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Business Plan
2015 – 2019
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Table of Contents
Page No.
1. Introduction 3.
2. Our Vision and Corporate Aims 5.
3. Our Key Projects 7.
To deliver high quality, customer focused housing, maintenance and
estate management services.
To work with residents and partner agencies to develop successful
and sustainable communities.
To communicate effectively with all our customers.
To deliver bespoke services to our vulnerable residents.
To develop and promote new business initiatives to enable future
growth.
To invest in our people.
To deliver value for money and efficiency in all of our services.
To celebrate our heritage and use it as a platform to promote BVT.
4. Our People and Our Structures 16.
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Introduction
In 1900 George Cadbury founded the Bournville Village Trust (BVT), a charitable organisation set up
to ensure the planned development and maintenance of the Estate and to preserve it for future
generations. The Deed of Foundation ensured that surplus income was devoted to the improvement
of the Bournville Estate and the encouragement of better building elsewhere. The founding of BVT
signalled a change from merely a building estate into a complete village community. Shops, places
of worship, open spaces, sports facilities, community buildings and schools were included to form
the heart of the new model village.
Over one hundred years on, the Trust continues to allocate homes to people in the greatest housing
need to live in our mixed communities. The Bournville estate now comprises 1,000 acres of land
with almost 8,000 homes, ranging from one-bedroom flats to five-bedroom houses, split just about
equally between tenanted and owner-occupied. BVT remains at the forefront of housing provision
for architectural design, estate management and development. By keeping sustainability
(environmental, social and economic) at the forefront of our thinking, BVT has gained the reputation
of being a model estate whilst remaining committed to keeping faith with our Founder’s aims.
Our responsibilities are diverse and whilst our core activities reflect our status as a housing
association, we embrace a wide range of roles that support the original aims of the Trust and help
make BVT the unique organisation it has always been:
The provision of housing management and repairs services to general needs rented
accommodation; shared ownership homes; and a leasehold scheme for older people.
The provision of sheltered, residential care and nursing accommodation for older people and
supported housing and care services for special needs groups – in particular for young
people leaving care and for people with learning difficulties.
The long-term maintenance of the overall amenities and appearance of the Bournville Estate
which comprises 1000 acres of land and almost 8,000 households in south west Birmingham.
A subsidiary, Bournville Works Housing Society, which owns 313 homes on the Bournville
Estate. Management and maintenance of this stock is undertaken by the Trust under the
terms of an Intra Group Services Agreement.
In terms of developing new homes our main focus is on:
The creation of an urban village of over 1,000 new homes at Lightmoor in Telford,
Shropshire.
At Lawley, in Telford, taking lead responsibility for estate management or stewardship
services to a mixed-tenure new village, growing to 3,000 properties by 2027.
A new care village for Bournville on the old Bournville College site (College Green). The first
phase will be a large Extra Care project to provide 212 apartments, including some for rent
through BVT, with a range of fantastic facilities. This project is in partnership with ExtraCare
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Charitable Trust and Birmingham City Council. Other phases will include a specialist Nursing
and Dementia Home, apartments for people with learning disabilities and a new Health and
Wellbeing Centre.
The running of two major direct labour organisations:
Bournville Propertycare Services (BPS) providing a top quality repairs service to our housing
stock in Birmingham and Shropshire in addition to work undertaken for other clients.
Bournville Village Landscapes (BVL) providing a top quality landscaping service to the
Bournville Estate on behalf of the Trust.
Outside of our core housing association activities:
Responsibility for overseeing the maintenance of the external fabric of Bournville Infant and
Junior Schools.
An in-house Architects Team (Bournville Architects) which undertakes a wide variety of
architectural work on behalf of the Trust and a range of external clients.
The running of Selly Manor Museum located in the heart of the Bournville Village
Conservation Area. Selly Manor itself dates back to at least 1327 whilst an adjacent building,
Minworth Greaves, is even older. The whole site is a very attractive visitor destination,
which gives people the opportunity to learn about the Tudor way of life.
The Bournville Experience – a hands-on visitor attraction, run jointly with Cadbury World,
offering a variety of exhibits about the development of Bournville Village. Entry to the
Bournville Experience is free of charge.
The running of an Agricultural Estate comprising over 2,500 acres on the south-western edge
of Birmingham.
The Trust owns a number of Community Halls and Shops which are let on
commercial leases. A Community Services Team is dedicated to ensuring
that the communities in which we work are well served with a range
of facilities and that they are flourishing places where people will
choose to live.
Strong
business support
services covering the
Business Improvement
Unit, financial and
human resources
administration plus information
technology support.
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Our Vision, Values & Corporate Aims
Our Vision
Bournville Village Trust has a very long history that is steeped in a reputation for high quality housing
and estate management services. Sustaining this level of quality is never easy and the environment
we work in is constantly changing. To continue to thrive as a housing organisation over the next five
years and beyond, we must continually look ahead, understand the trends and respond to the
external factors that will shape our organisation and our customers’ needs and expectations in the
future and move swiftly to prepare for what is to come.
Our vision and corporate aims create a long-term destination for our organisation and provides us
with a framework for our “Journey to Excellence”, guiding every aspect of our work by describing
what it is we are trying to accomplish.
Our Values
We have a clear set of values that underpin our work not only within the Housing Sector but beyond
and define exactly what our organisation is about. We are:
Passionate about people
o We invest in our communities. We work with customers to develop services that
meet their needs and support them to flourish.
Dedicated to distinctive development
o We develop new and sustainable homes and communities and encourage better
development and planning elsewhere.
Committed to quality
o We deliver high quality homes and services that provide excellent value for money
and help to improve and maintain communities.
Proud of our heritage
o We are proud of our unique heritage but we don’t stand still. Our experience
informs the services that we provide today.
To create and sustain flourishing communities where
people choose to live.
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Our Corporate Aims
In order to achieve our vision, we have a clear set of corporate aims that support this ideal and
which the entire organisation continues to work towards with the development of new and
innovative projects.
To deliver high quality, customer focused housing, maintenance and estate
management services.
To work with residents and partner agencies to develop successful and exemplar
sustainable communities.
To communicate effectively with all our customers.
To deliver bespoke services to our vulnerable residents.
To develop and promote new business initiatives to enable future growth.
To invest in our people.
To deliver value for money and efficiency in all of our services.
To celebrate our heritage and use it as a platform to promote BVT.
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To deliver high quality, customer focused housing, maintenance
and estate management services.
Our primary aim is to provide
good quality, affordable housing,
maintenance and estate
management services to people
both in housing need and to our
communities as a whole. This
involves a wide range of
activities from processing
applications, recovering rent
arrears, managing anti-social
behaviour and repairs
programmes to resident
involvement and organising important community events. As part of this, we must ensure our
housing stock and estates are well maintained and in good condition. This means providing our
residents with a high quality, fast and efficient repairs service; delivering improvement
programmes to keep our properties up-to-date and warm and comfortable to live in; and
providing and maintaining an environment which is a safe and attractive place to live.
Our priorities and some key projects in delivering high quality, customer focused housing,
maintenance and estate management services for 2015 to 2019 are:
To continue to work towards mitigating the impact of the Welfare Benefit Reforms through
the delivery of our Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Now we are in our new offices we aim to complete the sale of the former Estate Office on
Oak Tree Lane and let the former Bournville Area Office and Sycamore House on Sycamore
Road.
Raise the profile of the Shenley shopping area in order to ensure the area is sustainable for
our local communities.
Carry out a Condition Survey of the estate infrastructure with a view to planning future
renewal programmes.
To continue to achieve the Decent Homes Standard and improve our SAP rating by
continuing our commitment to our 30 Year Planned Maintenance plan for BVT and BWHS.
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To work with residents and partner agencies to develop successful
and sustainable communities.
Building and sustaining successful
communities is a collaborative effort
and requires the input of not only
ourselves and our residents but
several other partner agencies. This is
a fine balance and whilst we continue
to develop our new homes and
communities in Shropshire, we
continue to invest in our established
communities in Birmingham and
elsewhere, by looking for
opportunities to improve our working
relationships with our stakeholders.
Resident involvement is the name most housing organisations give to all the activities undertaken
that help them understand what their residents need and want, and that enable residents to
influence, challenge and scrutinise the services they receive. Over the past few years, there has
been increasing government emphasis on choice, accountability and localism. These common
themes have led to the development of a co-regulation approach which BVT have adopted through
the introduction of our cross tenure Scrutiny Panel made up of tenants, freeholders and
leaseholders. This is supported by a robust resident involvement framework that provides residents
with the opportunity to get involved with specific service areas and to have a real input in the
decisions that affect them and their wider communities. Our priorities and some key projects in
terms of working with residents and partner agencies for 2015 to 2019 are:
Review our Resident Involvement Framework in order to ensure we are engaging with our
residents in the most effective way.
To progress the Shenley
Feasibility Study which will help us
support our local communities by
providing appropriate services in those
areas.
To continue progressing our
green initiatives including exploring the
possibility of a custom build project at
Lightmoor.
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To communicate effectively with all our customers.
Effective communication is always a
challenge and we continue to work
hard in ensuring that good
communication is at the heart of
providing the very best in customer
service. In practical terms, this could
mean the way in which we
communicate with our customers over
the telephone, in our letters and
emails, during visits or it could mean
the contents of the publications in our
newsletters or on our website. To
provide good customer service we need to understand what our customers want and how they
feel about the services provided to them. This means we need to share information with them
and listen carefully to what they are saying. Equally, our customers need to understand what we
are telling them and what it is we are able to do for them.
Communicating effectively with our customers is essential to the successful delivery of all our
projects and services and remains a long term key priority for the organisation. Our priorities and
some key communication projects for 2015 to 2019 are:
To develop a Digital Inclusion Strategy that will help to support our customers online.
Begin to use our customer satisfaction data that has been collected using the BPS
operatives’ Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) system as a way of improving our services.
To continue to work with the Customer Services Team ensuring that as many queries as
possible are answered at the first point of contact.
Carry out a review of all
current communications,
including our standard
letters in order to ensure
the content is current
and appropriate to our
customers’ needs.
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To deliver bespoke services to our vulnerable residents.
Our services are delivered to a wide range of
people including those who could be
considered vulnerable. We recognise that
we have a responsibility to ensure that the
vulnerable and socially excluded are
protected and are able to access those
services. We make continuous efforts when
dealing with our more vulnerable residents
to ensure they can access our services by
putting processes in place that are sensitive
to individual needs and provide adequate
opportunities to access support networks
when necessary.
Many of our current projects are looking to address the specific needs of our more vulnerable
residents and we are fully aware of our responsibilities in terms of the provision of support and
ensuring their ability to access not only our services but third party provision also. Our priorities and
some key projects for delivering bespoke services to our vulnerable residents for 2015 to 2019 are:
To promote Selly Wood House.
To expand our Home Care Service that is available for all residents in order to help residents
to stay in their homes for as long as possible.
To implement BVT’s Dementia Action Plan in order to promote a dementia friendly
community in Birmingham and Telford.
To complete our 35 bed Independent Living Scheme at College Green and the nursing and
dementia facility.
To progress the College Green development towards its 2016 completion, providing a brand
new Care Village for Bournville.
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To develop and promote new business initiatives to enable future
growth.
Every sector is in a constant state
of change and the Housing
Sector is no different. In order
for our organisation to remain at
the forefront in terms of
delivering high quality housing
and a range of services, we must
continually look ahead,
understand the needs of our
customers and provide services
that are value for money, all
whilst safeguarding our history
and our excellent reputation in the sector. It is for this reason and the need to draw in external
income in a difficult economic climate, that a strategic decision was made to begin identifying gaps
in our service delivery and explore opportunities for new business initiatives within our
commercial arms, namely Bournville Propertycare Services (BPS) and Bournville Architects.
The unique work carried out by both teams has helped secure the organisation’s reputation as a lead
service provider and helps to underpin and deliver our commitment to good quality distinctive
design. Bournville Architects in particular makes an important contribution to our work on
environmental sustainability and has been doing so throughout most of the long history of BVT. Our
priorities and some key projects in the development of new business initiatives for 2015 to 2019 are:
To work towards possible input into the development of the Selly Oak Hospital site.
To showcase Bournville Propertycare Services
as a beacon DLO and arrange site visits from
other housing associations.
To continue our work with our Shropshire
developments, Lightmoor Village and
Lawley.
To revisit the benefits of employing a
Professional Fundraiser post within BVT,
after the successful recruitment of our PR
and Communications Manager, to help
bring in funding to support our projects.
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To invest in our people.
We believe that the success of our
organisation depends on the continued
commitment and productivity of our
staff. People are our most important
asset, an investment that needs to be
cultivated and properly managed. We
recognise that investing in staff has an
impact in many different ways. It
reduces staff turnover and sickness
absence and investments in employee
engagement programmes, training,
mentoring, support, communication,
healthcare incentives and technology all have a positive effect on our workforce performance and
productivity. In 2013, we were awarded ‘Apprenticeship National Employer of the Year’ by the
Construction Industry Training Board.
An organisation as varied as ours also boasts a wide range of job types, from plumber, carpenter,
electrician and gas fitter to care workers, administration staff and architects, all of whom work with
different requirements and risks on a day to day basis.
We continue to invest in staff training, health and safety and staff support and a number of key
projects and priorities will be implemented for 2015 to 2019:
Undertake a Colleague Survey which shall be used to assess how staff across
the organisation feel about life at BVT.
Introduce a new management appraisal system to ensure that our managers
are working to the levels expected of them.
Undertake a comprehensive review of our methods of communication
with staff so that all employees have the information they need.
Review our corporate induction programme and other training
programmes to ensure that new staff have all the basic skills necessary to
perform their duties.
Developing some core staff values that sets out the key behaviours we
want to see from our staff.
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To deliver value for money and efficiency in all of our services.
These are difficult economic times for
everyone and constrained public
spending coupled with the general
economic downturn, means that
organisations such as ourselves and
other service providers are under
pressure to deliver value for money
and efficiencies in all that we do. We
do have some advantages over other
housing organisations which mean we
are better placed than many others to
navigate our way through these more
difficult times but the challenge is clear.
Providing efficient services that are value for money for our residents is a key priority for our
organisation and we work continuously to ensure we are as cost effective as possible. Many of our
current projects are looking to address the value for money and efficiency agendas and some key
projects for 2015 onwards are:
Utilising data gained through the Housemark benchmarking service to understand where our
costs differ to other housing providers and seeking ways to improve efficiency.
Self-assessment of each of our service areas to reflect on what we are doing and how we are
doing it in order that outdated working practices can be modernised and /or services to
customers improved.
Exploring ways of automating manual processes, particularly in relation to monitoring and
pursuing of rent arrears.
Use the information gained from the social
value review undertaken in 2014 to
focus on those areas which offer
the maximum social value for our
customers and the wider
community.
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To celebrate our heritage and use it as a platform to promote BVT.
When George Cadbury began
building in Bournville in 1895 he
did so, not as a single-handed
attempt to solve all
Birmingham’s social problem,
but in the hope he could prove
that good quality housing in a
natural, green environment was
a necessity for the greater good
of society.
In 1900 George Cadbury
founded BVT, set up to ensure
the planned development and
maintenance of the Estate and to preserve it for future generations. Today, BVT remains at the
forefront of housing provision for architectural design, estate management and development. By
keeping sustainability (environmental, social and economic) at the forefront of our thinking BVT
has gained the reputation of being a model estate with a unique heritage and our experience
continues to inform the services that we provide today.
Our priorities and some key projects for our heritage activities for 2015 to 2019 are:
To develop better networking with peer groups and other key stakeholders.
To develop a publication that details all our key projects and successes as a way of elevating
our profile within our peer groups.
Develop a new Communications Strategy.
Develop a Bournville children’s book through the Bournville Unwrapped
Project.
Develop corporate marketing action plans to help sell
BVT services to third parties.
Children from Bournville Junior School with Chairman, Duncan Cadbury learning about Laurence Cadbury's role in WW1 and the Friends Ambulance
Unit.
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Our People and Structures
Trustees
Our CommitteeStructure
Finance, Audit and General
Purposes Committee
HousingServices
Committee
Estate Management
and Scheme Committee
Lightmoor Village Estate
Management Committee
Development Committee
AgriculturalEstates
Committee
Heritage Committee
Bournville Almshouse Trust -
Quadrangle Management
Committee
Bournville Housing
Partnership
Lawley Project Board
TrusteeGovernance
Review Committee
Our Trustees
Duncan Cadbury Chairman Appointed 1986Adrian Allen Vice Chairman Appointed 1999Roger Cadbury Appointed 1994 Mary Penny Appointed 1990Roger Wilson Appointed 2003Paul Sabapathy Appointed 2006
John Dowell Appointed 2008Alison McKittrick Appointed 2011Nigel Cadbury Appointed 2011Clive Wilkinson Appointed 1981 City of BirminghamProfessor Martin Snaith Appointed 1996 University of BirminghamDavid Cockcroft Appointed 2010 Society of Friends
Asset Management
Steering Group
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Director of Housing and Community Services
Annette Homer
Director of BournvilleArchitectsIan Tipton
Director of EstatesCarol Priest
Our Management Structure
Head of Housing Services (Birmingham)
Ann Ryan
Head of Customer Services
Elaine Blackburn
Head of Housing Services (Shropshire)
Jane Griffiths
Director of Supported Housing
Renny Wodynska
Head of Communities and Supported Housing
John McHugh
Director of Financial Services
Paul Haywood
Lightmoor Project Director
Kevin Webb
Head of Contracting Services
Mark Hughes
Head of Asset ManagementSteve Fellows
Development ManagerHitesh Champaneri
Director of Technical Services
Paul Hanley
Head of ITCarl Fowler
Head of Finance Sara Barber
Human Resources
ManagerNeeta Chauhan
Deputy Director of Bournville Architects
Adrian Mill icheap
Head of Stewardship and New Communities
Becci Youlden
Estates SurveyorRichard Hughes
Landscapes Manager Bournville Village
Landscapes Lloyd Gower
Heritage ManagerGill ian Ell is
Chief Executive'sOfficer Manager
Diane Thornton
Chief Executive OfficerPeter Roach
Head of Business Improvement
Ashleigh Evans
PR and Communications
Manager Cla ire Morrall
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