Annual Report

It scarcely seems almost a year since I was appointed Chair of Langstane Housing Association at last year’s Annual General Meeting. I took over from Forbes McCallum who had ably served a second term as Chair on an interim basis. I feel that I have come in at an interesting and indeed exciting time.

Forbes reported last year that we were reaching a critical stage in our discussions with Grampian Housing Association regarding group structure. Since then, those discussions came to a natural end and we also briefly considered merging with another two organisations. For good and sound reasons, those discussions did not proceed and our focus now is making sure that Langstane is ready to meet the challenges of a changing world.

During the discussion with Grampian, we held back on a number of staffing changes and had senior posts unfilled. I am delighted to say that we have now completed the recruitment of our Management Team and David Hutcheson is appointed as Director of Finance and Corporate Services with Marcie Ballance joining us as Director of Asset Management. Both were already with Langstane in other posts and it is great to see them joining the Management Team. Along with them the Chief Executive, and Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Housing and Social Justice, make up the Management Team which is now able to provide the comprehensive leadership required.

A lot is going on. Despite the criticism we have given over the reduction in grant availability from the Scottish Government, we have been able to retain a healthy Development Programme with starts at Stockethill, Auchinyell and Balnagask Road in Aberdeen and sites about to start in Portlethen and Macduff in Aberdeenshire.

As part of the Development Programme we have created a subsidiary through Next Step Homes Ltd called Stockethill Homes which will deliver the Mid Rent element of our Programme.

The year has been an exciting one in other respects too. 2013/14 was the first year for which we had to deliver a Return on the Social Housing Charter. We welcome the focus the Charter has on Tenant Satisfaction and although completing the Return was a challenge for staff, we are very much looking forward to reading the outcomes and to learning from our performance when measured against other associations. We are confident that we deliver an excellent service to tenants and that we engage with

them at every opportunity. We are however aware that our client group and our turnover mean that our results can be different from other associations and it will be interesting to compare our outcomes with our colleagues in other areas.

The further extension of Welfare Reform, through the introduction of Universal Credit, the completion of a programme in meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and the further extension of our engagement with our tenants, all represent challenges and opportunities for us to demonstrate our understanding of our properties and our knowledge of our tenant base. As an Association we look forward to engaging further with our tenants and finding more and better ways of meeting their expectations and needs.

Above all however we continue to be aware of the thousands of people who are not yet adequately housed both from our housing list and the housing list of other housing providers. We remain committed to growing the Association. We recognise that the overwhelming need is for Social Rented properties but we also recognise that there are other forms of housing need not yet provided for. Through Stockethill Homes, we shall provide Mid Rent for people in genuine housing need but who can afford a slightly higher rent and will continue to find other ways of funding our Development Programme and meeting their needs.

These are, as I said, exciting times. The last few years have been interesting but occasionally frustrating for Langstane as so much time was taken up with discussion on group structure and mergers. We now focus on the way ahead for Langstane as an independent entity and there is no shortage of opportunities out there. With a new Management Team in place and with renewed focus on our own mission and purpose and in particular on the needs of single people we all look forward to the future of growth, delivering quality services to our tenants and of establishing Langstane’s place as a major provider of Social Housing.

Chair’s Report

Sandra Macdonald Chair

Langstane Housing Association has reshaped its Management Team and has made the following appointments.

David Hutcheson, previously the Association’s Senior Finance Manager has been appointed to the new post of Director of Finance and Corporate Services. David, a qualified Chartered Accountant, has been with the Association for 3 years.

The new post of Director of Asset Management has been filled by Marcie Ballance. Marcie, a qualified Architect with experience in the private and voluntary sectors, was hitherto the Association’s Development Manager.

Together they join Chief Executive, Alan Grant and Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Housing and Social Justice, Lynn Cargill to complete the new Team. The appointments fulfil the objectives set out following a management review. The next stage is for some succession planning to be done. Lynn Cargill steps down after 30 years of outstanding service at the end of September. Later in the year the Chief Executive is due to retire. Recruitment planning for both posts is under way.

Following the launch of the new Senior Management Team and an independent management review Langstane is taking a “Journey Toward Excellence”. A series of workshops have been arranged with attendees from the Governing Body, Senior Managers and relevant members of staff.

The workshops, some of which have taken place, are on Governance, Asset Management, Marketing and Communications, Key Performance Indicators and The Social Housing Charter.

The outcomes of the workshops will be brought together and reviewed as a basis for the Business Plan in October 2014.

Langstane’s New Senior Management Team

Excellence

Alan Grant, Marcie Ballance, David Hutcheson and Lynn Cargill

2013-2014 saw the development of services within the Customer Services Department now known as Housing and Social Justice.

Your Call Team

An internal compliance check was carried out during the year with some areas for improvement noted. All these issues were addressed by the time of the follow up and we remain committed to providing the highest quality customer service and in doing so recognise the training and support needs of our staff. All staff have received a national accreditation in Housing Information and Advice.

Response Repairs

We have rolled out the use of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for our DLO Team (Direct Labour Operatives) who handle response repairs for tenants and specifically vulnerable tenants who can take comfort and confidence in getting to know the same staff over a period of time.

Our Voids Team has dealt with more lets in the last year and despite that the turnaround times have reduced, although we still aim to reduce these further to meet a target of 15 days.

We use a term contractor for void repairs and we are in the process of discussing and reviewing lettable standards.

Housing Services Team

In this Team the major work is around arrears management and there is disappointment that our arrears figures are so high. To review this we involved our Internal Auditors, Henderson Loggie, to help with the Business Process Review which nears completion. Despite the high arrears figures the Arrears Team remain motivated and engaged in the process and are committed to turn the figures around.

Due to problems with our online application management system, we have, since the beginning of 2014, been receiving 100% nominations from the Local Authorities in whose areas we work. This has prompted us to review our Lettings Strategy and existing Policy. This remains a work in progress but it is hoped that a report will be made to Committee in the near future with recommendations on the way forward.

We have created a post of Tenancy Sustainment Officer who has submitted a draft Tenancy Sustainment Strategy for Senior Management to consider. We have also created the post of Customer Insight and Information Officer in order that we can get better information on the services our tenants and customers require and we can get an understanding of how these should be best delivered to them.

The effects of Welfare Reform have yet to be fully felt but we believe we have put in place resources and strategies to help us manage the impact on our tenants and customers.

86%

of repairs are “Right First Time”

86%

Customer Services

84%

when they move in

23%

8%

net arrears loss

Langstane remains as committed as ever to new build and to extending the range of properties available to its client group. This however has been a difficult year. The initially low level of grant available from the Scottish Government, together with a series of challenging planning issues meant that apart from the finishing of the Devanha Programme at Donside, no new units came onto our books during 2013/14. It was good however to see Donside finished. The old vision of creating an Urban Village on the site of the Donside Paper Mills took a very long time to come to fruition and many were the challenges to be faced by all of us but principally by Tenants First our colleague association who were the lead organisation in the development. What has emerged however is a remarkably fine development of Social Housing, together with Shared Equity and to be followed by a private sector development; what was an industrial wasteland has been transformed into an attractive much sought after development nestling by the banks of the Don.

Elsewhere, construction took place and completion virtually achieved in the 32 unit development on the site of the former Stockethill Church Aberdeen. This long planned development consists of 18 units of Social Rent and 14 units of Mid Market Rent. These will turn out to be the first of the Mid Market Rent properties provided by the Langstane Group which have been subsidised by Scottish Government Grant.

To facilitate the management of the Mid Market Rent units, and to meet the Scottish Government grant requirement, we have set up a subsidiary of Next Step Homes and Langstane called Stockethill Homes. Mentioned elsewhere in this report, the function of Stockethill Homes is essentially to manage the Mid Market Rent properties but as a non registered, non charitable subsidiary, it will be available for other functions as determined by Langstane and Next Step Homes.

Development

Development

Coull Cars Site at Portlethen Old Church Road Development

Elsewhere, planning complications delayed the start of sites at Hillside, Porthlethen in Aberdeenshire where 8 units of Mid Market Rent and 12 Social Rent are planned and at the former Copper Beech, Auchinyell in Aberdeen. The Auchinyell site will provide a further 35 units of which 15 will be Social Rent and 20 Mid Market Rent.

Also in Aberdeen City, a long awaited 20 units of Social Housing at Old Church Road Balnagask is on site. The final new build site to which we are committed is at Golf View, Macduff. A Section 75 Agreement with Springfield Properties will deliver 20 units of affordable housing and work has just started.

We also have a refurbishment project starting at 49-53 Marischal Street which will deliver 7 Mid Market Rent units.

Overall therefore, although the year has been frustrating, there is much evidence of a significant number of sites being developed and considerable commitment to extending the range and geographical spread of properties.

In making these developments affordable, we have been grateful to have had the rate of grant enhanced by the Scottish Government from the original £40,000 per unit up to a potential £58,000 per unit.

Although this is still short of what in many cases is required, it does represent a change of heart on the part of the Scottish Government for which we are grateful. We are also grateful for the continued commitment of the Local Authorities in particular Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire in providing top up funding to make otherwise marginal developments affordable.

We are however concerned that we have been unable to find a site and develop at an affordable level in Moray. A combination of lack of top up financing and simply lack of sites has meant that there is nothing in the Programme for Moray at the moment and this is a matter we must address.

Overall however the development outlook is as strong for Langstane as it is for anyone else. These are challenging times. We will not be returning to the old HAG system which provided so many opportunities for us. We must therefore continue to search for ways of cross subsidising our developments and at the same time reducing or sharing costs. This will mean that amongst other things greater diversity of tenure choice in our developments and while there are many positive benefits for our changing client group, the main benefit is that it helps us to sustain our commitment to build to meet the needs of single people who can afford nothing other than Social Rent.

Tenancy Sustainment

Langstane’s Tenancy Sustainment service went ‘live’ in January of this year, headed by an Officer whose remit was to develop a strategy to take the service forward and to assist prospective and existing tenants of the Association to sustain their tenancies.

The aims of the service are:

• To help customers resolve any problems they have in setting up and managing their tenancies by providing practical help on a wide range of issues;

• arranging support from other agencies where possible and making referrals to specialised support agencies including advice and support with welfare entitlement, health related issues and debt management.

Tenancy profiling in the first 6 months of the roll-out of the service saw 80 new tenants being signposted for information and advice. Out of the 80 requests, 77 new tenants required help accessing furniture, 31 wanted help with benefits and 7 required help accessing specialist services.

In the same period, 36 existing tenants approached the service for help on a variety of issues caused by changing circumstances such as relationship breakdown, ill health, redundancy and changes in benefit. Food vouchers are also available for tenants who find themselves in a crisis situation and several tenants have benefitted from this scheme.

The Tenancy Sustainment Strategy has been developed and approved as a good working document which will be reviewed and updated regularly to take account of the impact of the Welfare Reform Programme as it rolls out, tenants changing circumstances and needs and any new initiatives that will help the Association improve the service to help tenants remain in their homes.

The Association is committed to taking the service forward and has created a Team dedicated to helping prospective and existing tenants set up and manage their homes. The Tenancy Sustainment service will be provided by the newly formed Social Justice Team which will also include initiatives designed to help tenants affected by changes to Welfare Reform. The Team will also work with tenants who are struggling financially to ensure they are claiming all the benefits they are entitled to and work with them to reduce fuel and food poverty. Furthermore, the Team will also work with partners to deliver employability initiatives and to offer housing information to minority communities. Any new or existing tenant who requires support with managing their home can benefit from this service and are encouraged to get in touch with the Association as early as possible.

Tenant Satisfaction

The Home

31% of respondents have been tenants of the Association for more than 10 years and 67% tenants for 10 years or less.

81% of all respondents were very or fairly satisfied with the overall quality of their home.

Repairs and Housing Services

Of those respondents who had repairs or maintenance work carried out in their home in the last 12 months, 77% were very or fairly satisfied with the service they received. The level of satisfaction increased to 81% when repairs were carried out by Langstane’s own workforce compared to 74% for work carried out by external contractors.

Value for Money

When asked to what extent tenants think that the rent for this property represents good or poor value for money, 61% of respondents rate the rent that they pay as very or fairly good value for money.

Overall Satisfaction

The majority of respondents are in agreement with a range of positive statements about the Association, particularly in relation to having friendly and approachable staff (85%), treating tenants fairly and with respect (85%), trusting Langstane Housing Association (75%) and perceiving the Association to have a good reputation (75%).

Overall 82% of respondents are very or fairly satisfied with the service provided by Langstane Housing Association.

The Association regularly carries out in-house customer service surveys. We ask tenants what they think about our service in relation to repairs, complaint handling and lettings.

In addition to this, every three years we carry out a full independent Tenant Satisfaction Survey. We have collected such useful information from this that we have now decided to carry out an independent Tenant Satisfaction Survey every two years. The Survey is independent because it is carried out by another agency who then interpret the results for us. What we do then is to draw up an Action Plan to ensure that we address the issues brought to our attention.

Tenants were asked what they considered to be most important issues. Their response: overall quality of the home, quality of repairs service and value for money of rent.

61%

77%

81%

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Tenant Participation

Langstane is Proud to be Part of NETRALT

NETRALT (North East Tenants Residents and Landlords Together) is a partnership of social landlords working with tenants and residents to increase participation throughout the North East. The NETRALT partners are: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Councils, Aberdeenshire Housing Partnership, Moray Housing Partnership, Castlehill, Grampian, Sanctuary, Blackwood and Ark Housing Associations.

NETRALT was launched in October 2013 at the first of a series of Housing Café events. The partners’ hard work and innovative approach has been recognised by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Housing Regulator. NETRALT has also received awards from TPAS (Tenant Participation Advisory Service) and TIS (Tenants Information Service). We are working hard to involve our customers in decision-making about the things that affect their homes and neighbourhoods. Joining NETRALT has meant that we have benefited from the members’ knowledge and expertise in tenant participation. NETRALT partners are able to share the costs of valuable training courses and events, so we can all benefit from best value.

Langstane is committed to involving tenants in our decision making process in a meaningful and effective way. Our recently developed Tenant Participation Strategy sets out how we will work with tenants to provide them with ways to get involved most suited to their needs and circumstances.

In July 2013 we introduced Your Voice Counts. Your Voice Counts added two further levels of involvement to our Register of Interested Tenants whose members review documents and take part in consultations. Our Tenant Panel offers tenants the opportunity to engage in a less formal way by taking part in surveys on the phone or by email. Members of our Reader Panel can review and comment on short printed items such as letters or leaflets. In addition, tenants can opt to be on one or more panel and can choose the way they would like to be contacted.

The success of Your Voice Counts has underlined the importance of offering choice in tenant participation. From a membership of 63 on the Register in June 2013, our body of participating tenants has grown steadily to over 190. Recruitment for our first Customer Report Panel generated unprecedented interest.

With tenant participation going

from strength to strength

at Langstane, we can have

confidence that increased tenant

involvement in our service delivery

will be achievable.

Communication

We engaged a small specialist web design team based in Aberdeenshire and gave them the brief to create a website putting the user experience at the heart of the project.

Our focus was to provide our customers with clear pathways to the information they need and to present this information in a consistent and effective way. Accessibility and ease of navigation were primary considerations.

We used tenant, staff and peer feedback to inform our choices on look and content. Our web design team built in bespoke features such as device recognition and ensured that the site is compliant with W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards.

The website is structured to allow for future growth. We have budgeted for a timetabled review of the functionality of the website to ensure that it meets industry standards. As an integral part of the review we will consult our customers to keep the contents relevant, accessible and accurate.

Since the launch, our website traffic has grown steadily as has the number of new visitors to the site each month. Website analysis has shown that our customer contact page is one of the most popular points of entry to the site, demonstrating how effective the site is in opening up lines of communication. The website has also given us a highly visible platform for publishing our results so our customers can assess our performance.

Feedback from staff and customers alike indicates that the website has more than met the original brief and in so doing represents excellent value for our tenants’ money.

Social media is an increasingly popular and useful means of engaging with our customers. Along with our website, our Facebook page is the public face of Langstane, easily accessed on phone or tablet and available any time anywhere.

In March 2013, we announced the milestone figure of 100 likes on our Facebook page. Since then, our likes have more than doubled and increase every week. Those who have liked us range in age from 18 to over 65 with most aged between 25 and 34. The majority are women, by a ratio of 2:1. Our likes have come from all over the World. Most come from the UK, but others have come from locations as far flung as the USA, New Zealand and Indonesia.

Customers who have liked us are not the only ones to visit us on Facebook. Facebook insights show that as many non-fans as fans can view and engage with our posts. Service announcements are consistently our most popular posts, garnering more views and engagement than our photos or community information items. Facebook has also become a fast and direct means by which tenants can raise a concern, make a complaint or request a repair.

The immediacy and accessibility of Facebook is proving invaluable in our commitment to increase direct dialogue with our customers and to reach and engage our younger customer group.

Langstane’s new website

Langstane and Its Local Community

The Association in partnership with Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Castlehill Housing Association, Grampian Housing Association and Sanctuary Housing Association supports the Ethnic Minority Housing Project and is pleased that for the next three years will play host to the Project and Project Worker Dave Black at its Aberdeen HQ. This Project aims to help those from minority communities access housing and housing related services in a way that is fair, transparent and cognisant of cultural issues.

Dave will be spending the next few months networking and forming partnerships with other agencies to help promote the work of the Project.

If you feel you would like to talk to Dave about the work he is involved in or if you have suggestions on the scope of the Project or you want to tell us about your expectations of it, please contact Dave Black on

01224 423118. We continue to support Seaton Taking Action for

Regeneration (S.T.A.R.), a community group that operates in the Seaton area of Aberdeen where we have our head office. This year has been another good year for the S.T.A.R. Community Flat which provides access to a variety of services and information to local residents. Funding from Aberdeen City Council was provided for the year with a separate successful funding bid to Aberdeen City Council’s Change Fund generating two new weekly groups. The new project – The Silver Darlings Project – consists of a sewing class and a cookery class. Sewing class participants have gained skills to produce their own garments from patterns with cookery class participants being introduced to new recipes, ingredients and techniques. The classes have been funded for 2 years and are open to local residents. We were delighted to see the commitment and hard work of the volunteers who do so much to make S.T.A.R. the great community organisation that it is, recognised by a new award scheme. A number of the volunteers were presented with the Volunteering in Aberdeen Gold Award for people aged 55 or over.

Certificates were presented by Lord Provost George Adam who stated:

Lord Provost George Adam and receipients of the Volunteering in Aberdeen Gold Awards.

Ladies of the sewing group Cookery group ingredients and outcomes!

Ethnic Minority Housing Project

“

What a great group of people

“

there are in Seaton. The

S.T.A.R. Flat is a wonderful

Every Pound Counts

Provision of communal services like cleaning, landscaping, etc

Administration costs – staff costs

Administration costs – other incl. offices, IT systems, etc.

Maintenance of properties – day to day and response repairs

Major repairs, replacement bathrooms, kitchens, etc.

Insurance of properties

Money lost through bad debts and uncollected rent

Loan interest on borrowings to build new properties

Loan repayments on monies borrowed to build properties

Funds carried forward to meet future expenditure

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Finance

Langstane Housing Association

Annual Review 2014

The financial year 2013/14 shows a surplus of £380k before transfer to reserves.

During the year a donation of £ 170,000 was received from Next Step Homes, our non charitable subsidiary.

Income and Expenditure Account

for the year ended 31 March 2014

2014 2013 £’000 £’000

Turnover (including exceptional item) 10,780 10,113

Less: Operating costs (8,817) (7,727)

(including exceptional item)

Surplus on operating activities 1,963 2,386

before interest

Interest receivable and similar income 27 6 Interest payable and similar charges (1,610) (1,603)

Surplus on ordinary activities 380 789

Surplus - Operating activities 18.20% 23.59%

before interest

Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2014

2014 2013

£’000 £’000

Housing land and buildings 45,358 41,251

less depreciation & grants

Other fixed assets 3,808 3,898

Total fixed assets 49,166 45,149

Current Assets 9,348 5,059

Creditors: amounts falling due 4,613 2,511 within one year

Net current assets 4,735 2,548

Total assets less current liabilities 53,901 47,697

Creditors: amounts falling due after

more than one year 44,626 38,801

Net Assets 9,275 8,896 Designated reserves 4,092 5,777 Revenue reserve 4,449 2,375 Capital reserve 734 744 9,275 8,896

During the year the Association agreed a re-financing arrangement with Lloyds Bank Group which consolidated all of the Association’s borrowings with Lloyds. Further funding of £12.5M was arranged at the same time to support the Association’s ongoing development programme. During the year the Association spent £775k on refurbishing existing properties. This expenditure covered replacement bathrooms, kitchens, heating systems, etc and is part of the Association’s ongoing rolling programme of improving the condition of its properties. A transfer of £1,684k was made from designated reserves to revenue reserves as, dueto changes in accounting regulations, the reserve was calculated to be in excess of that required to meet future repair expenditure.

680 King Street Aberdeen AB24 1SL Tel: 01224 423000

Also at:

7 North Guildry Street Elgin IV30 1JR

Tel: 01224 423000

If you require this

Annual Report

in an alternative format,

please contact us and we will do our best to help.

I.&P. Register No. 1916R(S) Registered with Communities Scotland No. HEP 145 AL Registered Scottish Charity SC 01 1754

A member of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

Email: [email protected] www.langstane-ha.co.uk