Improving Lives February 2023: An update from Longhurst Group
Longhurst Group
We provide much-needed homes and support services with a vision to improve the lives of our customers and communities.
Welcome to our Improving Lives e-zine
Welcome to the Winter edition of our stakeholder newsletter.
It remains a challenging time for the housing sector. The heart-breaking death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in October 2020 - and the subsequent inquest finding that his death was caused by prolonged exposure to damp and mould in the social housing flat he lived in - put things into sharp focus.
We need to do more as a sector to tackle these issues and you can find out how we're responding, as well as the views of our Chair Jenny Brown on the challenges we face, in this update.
November's fiscal statement saw the Chancellor announce a capping on social housing rent at seven percent a year from 1 April 2023. Although this is the best outcome we could've hoped for, and we've since opted to raise rent by this amount, the increase to our costs due to high inflation means that we'll face further economic challenges which'll impact the way we work, the services we provide and our business objectives.?
We know the cost of living crisis is affecting the economic resilience and health and wellbeing of our customers and we're continuing to provide advice and guidance through our Money Support Advisors and other key resources. Recognising the financial pressures people are under, and that our customers?have been waiting on hold for longer than we’d like when phoning us, we've introduced a new freephone number. You can find out more in this update.?
Regrettably, the repairs service we’re providing continues to fall short of the standards we expect, and our customers deserve. Read on to find out how we're trying to tackle this.?
In this edition, we report on being awarded G1 V2 status following an?In Depth Assessment (IDA) by the Regulator for Social Housing and the latest progress of the Harry's Pledge campaign.?
Julie Doyle, Longhurst Group Chief Executive
Damp and mould: How we're responding
A combination of the age and condition of older social housing properties, and the climate we experience in the UK, has contributed to thousands of homes across the country being at greater risk of damp and mould.
The social housing sector needs to do more to address the problems caused by damp and mould. We have a duty to provide safe, secure and good quality homes for our customers, and we will do more to tackle these problems.
The Regulator for Social Housing is rightfully scrutinising housing associations to ensure we’re responding to damp and mould appropriately. We welcome this scrutiny and have made some significant changes to ensure we’re doing everything we can to prevent and tackle cases of damp or mould.?
This includes prioritising work by gaining greater understanding of the condition of our properties and the challenges our customers face, closely monitoring the performance of our contractors, and introducing a damp and mould taskforce made up of colleagues focused on this issue.?
Showing we care about our customers
Longhurst Group Chair, Jenny Brown, talks about the challenges facing the housing sector and how she wants our organisation to lead the way in making sure we get things right for our customers and taking ownership of?the things?we need to improve.??
An update on our repairs service
Regrettably, the repairs service we’re providing continues to fall short of the standards we expect, and our customers deserve.
It’s taking much longer than we’d like for repairs to be completed and that includes urgent jobs.???
We’re continuing to receive an extremely high volume of new repairs and trying to clear a significant backlog of work that has built up for various reasons in the last few years. We remain very much in a recovery position but have a robust plan in place and are focusing our resources on delivering this.
Following all the effort we’ve put into mobilising our new contractors and employing more people to deal with repairs and customer enquiries, we’d hoped that things would be steadily improving by now but, quite simply, the demand we’re receiving is considerably higher than we’d anticipated.
We’re continuing to work hard to get things back to normal and although it’s taking longer than we’d expected, we hope that the services we provide will significantly improve within the next six months.
To help manage the demand of work, we’ve made significant investment and are?closely managing the situation with our contractors, who have also recruited?additional operatives?to help improve how quickly we respond.
IDA results confirmed
Following an In Depth Assessment (IDA) by the Regulator for Social Housing earlier this year, the Group has been awarded G1 V2 status.
An IDA considers how well an organisation is governed as well as its financial viability, with the Group’s last assessment taking place in 2019, when we were awarded G1V1.?
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Our G1 status has been retained, confirming that we have the highest possible rating for governance. Although we’ve seen our financial viability move down to V2, it was a change that we’d anticipated based on the current economic challenges.
Rob Griffiths, the Group’s Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer, said: “The housing sector, like many others, is clearly facing a set of complex external circumstances. We’re pleased to retain our G1 status for governance while the V2 assessment is something we’d anticipated based on external economic factors and our ambitious development programme.??
“It’s clear that our change in rating for financial viability is due to the exceptional economic climate we’re operating in, but we have strong treasury management arrangements in place to manage these risks.
“We’re confident that our robust financial processes and procedures, allied with strong governance, will help us successfully navigate these challenging times while retaining our commitment to provide the best possible homes and services to our customers.”
The Group has also retained an A3 credit rating following a recent credit assessment from credit ratings agency, Moody's. This will help support our future investment plans to develop new homes and improve our existing properties.??
Rent increase to be communicated to customers
After careful consideration, to enable us to keep up with rising costs, we’ve decided that we need to increase rent?and service charges for the year ahead. Given that inflation is currently so high, we've made a larger increase to our customers' rent or service charge in 2023/24 than we have done in?recent years.?
In the coming days, our customers will receive tailored letters setting out the increase to their rent or service charge, what it will mean for them and any action they need to take. We've also created FAQs that include advice?for customers who are?concerned about being able to afford the increased costs.?
While this increase is below the current level of inflation, we know that it won’t be welcomed by our customers, particularly given the other cost of living challenges. However, with our costs rising all the time, and in line with the high rate of inflation, increasing our rents and charges is vital to ensuring we’re able to maintain and improve our homes and the services we provide.?
As a not-for-profit organisation, any surplus money is reinvested to deliver services, maintain our homes (where applicable) and build much-needed affordable housing.?
Freephone number introduced
We’re pleased to announce that our customers can now contact us using a new freephone number.?
Acknowledging that people have been waiting on hold for longer than we’d like and having received feedback from customers that the additional cost is a cause of stress and concern, we’ve changed our general enquiries number.?
Our new general enquiries number is 0800 111 4013 and replaces the 0300 123 1745 number. This new number will be completely free regardless of whether people are calling from a mobile phone or a landline.?
Customers calling the old number will hear a recorded message explaining we have a new freephone number and advising them to redial. They can choose to stay on the line and continue their call but will be reminded that it isn’t a freephone number.?
By using the new 0800 111 4013 number, customers will still receive the same options, they just won’t be charged for making the call.?
If you have any questions about this change, please email [email protected]
Work starts on?135 home development in Boston
Work is underway at?our new 135-home development in Boston.
We’re building the homes on Toot Lane in the town, and all of them will come with ground source heat pumps.
The development will be made up of 12 one-bedroom homes, 69 two-bedroom properties, 50 three-bedroom homes and a further four with four-bedrooms.
In total, 36 of the homes will be made available on a Shared Ownership basis, 22 for Rent to Buy and the remaining homes will be available for social rent.
More political backing for Harry's Pledge
Chris Heaton-Harris MP for Daventry and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland recently met Harry - the young boy who inspired Harry's Pledge - a campaign that Longhurst Group has been spearheading alongside Harry's mum Hayley to improve conditions for carers and those who require care.
Supported by over 100 organisations, including dozens of housing associations, Harry's Pledge has already received political backing from Peter Bone MP and Andrew Lewer MP.?Here's what Chris had to say about Harry's Pledge.??