September 2012 Tenants Update 9

Annual R

eport

This annual report tells you how we performed last

year and whether we met our targets. Our targets

are important but what is more important is what

you think about us. This is your opportunity to judge

us on whether we’ve done what we promised.

This report tells you how we performed in five

areas, tenant involvement and empowerment,

home, tenancy, neighbourhood and community

and value for money. These are the five standards

checked by the Homes and Communities Agency,

the organisation which checks on social landlords.

These are also areas where we have set service

standards or promises to you. These are available

on our website or in our One Stop Shops.

There is also a more detailed version of this report

and a video which are available on our website

www.wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk.

“Wolverhampton City Council is proud to endorse

the third ‘Annual Report to Tenants’ prepared by

Wolverhampton Homes who provide housing

services to the Council’s tenants across most of

the City.

“This report gives information on the performance

of Wolverhampton Homes, as the Managing Agent

working on behalf of the City Council. It shows

how the management performance matches up

to the standards put in place by the Homes &

Communities Agency, which is the governmental

regulatory body that oversees social housing in

England.

“The City Council is aware that many tenants

have helped shape the ‘Annual Report to

Tenants’ and this highlights the City Council’s and

Wolverhampton Homes’ commitment to engaging

with and responding to tenants needs in relation to

their homes and how they are managed.

The City Council continues to support and monitor

the work of Wolverhampton Homes to ensure

that the service provided to tenants is of a high

standard and that every opportunity is taken to

improve further.”

How did we do? What do you think?

Thank you to everyone who got involved this year.

You have made a real difference to our services by

giving us your feedback and views.

We’re sorry to hear that some of you don’t feel

we take your views into account. There are lots of

ways that we use your views to change the way we

provide services and improve them. This includes

feedback from Get Togethers, Estate Inspections,

Special Interest Groups, surveys and complaints.

Examples of how we have taken your views into

account are on our website

www.wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk and search

“you talk we listen”.

We’re pleased that most of you feel that we

keep you informed but we’d like everyone to feel

informed. There are lots of ways to find out what’s

happening. You can read Tenants Update and our

leaflets and you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook

and YouTube.

585 of you joined in with “Get Togethers”, Special Interest Groups,

Review Panel and Tenants Update Editorial Board.

Almost seven out of ten (69%) of you said you were satisfied that

we take your views into account. (Target: 70%).

Almost eight out of ten (79%) of you said you were satisfied that we kept you informed. This is a 2% increase on previous year. (Target: 79%)

Tenant Involvement and empowerment

Councillor

Peter Bilson said:

Home

Home

10 Tenants Update September 2012

We’re sorry we didn’t answer all of your calls within

20 seconds. We’ve put a lot of work into improving

this. We have increased the number of staff and

improved staff training. These changes helped us

improve so that by the end of the year we answered

seven out of ten of your calls within 20 seconds. The

number of disconnected calls also went down to

4.2% which is on target.

From this year we have improved the options

for you when you phone us so that you can now

choose to be put straight through if you want make

a card payment or speak to the Wolverhampton City

Council’s housing benefit team. This will improve our

service to you and the speed that we answer your

calls. We made these changes using your feedback

at the Get Togethers.

Nine out of ten (92.86%) of you said you were satisfied with how

your call had been handled.

We answered four out of ten (48.5%) of calls over the year within

20 seconds. (Target: 80%)

One out ten (11.80%) of calls were disconnected by you before

we answered. (Target: 5%)

Customer Service

We have now completed 16,770 Decent Homes

with about 6,500 homes to go which will be finished

by spring 2015. You can find out when the Decent

Homes work will be carried out to your home by

visiting our website www.wolverhamptonhomes.org.

uk and searching “yellow book”. This was sent to

everyone last year and gives the streets and year for

when work is due to start.

We carried out Decent Homes work to 2010 homes.

(Target: 1,973)

We completed almost ten out of ten (98.55%) of Decent Homes

work within 20 days. (Target: 96%)

Almost ten out of ten (96.84%) of you said that you were

satisfied with the Decent Homes work. (Target: 95%)

Decent Homes

We want you to live in a well maintained home and

we know that you want repairs to be completed

quickly and in one visit.

We missed our tight targets this year but only by a

small amount. We’re sorry if yours was one of the

repairs that we carried out late. We are making lots

of changes including improving our appointments

system, how we diagnose and plan repairs and

carrying more parts on our vans so that we can

complete more repairs first time.

We carried out almost ten out of ten (99.46%) of emergency

repairs within 24 hours. (Target: 99.75%)

We completed almost ten out of ten (98.87%) of urgent repairs

within 7 days. (Target: 99.5%)

We completed almost ten out of ten (98.86%) of routine repairs

within 20 days. (Target: 99%)

Repairs and Maintenance

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Neighbourhood and

community

Tenancy

TenancyLettings and Re-housing

September 2012 Tenants Update 11

How quickly we re-let homes is very important, it

means new tenants can move into their new home

as soon as possible and it means less rent is lost

because a home is empty.

We’re pleased that we are meeting our target. You

can help us by only bidding on homes that you

know you’d like to live in and by answering our

offers quickly.

1,828 council properties were let using ‘Homes in the City’.

We re-let homes on average in 18 days. (Target: 18 days)

We just missed our target to visit new tenants within

28 days. This visit is important so that new tenants

can get any support they need to settle into their

new home. This could be help with budgeting or

any issues with their move. We try our best to visit

within 28 days but you can help by keeping our

appointment or contacting us to rearrange the visit if

you can’t be there.

We carried out nine out of ten (90.35%) of home visits during the

eighth month of introductory tenancies. (Target: 90%)

We carried out nine out of ten (92.32%) of new tenancy checks

within 28 days of the tenancy starting. (Target: 95%)

Your Tenancy

Antisocial behaviour is really upsetting to anyone

who is a victim. This year we have improved our

reporting systems so we can monitor active cases

more closely. We have improved the way that we

deal with antisocial behaviou. We now interview

perpetrators within three working days of the

complaint instead of sending a letter. This has more

impact and can prevent further problems.

We have also provided more ‘diversionary activities’

by funding youth groups and clubs to prevent

youth ASB and set up a Family Support Project

to help families with children involved in antisocial

behaviour.

Eight out of ten (82.32%) of you said you were satisfied with the way

we had dealt with your antisocial behaviour problem. (Target: 80%)

Seven out of ten (76.26%) of you said you were satisfied with

the outcome of your complaint. (Target: 70%)

Preventing and tackling

antisocial behaviour

1,808 new cases of antisocial behaviour were reported to us.

Annual R

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Value for money

Neighbourhood and

community

12 Tenants Update September 2012

Thank you for paying your rent on time. We want

to make it as easy as possible for you so we

recommend Direct Debit as the best method of

paying rent. This year we introduced more payment

dates so you have a wider choice of when to pay.

Please remember that if you are worried about

paying your rent contact our Money Smart team for

advice on 01902 556789. Our Money Smart team

gave advice to 205 tenants last year and helped

many more by referring them to other agencies.

We want to make sure we spend money wisely and

you that get a good deal for your rent. Some of the

ways we saved money last year were spending less

on staff salaries and on transport costs. We also

trained our own IT staff to carry out specialist work

to save money on consultants.

We collected 98.43% of the rent that was due.

Our target was 98.25%

Almost eight out of ten (78%) of you said you were satisfied with

the value for money of their rent, an increase of 4% from 2010.

Rents and Value for money

How satisfied are you with the information in this report?

Very satisfied Satisfied Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied

Your name:

Your Address:

Your Postcode:

Your Telephone: Your Email:

What did you think of our annual report?

Your FeedbackIt’s really important that you tell us what you think of this annual report so we can improve for next year.

Everyone who gives us feedback by 1 October will be entered into a prize draw for £25 vouchers.

We’re pleased that the majority of you were happy

with the grounds maintenance service. We want

you to be happy with the service so if you spot any

problems you can report it to us and we will inspect

it within three calendar days and try to put it right.

We carried out 477 estate inspections every three months with

almost ten out of ten (96.95%) achieving a good rating. (Target: 92%)

We carried out ten out of ten (100%) of daily fire safety checks.

Your Estate

Eight out of ten (80%) tenants receiving a grounds maintenance service

said they were satisfied with the service received.

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