Welcome from Michelle
Rooted at the heart of everything we do are our commitments to providing you with a quality, safe and comfortable home, offering the best possible services that reflect your needs, and making a positive difference by championing you and your community. I hope that this report demonstrates to you the strides we have taken over the past 12 months to stand by these promises to you.
Providing you with the best customer experience is nothing less than you deserve, and this year we have undertaken a thorough review of the way we deliver your core services, first focusing on repairs and maintenance, the way we manage your home, and complaints. The programme is a journey of improvement that will take time, but the early results are promising, and we look forward to sharing more in the year ahead.
Creating a simple, efficient, and consistent customer journey that delivers the best quality services is central to our customer strategy. Of course, every resident’s journey starts with the onboarding experience, which we have enhanced to ensure everyone is well informed and feels welcomed when they get the keys to their new home.
Throughout the year, we consistently exceeded our 80% overall customer satisfaction target, however there is more work to do. Complaints are key to giving us an insight into when we have not got something right, despite our best intentions. It not only means that we can do everything in our power to resolve any issues quickly and thoroughly, but it helps us learn how we can improve our services for the future. That is why we have improved our complaints process by investing in more resources for our complaints handling team, which has contributed to our commitment to keeping residents updated throughout the process, and we have strengthened partnership working between teams that drive a faster resolution without compromising on quality.
In April, the Regulator of Social Housing introduced Tenancy Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), a new set of measures designed to make landlords’ performance more visible to their tenants and so they can hold them accountable. In turn, they will help us understand how happy you are with different parts of our service and highlight where we can improve.
We believe in transparency and accountability, and our TSM results will be published annually on our website, allowing you to see our performance and the steps we are taking to improve. Currently, our scores are not where we want our performance to be, or indeed where we expect to be this time next year. However, they do align with the areas we have already identified for improvement, and which are being prioritised as part of a thorough review into how we deliver your services.
Our repairs team play a crucial role in managing your home, ensuring it is safe, comfortable, and secure. We know that a good and reliable service matters and in 2023/24 we invested £418m in maintaining and improving residents’ homes.
Our aim is to complete your repairs effectively and efficiently, ideally at the first visit to minimise any inconvenience. Therefore, I am hugely encouraged that customer satisfaction with repairs consistently exceeded our 88% target throughout the year.
We continue to make booking and managing a repair as easy and flexible as possible and we have seen a growing increase in residents switching to our online service, with 13% of overall appointments now made this way.
For our residents in Kent and the London Borough of Merton, we took a significant step by expanding the coverage of our in-house repairs team, Clarion Response, in these areas. This means we can ensure a high standard, consistent service with all residents benefitting from the flexibility and convenience of being able to book and manage a repair online.
Addressing leaks, condensation, damp, and mould remains a priority, and by establishing a dedicated team we have been able to resolve more cases quickly. This year, we expanded our online repair booking options to include these issues and hosted a webinar that explored the causes and practical solutions.
A key priority we introduced last year and will continue to build on in the year ahead, is having a more visible presence in your community, being on-hand to directly communicate with you and ensuring you know how to access the support and services that are readily available to you.
Our Resident Involvement programme continues to harness the feedback and insight that only you, our residents, are uniquely placed to give. It is vital to helping us shape, deliver and improve the services we deliver, ensuring our offer is inclusive and meets your evolving needs. No matter how much time you can contribute, your input is invaluable. I am delighted therefore that 1,261 of you were involved last year and remain passionate that we continue to get as many of you having your say as possible.
One achievement I am most proud of this year is the introduction of our new Customer Committee. This comprises six residents, each bringing unique skills and expertise that are helping to shape and improve our services. This compliments the arrangements we already have in place, with residents making up a third of the Housing Association Board.
We know that many families have been hit hard by the soaring cost of living, and our annual survey of residents revealed how more than half felt worse off during the year compared to 2022/23. More than three quarters have had to cut back on household spending and 20% have gone hungry because they couldn’t afford food. We remain dedicated to helping you navigate the pressures, providing free support and guidance you can turn to whenever you need it. Whether it is helping you manage your money, supporting you with your tenancy, getting you digitally confident, finding a job or treading a new career path, or providing a welcoming warm space during the winter months.
Looking to the year ahead, our ambition is to build on the positive headway we have made over the last year; to be more open, accountable, and transparent about the things that matter to you, and ensure you are clear about what our core landlord services are. These are reflected in our six Clarion Commitments, which are each paired with performance measures. In 2023/24 we began sharing our data on our performance against our commitments, and I am encouraged to see that we have been exceeding our targets in many areas and making considerable progress in others. We will continue publishing these results every month so you can chart our progress.
We will continue to adapt and evolve to meet your needs, enhancing our offering to better serve you and your community.
Best wishes,
Michelle Reynolds
Chief Customer Officer
Built with Shorthand