25 August 2023
NFA members do (much) #MoreThanHousing
EACH year, NFA members put together show boards that celebrate key achievements, and which go on display at our annual conference. They capture the breathtaking range of work that council housing management companies turn their hands to – so much more than ‘just housing’.
Today – Today – St Legers Homes of Doncaster, Homes in Sedgemoor and Derby Homes, celebrating staff engagement, awards that recognise customers’ contributions to their communities, and two decades of transforming quality of delivery and perceptions of council housing.
In August 2023, City of Doncaster Council signed a new five-year management agreement with St Leger Homes, the council-owned organisation which manages more than 20,000 local council homes.
The review carried out by the Council declared St Leger to be a low cost, ‘medium-to-high’ performing organisation when compared to other housing providers and ALMOs.
Board Chair Dave Wilkinson said: “We are passionate about the services we provide to our tenants and the communities in Doncaster and it is great that the Council has recognised the success we have had.
“This new agreement allows to us develop a new five-year corporate plan which will demonstrate how we will continue to deliver improvements for our customers and Doncaster communities alongside the council and our partners.”
Cllr Glyn Jones, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Housing and Business, talked about how impressed he and fellow councillors had been by St Leger Homes’ commitment to delivering excellent services. “We look forward to carrying on our work with them to deliver our shared vision of quality council housing and services for local people across Doncaster,” he said.
A key part of the ALMO’s success is an internal culture that makes staff in every area of the business feel valued. This board celebrates St Leger’s recent ‘Everybody Counts’ campaign aimed at staff, highlighting how the various teams, from customer contact and access through to repairs and work planning, mesh together to deliver a quality service that is highly praised by tenants.
The most recent customer satisfaction survey revealed that 98% of repairs appointments had been kept; and at least four in very five customers said they were satisfied with both the quality of their homes and the services their landlord provides.
Homes in Sedgemoor’s inaugural Star of the Year Awards celebrated the very best of neighbourly spirit and community-focused efforts.
ITV’s Ben McGrail hosted this first award ceremony which showcased the customers’ Garden Competition winners, the invaluable contribution of ‘involved customers’ to the landlord’s work, the Community Impact Group of the Year, community ‘heroes’ – Young Hero of the Year and Unsung Hero of the Year – and the overall Star of the Year.
Homes in Sedgemoor CEO Peter Hatch said: “Our first ever Star of the Year Awards was an inspirational evening which really highlighted the importance of community.
“All of our nominees were worthy winners and that made it so hard to choose the finalists. We feel so proud to have these incredible individuals in our Homes in Sedgemoor community and to know them all on a personal level.”
Customer John Hardy and his guide dog Sidney were joint winners of Star of the Year. John was the prime mover in setting up The Hub at Bridgwater which is now home to many of the town’s community groups and organisations.
Other winners included 13-year-old Brooke, Young Hero of the Year for raising hundreds of pounds for health charities through tea, coffee, cake and craft sales and event tombolas and raffles. Collecting her award, Brooke said her next event would raise funds for eating disorders charities.
Sydenham Improvement Group took the prize for the Community Group Impact Award for its emphasis on recruiting young people to do community work, and the Unsung Hero Award went to Kat Redding. Kat was nominated by a neighbour who she had helped with daily tasks at a difficult time even though she had only just moved into the community. “There aren’t many who would do that for a total stranger. The little things mean a lot,” said Kat’s neighbour.
Derby Homes was one of the first four Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs), incorporated on 25 February 2002, at the very start of efforts to radically change the way council housing was regulated and managed.
At the turn of the millennium, government acknowledged that social housing was in difficulties. The first 1920s and 1930s council houses had liberated ordinary people from the terrible living conditions in much of the privately rented sector. Even council homes built immediately after the Second World War met generous minimum standards of space and facilities.
But through the 1960s and 1970s, poor build quality, brutalist experimental architecture and ever dwindling investment in maintenance meant that goodwill towards publicly provided housing – and often, towards the people who lived in it – had evaporated.
This board celebrates two decades of effort to turn those perceptions around in Derby. Derby Homes is one of the most successful ALMOs in the country, and this is very largely because it has had solid and consistent support from its parent council despite many shifts in political control.
It is also down to the sea change that Derby Homes has wrought in the city’s housing offer, from the first round of work in the early 2000s to make sure all council homes met the new Decent Homes standard.
Since then, the organisation has made full use of the unique ALMO structure to offer ‘more than housing’, wider local services that both improve the lives of residents and make the most of the council’s finances and resources. For instance, a ‘Tenancy Sustainment Service’ supports new residents through the first year of their tenancy, and in the council’s 22 Community Rooms, tenant volunteers help fellow citizens try something different, gain skills and experience and meet new people.
In 2022, in its 20th anniversary year, a new 10-year agreement was signed with Derby City Council to continue managing the homes that remain a publicly owned community asset. Councillors, in their report on Derby Homes performance, concluded that ‘the ALMO continues to perform highly, combining good services for tenants and leaseholders whilst offering value for money’.