Ensuring our business is well run, responsible and financially secure
Our structure
Arcon Housing Limited and Bolton at Home Limited are two not for profit registered housing providers offering affordable and social rented homes. We now operate across many areas in the North West.
Arcon and Bolton at Home are both community benefit societies and are registered with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The RSH expects us to comply with a set of economic and consumer standards. The RSH published its regulatory judgement on Bolton at Home last year, following its in-depth assessment (IDA) of us. We were pleased to retain our Governance G1 and Viability V2 ratings. It means we’re continuing to satisfy the regulator’s requirements, which reflects well on our business plan. We were able to work positively with the regulator to complete the process during the Coronavirus pandemic.
As a growing organisation, we’re able to generate more money and reinvest any profits and surpluses back into supporting the communities we serve to thrive. For more information on our group structure and subsidiary companies, please read our Business Plan on our website www.arcon.org.uk
Both Arcon and Bolton at Home are accountable to their customers for our overall performance, with the day to- day running of Arcon and Bolton at Home delegated to their respective Management Teams. There are also committees which cover audit and risk, human resources and development.
For more information about our governance and Executive Management Team, visit: www.arcon.org.uk/about-us
Our standards
We have local standards that can be applied to all our services to ensure we offer you services we can all be proud of.
Our local standards are to:
- Treat you and your home with respect.
- Deliver high-quality services and fix things quickly if there is a problem.
- Keep you updated. You should never need to chase us.
- Provide services with agreed timescales.
- Keep our promises and treat you fairly.
In a typical year, we regularly report on whether we’re meeting the standards to our Board.
Given the disruption caused by the pandemic, we had to pause some of the measures and surveys that we’d usually use.
We’re now reviewing the standards and propose that we replace them with the Together with Tenants charter, summarised below.
Relationships
Housing associations will treat all residents with respect, and will be open, honest and transparent.
Communication
Residents will receive clear, accessible and timely information on the issues that matter to them.
Voice and influence
Views from residents will be sought and valued and this information will be used to inform decisions.
Accountability
Collectively, residents will work in partnership with their housing association to independently scrutinise and hold their housing association to account.
Quality
Residents can expect their homes to be of good quality, well maintained, safe and well managed.
When things go wrong
Residents will have simple and accessible routes for raising issues, making complaints and seeking redress.
We’ll be asking for your views on these.
Together with Tenants is led by the National Housing Federation, the representative body for housing associations across England.
You can read more about Together with Tenants here: www.readtap4.online/tap4- issue-6/giving-you-a-strongervoice/
Be involved
We’re keen to involve you in what we do, and we offer a choice of ways for you to challenge our performance and shape our services.
If you want to help improve services for customers, there are different ways that you can get started.
- Let us know how we’re doing, by feeding back compliments, complaints or suggestions.
- Have a positive impact on our services to customers as a member of our Scrutiny Group.
By getting more involved with us you’ll:
- Put your skills and experience to good use while learning new things.
- Boost your confidence and wellbeing by being part of something worthwhile.
- Connect with like-minded people and make new friends.
- Feel proud knowing that you’re working to benefit others.
To find out more about how you can get involved with us:
Visit our website: www.arcon.org.uk/ getting-involved
Call: 0161 214 4120
Arcon customer App:
Available to download from Google Play or the App Store.
Learning from complaints
We hold ourselves to high standards and take complaints seriously. We investigate each complaint and learn from them so we can continue to improve.
39 complaints received this year, an increase from 19 last year.
82% of complaints were resolved at the first stage of investigation.
The increase in the number of complaints is due to a change in the way that we have recorded complaints. If a customer expresses any dissatisfaction with the service they have received from Arcon this is now recorded as a formal complaint.
We review our complaints to help us improve and reduce the chance of the problem happening again.
From the following examples, you can read how we’re improving what we do as a result of your complaints.
For complaints, compliments and suggestions:
Call: 0161 214 4120
Write to Arcon at: Quay West, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester, M17 1HH
Climate change
Creating a healthy neighbourhood is all about bringing people together as a community and running projects that help support one another.
Arcon is improving the quality of its data held on SAP ratings and EPCs. Whilst the figures shown are a good estimate, it is known that we are underreporting on the SAP levels of many of our properties, primarily where EPC assessments were undertaken some time ago, and capital works have since been completed. Going forward, we are confident that reported EPC distributions will improve markedly, not just due to our retrofit activity but also due to the improved quality of data.
Distribution of EPC ratings of existing homes (those completed before the last financial year):
- 0% Homes rated A
- 18.6% Homes rated B
- 63% Homes rated C
- 15.6% Homes rated D
- 2.8% Homes rated E or worse
Due to the restrictions imposed under the COVID-19 pandemic, Arcon’s activities have been severely restricted on this criteria for 2020/21. This has led to the replacement of 12 gas boilers with new A-rated boilers via essential renewal.
We are currently developing our climate change strategy and will consider the risk of homes overheating, which also relates to our property retrofit plan.
