Resident standards

of residents satisfied with the services they received

of residents extremely likely to recommend ccha

Reviewing our repairs service

This year, we’ve focused on finding out what residents want from a new and improved repairs service. It was clear that the service needed to change and feedback from our satisfaction surveys, repairs specific surveys and complaints showed that:

Communication needs to improve.
Residents would like us to have better control of the repairs customer journey.
Residents were dissatisfied with our primary repairs contractor.

Our goal was to create a repairs service model to deliver the standards agreed by our residents.

Resident engagement

We held repairs workshops, inviting all residents, and offered online surveys to those who expressed an interest but couldn’t attend. Recent in-person surveys also confirmed that repairs is the most important service to residents.

residents gave feedback about our services in person as part of our business plan consultation

residents gave feedback about our services online as part of our business plan consultation

residents attended an in-person workshop

residents attended an online workshop

residents completed an online survey

leaseholders were given the chance to give feedback on contractor procurement

resident panel members participated in the contractor interviews

The new model

From resident and staff feedback and involvement, we were able to create our new repairs service model.

Key changes we wanted to make were:

Bring in a customer contact centre to manage repairs calls in-house.
Have better oversight of repairs.
Make sure the new contractor aligns with our values and resident expectations.

We invited two members from the residents’ panel to join us when interviewing new contractors. They were able to discuss the types of questions we should ask on the day and spoke directly to the candidates. We hope to get them involved in reviewing the new service after it’s been running for a few months.

Reviewed processes

Our project group worked closely with all teams to make sure systems were fit for purpose and staff were properly trained to use them. We reviewed processes across the organisation to help us improve efficiency.

We know that it’ll take time for staff and residents to see the benefit of these changes, but we’re hopeful that we’re moving in the right direction.

Repairs:

of residents satisfied with how we handle repairs and maintenance

of residents satisfied with the repairs service in the last 12 months

of residents satisfied with the time taken to complete a repair in the last 12 months

of residents satisfied that their home is well maintained

of emergency repairs completed within 24 hours

of non-emergency repairs completed within 28 days

days average time taken to complete a repair

of repairs completed as a first-time fix

Communication:

of residents satisfied with how easy it is to reach the right person

of residents satisfied with how we handled their queries

of residents satisfied with the outcome of their queries

of residents satisfied that we’re easy to deal with

Next year, we hope to provide more information on how we’re performing across our customer service standards. With the new contact centre, we’ll be able to generate more accurate data and improve the way we report on performance.

Getting residents involved

This year saw an increase in the number of activities where residents could get involved.

drop-in sessions with income and welfare

estate action days

coffee mornings

resident open event days

resident panel meetings

policy consultations

door knocking exercise to consult on the business plan

From this, we’ve had some great resident-led changes ranging from helping us to create our business plan for the next five years, to smaller changes around what performance information we report on.

To help us realise the impact of resident involvement better, we’ve created a Resident Involvement Impact Assessment which can be read on our website.

of residents satisfied that we listen to their views and act on them

Together with Tenants

Commitments	What we have done
Relationships: The housing association will treat all residents with respect in all of their interactions. Relationships between residents and the housing association will be based on openness, honesty and transparency.	We’ve been living our CARE values and ensuring we recruit people with the same values. We publish performance information on our website each quarter and in publications like these to ensure transparency. Our resident panel has reviewed this to make sure it includes what they want to see and in an accessible format. We know that 73% of residents are satisfied that we treat them fairly and with respect.
Communication: Residents will receive clear, accessible and timely information from their housing association on the issues that matter to them, including important information about their homes and local community, how the organisation is working to address problems, how the organisation is run, and information about performance on key issues.	We have a bi-annual newsletter that goes out to all residents and have been working with them on what they want to see in it. A focus for this has been around what is going on in our communities, staff updates and information about residents’ home. We regularly post to our social media accounts and on our website with updates, information and resources for residents. This includes providing regular ‘money matters’ articles, focusing on key areas which are affecting residents around their income or benefits. This year we updated our Get Involved page to include resident-led changes made as a result of resident involvement. We also sent out regular letters to update residents about the changes to repairs and give them a chance to get involved. We know that 73% of residents are satisfied that we keep them informed.
Voice and influence: the housing association will seek and value the views of residents, and will use this information to inform decisions. Every individual resident will feel listened to by their housing association on the issues that matter to them and can speak without fear.	We’ve reached out to residents to consult on our corporate business plan, domestic abuse policy and equality, diversity and inclusion policy, reviewing the feedback before publishing or making changes. Our resident panel has opportunities to give feedback on our service through mystery shopping, surveys or workshops. This year, two panel members sat on the interview panel for the new repairs contractor procurement, directly having a say in who we offered the contract to. Our partners, Acuity, complete our satisfaction surveys over the phone, giving residents a chance to voice their thoughts on our services. We’ve increased our presence on site through estate action days, open events and coffee mornings, giving residents more opportunities to speak with us and voice their thoughts. We know that 51% of residents are satisfied that we listen to their views and act on them. We’re committed to showing what changes we’re making based on resident feedback.
Accountability: Collectively, residents will work in partnership with their housing association to independently scrutinise and hold their housing association to account for the decisions that affect the quality of their homes and services.	We currently have 12 active panel members who keep us accountable. They’ve met with some of our partners to better understand the services they provide, and have provided valuable feedback on policies and how we present our performance information.
Quality: Residents can expect their homes to be good quality, well maintained, safe and well managed.	We’ve maintained a high level of compliance, which you can read about here .
When things go wrong: Residents will have simple and accessible routes for raising issues, making complaints and seeking redress. Residents will receive timely advice and support when things go wrong.	We’ve completed our self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, ensuring our policies and procedures align with this. You can view the updated version on our complaints page on our website. Residents can make complaints over the phone, in writing, by email, on our website or in person. We know that 38% of residents are satisfied with how we handle their complaints and we’re working to improve this.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: The housing association will be an inclusive organisation which seeks views from all groups. Approaches to resident involvement will be inclusive by engaging with residents from a range of backgrounds and experiences. Consultations with residents will include outreach to underrepresented communities, including through targeted communications.	We’ve increased the amount of data we’ve collected as part of our customer needs review so we can tailor our services to our residents. This will also help us ensure that our staff and board are representative of our residents. We’ll be looking at increasing the amount of data we hold further and analysing to see how to better serve our residents and their needs.

Staying accountable

We want to remain transparent and let you know how we’re performing. We met with our residents’ panel in October 2024 to discuss what performance information we share and how we share it.

We share information on our website, newsletters, annual report and on social media. This information includes our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), how we’re doing with complaints and lessons learnt, compliance, financial statements and breakdowns, as well as a snapshot of the year with anything of interest not included in our satisfaction surveys.

of residents satisfied that we keep them informed on what matters to them

Feedback received from residents:

It’s quite a lot of information.
Use more colours and shapes to display them.
You should visit sites to discuss performance with residents in person.
It isn’t always clear what the target is or whether those results are good.
Why don’t you try out different things to find out what people read.
Could you put your performance stats on the phone lines so residents can listen when they call you.
Focus on what residents care about, such as communication.
Look into statistics which show how housing officers are engaging with residents. Something more personal to their estates.
The ‘snapshot of the year’ stats were good.

Based on this feedback, we’ve made some changes:

Reduced the amount of statistics we share in our newsletter, focusing on areas we needed to improve or residents had been talking to us about recently.
We produced an infographic video to display complaints statistics in the newsletter, rather than using the usual table.
We’ve made it obvious whether we’ve met our targets or not.
We’ve added more statistics on the website about what the panel wanted to see. This was around their neighbourhoods and their housing officers.

Customer needs review

Following on from last year, we’ve continued to collect data on our residents to see how we can improve and tailor our services to their needs. Staff engaged with residents through home visits, phone calls, and emails to complete these reviews – raising the completion rate from 20% to 50% by year-end.

Our IT team has helped staff to upload this information to our systems so we can start to use it. We’re now looking at increasing the number of completed forms to 70% of our residents by the end of March 2026 and how we can better analyse the data already collected.

This allows us to begin reviewing our services in line with residents’ needs and to identify any staff training required to support these changes.

of residents satisfied that we treat them fairly and with respect

Sustainability

This year, we’ve continued working on upgrading residents’ homes to ensure they’re sustainable and future proof. We’ve upgraded gas heating in 60 homes and we installed PV panels to 14 homes.

Currently, 93.6% of properties have an EPC C rating or above. This falls slightly short of our target, mainly due to lack of access to some homes, but we hope to continue this work over the coming years. We know that major home improvements can be disruptive, so we’re working with residents to make it as smooth as possible, keeping them informed every step of the way.

of properties EPC C or above