"Work with residents and deliver services in an accountable way"
English Rural has played an important role in supporting the National Housing Federation's ‘Together with Tenants’ initiative. We have helped to shape the principles through membership of the national steering group, whilst also sharing our experiences as an early adopter. The focus of this project has helped to revive our overall approach to working closely with residents. During the year an impact assessment was completed covering current resident engagement arrangements, with lessons recorded and actions agreed. New ways of listening and involving have been successfully introduced, notably taking advantage of digital improvements. Themes such as accountability and transparency have come to the fore as services are developed and policies re-designed.
A good example of the above in practice is the introduction of the online resident portal. This responding to the growing interest from households to interact and manage their accounts virtually and at their own convenience. The portal was developed collaboratively with residents and tested by a sample group in advance of the launch. This approach ensured the portal achieved planned outcomes from the start and delivered its resulting success.
The independent Resident Scrutiny Group still plays a central role in representing resident interests and analysing performance, including comparing date from English Rural with other housing associations through the scrutiny of our annual benchmarking report. The work carried out by this group is heard by the Board via the resident board member and informal board lead for resident services.
The Group Audit & Risk Committee now also plays an enhanced role, with oversight of the formal complaints register.
We remain committed to being transparent and accountable for the services we offer. From our continued involvement in the 'Together with Tenants' plan to the launch of a new online Resident Scrutiny Group.
In December 2019 our new online portal went live, putting residents more in control of their finances and repairs and giving them more opportunity to let us know how we can improve.
We continue to improve our skills and knowledge by investing in staff training so that we can offer the best possible service to our residents.
English Rural continues to meet key targets and compares well with other housing associations. We retain high levels of satisfaction from residents, particularly when it comes to service delivery and quality of homes provided.
Residents have been supported throughout the Covid-19 crisis through welfare advice and signposting. Additionally, our Coronavirus Hardship Fund helped over 50 households in financial need.
We work with other smaller housing associations, such as Cirencester Housing, to provide shared ownership sales support.
Residents remain extremely satisfied with the quality of their homes and with the repairs service we offer.
We continue to exceed our emergency repairs and routine repairs targets, completing 82% of repairs on our first visit.
Improvements to procurement routes and contractor management remain a top priority.
Our retrofit programme continues apace, ensuring our homes are energy efficient and more environmentally friendly. This results in lower bills for our residents and a more comfortable living environment. The Business Strategy 2019-2024 will continue this emphasis, aiming to have less than 10% of all homes owned with an Energy Performance Rating of below band 'C' by 2024.
A recent stock condition survey confirmed that English Rural’s homes continue to be well maintained and compliant with regulations.
New grounds maintenance services have been procured, with residents benefitting from an improved service offering.
Our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, meets residents in their new affordable rural homes in Bolney, Sussex
The Value for Money (VfM) Standard, issued by the Regulator for Social Housing (RSH), came into effect from April 2018.
It moved the focus of the RSH’s approach away from the primarily narrative VfM Statements to reporting through the statutory annual accounts by Registered Providers (RPs) such as English Rural. Results are measured against the RP's own targets as well as a suite of metrics to be defined, from time to time by the RSH.
To deliver VfM, English Rural is prepared to be innovative, more commercial and to generate economies of scale through both organic and inorganic growth. These actions will deliver greater financial capacity to invest in our agreed purpose.
English Rural’s VfM Strategy can be summarised as the ability to effectively mobilise investment and deliver on its agreed purpose, whilst using capacity and resources more efficiently.
To understand how well we do this, it is important that there are easy-to-measure targets and outcomes.
These include both financial and non-financial, some of which will be generic and comparable across the sector and others of which are more specific to English Rural’s overall Business Strategy.
More details on our approach to VfM can be found in the comprehensive Annual Financial Accounts published on our website.
Performance figures for 2019/20 against the VfM metrics are shown in the following tables >>
A bouquet of flowers is presented to HRH The Princess Royal by one of our younger English Rural residents
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Early adopter of NHF 'Together with Tenants'
Resident engagement impact assessment acted on
Successfully launched online self-service resident portal
Resident Scrutiny Group membership extended digitally
New complaints role for Audit & Risk Committee
>> The impact assessment completed on resident engagement showed some weaknesses in the approach taken to engaging with residents; this was also evidenced from feedback received via formal surveys and anecdotally. The sparse geography and operational set-up of English Rural’s stock has always made structing engagement arrangements challenging. Working with residents some innovative ways have been agreed and are being implemented in response to this, importantly the agreed structure will attract a diverse representation of residents.
>> Although all complaints are recorded on a ‘Complaints Register’ and considered in line with an agreed policy, the Board felt that it would be useful for them to have improved line-of-sight with regards to formal complaints received, many of which are resolved without detail being known by the Board. It was agreed that a proportionate way to achieve this was for a more formal complaints oversight role to be carried out by the Audit & Risk Committee, the minutes of which are reported to the Board. The Committee terms of reference were updated to achieve this.
