The Operations Directorate’s main aim is twofold – firstly, to make sure that any repairs required to your homes are carried out quickly and professionally and secondly, to assist all of our customers and tenants who stay in the Association’s 2,812 houses.

During 2010/11, the Team carried out 6552 repairs, and the following table details performance over the past 3 years in relation to number of emergency repairs, and performance against targets.

	Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Results for 2010/11	Difference from 09/10 to 10/11
Number of Emergency Repairs	1912	2102	2051	-51
% completed on time	99.58%	100%	100%	/
Total No of Repairs	6942 (2.60 repairs per house per annum)	6837 (2.5 repairs per house per annum)	6835 (2.4 repairs per house per annum)	-2 (down 0.4 per house per annum)

Pop Up Facts ...

• Emergency repairs continue to be completed within target of 100%.
• Number of repairs overall and number of repairs per property decreased.

As can be seen from the table, we are pleased to report that our Emergency Repairs response times have remained at 100%. During the year the Operations Directorate introduced a Repairs By Appointment scheme in order to further improve services to customers.

In March 2010, the Operations Directorate agreed a programme of repairs to ensure that our houses were in great condition outside. This is called our cyclical programme.

Also, to make sure that the houses were safe and complied with Legislation, the team arranged annual Gas Safety Checks on all of our relevant properties, and we are glad to report that 100% of these were carried out.

The Operations Directorate also carried out Medical Adaptations for some of our tenants, with particular needs. £XX was spent on giving people new easier to use taps, wet floor showers, and handrails to help them get up and downstairs more easily and safely. In total XX medical adaptations were carried out.

Pop Up Facts ...

• Repairs by Appointment System introduced.
• 100% gas safety inspections completed.

As well as being responsible for our repairs service, the Operations Directorate is also responsible for looking after our estates and customers. The following is a breakdown of our homes.

		Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Results for 2010/11	Difference from 09/10 to 10/11
Number of Tenancies		2664	2730	2812	+82
Let or Available for Rent	2 Apartments	233	233	244	+11
	3 Apartments	1242	1288	1337	+49
	4 Apartments	1060	1079	1095	+16
	5 Apartments +	129	128	136	+8
Units in North Lanarkshire		1396	1422	1472	+50
Units in South Lanarkshire		1268	1306	1337	+31
Units in East Dunbartonshire		/	/	3	+3
Shared Ownership Properties		7	6	6	/
Shared Equity Properties		29	29	29	/
Stock acquired/built		266	62	57	-5

The Team has a number of important tasks, such as rent collection and arrears processing, selecting new tenants for empty homes, making sure our streets, gardens and parks are well looked after, and trying to encourage people in the community to become more involved with the Association.

The Team had a really busy and challenging year and the following is an overview of the year’s performance.

When someone moves out of one of the Association’s houses, the Housing Team aim to get a new family to move into it as quickly as possible. This is the same when the Association builds new houses.

In 2010/11 the Team had 175 empty houses and 57 brand new houses, which they found new tenants for. The turnaround target was 22 days, and a 20 day turnaround was achieved, which over a 2 year period has seen remarkable improvement of 22 days for the Association. One reason that the Association aims for a quick turnaround time, is so that the Association doesn’t lose too much rent money, which is then invested back into our tenants’ homes. The team has a target to keep this void loss below 0.4% and they performed exceptionally well, with void loss only being 0.39%. This was a major area which the Association addressed and the introduction of a dedicated technical officer dealing with void properties has been instrumental in achieving this target.

		Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Results for 2010/11	Difference from 09/10 to 10/11
New Lets		266	33	57	+24
Re Lets		122	135	175	+40
Properties Void Less Than 2 Weeks		12 (10%)	39 (29%)	50 (29%)	+11
Properties Void Less 2-4 Weeks		68 (56%)	64 (47%)	105 (60%)	+41
Properties Void More Than 4 Weeks		42 (34%)	32 (24%)	20 (11%)	-12
Days To Relet Void Property		30	24	20	-4
Difficult To Let Properties		229 (8.6%)	278 (10%)	278 (10%)	/
Void Loss		0.45%	0.35%	0.39%	+0.4%
% Rent met from Housing Benefit		59%	56.8%	56%	-0.8%

At March 2010, there were 37961 people on the Association’s Housing Waiting List. The is due to the Association being part of the Common Housing Register (CHR), with both North and South Lanarkshire Councils, as well as a number of local Registered Social Landlords in Lanarkshire.

The CHRs have been set up by the councils, in partnership with housing associations, to make life easier for anyone applying for a house. Instead of having to apply to a number of different landlords in an area, you can now complete a single application form. You can then be considered for vacant properties available from a number of landlords who have houses in your areas of choice.

		Results for 2007/08	Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Difference from 08/09 to 09/10
People On Waiting List		3014	8537	37961	+29,424*

* Due to introduction of Common Housing Registers.

Each year the Board of Management agree the rent increase. This year, having considered the financial climate and pressures, our Board agreed an average increase of 1.55%, a reduction of 3.35%.

		Results for 2007/08	Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Difference from 08/09 to 09/10
Average Rent (£)		62.78	63.01	65.25	+2.24
Average Rent Rise		4.9%	1.55%	3.8%	2.25%

Sometimes tenants don’t pay the Association their rent money in time so the Operations team spent time trying to make arrangements for payments. In March 2011 the amount of rent money owed was 1.9% of the total rental income.

		Results for 2007/08	Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Difference from 08/09 to 09/10
Current Tenant Arrears		2.36%	1.84%	1.9%	+0.06%
Former Tenant Arrears		0.38%	0.78%	0.86%	+0.08%

Sometimes the Housing Team has to deal with complaints regarding anti-social behaviour. During the year there were 289 complaints, which the Team assisted with. This is a significant increase on last year, and the Team are currently reviewing this to determine if there are any particular factors which we can focus on, as well as working with the community to help improve this.

		Results for 2007/08	Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Difference from 08/09 to 09/10
Anti Social Behaviour Complaints		144	289	464	+175
Anti Social Behaviour Orders Applied For		0	0	0	/

Evictions

Unfortunately the Association sometimes has to take the serious step of evicting tenants, for a number of reasons, including non-payment of rent and anti-social behaviour. During 2010/11, 9 tenancies were ended due to eviction. The Association will not tolerate any tenant who does not live up to the requirements of their Tenancy Agreement, and will take any actions necessary.

		Results for 2007/08	Results for 2008/09	Results for 2009/10	Difference from 08/09 to 09/10
Eviction Actions:
- Notice of Proceedings Issued		258	187	203	+16
- Resulting in Eviction		0	5	9	+4
- Resulting in Abandonment		9	7	17	+10

Throughout the year, the Operations Team also went out to make sure that everyone’s gardens were well looked after and neat and tidy. In addition the Association uses the services of a Landscape Maintenance Contractor who maintains the common pieces of ground within our estates.

The Operations Team has a Welfare Benefits Advisor, who assists tenants to sort out their housing benefit and tax credits. This year, the Welfare Benefits Advisor assisted a total of XX cases, which was around XX cases per month, with a target of 240 per year, amounting to £XXX being generated for customers.

56% of Clyde Valley tenants receive money from the Government to help pay for their rent.

		2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	Difference from 08/09 to 09/10
% Rent met from Housing Benefit		59%	56.8%	56%	-0.8%

Over the past few years we’ve worked closely with our customers and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) to review a number of policies and strategies.

The Association has a strong tradition of working in partnership with tenants and responding positively to their changing needs and expectations. Our Tenant Participation Strategy included a number of new initiatives that helped to interest tenants and got others involved.

Some of the work we did with tenants and customers last year included the following:

Working Groups

we set up a number of short-life working groups so that tenants and staff could work together to help us come up with ideas to improve our services. These Groups included the following topics:

• Rent Harmonisation
• Repairs & Investment
• New Build
• Estate Management
• Customer Care

Estate Walkabouts

We worked with with TPAS to introduce ‘resident led inspections’. With these we, along with residents in an area, carried out estate walkabouts. These walkabouts helped identify issues and priorities that needed to be tackled within an estate, which was then included in Local Estate Action Plans (LEAPs). We carried out estate walkabouts in Bellsdyke, Douglas, Hillhouse, North Motherwell and Lesmahagow.

We also held customer roadshows in Coatbridge and Hamilton. The roadshows provided another great opportunity for our customers to come along and meet us face to face and also find out what the Association has got planned.