Performance 365
2020
Welcome to our 2019-20 Performance 365. Each year we publish our performance figures, so you can see how well (or poorly) we're performing against the standards laid out in the Scottish Social Housing Charter
It's been an interesting year, we launched our My New Home service to ease the financial pressure of taking up a new tenancy, we started planning the expansion of our Head Office (more information on that coming in 2020-21), we got 100% of our properties compliant with the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH), we hit 1,000 followers on Facebook, and thanks to the fantastic work of our IT guys, who the tenants never hear about, our staff were almost seamlessly able to transition to home working during the lockdown.
Please note that Outcomes 12 and 16 only apply to Local Authorities, so we have intentionally not included any figures in relation to these.
Outcome 01 Equalities
All of our services are available online allowing tenants and other service users to access services when and where it suits them.
Every time someone uses My Home, Homehunt Web or our other digital services instead of calling us, it frees up staff to help people who need more support.
We are: Happy to Translate
Our Offices are: Wheelchair Accessible and have Induction Loop technology
elha.com and My Home are: Browsealoud-enabled and and My Home can be customised for High Contrast
Ethnic breakdown of new tenants
- Percentage of new tenants with a disability 27%
"every tenant and other customer has their individual needs recognised, is treated fairly and with respect, and receives fair access to housing and housing services."
Outcome 02 Communication
Around 3/4 of our tenants now use My Home, and almost all of them are paper free.
This saves a huge amount money on stationary and postage. We worked out that it costs an average of £1 per letter more to send a printed letter than it does to send an electronic copy via e-mail. We have around 1,300 tenants - imagine how many letters that is!
We're really glad to see that praise is more common than complaints. Complaints are very important - they help us identify where we need to improve services, but it's also good to recognise where we're doing well, and pass on praise to staff members who have gone above and beyond to make sure a tenant has had a positive experience when they've been in contact.
"tenants and other customers find it easy to communicate with their landlord and get the information they need about their landlord, how and why it makes decisions and the services it provides."
- Tenants with a My Home account 963
- Paper Free tenants 911
- Visits to My Home & elha.com 78,391
- Complaints received 125
- Praise received 337
Outcome 03 Participation
We have a wide range of ways tenants can get involved in our work. You can participate at whatever level is best for you, whether that's answering short surveys, sitting comfortably at home and testing a new My Home service, or meeting up to scrutinise our services, and many points in between. Our Tenant Involvement Group (TIG) is an important part of ELHA who oversee these activites.
This year has been quite busy - so this is just a summary of the year's key activities. If you'd like more detail, please check the monthly updates for 2019-20.
- Our Large Tenant Satisfaction Survey took place - thank you to everyone who took part!
- The TIG-Panel met 5 times (normally it would have been 6)
- This year's scrutiny project into out of target repairs generated so much investigation, it's now being spread over 2 years
- We held a tenant event at our sheltered housing complex in Cockenzie
- Staff attended meetings with other TP workers from around East Lothian
- We asked tenants if they wanted to reintroduce tenant estate inspections (mostly no), and invited tenants along to inspections in areas where people said they were interested
- We carried out a huge consultation as part of our Allocations Policy Review - again, thank you to everyone who took part
- We launched our new e-Newsletter for paper free tenants
- Almost a quarter of our tenants took part in this year's rent increase consultation - the highest percentage since ... probably ever.
"tenants and other customers find it easy to participate in and influence their landlord’s decisions at a level they feel comfortable with."
Outcome 04 Quality of Housing
The Scottish Housing Quality Standards (SHQS) was introduced in February 2004, and all social housing landlord had to comply by 2015.
We have a small number of properties which do not meet the SHQS and these are:
- A number of older flats which do not have a controlled door entry system. This is because we do not own all the flats in the common stair, and the owners of the other flats have not agreed to installing a door entry system.
- A small number of properties with older heating systems. This is because the tenants have chosen not to agree to an upgraded heating system.
We're really pleased to be able to report that all our properties now meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) - well ahead of schedule!
"tenants’ homes as a minimum, meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standards by April 2015 and continue to meet it thereafter, and when they are allocated, are always clean, tidy and in a good state of repair."
- New tenants satisfied with the condition of their home 61%
- Number of applicants who refused a property after viewing it 0
- Number of properties with a gas supply 971
- Percentage of gas supplies serviced 100%
- Number of forced entries for gas serving 68
- Percentage of homes which meet the SHQS 97%
- Percentage of homes which meet the EESSH 100%
Outcome 05 Repairs, Maintenance & Improvements
Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown, the maintenance programme is currently suspended. A re-evaluation of the programme for the year 2020/2021 will be undertaken when normal working is reintroduced.
"tenants’ homes are well maintained, with repairs and improvements carried out when required, and tenants are given reasonable choices about when work is done."
- Number of emergency repairs completed 70
- Number of non-emergency repairs completed 3,557
- Average time to complete repairs 5.42 days
- Average time to complete emergency repairs 1h 23min
- Repairs completed right first time 95%
- New kitchens installed 33
- New bathrooms installed 49
- New heating systems installed 68
- Repainted properties 119
Outcome 06 Estate Management, Antisocial Behaviour, Neighbour Nuisance & Tenancy Disputes
Thankfully, serious antisocial behaviour amongst our tenants is rare.
We will always try to resolve problems by working closely with the tenants involved and our partners in the Police and East Lothian Council but if this doesn’t succeed in correcting the behaviour then we will use all courses of action available to us, including ASBO and/or eviction, to ensure that our tenants can live safely in peace.
As of November 2019, the Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement has been modified to give us more robust ways of dealing with antisocial behaviour.
"Tenants and other customers live in well-maintained neighbourhoods where they feel safe."
- Number of Neighbour Complaints resolved 132
- Neighbour Complaint cases resolved in target 82%
- Number of ELHA tenants with an ASBO 2
Outcome 07, 08 & 09 Housing Options
The demand for housing in East Lothian far outstrips the supply.
This year we were able to rehouse 81 households, which is better than last year (61), but is still a drop in the ocean as far as demand goes.
We will have a few new builds ready to let next year though, so that should mean more available properties in 2020/21. If you'd like a more detailed breakdown on our relets, you can download an area breakdown here
- Number of households registered for housing 4,371
- Number of new tenancies from relets 81
- Number of new tenancies from new builds 0
- Homeless families housed 40
| 1 Bedroom | 2 Bedrooms | 3 Bedrooms | 4+ Bedrooms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houses | 0 | 16 | 6 | 1 |
| Flats | 20 | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Sheltered / Amenity | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wheelchair / Medically Adapted | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
"people looking for housing get information that helps them make informed choices and decisions about the range of housing options available to them."
"tenants and people on housing lists can review their housing options."
“people at risk of losing their homes get advice on preventing homelessness.”
Outcome 10 Access to Social Housing
Along with 7 other landlords from around Scotland, we advertise all our available homes with Homehunt, which allocates available properties on a best use and priority pass system. This is a web-based system, with additional paper and telephone support for those without internet access.
How we allocate homes can be found in our helpful Guide to Homehunt ELHA, which is available as both a download and a printed document for applicants without access to the internet.
"people looking for housing find it easy to apply for the widest choice of social housing available and get the information they need on how the landlord allocates homes and their prospects of being housed."
New tenants
Outcome 11 Tenancy Sustainment
Many of our tenants, new and existing, need support to help them deal with situations that could lead to them having to move or losing their home.
This is particularly true as the impact of Welfare Reform affects more and more people. If we can’t offer the support directly, chances are we know someone who can.
Our Money Adviser is very popular, with her clients typically rating her as 10/10 in all areas. Some of the things you've said about Anne:
"Anne has helped me so much. I can't thank her enough. She has helped me with my Universal Credit as I did not know what to do. She took time and explained everything. And sorted my rent. She is a kind and caring person."
"Anne was fantastic, she supported me in the whole process of getting my house, she was knowledgeable on issues relative to benefits and who I should get in touch with to supporting my family. She was very experienced and professional with great communication skills."
- Referrals to Money Advice 249
- Gains from Money Advice £443,923
- Percentage of new tenants still tenants 12 months later 97%
- Number of abandoned properties 2
- Number of decorating packs issued 76
- Spent on issued decorating packs £14,534
- Medical Adaptations completed 36
- Medical Transfers 6
- Number of My New Home Discounts Awarded 38
- My New Home Discounts Awarded £15,668
"tenants get the information they need on how to obtain support to remain in their home; and ensure suitable is available, including services provided directly by the landlord and by other organisations."
Outcome 13 Value for Money
Value for money is a big concern for us – we’re a small non-profit organisation and we are entirely dependent on rent to keep running.
We always have an eye out for ways to provide a better service for a lower cost. The most obvious example of this is our switch away from slow and costly posted letters - at the end of March 2020, over 70% of our tenants were paper free.
"tenants, owners and other customers receive services that provide continually improving value for the rent and service changes they pay."
- Tenants in arrears helped by the Money Advisor 36
- Reduction in rent arrears for Money Advice cases £27,811
- Average time taken to relet empty homes 19 days
- Rent lost on properties relet this year £24,787
- Percentage of rent lost on empty homes 0.37%
Outcome 14 & 15 Rents & Service Charges
Rents are set to cover management, maintenance and loan costs - things that every property we own has to pay. Service charges cover things like stair cleaning and lighting, maintaining communal gardens and community alarm costs - things that are unique to particular properties and are charged to around 35% of our tenants. We do not make any money on services; the costs passed on to tenants are the costs we have to pay.
* The Regulator has changed this figure to include arrears on both current and former tenancies this year.
- Rent arrears £315,655
- Arrears as a percentage of our rental income 4.69% *
- Court actions raised for rent arrears 11
- Evictions for rent arrears 3
"a balance is struck between the level of services provided , the cost of the services, and how far current and prospective tenants and other customers can afford them."
"tenants get clear information on how rent and other money is spent, including any details of individual items of expenditure above thresholds agreed between landlords and tenants."