Welcome from CEO and Board Chair
This past year was the first of our 2023-26 corporate strategy. It’s been a year of ongoing challenges as the impact of the cost-of-living crisis continues, but also one of opportunities for us to reaffirm our commitment to better serving our customers.
We’ve been determined to improve our communication, customer service delivery and complaints handling. Although we still have some way to go, we’re beginning to see better outcomes as a result of these improvements, with a clear focus on achieving the right outcomes for our customers. Our Resident Scrutiny Panel has been working hard to review our service areas and provide recommendations on what we can do to improve our complaints-handling process and communications.
We’ve invested £11.3m in maintaining, improving and keeping your homes safe. This included replacing 86 kitchens and 71 bathrooms and improving insulation levels as part of our long-term strategy to make homes as energy efficient as possible. We’re fully committed to following the law by upholding our fire and building safety responsibilities. We will address all reports of damp and mould and fix their underlying causes.
We took handover of 64 new homes for affordable rent and shared ownership across three sites at Regent Place, Vetro Court and Earlham Grove. We’ve also worked hard to improve our services to our older residents, creating a new team offering on-site support and engagement activities for wider needs with local partners like AgeUK.
The cost-of-living crisis is having a profound effect on many people and communities, making everyday life challenging. To help tackle these issues, we’ve relaunched our community centres and partnered with local charitable organisations to support customers experiencing food insecurity. We’ve also delivered projects and initiatives to support and inspire young people and launched our new approach to safeguarding, strengthening our commitment to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities.
Our customer satisfaction score wasn’t as high as we’d hoped at the end of the year. This was the first year of collecting and reporting on Tenant Satisfaction Measures, and we really value the feedback and insight you’ve given us to help us make the necessary changes to improve. We’re thrilled to be receiving more and more positive feedback from our customers about what we’re getting right. Our new Customer Voice portal also helps us get real-time feedback when things go wrong so that we can fix the issue as quickly as possible.
We set out our commitments in our Customer First Strategy to serve all our customers better. We’re launching a range of activities under the “Putting You First” campaign, which will provide clarity on what you can expect from us and what we expect from you to ensure we’re achieving the right outcomes for all.
Our continued partnership with many organisations, including the Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, and Hackney, the Police, the London Fire Brigade, and many other specialist services, means we’re confident in providing you with the best services possible and responding effectively to any future needs. Together with our Board, we look forward to working with you to strengthen our presence and links to the communities we serve and continuing to deliver safe, warm, and comfortable homes. We thank you for your continued support and look forward positively to next year.
David Done Chair
Kate Franklin CEO