have led to recommendations that have informed service improvement and operational plans.

We recruited nine new members to the Resident Scrutiny Panel in 2016/17.

The review was a great adventure to understand how the process works, get residents’ feedback and to explore ways to improve the service further so that resident satisfaction is maximised. Overall the service works reasonably well and there is genuine commitment from Homes for Haringey to be even better.

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Key achievements include:

Yvonne Denny, Chair of the Resident Scrutiny Panel

There was a very strong field of candidates who were put through a thorough and robust selection process. We have highly talented residents on our Board who bring an important resident perspective in Board room debate and decision making. I’m glad that people were so motivated to vote and to get involved with Homes for Haringey. It shows that residents really care about their communities, just like we do.

Chris Liffen, Interim Managing Director at Homes for Haringey

C A S E S T U D Y

Highest recorded turnout in Resident Board ElectionsAfter more than a month of voting, almost half of all Homes for Haringey residents had their say in electing fellow residents to the Board in 2016. In all 49.3% of all leaseholders and 47.5% of tenants cast their votes, giving an overall turnout of 48.01%, with 11,337 people voting. Nearly 60% opted to use the internet or their mobile phone rather than the post to cast their votes.

At Homes for Haringey we encourage feedback from all our residents through more and more varied channels. We want residents to know that we are taking action on their suggestions.

You said: Our website could be easier to use

We: developed a new website which makes it easier to access information – the site allows residents to access their accounts, pay their bills, report issues and update personal details 24/7

You said: you wanted more ways to get in touch with us

We: launched the ‘My Haringey Home’ mobile app, which allows tenants to report housing repairs and estate issues easily, as well as providing easy links to pay rent, search for housing and much more.

You said: you wanted us to be more responsive

We: introduced the use of mobile technology in our services, with housing officers now using tablet devices on visits to ensure work can be booked immediately and more easily followed up.

You said: residents would like to be communicated with via email

We: created a monthly residents and bi-annual leaseholders e-newsletter with more timely information

You said: Service charges were difficult to understand

We: produced two new videos on our website which explain in under two-minutes how leaseholder service charges are calculated and billed.

You said: there is no dedicated service access for leaseholders and it is difficult to know who to talk to for estates and ASB issues

We: have set up a dedicated option on our phone menu to access specially trained advisors to help with a wide range of leaseholder enquiries and to refer more complicated issues to the relevant team with the right expertise.

You said: you wanted help to keep your tenancy if you ran in to difficulties

We: have specialist team providing money advice, help with benefits and employment advice and training opportunities.

300 residents

Focussed on increasing

resident satisfaction with neighbourhoods as a place to live – we had a

6% increase in satisfaction from the previous survey of residents.

CCTV We have extended CCTV in other areas which had a significant and immediate impact in reducing ASB problems, with footage used for robust enforcement action”

Rolled out more Wi-Fi connected CCTV to combat anti-social behaviour and dumping on estates. We currently have

64 outdoor CCTV systems on Homes for Haringey estates with more being installed each year.

Introduced Neighbourhood Improvement Officers with a focus on improving local neighbourhoods and not just housing estates.

Increased the frequency of cleaning by Veolia so that estates are cleaner

Increased income allowing investment into areas such as:

Improved lighting for safety and security

Extra and improved play equipment for children on estates.

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3. Looking after neighbourhoods

To improve the quality of life in local neighbourhoods, we work with our partners to tackle issues like anti-social behaviour and to look after internal and external communal areas on estates.

In 2016/17 we:

C A S E S T U D Y

Tackling ASBFollowing feedback from local residents at Stellar House, Altair Close, The Lindales and Bennetts Close (SARB) Residents Association, we have taken steps to tackle anti-social behaviour at Altair Close and Stella House.

We improved the footpath leading to Stellar House from the High Road, installing a security gate and removing nearby fences to create a

play area for children on the estate. Further security gates to some properties have also been fitted at Altair Close.

A wireless door entry system, the first of its kind within Homes for Haringey estates, has also been fitted to provide the most cost effective entry system through the new security gates. Since the new gates and doorbells were installed at Altair Close, there have been no further cases of anti-social behaviour outside these properties.

Fly tippingWe know that fly tipping is a big problem across Haringey. It is something that our residents contact us about frequently.

We take a hard-line on fly tipping as we know that it is unpleasant for our residents. As well as regular estate inspections and responding to tip-offs from residents we have also taken steps to install CCTV in problem areas.

The picture feeds from the cameras are monitored live, linked to a wireless network, and record 24 hours a day in full HD quality.

300 residents

Redesigned our Property Service team to provide a more customer focussed service and to achieve

savings of £900k

Brought our 9,500th home up to the Decent Homes standard, as part of a programme of work successfully run over the last 8 years, investing a total of £240 million.

To help tenants carry out the repairs they are responsible for we produced a series of

“How to” DIY films which are available on our website.

Secured major investment for the Noel Park estate as the final two stages of works were agreed so that from 2017

578 homes will now be part of further improvements.

Invested £50m in improvements during the year

Introduced a ‘report a repair’ function on our

mobile app, which allows residents to identify the location of a repair, send us a photo, along with a brief description of the repair and then submit it directly to our Repairs Service.

4. Maintaining homes

We aim to maintain and improve the quality of council housing and provide an excellent repairs and maintenance service. In 2016/17 we:

C A S E S T U D Y

Decent HomesPamela and Mick Hooper received a home refurbishment from Homes for Haringey. They were one of the 14,000 tenants and 4,000 leaseholders who have benefitted from improvements to their home as a result of the Decent Homes Programme.

Pamela and Mick have been council tenants for 50 years and were the first to occupy their Philip Lane council home after they were built. The couple received a range of improvement works to their home including a new kitchen, bathroom, new front door and set of windows plus rewiring and roof works. They said: “We’re thrilled to bits! The workmen could not be faulted.”

Our home has had a complete makeover and everything is so much better. We feel like we’re living in a completely new home and we didn’t even have to move!Pamela and Mick Hooper

Pamela Hooper

Total Number of Repairs 2016/17:

45,710Total Number of calls received 2016/17:

Repairs related calls

40,522 Housing Operations related calls

78,609

Where we have achieved and met our KPIsAverage cost of responsive repairs £96.47

% of urgent repairs completed in government time limits 99.6%

% of all properties with a valid gas certificate 100%

% of capital projects completed in time 94%

% of residents satisfied with capital works 91%

Average cost of repairs to empty properties £3,175

Where we can improve

% of repairs fixed first time 83.3%

% of tenants satisfied with the quality of their repair 76.0%

5. Tackling homelessness in Haringey

In 2016/17 we: ; Prevented over 700 households from being made homeless through early

intervention and targeted work with residents and landlords.

; Reduced the number of households in temporary accommodation. This compares favourably to other London housing providers that saw an overall increase of 6.3%.

; Improved our relationships with landlords and procured 230 private rented sector accommodation units, the highest number in three years.

; Supported 166 clients experiencing domestic violence, with our Hearthstone service achieving many positive outcomes and preventing homelessness through supportive interventions, so that only six homelessness referrals were required.

; Introduced ‘Move on’ events for people in temporary accommodation to offer practical advice and information, and to promote our ‘Find Your Own’ and ‘Homefinder’ schemes - the last two events were attended by 128 households.

C A S E S T U D Y

HearthstoneHearthstone is Homes for Haringey service for victims of domestic abuse. Hearthstone was developed in 2003 and has been developed as a Council-led partnership where a team of five offers advice and support, providing survivors of domestic abuse in Haringey with access to all the services they need in one place. These services include counselling, floating support services and benefits advice. In 2016 the team helped 536 people.

The service was short listed for the 2017 Housing Heroes Awards. The awards aim to ensure those ‘unsung heroes’ of the housing world are recognised and rewarded for their contribution.

Hearthstone was highlighted in the ‘Support and care team of the year’ category which recognises those that help some of the most vulnerable people in society, and make a real difference to the lives of those they help.

“I am grateful that they listened and took the time to help with mine and my daughters’ needs, the advice they gave me will allow us to have a better life”

“I was comforted when I was scared, my options were explained to me and I was given the time to really take in all the information that was provided to me”

“It was the first time I told anyone the things that happened to me during my married life, I am glad I was listened to and understood...I feel relieved that I told someone”

“The advice was very helpful and it has given me the information I need to make decisions and decide on my options” The Hearthstone Team

6. Managing finances

In 2016/17 the amount of money paid for our services (the Management Fee) increased to £40.669m to reflect the additional services that Homes for Haringey is undertaking on behalf of the Council.

The management fee we receive from the Council must cover all our operational costs. For 2016/17, we realised an operational surplus for the year of £1.166m before pension calculations. After taking into account pension adjustments, our position was a deficit of £1.143m.

Within the last year, our business has experienced significant, sustained change. In 2016/17 we delivered £925k of Medium Term Financial Savings (MTFS) and are on target to deliver a further £1.3m in 2017/18. This has required us to operate as efficiently and effectively as is possible without impacting adversely on the services we deliver.

Value for Money Broadwater Lodge is a former care home that was no longer fit for purpose. In early 2017, Homes for Haringey converted it into temporary accommodation for 51 families.

By developing its own temporary accommodation, Homes for Haringey is increasing the supply of affordable housing in the borough and saving around £500, 000 annually on private hostel costs.

Other ways we have achieved Value for Money:

; We worked with an embedded Immigration Officer to identify 26 households in temporary accommodation that are no longer eligible for housing and took action to end the provision of accommodation.

; We tackled tenancy fraud more robustly, recovering 78 properties to be let to residents waiting for a home.

; We worked to improve efficiency, with 78% of tenants telling us we provided value for money in 2016/17, up from 71% in 2015/16.

Where we have achieved and met or exceeded our KPI

2015/16 Target 2016/17 2016/17

% of rent collected 99.67% 95.00% 99.60%

% of rent collected for all temporary accommodation 98.49% 98.75% 98.90%

Current tenant rent and service charge arrears 5.43% 5.00% 4.54%

% of staff turnover - voluntary 11.13% 15% 12.57%

% rent loss from empty properties 0.67% 0.69% 0.52%

Employee cost

Contractors - Repairs

Overheads

Suppliers & services

Transport costs

Contractors - others

Premises costs

Vehicle leases

55%

19%14%

8%

Group operating costs 2016/17