Stockport Homes - Stockport Council

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CONTENTS
Section
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Page
Number
Foreword
About Stockport Homes
Meeting Stockport Council’s Objectives
Delivering the Aims:
i.
Exceed customer expectations and always do the
right thing
ii.
Support customers in all aspects of their lives
through effective partnership working
iii.
Create greener places to live and work and
continually minimise our impact on the environment
iv.
Expand our thriving, safe and sustainable
neighbourhoods, maximising our contribution to
meeting housing need
v.
Involve customers and staff in decision making and
create opportunities for them to fulfil their potential
vi.
Grow by making the best use of our resources and
diversifying into new businesses that compliment
what we already do
Conclusion
Appendix – Asset Management Plan
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4
10
12
33
35
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Foreword
Welcome to Stockport Homes’ Delivery Plan for the period 2016/21. This is the first
Plan developed under a new Management Agreement for Stockport Homes to
manage Stockport Council’s housing stock until 2042.
By giving us a long term future and allowing us to operate more independently the
Council has recognised our ability to ‘Transform Lives’ in some of the most deprived
neighbourhoods in the Borough. It has put its faith in us to rise to the challenges of a
changing housing landscape.
This plan has been developed during a period of radical change in housing. During
2015 the Government announced measures such as: an annual rent reduction; the
sale of high value Council-owned stock; the extension of the Right to Buy for
Housing Association tenants and the requirement for higher earning Council tenants
to pay market rents. These measures, coupled with ongoing Welfare Reform, will
transform housing markets over the next five years.
This is a challenging time for us and we will meet these challenges. The character of
social housing providers like Stockport Homes will change as we source external
funding and develop our commercial business to support the delivery of core
services to our traditional customers. We will also be working with customers and
partners even more closely to identify more efficient and effective ways of doing
things, including through charitable routes.
This Plan sets the strategic direction for the company. Innovation has always been
at the core of our culture and this Plan shows how we will use the opportunities
presented over the next five years to be even more pioneering than we were during
our first ten.
Helen McHale
Chief Executive
David Wright
Chair of the Board
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2. About Stockport Homes
Background
Stockport Homes is an Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO) with over
30,000 customers. It manages and develops housing on behalf of Stockport
Council1, owns2 properties as a result of property development, empty homes and
mortgage rescue activity and manages others on behalf of private landlords. Its role
includes delivering a range of services, often in partnership. These help manage
and improve neighbourhoods, support vulnerable people at all stages of their lives
and assist the Council to discharge its legal obligations to those who need housing.
In addition, Stockport Homes does commercial work for private customers and for
other Council companies, such as Boroughcare3.
The ALMO is consistently at the forefront of best practice. In 2015/16:
 it was named ‘Social Landlord of the Year’ at the Housing Excellence Awards;
 it was named most innovative housing provider, most innovation repairs
contractor and most innovative user of renewable technology at the Housing
Innovation Awards;
 its approach to managing Welfare Reform won the National Federation of
ALMOs (NFA) Awards and it won the ‘Managing your Income’ award at the
UK Housing Awards;
 its Scrutiny Panel was named ‘Most Inspiring ALMO Scrutiny Panel’ at the
Customer Scrutiny Inspection (CSI) Awards;
 its work to support young people was recognised by winning the ‘Excellence
in Youth Involvement’ award at the Tenant Participation Advisory Service
regional awards;
 it won a Greater Manchester ‘Skills for Business’ award;
 it scored an exceptional 100 per cent against every criterion of the ‘Customer
Service Excellence’ standard for the seventh time running; and
 it has continued to be accredited against a broad range of standards of
excellence, including several held by very few housing providers, such as the
ISO 14001 standard for Environmental Management and the Quality Assured
Scrutiny accreditation.
Stockport Homes strives to be an excellent employer and believes that well
developed and engaged staff deliver better services. It invests significantly in
learning, development, health and wellbeing and has halved staff sickness levels
since it was established. It has featured on the Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Work
in the Public Sector’ list for the past seven years and is an ‘Investors in People’ (IIP)
Champion organisation, which is a prestigious recognition of its work to share best
practice. In addition, it was the first housing organisation in the North West to
At February 2016 there were 11,296 rented homes, 33 shared ownership homes, 141 units of temporary
accommodation and 353 leasehold properties
2 At February 2016 there were 175 rented homes and 51 shared ownership homes
3 Which provides care services for older people
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receive a gold award from IIP for the way it develops and supports staff to reach their
potential.
Strategic vision
The organisation’s vision, mission and aims were developed in consultation with staff
and customers:
Vision:
To deliver the best services to customers by being a great place
to work
Mission:
Transforming lives
Aims:






Exceed customer expectations and always do the right thing
Support customers in all aspects of their lives through
effective partnership working
Create greener places to live and work and continually
minimise our impact on the environment
Develop our thriving, safe and sustainable neighbourhoods,
maximising our contribution to meeting housing need
Involve the Board, customers and staff in decision making and
create opportunities for them to fulfil their potential
Grow by making the best use of our resources and diversifying
into new businesses that compliment what we already do
Stockport Homes recognises that social and financial exclusion are significant longterm threats to the sustainability of the neighbourhoods it manages and that there
are complex dependencies between: poverty; unemployment; educational
achievement; crime levels; health; and housing need. These issues can only be
addressed effectively by partnerships between agencies but investment of public
money in neighbourhoods is likely to continue to reduce. Despite this, Stockport
Homes will continue to work as effectively as it can with partners at a
neighbourhood, local and regional level to support its customers to optimise the
quality and independence of their lives.
Policy Context
Stockport Homes works in an environment where key national priorities such as
public sector reform, devolution and growth influence how it operates and it will
continue to work with others to maximise the benefits of such opportunities as they
arise. Even more significant are housing related policy initiatives from Central
Government which can present threats and risks to its business which must be
effectively managed in order to continue to support core customers and deliver
Council priorities.
Devolution, growth and reform
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Stockport Homes will work with other Greater Manchester housing providers to both
influence and contribute to the devolution agenda of growth and reform. Ensuring
that housing providers play their part in public sector reform and increased supply is
as important as influencing the policies and direction that the City Region takes in
areas which impact on housing customers and businesses.
Welfare Reform
The Government is in the process of reducing the amount of benefit claimable by
families. The 2015 Budget and subsequent Autumn Statement introduced: a freeze
on working-age benefits; caps on total benefits for larger families; and reductions in
benefits for people who are working. This is likely to impact on the disposable
incomes of large numbers of Stockport Homes’ tenants and other customers and
make some properties unaffordable to those on lower incomes; particularly larger
homes and supported accommodation. This will particularly be an issue for the
under 35s who may struggle to afford to live alone because Local Housing
Allowance will be capped to a single room rate. Welfare Reform will also impact in
the private sector where rents are higher; potentially changing the dynamics of the
local housing market as people who have not previously considered social renting
cannot afford to live elsewhere.
Housing and Planning Bill
The Government aims to increase home ownership and potentially reduce the
availability of social housing. The Bill introduces a range of measures to support
this, including: ‘pay to stay’ market rents for higher earners; the enforced sale of
higher value social housing stock; and an end to ‘lifetime tenancies’. There remains
uncertainty about how these measures will be implemented and it is not yet possible
to quantify their likely impact but these will probably include: decreases in income to
the Council’s HRA; significant administration costs for Stockport Homes; fewer social
housing units to meet need and less balanced communities.
Open market sale of higher value Council stock presents particular risks to Stockport
Homes’ business. The potential future loss of income from rents makes it difficult to
commit to a clear programme of continuous improvement of the remaining housing
stock. The sale of high value assets has the potential to remove social housing from
all but the poorest neighbourhoods in what is already one of the most polarised
Boroughs in the country. This is likely to be exacerbated by the fact that property
prices are high and land is scarce in Stockport, so even an entrepreneurial ALMO
like Stockport Homes which has had major success in building new homes will
struggle to find funding for newbuild at a rate to replace lost stock. In reality, it is
likely that newbuild will predominantly be for low cost home ownership in future and
Stockport Homes will maximise every opportunity to access whatever funding is
made available to deliver it.
Rent Reduction
The Government has imposed a one per cent rent reduction on all social housing
providers for the four years from 2016/17. For Stockport Council, this equates to
approximately £19million less resources over the next five years than assumed in
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the original Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan4. Stockport Homes has
consistently out-performed the key financial assumptions within the HRA Business
Plan but this will become increasingly difficult in future as both rent and the ability of
many customers to pay reduces. Stockport Homes and the Council are jointly
seeking to mitigate the impact of this by working together to ensure sustainable
Budgets for the HRA going forward, combining maximium efficiency targets with
continually looking at how we can do things differently to maintain and supplement
core services.
Stockport Homes is seeking to address the impact on its own business through a
combination of making efficiencies and growing its commercial income. The
company’s priorities will continue to be the provision of high quality management,
maintenance and support services to core customers5 but advantage will be taken
over the next five years of its entrepreneurial culture to expand the business into
new sectors and bring in non-rent income. This will include bidding for contracts
which support core customers in ways beyond its traditional remit. Stockport
Homes’ sound financial planning and management tools ensure it has visibility at all
times of available resources and future investment opportunities. The organisation’s
ethos will remain to invest in the short term, where it can, in initiatives that will bring
efficiencies in the medium or longer term.
Stockport Homes will continue to assist the Council and partners to deliver their
strategic objectives. By delivering efficiencies and protecting those parts of the
business that deliver core services or attract external income, it will rise to the
challenges it faces over the next five years. This diagram illustrates how Stockport
Homes’ business will remain in balance and decisions be made.
4 Although it should be noted that low inflation rates would have meant fewer resources than modelled, even
without the rent reduction
5 tenants, leaseholders, applicants for housing and other people living in the neighbourhoods it manages
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Financial planning
Quality financial management and planning, along with the generation of efficiencies,
have always been a key priority for Stockport Homes because they help ensure best
use of resources. The organisation has detailed rolling cash flow forecasting in place
as well as rigorous management accounting, reporting and forecasting. Stockport
Homes will work with the Council to identify how further efficiencies could be gained
for the HRA and these will be agreed annually as part of Budget setting.
Efficient structures
The new Management Agreement with the Council, alongside the need for growth
and diversification to support the core business, makes it timely for Stockport Homes
to review its company structures. In December 2015, its Board approved the
establishment of three dormant subsidiary companies. These will become
operational only after the approval of cost benefit evaluations and liaison will take
place with the Council as proposals are developed. The structure will be based on:
 a development company will help realise efficiencies from new build projects;
 a trading company will take advantage of opportunities to develop more
flexible employment arrangements to help pursue new business opportunities;
and
 a charitable subsidiary will ensure new build rental provision in the most
efficient way and might deliver other functions that could be defined as
charitable in nature.
This will ensure the structure continues to support the activities of the company in
the most financially efficient way and give it scope to operate more effectively in
different markets and sectors.
Risk and opportunity management
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Stockport Homes ensures appropriate levels of control are in place to protect it from
risk, without compromising innovation or the pursuit of external funding opportunities
and new business. A register of risks and control actions to mitigate them is kept
under review by the Board, which gives it oversight of potential risk accumulation
issues and helps it ensure it safeguards the tangible and intangible assets of the
organisation. An independent internal audit plan helps ensure that proportionate
compliance checks are undertaken around core business processes.
Key potential risk areas over the next five years include: Welfare Reform/
implementation of Universal Credit; challenges of implementing the provisions of the
Housing and Planning Act; diversification and development of a group structure;
development of new build properties; delivery of the new headquarters building;
elections and national policy changes; health and safety issues; and the resilience of
IT systems. In particular, the core business must be protected from the risks of any
commercial works failing.
Maximising rent and related income
Performance in collecting rents and both minimising and quickly re-letting empty
homes is excellent and Stockport Homes has consistently been placed among the
top 10 per cent of performers in the country in these areas. It is essential that
collection levels for rents and water charges remain high to continue to support
excellent services and invest in combatting the impacts of poverty. This will become
increasingly difficult, however, as more customers receive payments of Universal
Credit direct and many struggle to pay their rent and sustain their tenancies.
Stockport Homes will remain committed to ensuring performance in collecting rent
remains strong and customers are supported and well advised in dealing with these
challenges. This is because excellent performance in this area will remain critical in
ensuring the health of the Council’s HRA. Stockport Homes will continue its ground
breaking early intervention work around money advice, including by investing a
proportion of HRA balances in 2016/17 to support the continued development of this
work. This proactive advice offering, in advance of crisis situations, has not only
reduced the number of cases entered into court and the associated costs of this
activity but resulted in income gains of £559,000 for customers through support with
claiming benefits.
The collection of water charges on behalf of United Utilities continues to be a huge
success for Stockport Homes and the HRA. Strong collection performance helps
fund a range of projects, on an ‘invest to save’ basis, which generate significant
social and financial inclusion outcome
Asset Management
Stockport Homes has a strong track record of investment in the Council’s housing
stock. It improved these homes to beyond the government’s Decent Homes
standard during its first five years of operation and has since focused on energy
efficiency improvements to help reduce fuel poverty among customers. The
installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and biomass boilers is also raising
income to reinvest in the housing stock, generating approximately £15 million over
25 years to support the 30 year HRA Asset Management Strategy.
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A five year Asset Management Plan is set out in the appendix to this Plan. This has
been challenging to develop, in view of uncertainties about long-term future funding,
so it will be supported on an annual basis by more detailed plans. It aims to protect
investment in the housing stock and is based on a range of factors, including: stock
condition; customer priorities; HRA business plan assumptions; and long-term
housing demand and sustainability indicators.
Monitoring performance
Stockport Homes’ Board takes a strategic approach to governance. It focuses on
scrutinising high-level risks and making key business decisions, leaving operational
performance monitoring largely to officers. It does, however, receive quarterly
reports on performance against the Service Improvement Plan and a suite of
business-critical performance indicators. This allows it to take responsibility for
corrective action if key commitments are not being delivered or if performance dips.
The Council monitors Stockport Homes’ performance and expenditure at a range of
regular officer liaison meetings and at a quarterly cross-party Member Committee,
set up to protect the Council’s interests as the company’s sole shareholder.
Responding to the Welfare Reform agenda
Stockport Homes has been extremely successful in supporting customers to deal
with Welfare Reform. This has allowed the Council to free up HRA reserve balances
set aside for a ‘Hardship Fund’ to support underoccupiers6. Money management
advice and help to get customers job-ready and into work has also contributed to its
continuing success in collecting rent due to the Council. Roll out of further reforms,
however, will give even more responsibility for people on benefits to find work in
order to avoid hardship, so Stockport Homes’ offer must be further enhanced and
targeted.
The groups of customers most vulnerable to hardship as Welfare Reform is rolled
out7 are likely to be those in the 50-64 age group, which has the lowest employment
rate in the social rented sector8 and the under 25’s, which only make up six per cent
of full Housing Benefit claimants but contain a disproportionate number of lone
parents. There are also implications for the reintegration of those with disabilities
and long-term illnesses back into the labour market9.
The strategic and operational impacts of Welfare Reform are covered in a range of
places throughout this plan because the organisation is responding to them in every
area of its business. A strategic Welfare Reform Group guides Stockport Homes’
99 per cent of under-occupancy charges have been collected since they were introduced – partly because
Stockport Homes has supported 130 households to ‘downsize’ since April 2015
7 As identified in’ Welfare Reform: The Impact of the Summer Budget 2015 on the Social and Private Rented
Sector in Stockport’ by Brendan Nevin and Philip Leather
8 Only 43 per cent
9 There are 17 times more households in the rented sector affected by this than in owner occupation
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work and has comprehensive plans in place to target those groups affected by
specific changes and ensure support available with the more general roll out of
Universal Credit is extensively publicised. This includes appropriate briefings and
training for staff and partner agencies.
Stockport Homes’ Money Advice team works intensively with people who face
financial hardship. Money advice is increasingly becoming a core service for
customers and its role in ensuring income is collected for the Council also means it
will be protected over the next five years. Efficiencies have been made elsewhere in
the company to help increase staffing levels in this area, in addition to the additional
funding from the HRA agreed below.
Over the next five years support will continue to be targeted to vulnerable customers
who receive housing benefit direct, ensuring they are prepared for the changes, and
Stockport Homes will continue to ensure appropriate investment in IT and other
systems to manage direct payments effectively.
The next five years will also see the closer integration of various projects to increase
employability and help people into work. This will happen alongside closer alignment
of training and volunteering initiatives to meet objectives around increasing
employment among customers.
3. Meeting Stockport Council’s objectives
Financial constraints and the expectations of Local Government Reform mean the
Council and its partners are implementing large-scale changes in the way services
are delivered. The Borough Plan is a shared statement of intent which sets a vision
for the next five years. It expects partner organisations, such as Stockport Homes,
gradually to align their own operational plans and resources to its five shared, highlevel objectives:
 People will be able to make positive choices and be independent;
 Those that need support will get it:
 Communities will be safe and resilient;
 Stockport will benefit from a thriving economy; and
 Stockport will be a place people want to live.
The key actions which underpin the objectives are:
 Investing in communities (community capacity building and social action);
 Investing in growth (key regeneration and transport projects);
 Stockport together (integration of health and social care services); and
 Stockport family (supporting families and giving children the best start).
Stockport Homes already plays a significant role in the partnerships set up to deliver
the Borough Plan. Although not yet formally aligned, these objectives are very much
in accord with Stockport Homes’ own vision, mission and aims. The two
organisations share a focus on delivering the greatest relative improvements for the
most deprived places and people, including by working together to close inequalities’
gaps in Brinnington and Central, which has been prioritised as being among the ten
worst super output areas in Greater Manchester. When Stockport Homes’ own
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vision, mission and aims are reviewed, it will take into account whether more explicit
alignment with the Borough Plan is required.
The Council’s last Housing Strategy has expired and a new one will be written
alongside a new Homelessness Strategy during 2016. These were delayed while a
full Housing Needs Assessment was carried out. This Plan attempts, therefore, to
forecast the Council’s future requirements around: maintaining a good quality,
affordable housing stock which meets changing needs; supporting sustainable
communities; and helping vulnerable people to live independently.
Developing specific services to meet Council needs and maximising invest to
save opportunities
Once the annual Management Fee has been agreed and all other pre-determined
items of expenditure committed in the HRA, any further remaining HRA resources
are used to continually invest in additional services to tenants, and/or used for
invest-to-save initiatives. During the lifetime of this plan, these will be agreed
annually as part of the process of setting the Management Fee and expenditure will
be authorised by Members in approving the annual budget report.
In 2016/17 the HRA has a balance of £555,000 on its ‘invest to save/welfare reform
reserve’ account which has been set aside to invest in the following initiatives:
 £394,000 to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
system10 which is expected to generate benefits of over £900,000 over its first
five years alone;
 £35,000 to fund an additional Anti-Social Behaviour Officer11;
 £40,000 to fund a temporary systems development post to improve processes
and interfaces12;
 £51,000 to fund an additional Money Advisor and temporary apprentice role,
following the success of this early targeted intervention approach in 201513;
and
 £35,000 to fund a surveyor to continue the pavement programme, resulting in
reduced ‘trips and falls’ insurance pay-outs14.
Where there is a need to make staffing roles permanent, further discussion will take
place about their funding source in future years, looking at all the financial resources
available at that time.
4. Delivering Stockport Homes’ aims
Stockport Homes’ vision, mission and aims are designed to help deliver the Council’s
objectives. Despite the financial and policy challenges it faces over the next five
Covered on pages 13 and 32
Covered on page24
12 Covered on page 32
13 Covered on page 9
14 Covered on page 32
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years, Stockport Homes will protect the pioneering and innovative work for which it is
known and will continue to deliver against its aims.
Aim One: Exceed customer expectations and
always do the right thing
Continuous improvement
Stockport Homes’ Continuous Improvement Framework shows how service
improvement is driven through co-regulation by the Board and customers. It outlines
how factors like: customer involvement and scrutiny; satisfaction surveying; planning
and performance management; learning from complaints; risk management and
audit work together to improve outcomes. This approach will continue over the next
five years, with a ‘right first time’ complaints process, outcome-focused service
standards and an emphasis on improving efficiency across the organisation through
service reviews. Although it may be necessary to review service standards if the
Management Fee cannot be sustained at a level allowing excellence to continue,
every attempt will be made to find external income to cover any shortfall before this
proves necessary.
Corporate social responsibility
Stockport Homes’ activity has a significant impact on the local economy because the
businesses it funds and the staff it employs also support others. Although
expenditure in some areas will reduce over the next five years, resources will remain
targeted responsibly to ensure economic, environmental and social initiatives
continue to transform lives. In addition, Stockport Homes’ charity work and health
and wellbeing initiatives will continue as long as funding is available to support them.
Equality and diversity
Stockport Homes has a strong commitment to equality and diversity and ensuring
that services are delivered in a fair and equitable way in communities in which
diversity is celebrated. The workforce will be more reflective of the communities in
which we work and staff will be supported to be aware of the challenges faced by
customers. Intelligent use of data will support an improved understanding of
customers and better enable services to meet their needs.
Access to services
Improvements in access to services will continue over the next five years. The
phased implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) computer
system will enable more streamlined and personalised service delivery and will
support the new website and more online services. The introduction of a ‘one
number’ telephone service will improve customer access by telephone and,
supported by CRM, will ensure a more informed and consistent service.
Stockport Homes will develop state of the art reception facilities at the new
headquarters building. Customers will be greeted by floorwalkers who will resolve
their issue or direct them to staff who can assist them; there will be tablets for “quick
service requests” and a wider range of staff available for customers to meet in the
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reception area. The reception area will also give access to the Community Training
Suite, which will be available for training, meetings and other events.
Digital inclusion initiatives will continue to improve access. In particular, Stockport
Homes will build on the success of its free ‘wifi@3S project to deliver low cost
connectivity to more customers, the award winning ‘Digital Heroes’ programme will
be extended to those areas of the Borough without volunteers and co-ordination of
funding bids will ensure projects share digital resources to maximise benefits to
customers.
The Customer Scrutiny Panel will continue to carry out two reviews each year on the
customer experience of accessing services and Stockport Homes will continue to
commit itself to implementing the Panel’s recommendations.
Social and Financial Inclusion
Stockport Homes has a key partnership role in reducing inequalities. It supports
projects in areas such as: employment; health; education; support for ex-offenders;
tackling social, financial and digital exclusion, and food poverty.
Every effort will be made to bring in external resources and to use commercial
income to continue to support this work. Employment will increasingly be a focus for
this work over the next five years because Stockport Homes recognises that
customer job readiness and access to employment opportunities will be crucial to
keeping neighbourhoods sustainable. Stockport Homes aims to provide every
customer with the offer of a route into training or employment, gaining better insight
into growth market areas through its sub-regional partnership working and
channelling activity accordingly.
Health
Stockport Homes recognises the links between health and housing – for example by
carrying out cold weather visits to older and vulnerable customers living in general
needs accommodation every winter to identify support needs, promote the uptake of
flu vaccinations and give advice and information about keeping warm and well. Over
the next five years it will continue to work with health and other housing partners at a
sub-regional level, with a focus on improving the health of customers and Stockport
residents more generally.
Meeting housing need
Stockport Homes will continue to allocate the Council’s housing stock through the
‘Homechoice’ service. This choice based lettings approach to implementing the
Council’s Allocations Policy, linked to the delivery of wider housing options advice,
enables residents to make informed decisions about their rehousing prospects.
The Borough has an ageing population whose needs and aspirations are
increasingly diverse. As well as providing traditional sheltered housing, the next five
years will see Stockport Homes helping older people access private sector options
and managing their ongoing independence, whatever their tenure. This will support
the Council’s strategic aims around early support and prevention, reducing reliance
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on statutory services by creating informal support networks and promoting selfsufficiency and social action.
Stockport Homes will continue to rise to the challenges of sustainably letting homes
which become less affordable as a result of Welfare Reform – not only so it can
continue to meet housing need but also in order to protect the Council’s income
stream. This will include helping the Council review its Allocations Policy in what is
likely to be an increasingly complex climate of need; continuing to actively market
certain properties to non-traditional customers and promoting downsizing, mutual
exchanges and shared tenancies.
Repairs and maintenance
This is the service which matters most to customers and accounts for around half of
Management Fee expenditure. Stockport Homes has a legal obligation to ensure
that all of the Council’s properties are safe and well maintained and it delivers
outstanding performance and customer satisfaction by learning from the feedback it
receives.
This core service will protected for the next five years by insourcing works in order to
reduce sub-contractor spend and by marketing the service commercially. This will
include selling handyperson and decorating services to existing tenants and
leaseholders. It will also include marketing repairs, out of hours services and its
expertise in: installing renewable technology; delivering home improvements; gas
servicing; asbestos removal; energy efficiency; property clearance; and security
services to home owners and private landlords.
Aim Two: Support customers in all aspects of
their lives through effective partnership
working
Independent living
Housing support services
Stockport Homes has a range of cross-tenure services which support and empower
vulnerable households to live independently and sustain tenancies. It helps new
tenants set up home and supports others who struggle to cope, even if they have
lived independently for a while. This work often involves interventions from a large
number of partner agencies. Over the next five years these services will continue to
deliver positive outcomes, with particular emphasis on supporting service users to
deal with the impact of Welfare Reform and to secure and sustain employment.
Targeted Prevention Alliance (TPA)
Stockport Homes plays a pivotal role in this new approach to supporting independent
living in the community; preventing, reducing and delaying demand for statutory
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services through early intervention. A range of partners15 offer information, advice
and support in collaborative teams; promoting resilience by focussing on a person’s
existing strengths and sources of support. The TPA also supports social action and
the development of informal networks at community level.
Over the next five years Stockport Homes will continue to ensure its own services
and those delivered collaboratively through the TPA are aligned with integrated
teams across Health and Social Care. It will work with partners to ensure the service
is inclusive and opportunities to work together are fully exploited.
There is significant national interest in the TPA as one of the first alliances of its kind.
Stockport Homes will work with partners and commissioners to ensure that learning
and good practice is captured and disseminated throughout the sector.
Supporting families
Stockport Homes part funds a Rapid Response Co-ordinator within the Council’s
multi-agency safeguarding and support hub (MASSH) to support families with
complex needs and give housing advice and guidance to colleagues from other
professions. This is a one-year pilot and outcomes will be reviewed during the
course of this plan.
Stockport Homes is building on its strong track record of delivering the European
Social Fund (ESF) ‘Support for Families with Multiple Problems’ programme by
bidding for funds with Athena16 partners for a successor project17 to allow similar
work to continue. If successful, this £9.7m Greater Manchester-wide programme will
work with a range of families and households far removed from the labour market to
address barriers to employment, education and training in a holistic way.
Safeguarding
Stockport Homes will continue to support multi-agency Safeguarding work in the
Borough. It will remain a member of both the Children’s and Adults Safeguarding
Boards and it will continue to work with other agencies to ensure its staff are well
trained in identifying and dealing with Safeguarding issues and that it continues to
deliver integrated approaches to protecting vulnerable young people and adults.
Supporting older people
Stockport Homes manages nine sheltered housing schemes and one ‘extra-care’
scheme. These support safe and independent living within active communities but
this service has a wider remit in promoting social and health activities among
isolated older people living in all tenures and all parts of the Borough. Over the next
five years Stockport Homes will continue to address increasing need and growing
diversity of aspirations among older people. This will include exploring options to
provide a range of services for the ‘able to pay market’, for the remodelling and
Age UK, FLAG, Relate, NACRO, Threshold, Stockport Homes and Stockport Council
A consortium of housing providers from across the sub-region
17 ESF Building Better Opportunities funding
15
16
16
redevelopment of existing specialist accommodation schemes and for developing
more extra-care facilities. This supports the Council’s ambition to reduce reliance
among older people on statutory services and create informal self-sufficient
networks.
Stockport Homes18 will play a key role in the establishment of the Well-being and
Independence Network (WIN). This partnership will work with older people, people
with disabilities and carers to support wellbeing and independence. Stockport Homes
will ensure the work of the WIN is aligned with the TPA to provide accessible support
and collaborative service delivery that breaks down traditional boundaries and ways
of working.
Carecall
This provides a monitoring and emergency response service for older and vulnerable
people within Stockport and to those who simply want peace of mind. It introduced
four new packages in 2015, including services such as sitting, shopping and
handyperson work. This helps the Council deliver its broader agenda of prevention
and independence.
Carecall will continue to work with the Council to support more vulnerable residents;
helping reduce demand on care and hospital services. It will also explore
opportunities to operate commercially in new markets over the next five years to
bring in more income to support core services, particularly from its new ‘monitoring
only’ service for users outside of Stockport.
Adaptations
Stockport Homes’ adaptations service supports people to live independently in their
homes for longer. Working in partnership with Council colleagues and a range of
specialist contractors, it provides equipment and adapts both Council owned and
private sector19 properties. Where this is not viable it supports customers to move to
accommodation that better suits their needs. This approach will continue throughout
the life of this Plan.
Demand for Disabled Facilities’ Grants (DFGs) in the private sector is increasing in
line with the changing demographics of an ageing population but funding20 is limited.
Stockport Homes will continue to attempt to control expenditure over the next five
years by creatively exploring alternatives, particularly in cases where partially
adapted homes can be further modified to meet more severe needs.
Supporting people with Learning Disabilities
Stockport Homes’ first new build supported housing scheme has been designed to
provide 12 flats for people with learning disabilities from 2016. Changes in Local
in partnership with Age UK Stockport, PURE, Easy Go Transport, The Car Share Scheme and Disability
Stockport
19 Administering the Council’s Disabled Facilities’ Grant programme
20 Part of the Better Care Fund
18
17
Housing Allowance levels mean the scheme is currently being re-evaluated to
ensure it remains viable on the basis planned, which includes 24/7 staffing and
management by a care providing partner organisation. Opportunities for further
provision of new supported housing schemes will continue to be explored over the
next five years.
Supporting refugees
Stockport Homes has delivered a range of projects for refugees and asylum seekers.
These tend to be small scale and short term, in response to global issues. The
current Gateway Protection Programme is wholly funded by the UK Border Agency
and will be reprocured by the Agency in 2016. Stockport Homes will work with the
Council and partners throughout Greater Manchester to bid for this and other future
programmes as they arise.
Supporting ex-offenders
Stockport Homes’ Housing Offender Service is nationally recognised. A dedicated
officer ensures that ex-offenders released from custody without accommodation are
supported to find and sustain it, develop life skills and to establish themselves in their
new communities.
The huge transition underway through the ‘Transforming Justice’ agenda means
priorities are changing and funding is likely to decrease. The ‘offer’ will need to
adapt over the next five years to reflect the resources and opportunities available,
such as potential future contracts with Community Rehabilitation Companies.
Community food projects
Stockport Homes has helped customers set up four ‘Pantry’ schemes, in conjunction
with food charity 'Fareshare' and other suppliers. These save members around £520
per year on food and offer them opportunities to develop valuable buying, stock
control and retail skills21. Customer consultation about priorities for this Plan indicate
that low-cost food projects are very important to customers in every neighbourhood
and of every age group so pantries will continue to be supported as long as funding
remains available. The speed of expansion, however, must take account of the rate
at which supply networks can be stimulated to grow and the resources required to
develop sustainable volunteer groups, potentially working with other voluntary sector
organisations and charities.
Over the next five years community-owned co-operative models and ‘franchising’ to
other community groups and housing providers will be explored. Stockport Homes
will also work with other Greater Manchester providers to explore the feasibility of
joint stock buying to improve value for money and sustainability.
Community furniture projects
A number of furniture recycling initiatives provide customers with low cost, recycled
furniture. For example, the ‘furniture stop’ project in Brinnington, in partnership with
21
over 40 customers have volunteered and five have moved on to full-time employment in the last four years
18
the Furniture Station and supported by a grant from Greater Manchester Disposal
Authority, allows Stockport Homes to recycle unwanted furniture.
Work will be done to sustain and expand these schemes over the next five years.
This will include retargeting resources to maximise the potential of partnership
working with other agencies. Initially, work will focus on the launch of a cross
Borough furniture re-use scheme, delivered from a site on Mottram Street. As the
scheme develops it will link closely the Pantries to deliver a fuller range of tenancy
sustainment and support initiatives. By engaging volunteers Stockport Homes will
assist customers to develop transferrable employment skills.
Energy efficiency advice
To ensure customers are charged the lowest prices for their energy, Stockport
Homes’ online facility allows them to compare suppliers and consider switching. Its
team of energy efficiency advisors combats fuel poverty by carrying out home visits
and attending community events to give free and impartial advice on switching, on
eligibility for government grants and winter payments and on getting the most out of
appliances. It also runs awareness-raising ‘Get Ready for Winter’ campaigns.
This work will continue over the next five years and opportunities will be explored to
make best use of the advisors’ skills as Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) in new
markets.
Water metering advice
Stockport Homes’ Customer Finance Team supports customers to apply for water
meters, with average savings of over £100 per customer. Over the next five years
the team will continue to work with United Utilities to maximise the number of
customers that benefit from lower charging tariffs.
Counselling Service
Plans are in place to begin work with Relate in 2016/17. The counselling service,
which began in temporary accommodation, will support volunteer counselling
students from the local area to work with customers and staff. It will offer low-level
therapeutic interventions, including one to one counselling, focussed group work and
bereavement and loss support and will help 450 people over the next 12 months.
Homelessness and Housing Options
Presentation and assessment
Stockport Homes is the lead agency delivering the Council's Homelessness Strategy
and it manages the Council’s service on a day-to-day basis. Homelessness figures
in Stockport face upward pressures because of Welfare Reform and lack of
affordable housing. Stockport Homes manages these pressures by delivering
holistic housing options advice and prevention work, often with partner agencies.
Key prevention initiatives over the next five years will continue to include: mediation
between young people and their families; pre-tenancy training for care leavers,
ongoing work to tackle mortgage repossession; and an eviction prevention fund to
provide small-scale emergency resources. It will continue to work closely with the
Helping the Homeless into Housing (H3) charity to support homeless people with
19
health, drug and alcohol issues, reducing pressure on health and social care
services.
Temporary accommodation
Stockport Homes runs three temporary accommodation schemes for people who are
homeless. A broad range of agencies work collaboratively alongside staff to support
these residents with issues such as drug and alcohol misuse, mental ill-health and
offending behaviour, as well as helping them access health services, training and
employment. A ground-breaking counselling service, excellent play and learning
environments and a range of healthy eating and exercise programmes are run at the
schemes. The quality of these services, along with homelessness prevention work,
were instrumental in Stockport Council being assessed as meeting the ‘Gold
Standard’ threshold for homelessness services in 2014.
Stockport Homes does not use bed and breakfast accommodation for families, even
on an emergency basis, although there remains considerable pressure on its
temporary accommodation. Financial pressures mean, however, that this will be an
increasingly difficult position to sustain over the next five years and it may be
necessary to review this position. Council22 funding will fall by 20 per cent in
2016/17 and there will be significantly reduced payments under Universal Credit,
compared to Housing Benefit.
This will particularly make managing complex cases more difficult. This is a cohort
where no statutory housing duty exists, but ceasing to accommodate them often
leads to very significant impacts upon health, criminal justice and social care
services so work will continue to explore alternative delivery options, including using
a charitable structure to secure the future of this provision.
Rent Deposit Scheme
Stockport Homes’ rent deposit scheme will continue to help families who are
homeless who claim benefits and/ or are on low incomes to access private rented
accommodation. Bonds provided to landlords mean they do not need a cash deposit
and the bond is honoured at the end of the tenancy if there is damage or rent
arrears. Vulnerable households securing accommodation via the scheme are also
provided with support to sustain their tenancies. This initiative, based on partnership
working with a wide range of landlords and letting agencies to ensure a steady
supply of quality accommodation, will continue as long as funding remains available.
Furnished tenancies
This scheme provides prospective council tenants with a basic package of furniture,
white goods and floor coverings to help them set up home and sustain their
tenancies. A service charge is covered by Housing Benefit if the customer is entitled
to claim. Income generated is reinvested in the service to ensure that new furnished
tenancies are availabIn addition, vulnerable households living in furnished tenancies
are provided with support to sustain them. Working in partnership with referral
22
Formerly Supporting People
20
agencies, funding available for the scheme is targeted at those most in need and
least likely to have other means of setting up home.
It is intended that this scheme will continue to develop and grow over the next five
years, although an analysis of the likely impact of Government proposals restricting
housing benefit will need to be carefully considered with specific reference to this
scheme.
Aim Three: Create greener places to live and
work and continually minimise our impact on
the environment
Environmental management
Building on a strong reputation for environmental protection Stockport Homes will
continue to operate under the Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow (SHIFT)
accreditation23, which is a national benchmarking system for over 80 housing
providers. The move to its new headquarters in 2017 will involve adopting exciting
and innovative energy efficient and water saving technology.
Energy saving and home improvements
Stockport Homes has used Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT) funding to
insulate lofts and wall cavities and install photovoltaic solar panels on almost 2000
homes. It has also adopted voltage power optimisation in 26 locations, which will
save 27 tonnes of carbon dioxide and reduce fuel bills by around 11 per cent each
year. In addition, it has installed biomass boilers, energy efficient windows,
improved heating controls and thermal cladding in over 2000 ‘difficult to treat’ high
rise properties served by district heating schemes, with over three quarters of the
capital costs funded by a power company under its Community Energy Saving
Programme (CESP) commitment. This has reduced carbon emissions on these
homes by 300,000 tonnes over 20 years.
Recent national changes in energy efficiency funding have made it increasingly
difficult to innovate in this area. Funding such as Energy Companies Obligation
(ECO) has reduced so it is no longer viable for landlords to deliver large-scale
schemes and the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for photovoltaic installation has dropped by
around 60 per cent, making new ‘rent-a-roof’ schemes financially unviable in future.
Energy efficiency is still a priority for Stockport Homes and the Capital Programme it
develops for the Council reflects an ongoing commitment to heating upgrades, new
roofs and external wall insulation. Officers are working closely with other housing
providers under the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities’ (AGMA) Low
Carbon Asset Management Team. This will help to cement collaborative working
ahead of devolution in 2017.
23
Due to be reassessed in the summer of 2016
21
The next five years will also see Stockport Homes pursuing plans to develop its own
biomass supply chain. This will generate savings over the longer term because it will
reduce reliance on the open market. Unfortunately, the site initially identified for the
construction of drying facilities is no longer available but two others are being
considered and dialogue will continue with the Council about how best the project
can be funded.
Clean and green neighbourhoods
Stockport Homes works with customers and partners to ensure that neighbourhoods
are clean, green and safe. The core greenspace service makes an invaluable
contribution to the quality of customers’ lives and will be protected over the next five
years to ensure high quality green spaces are maintained. All neighbourhoods are
regularly inspected and customers help monitor and review quality through a network
of green inspectors who are consulted on policies and undertake mystery shopping
of services.
Stockport Homes works in partnership with its greenspace contractor to provide
grounds maintenance services to some schools and other housing providers, with
income being re-invested in the service. It also assists older customers and those
with disabilities who struggle to keep their gardens tidy. The greenspace contract
will be reprocured in 2016 to ensure it continues to deliver value for money. This
process will take into account the scope for future business development and the
potential to provide support for vulnerable people, through initiatives such as the
Assisted Gardening Scheme.
Community involvement in improving our environment
The involvement of local people in improving their neighbourhoods is a feature of
Stockport Homes’ work. With partners and the Council, it delivers a programme of
green space activities and improvements. These have included the improvement of
play spaces across the Borough and delivery of accredited courses for customers, in
partnership with Marple and Cheadle College. It is not clear whether a continuation
of all of this work can be funded over the next five years but every effort will be made
to ensure its positive legacy of involving local people in making their neighbourhoods
more attractive is protected.
Caretaking
This is another core service for customers and recent reviews have made it both
very cost efficient and very responsive to customer requirements, with a new
customer service charter in place for both high and low rise homes.
This team will continue to assess opportunities to offer services to external
customers by diversifying when and if the opportunity arises
Aim Four: Expand our thriving, safe and
sustainable neighbourhoods, maximising our
contribution to meeting housing need
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Sustainable new build development
Stockport Homes helps meet the Borough’s need for affordable housing by building,
in partnership with the Council, which has provided land and provided loan facilities
to the ALMO. It is the largest builder of social housing in Stockport and all properties
have been built to level three or above of the code for sustainable homes. This
means they are among the most affordable and efficient homes in the Borough. It
cannot keep up with demand, however, having built 155 new units for rent over the
last five years while 177 have been sold under the Right to Buy.
House prices have risen by 4.2 per cent in the North West over the last year and
there is a lack of affordable private rented housing in Stockport24. This means, being
one of the most polarised boroughs in the country, that Stockport has a particular
need for newly built low cost homes for sale as well as for affordable renting.
Funding of £9.2m has been secured in Homes and Communities’ Agency (HCA)
grants to deliver a further 403 homes as part of the 2016-18 Affordable Homes
Programme (AHP) in addition, 85 properties we be acquired via section 106
agreements. The AHP has now been extended to 2020 so it is anticipated that the
grant from the HCA and the number of properties built will increase. This only
covers approximately 20 per cent of scheme costs, however, with borrowing required
to fund the remainder. In addition, it is likely to be directed towards low cost home
ownership rather than renting. Stockport Homes will continue to work with the
Council to try to meet housing need in whatever ways it can through new build over
the next five years and the Council’s Executive has approved an increase in
borrowing facility to help ensure this happens.
Helping build a sustainable private sector
Stockport Homes is committed to working with the Council to help deliver a more
sustainable private housing sector in Stockport. For example, it has used HCA grant
to acquire 52 mortgage rescue properties over the past five years, preventing
homelessness, bringing the properties up to the decent homes’ standard and
enabling families to stay in their homes on a rental basis. It has also brought 27
empty homes back into use and made them available at affordable rents to families
registered with Homechoice. This funding is no longer available but Stockport
Homes will seek opportunities to continue to improve neighbourhoods and provide
affordable housing in this way over the next five years.
Stockport Homes’ social lettings service gives private landlords and their potential
customers an alternative to existing letting agencies by delivering a high quality,
reliable property management and maintenance service. It drives up standards in
the sector and helps the Council discharge its homelessness duty by encouraging
landlords with empty properties to improve and relet them to those in the greatest
need. Plans are in place to continue to grow this service over the next five years. In
addition, opportunities to diversify this model will be explored, for example by offering
24
Private rents are more than twice those of social rents for every property type
23
smaller scale services like inventory taking to landlords who manage their own
portfolios.
Stockport Homes manages a range of schemes on behalf of the Council to help
people living in the private sector improve their homes:
 Home Repair grants - help owner occupiers do essential improvements to bring
their homes up to the Decent Homes standard; and
 ‘Facelifting’ improvement schemes and the Priority Neighbourhood Assistance
Programme – help improve the quality of whole neighbourhoods which are a
priority for the Council.
Funding limitations are unlikely to allow these programmes to continue for the next
five years. Stockport Homes will explore alternative funding options but it is likely
that they will end during this period.
Making neighbourhoods safer
Stockport Homes is a key member of the Safer Stockport Partnership, which brings
together all relevant partners to deliver the Council’s objectives on tackling crime and
disorder and making the Borough a safe place to live and work. As a key partner
Stockport Homes is pivotal in effectively tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB). .
Stockport Homes is a signatory to the ASB Respect Charter, which ensures a coordinated partnership approach. Particularly groundbreaking work is done in
partnership to address organised crime in ‘hotspot’ areas25. Despite increasing
caseloads, eviction levels are low and satisfaction is high because sustainable, longterm solutions are often found which take advantage of the powers granted under
the ASB, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Stockport Homes’ approach recognises the individual needs of perpetrators and
potential perpetrators as well as victims. It will continue to use positive engagement
approaches to motivate behaviour change and sustain tenancies among perpetrators
who are suffering from drug, alcohol, low-level mental health or anger management
issues.
Work to tackle ASB is a core service for customers and will be protected over the
next five years. Increased staffing in this area is being supported by the Council in
2016 from the balance of the HRA. This will fund an additional post, allowing the
team to continue to support a caseload of around 250 in the context of rising demand
and reduced resources from partner agencies.
Stockport Homes will continue to work with young people to help keep them safe and
reduce the likelihood of them committing ASB. Diversionary activities for young
people, particularly detached youth work, are successful in minimising youth
nuisance and key messages about responsible behaviour are delivered at school
and pupil referral unit assemblies and workshops to raise awareness of the impact of
ASB. Where funding is available, more intensive partnership sessions are also run
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Gathering and sharing intelligence to disrupt the illegal activities of high profile criminals
24
with Police and Prison Service partners to help deter young people from criminal
behaviour.
Stockport Homes contributes towards reducing re-offending behaviour in its
neighbourhoods. This is done by being an active member of the Transforming
Justice Board, co-funding the SORT-IT Panel’s volunteer co-ordinator post and by
employing Positive Engagement Officers and a support worker to help those living in
neighbourhoods and temporary accommodation. Stockport Homes also part funds a
Housing Options Officer who links with local criminal justice agencies and prisons to
help ex-offenders resolve their housing difficulties and prevent homelessness. In
light of funding changes in the criminal justice sector, provision for this group will be
evaluated and adapted, as appropriate, over the next five years.
Stockport Homes helps make people feel safer. Its concierge and CCTV monitoring
service enhances security in six neighbourhoods with over 2000 high and medium
rise homes by controlling visitor access to residential blocks and monitoring over 400
CCTV cameras. This supports speedy and effective action against the perpetrators
of ASB because its excellent quality images can be used as evidence in court.
Although there are no plans to grow the Concierge service commercially, it will be
extended where opportunities arise. The next five years will see the installation of
additional cameras to support effective action to tackle ASB in multi-storey blocks
and at a range of other sites in Brinnington.
Where funding is available, Stockport Homes will continue to support crime
prevention projects, do ‘sanctuary’ work on demand to remove the fear of violence
for over 100 customers experiencing domestic abuse each year and do ‘target
hardening’ work to reduce threat levels for customers experiencing ASB26.
The Positive Engagement Service has attracted significant interest from other
housing organisations. The next five years will see Stockport Homes exploring
opportunities to sell this service, along with other ASB services and consultancy
support, to other landlords in Greater Manchester in order to bring in income to
support the core service.
Making neighbourhoods more sustainable
Neighbourhood Management
Stockport Homes has Neighbourhood Action Plans (NAPs) for each of the
neighbourhoods it manages. These have been developed through consultation with
local people and stakeholders and outcomes are reported in newsletters and at
Council Area Committee meetings. Over the next five years these will continue to
support the Council’s drive towards locality based services by delivering customer
priorities in creative and innovative ways.
Such as the installation of fireproof letter boxes, additional security lights, new locks, dummy cameras and
improved fencing and gating
26
25
A network of Community Champions helps support the implementation and
monitoring of local projects by recruiting volunteers and attracting resources that
would not be available to Stockport Homes itself. Over the next five years this
network will take on a bigger role in attracting and managing external funding – not
only in areas such as digital inclusion where it has had historic success but also
where other forms of funding are likely to decrease, such as around greenspace
work.
Community Development
Engagement with families has been very successful in enhancing sustainability in
key neighbourhoods. The development of family groups has led to a range of selforganised events and activities which have improved community spirit and resulted
in the emergence of new community leaders, some of whom have gone on to gain
employment because of the confidence they have developed.
Stockport Homes manages ten Community Centres on behalf of the Council.
Competing local provision and varying investment needs mean some of these have
more viable longer-term futures than others so the next five years will see the more
sustainable Centres being supported to continue and decisions made about the longterm future of others, in conjunction with the communities they serve. Stockport
Homes will also enter into discussion with the Council about taking on the
management of other Centres in neighbourhoods where it manages concentrations
of stock and where this is in line with the Council’s own objectives.
As part of its approach to driving efficiencies, Stockport Homes has carried out a
mapping exercise with partner agencies which has identified duplication and gaps in
community development support. This will direct its work over the next five years,
ensuring it targets resources in the most effective way to maximise impact on
sustaining the neighbourhoods it manages and helps improve social cohesion. Its
aim is to help ensure groups become self-sustaining.
Addressing tenancy fraud
Stockport Homes has a successful housing fraud function which has been funded
largely from Government money in the past. Having a proactive housing fraud
service helps ensure the Council’s properties are used by people in the greatest
housing need and that these remain sustainable tenancies. Over the next five years,
Stockport Homes will work towards securing a longer-term future for this service and
exploring opportunities to market it to other landlords.
Aim Five: Involve customers, staff and the
Board in decision making and create
opportunities for them to fulfil their potential
Involving customers
Stockport Homes offers a wide variety of ways for customers to express their views.
They are routinely involved in formulating policies and strategies, monitoring service
delivery and working with staff to prioritise spend at a range of levels. This approach
will continue over the next five years, although it will be streamlined to ensure
26
resources are optimised and the Council’s localities’ agenda is supported. More
emphasis will be placed on community development work to build self-sustaining
community groups and to develop the skills of community leaders.
The work of the Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) will continue to focus on service
quality issues and will make better use of other customer groups, such as the Quality
Panel for inspection and mystery shopping activity. Participation in spending
decisions on environmental improvements will continue via ‘Community Count’
events; social media will continue to be used to encourage the engagement of young
people; and H3 will receive ongoing support in engaging homeless customers.
Fulfilling customer potential through training
Training is always identified by customers as a significant aspiration in improving the
quality of their lives. Stockport Homes has an award winning ‘Skills for Life’
programme which provides high quality, free courses to customers aged over 16
who want new skills to enhance their lives. These include accredited, intermediate
and advanced courses, which can help participants improve their employment and
volunteering prospects or encourage them back into education to gain more
qualifications. The programme also provides bespoke courses to help members of
community groups be more effective in their work.
Over the next five years this programme will be increasingly aligned with Stockport
Homes’ other initiatives to support customers into employment, while continuing to
offer some more recreational courses to help combat social isolation. In addition,
opportunities will be sought to increase the amount of training sold to the customers
of other housing organisations, subsidising the training that can be offered to
Stockport Homes’ customers.
Fulfilling customer potential through employment opportunities
Research carried out on behalf of Greater Manchester’s housing providers by
housing economists Brendan Nevin and Philip Leather27 indicates that between
7,700 and 11,500 new jobs must be created at the lower end of the labour market in
Stockport before 2020 to prevent real hardship under Welfare Reform. Stockport
Homes has a range of initiatives to increase employability and employment
opportunities, including advice, work placements and volunteering schemes. This
will be an area of even more focus over the next five years, as the future
sustainability of communities will be increasingly dependent on ensuring a higher
proportion of customers is in work.
Stockport Homes works in partnership with agencies which support ex-offenders. In
partnership With Groundwork, it offers paid employment to ex-offenders through the
‘Bluesky’ project, which delivers environmental improvement work. During their sixmonth placements employees receive training, mentoring and job brokerage support
Welfare Reform: The Impact of the Summer Budget 2015 on the Social and Private Rented Sector in
Stockport
27
27
that is key to reducing re-offending. Funding for this project is secure in the short
term but it may be necessary to seek out other potential funders or review the
scheme’s future within the next five years.
The B4Box scheme delivers 14 apprentice placements per £1m of spend. Local
people learn constructions skills on site, doing repair work for Stockport Homes.
Each has been either long-term unemployed or from another “hard-to-reach” group,
such as ex-offenders or people with drug, alcohol or mental health issues and the
scheme has helped many overcome significant barriers and successfully transform
their lives. An OFSTED accredited training college, the ‘Transforming Lives Training
Centre’ allows the trainees to achieve nationally recognised qualifications on site
without the need to go to college. Many of the graduates from this programme will
become Stockport Home’s employees within Stockport Homes’ new trading
company.
Stockport Homes provides a range of support for customers looking for work. This
has included schemes to cover the cost of travel, expenses to attend interviews,
advice on attending interviews and clothes for both interviews and starting work.
Most significantly, it has a largescale volunteering programme which supports
customers to gain work experience in the organisation and with other employers.
Over the next five years Stockport Homes will continue to support all of these
initiatives. Work with the Council and key partners, including Job Centre Plus and
the Learning and Skills Council will ensure the number, range and accessibility of
employment, apprenticeship, training and work experience opportunities available to
local people is improved. Stockport Homes will also continue to attend job fairs to
promote housing as a career.
Involving staff
Employee views are central to decision making. This is facilitated through a strong
‘Staff Voice’ group which represents each service area within the organisation. They
contribute their experience, expertise and ideas and act as a conduit for consultation
within their teams. Their core purpose is to ‘Influence and shape the direction of the
organisation through employee voice’. This group is supported by the organisation’s
management team, which creates a positive listening culture to ensure staff’s views
are heard and considered before key decisions are made. In addition, Stockport
Homes recognises and works productively with Trade Unions, consulting on
changes to policies that affect members as well as more generally on the future
direction of the company.
Fulfilling staff potential by developing the workforce
Stockport Homes is an organisation where people want to work. Over recent years a
number of new staff have smoothly transferred into the organisation and integrated
into the workforce as the company has grown and services have increasingly been
delivered in-house. This has necessitated assimilation of new ways of working and
has been accomplished with minimal disruption to services or stress for individuals.
The organisation has also invested in the development of new skill sets and
resilience among staff who are supporting customers under increasingly hard
financial pressures. Going forward, the organisation will develop a Workforce Plan,
the key elements of which will focus on recruitment and retention, succession
28
planning, flexible working, talent management and reward and recognition. This will
ensure it continues to have the right people in the right place at the right time to
support business continuity and sustainability.
‘SMILE’, the values of the organisation, are brought to life through Stockport Homes’
‘Value’s Charter’. This illustrates how each team contributes to the achievement of
the organisations mission of ‘Transforming Lives’. This is part of the organisations
approach to Organisational Development, ‘Grow’ which focuses on embedding
values, enabling development, utilising talent and sustaining engagement. This
approach helps employees to develop more holistically, providing experiences
relevant to their work and home life. An element of the organisation’s Leadership
Development Programme promotes coaching and mentoring to implement GROW
and support personal growth effectively through high quality, meaningful
conversations.
The organisation has introduced ‘Work Smart’ to transform the way it works, now
and in the future. This will further improve the services provided to customers and
support the transition to the new Head Office. This change management approach
will be realised through: well designed workspaces and customer access; effective
use of technology, enabling flexible working; effective collaboration, streamlining
processes to maximise productivity; and further reducing Stockport Homes’
environmental impact. This will drive efficiencies in the business and facilitate a more
commercial approach over the next five years.
Aim Six: Grow by making the best use of our
resources and diversifying into new
businesses that complement what we already
do
Maximising commercial income
Stockport Homes already operates commercially. For example, it provides repairs,
improvement and facilities’ management services in care homes and schools and it
runs good practise seminars and sells customer training to other housing providers.
This income will become increasingly important over the next five years as the
Government’s requirement for rent reductions puts pressure on it to fund more of the
social and financial inclusion work currently supported by the management fee.
Stockport Homes will build on its success in winning external business over the next
five years to support the services provided to its core customers. It will deliver new
products in existing markets and existing products in new markets. This will require
the development of new skills and operating processes; particularly the
establishment of specialist business development roles within the organisation and
extending marketing expertise.
Stockport Homes will be open to approaches from other housing providers and the
Council about taking on the management of new services wherever this can support
economies of scale or better use of resources. It will also be open to working in
29
partnerships to deliver services wherever this is in line with its aims and can bring in
external income to support core services.
Stockport Homes will look to expand its property portfolio through new build and by
acquiring properties already built. While the Borough of Stockport will always be the
organisation’s focus, it will not be constrained by boundaries and if opportunities
arise outside of the Borough they will be pursued. As well as continuing to build
housing for affordable rent and shared ownership, opportunities will be explored to
diversify tenure by developing private rented housing and housing for outright sale.
Its development team already acts as development agent for the Council and is
actively looking for opportunities to do this for other housing organisations. The
organisation is also exploring the possibilities of insourcing the design element of the
new build programme. This should optimise value for money in the new build
development process.
Attracting external funding to support local community activity
Stockport Homes works very successfully with community groups and partner
agencies to secure external funding. A variety of activities is supported in this way
and it has become increasingly crucial to successful sustainability work in
communities in recent years, as agencies have experienced funding cuts.
The next five years will see every opportunity taken to maximise external resources
for community development and other sustainability work in neighbourhoods.
Stockport Homes will not only work closely with funders to keep abreast of
opportunities and bring funding directly into the organisation but will lead bids with
wider stakeholder partnerships in shared neighbourhoods.
Stockport Homes’ approach to funding, in particular its Funding Strategy, continues
to attract interest from partners and other external organisations. Over the next five
years Stockport Homes will continue to offer advice and support to partners and will
seek opportunities to sell elements of this funding service to others
Maximising financial resources to do more
A strong value for money ethos exists within Stockport Homes. It is committed to
delivering the balance of quality, performance and cost that customers require. Its
focus on delivering efficiencies and inward investment ensures funds are channelled
into service delivery, based on the priorities agreed with customers. Its ‘bottom-up’
approach to finding efficiencies is supported by quarterly meetings to track delivery.
A regular programme of value for money reviews supplements the ongoing process
of generating efficiencies. This delivers both strategic cross-cutting improvements
and service specific improvements, using a number of techniques and tools such as:
customer journey mapping; cost benefit analysis; process mapping; and customer
engagement.
Stockport Homes has a commitment in its Value for Money Strategy to deliver and
measure social value as part of its activities. This means that how a service is
delivered is taken into account alongside what is delivered. Over the next five years
Stockport Homes will increasingly be able to quantify the level of additional benefits
30
to society and the local economy of its activities. This will include, for example,
understanding how investment in employment delivers benefits to the customer,
partners and wider society beyond the original cash spend.
Stockport Homes constantly seeks opportunities to improve quality and reduce costs
through effective procurement and its programme of value for money (VFM) service
reviews. Growth items are funded through efficiencies and Stockport Homes is in
the process of implementing a model for measuring the social return on its work.
Stockport Homes will continue to keep its Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) provision under review. This will include how applications are
hosted and supported as well as how all users can access these applications in a
secure and reliable way wherever they choose to work. The quality and
responsiveness of the current ICT service provision must continue to be enhanced to
meet all demands placed upon the business, including those necessary to support
the opportunities from the new HQ.
Recent experiences have highlighted the necessity of appropriate levels of IT
investment being made to achieve this, both in terms of support for existing systems
and the development of new ones. For example, the introduction of a CRM system
will make transformational change in both the offer to customers and delivery of
efficiencies. Its cost benefit analysis demonstrates that up to £930,000 savings will
be made over its first five years and it will continue to yield efficiencies in terms of
new ways of working into the future. Similarly, investment in the role of temporary
Systems Development Officer in 2016 will support the generation of long term
efficiencies by improving how the repairs ordering and monitoring system works.
Stockport Homes has always taken every opportunity to bring service delivery in
house and to restructure teams where this can improve efficiency. For example, the
next five years will see a restructure of neighbourhood teams to support service
delivery from the new headquarters building and investigation of the possibilities of
bringing in house the design element of the new build programme. It is anticipated
that this approach will optimise value for money in the new build development
process.
Stockport Homes has worked very hard to reduce expenditure on insurance, partly
by establishing a robust scheme of pavement inspections. This will be continued
with support from the Council in 2016 through funding from the HRA balance.
Optimising the use of office facilities
Stockport Homes has outgrown its existing office spaces at St Peters Square and
Bredbury and will build a new headquarters in 2017. The need for additional space
has taken Stockport Homes on a journey to ensure a space that provides an
excellent working environment for staff alongside an excellent community space,
reception and café. This will deliver long-term value for money and provide a
valuable asset for the Council. To ensure the aspirations are delivered three work
streams have been established which go beyond building the physical asset. These
include:
31
 ‘Worksmart’ which focuses on creating a flexible working space to improve
productivity and the policies and protocols that sit behind that, to ensure
customer service continue to improve and be a priority;
 ‘IT’ to ensure the technology allows and facilitates the aims of Worksmart.
This not only focuses on providing the right technology for staff to work
flexibly, but on developing the right solution for customers visiting the new
reception area and further reducing the use and storage of paper records;
and
 ‘Customer Access’ which will work on providing an excellent experience for
customers as part of the preparation for the move. This is working on many
team structures being reviewed, as well as looking at how customers access
services through the website and telephone.
The new building’s location, large reception area and café facilities will offer scope to
explore options for wider use by partner agencies. It may also lend itself to more
diverse business opportunities in future and further discussion will take place with
the Council about how this might work to best meet its needs as well as those of
Stockport Homes.
In order to assess and understand the benefits of the move Stockport Homes has
created a benefits realisation document which will monitor the expected positive
outcomes against the actual outcomes in the future. This will be reviewed alongside
the value for money assessment that captures the costs of the new building.
Developing the business
As outlined earlier in this plan, Stockport Homes has grown the diverse range of
services it offers to new customers such as homeowners and private landlords, local
schools and businesses. It has particularly grown the facilities’ management, energy
management and architectural design areas of its business in order to provide high
quality services that bring in income and support the Council’s objectives. These
services have been benchmarked as providing value for money and customer
feedback is very positive. These will continue to deliver sustainable support to the
core business in the long term and they will be more widely marketed to draw in
other customers with large and complex buildings to manage from across the region.
Future growth and development of the company will ensure that new initiatives
continue to support its core business. Stockport Homes examines its operating
environment on an ongoing basis, assessing its business strengths and weaknesses
and linking these back to its vision, mission and aims. Over the next five years,
however, this approach will be intensified, based on a realistic understanding of the
company’s vulnerabilities, such as residual areas of higher costs.
Stockport Homes will particularly work with the Council to move into other areas of
housing provision; meeting changing housing and support needs and exploring
opportunities to deliver regeneration activity that supports Council objectives.
Conclusion
This plan outlines how Stockport Homes will continue to work closely with Stockport
Council and other partners between 2016-21 to deliver effective services and to
32
meet the needs and aspirations of local people. By making the best use of
resources, bringing in external funding, taking a socially responsible approach to the
way it operates, working in partnership and empowering communities it will continue
to deliver more for less. It will not jeopardise core services or dilute core strengths in
order to develop new business but it will grow commercially, in line with its aims, in
order to protect its business.
Over the next five years Stockport Homes will transform the way it does business to
minimise costs and maximise external income. It will implement all possible
measures to protect the Council’s housing stock and grow its own, despite the
threats posed to this by Government policy. It will rise to the challenges of Welfare
Reform, deal with changes in the needs of its core customers and develop longer
term responses to asset management challenges. It will remain an employer of
choice and retain customers at the centre of the business.
This plan explains how Stockport Homes will transform lives by continuing to exceed
customer expectations; how it will work to ensure the Borough’s neighbourhoods
thrive, despite the challenging economic climate; and how it will continue to grow as
a socially responsible business and significant local employer. By taking a
pioneering and entrepreneurial approach to developing its business and by taking
advantage of the freedom and support which Stockport Council has given it,
Stockport Homes will maintain its innovative approach. Despite the challenges it
faces, it will build on the strong foundations developed over its first ten years of
operation, continuing to develop and grow.
33
Appendix – Five Year Asset Management Plan
1.0
1.1
1.2
The 30 Year Asset Management Strategy (AMS) was approved in December 2011
and set the following four aims:

Aim 1 - To create “Effective stock investment and work programmes that
designed to keep all properties at least to the Stockport Plus standard and deliver
significant carbon reductions”

Aim 2 - To ensure an active asset management regime, identifying properties
which have poor social, economic or environmental performance and either
improving them or replacing them with properties which are fit for purpose”

Aim 3 - To support wider objectives; being clear where and how the asset
management strategy is supporting wider objectives such as new development,
environmental investment or supporting community activities such as the
production of estate master plans”

Aim 4 - To respond to “Customer’s Needs positively by taking into account their
aspirations and striving to exceed their expectations”
As part of the approval it was agreed that a review of the projections in the 30 year
AMS would take place every five years it has subsequently been agreed that this
review will inform the Stockport Homes - Stockport Council delivery plan.
2.0
2.1
Background
Achievements of the last five years
To help meet the aims in the AMS the following notable successes have been
achieved in the first five years which include:

Continue to achieve 100% Stockport Plus Standard which exceeds the Decent
Homes Standard
34

84% properties at Energy Performance Certificate band C or above

Installation of 1,924 domestic solar PV systems and 28 commercial systems.

Installation of seven biomass district heating systems across the Borough.

Realised £13.8 million funding from energy suppliers to supplement the energy
efficiency works and to date brought in £5.7 million income from Government
initiatives such as the Renewable Heat Incentive and the Feed in Tariff

Installed 1,121 Kitchens, 1,284 Bathrooms, 2,508 Heating systems, 697 new
roofs, 2,402 new entrance doors, Insulated 260 lofts, carried out 2,287 cavity wall
insulation fills and 1,098 properties have benefitted from external wall insulation.

Carried out general on-going Investment and maintenance to the Councils
housing stock
3.0
The Next Five Years
3.1
Stockport Homes working in conjunction with the Council will seek to maintain the
standards achieved over the last five years however it is clear that the next five years
will be more challenging with the potential for an accelerated loss of stock, the
impact of 1% rent reduction, impact of the Planning and Housing 2015 Bill, the loss
of external funding for energy projects and the need to manage budgets by investing
in sustainable stock.
3.2
The 2016/17 programme has been budgeted at £14.062m, the four years following
are currently subject to further review but funding currently stands at £62.79m. The
focus of the programme is to maintain the Stockport Plus Standard ensuring
customer properties remain wind and watertight and continue to address and
improve energy efficiency within the stock.
3.3
Significant funding has been made available for programmes of work to undertake
energy efficiency improvements including conversion from electric heating to gas wet
systems and communal lighting upgrades. Master planning activities to Offerton will
commence including new roofs to over 600 properties and external wall insulation to
265 properties. In total over 5 years approximately 650 properties throughout the
borough will have external wall insulation installed improving the energy performance
and reducing heating costs for each customer.
3.4
Fire prevention works will continue including a programme to address hidden voids
within the multi-storey tower blocks, medium rise blocks and sheltered schemes,
SHL Fire Risk Assessors consider the work industry leading.
3.5
Mechanical and electrical works including lifts will be replaced at a number of tower
blocks and water supplies to customers improved through pressurisation of the water
mains to the tower blocks.
35
3.6
Significant investment has been identified for the sheltered schemes; over the next
five years a budget of £1.72m has been made available to carry out conversions and
improvements to pre-identified schemes. Regular investment to maintain the
schemes and the Stockport Plus Standard will also continue through other available
budgets.
3.7
A full breakdown of the proposed 5 year programme (including 2015/16) is attached
at the end of this plan.
4.0
Stock Reduction
4.1
Despite a healthy new build development and property acquisition programme which
delivered 195 new properties (plus 84 shared ownership properties) in the last five
years overall stock levels reduced with the stock numbers falling from 11,492 in
December 2011 to 11,433 in December 2015. Table 1 below outlines the change in
stock since December 2011:
4.2
It is envisaged that with the introduction of the Governments pay to stay initiative,
review of lifetime tenancies, proposed sale of high value stock, the general
reinvigoration of the right to buy policy and the building for low cost home ownership
rather than rent stock, numbers will continue to fall.
36
4.3
The likely numbers of stock reduction over the next five years is still being evaluated
therefore at this stage it is not possible to project a figure for stock losses as this
calculation will take place over the coming months.
5.0
Impact of the 2015 Summer Budget
5.1
Following the Government’s 2015 summer budget and the announcement of a 1%
reduction in rent, a review of the available budget and the likely impact on the capital
programme has been carried out. The review highlights the need to make ongoing
efficiencies within the 30 year HRA Business Plan – savings arising from the rent
reduction will have to be found via management and maintenance efficiency targets,
as well as efficiencies within the Capital expenditure element of the plan. It is hoped
that a significant part of the £19m reduced rent will be covered by SHL outperforming business plan assumptions, coupled with Management Fee efficiencies.
However, efficiencies estimated at around £10.7m will also need to be made in the
capital expenditure section of the HRA Business Plan.
5.2
The review so far envisages that SHL continues to meet the requirements of the
Decent Homes legislation, continues to meet health and safety requirements and
that the external envelope of a property remains wind and watertight. This review
covers the current financial year (2015/16) up to 2020/21. Stockport Homes will aim
to continue to maximise procurement efficiencies within the programme. The position
after this period will also present significant challenges and SHL will ensure it
maximises its proven skills in asset management to ensure the impacts of these
challenges are managed in the best possible way.
5.3
Although the full impact of these savings on the capital programme are still under
consideration it is envisaged that the saving will come from non- legislative and nonproperty integral areas such as landscaping, fencing and property conversion.
5.4
In addition to the 1% rent reduction the impact of the Housing and Planning 2015 Bill
will be assessed once detail around implementation of provisions such as the sale of
high value stock are better known. This means the review of the capital programme
will be ongoing and annual plans will be produced over the next five years.
6.0
Stock Option Appraisals
6.1
It is as always been incumbent on Stockport Homes and the Council to ensure that
investment is targeted at stock and neighbourhoods which are sustainable in the
long-term. Given the challenges brought about by changes in Government policy
ensuring that funds are targeted in the right areas as this has grown in importance
therefore option appraisals of stock including the running of Net Present Value (NPV)
calculations is now essential.
6.2
The 30 year AMS identified that NPV is a common method to determine the
economic value of a property, it is a standard method for using the time value of
money to appraise long term projects. This is the value of an asset calculated as the
sum of its expected future cash flow discounted back to present values.
37
6.3
The process for identifying stock which could be eligible for option appraisal could
examine the following characteristics:
-
High Turnover
Negative or Weak current 30 year NPV’s
Declining NPV over time
Significant short to medium investment requirements
Emerging signs of reduced demand
6.4
The use of an option appraisal model enables informed, transparent and consistent
approach to investment decision making it also helps demonstrate value for money
and provides a clear basis for stock review. Used properly, the appraisal model will
lead to improved decision making and will also help to judge whether the decisions
taken are the right ones, by providing a clear basis for later evaluation.
6.5
When an option appraisal is completed using the NPV and the qualitative scores the
property will be given a traffic light risk rating as illustrated below – Table 2:
Table 2 - Traffic Light Risk Rating
Red Rating
Future investment not
recommended options for
disposal, re-development
change of tenure e.g. affordable
or market rent or shared
ownership options to be
progressed. A recommendation
to put a property into this status
will be discussed with Stockport
Council.
Amber Rating
Green Rating
6.6
Assets on the borderline of not
being sustainable, further work
to be done to identify
improvement potential or other
development opportunities. No
major investment to take place
except that which will be
needed to continue its
operational life.
Assets regarded as sustainable,
investment authorised.
As a result of the reduction in rent by 1% and the implications of the Housing and
Planning 2015 Bill work has already begun to re-run a number of NPV calculations.
Current focus is on Lancashire Hill, the Brinnington Tower blocks and a number of
sheltered schemes. The NPV calculations will inform the option appraisals which will
inform the consideration of the future sustainability of this stock.
7.0
Consultation
38
7.1
Involving customers in influencing service delivery has always been vital for
Stockport Homes and the Council to obtain an understanding of their needs and
aspirations, and also to constantly enhance and improve services.
7.2
Frontline staff from the Neighbourhoods and Support and Technical and Commercial
Services Directorate, who have daily contact with customers are also consulted via
referral mechanisms and regular planning sessions.
7.3
Customers and staff views together with robust stock data will ensure that decisions
regarding investment are fully considered and targeted to ensure stock is sustainable
in the long-term.
7.4
Consultation events regarding the proposals for the 2016/17 capital investment
programme are planned for the coming months.
8.0
Conclusion
8.1
Substantial investment in the housing stock has taken place over the last five years
which, has not only maintained the decent homes plus standard but also delivered
significant energy savings projects for the benefit of customers.
8.2
Following changes to Government policy it is clear that the next five years will be
more challenging with reduced income and a continued loss of stock. It is not yet
clear about the longer-term implications but they are likely to be more problematic
going forwards.
8.3
Investing in the most sustainable stock is vitally important to ensure that budgets are
targeted for maximum impact and that value for money will be achieved.
8.4
The planning of investment for the next five years will need to be measured and
delivered to meet current and future customer needs.
39
Proposed Five Year Programme
PROGRAMMED
COMPONENT REPLACEMENTS
New 2015/16
PRIMARY ROOF COVER (inc.
wastestack/downpipe/RWG/facia/soffitt/chimney)
WINDOWS
PP
£
724,000 £
925,806 £
1,062,870 £
PP
£
350,000 £
583,275 £
297,563 £
305,076 £
312,701 £
BRINNINGTON TOWER BLOCKS (window
replacements)
WINDOW FIX AND MAINTAIN (Lancashire Hill +
PVCu windows 10+years)
FRONT & REAR DOORS (incl. flat entrance doors,
communal doors)
BALCONY & WALKWAYS
PRIMARY WALL FINISH (incl. overcladding/wall ties)
PP
£
- £
350,000 £
581,500 £
955,021 £
652,594 £
PP
£
- £
660,000 £
557,000 £
212,227 £
217,531 £
222,965
PP
£
150,000 £
63,125 £
358,524 £
367,577 £
376,764 £
386,175
£
£
284,000 £
230,000 £
303,000 £
101,000 £
258,750 £
103,500 £
318,340 £
106,113 £
326,297 £
543,828 £
445,929
111,482
EXTERNAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME
£
410,000 £
540,537 £
631,350 £
684,432 £
701,539 £
719,061
PORCH & CANOPY
£
91,000 £
454,500 £
310,500 £
318,340 £
271,914 £
278,706
625,802 £
362,250 £
641,604 £
371,397 £
657,641 £
380,680 £
674,066
390,188
ALL DISTRICTS
320,512
-
PP
PP
£ 1,131,000 £ 1,137,462 £
£
298,000 £
369,781 £
PP
£
£
652,000 £
350,000 £
707,000 £
404,000 £
COMMUNAL HEATING
FIRE PREVENTION
PP
£
103,000 £
£ 2,600,000 £
103,500 £
707,000 £
- £
621,000 £
106,113 £
848,907 £
- £
870,126 £
850,610
COMMUNAL UPGRADES
PRESSURISED WATER MAINS
PP
£
£
410,000 £
185,000 £
202,000 £
181,800 £
310,500 £
- £
530,567 £
- £
543,828 £
- £
557,411
-
BIN CHUTES ( incl. STORE ROOMS)
£
195,000 £
202,000 £
103,500 £
265,284 £
38,699 £
39,665
CONCIERGE / DOOR ENTRY split line
£
154,000 £
75,750 £
672,750 £
477,510 £
815,743 £
55,741
£
£
36,000 £
101,000 £
- £
207,000 £
- £
424,454 £
- £
435,063 £
- £
557,411
111,482
£
125,000 £
101,000 £
103,500 £
106,113 £
108,766 £
111,482
222,965
PP
ASBESTOS (split line)
MECHANICAL
& ELECTRICAL
877,482 £ 1,225,711 £ 1,256,325
KITCHENS & BATHROOMS
ELECTRICAL UPGRADES (incl. CO & Smoke
Detector Renewals)
HEATING SYSTEM & BOILER REPLACEMENT
LIFT REPLACEMENT
SHELTERED SCHEMES
OUTBUILDINGS (inc. sec roof covering, sec windows,
add doors, sec wall finish)
ADAPTATIONS
ECO
New Inflated New Inflated New Inflated New Inflated New Inflated
2016/17
2017/18
2018/19
2019/20
2020/21
1,552,500 £ 1,591,701 £ 1,631,485 £ 1,672,234
362,250 £
212,227 £
609,088 £ 1,560,752
£
308,000 £
202,000 £
207,000 £
212,227 £
217,531 £
PLANNED ASBESTOS
PROPERTY CONVERSIONS
£
£
- £
202,000 £
- £
310,500 £
- £
- £
371,397 £
- £
380,680 £ 1,693,494
HHSRS - RESPONSIVE
£
256,000 £
252,500 £
258,750 £
265,284 £
271,914 £
278,706
£
90,900 £
103,500 £
212,227 £
108,766 £
222,965
£
- £
- £
106,113 £
108,766 £
111,482
£
77,000 £
202,000 £
1,035,000 £
371,397 £
108,766 £
390,188
UNDERGROUND DRAINAGE
£
100,000 £
202,000 £
103,500 £
106,113 £
108,766 £
111,482
LEGIONELLA
£
103,000 £
101,000 £
103,500 £
106,113 £
108,766 £
111,482
GARAGES (GENERAL FUND)
£
77,000 £
- £
- £
- £
- £
EPC Targetting Works
WATER TANKS & PUMPS (pressurised water mains)
£
£
500,000 £
43,000 £
- £
- £
- £
186,300 £
- £
191,004 £
- £
195,778 £
200,668
RISERS
£
33,531 £
34,361 £
35,229 £
36,109 £
37,011
ALARMS (FIRE)
£
10,100 £
10,350 £
10,611 £
10,877 £
11,148
TV AERIALS
£
- £
84,870 £
87,013 £
89,188 £
91,415
CONCRETE REPAIRS
CONDENSATION / VENTILATION
PP
ENVIRONMENTAL / LANDSCAPING
1/2
PP
ECO CONTRIBUTION FROM CAPITAL
PROGRAMME
ECO inflation (2.5%)
£
903,000 £ 3,000,000 £
£
- £
2,000,000 £ 2,000,000 £ 2,700,000 £
- £
- £
- £
40
-
-