Wales & West Housing's Spotlight on Cardiff Spring 2013

CARDIFFISSUE 5 | SPRING 2013

SPOTLIGHT ON

Welfare Reformweathering thestorm

Getting online thriving online

Our latest newdevelopments in your area

Connect24 telephone and telecare services

2 | Spotlight on CARDIFF | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

First of all I am very pleased to tell you that in ourmost recent Resident Satisfaction Survey 88% ofour residents told us that they were satisfied withthe overall service provided by WWH. This is a 2%increase compared to the survey we did in 2011,and, a significant increase of 7% on the results weachieved in 2007.

Another significant development since our lastSpotlight on Cardiff is the investment we havemade in seven new innovative Tenancy SupportOfficers posts. After a successful recruitment exercise our new TSOs are, as I write, starting theirnew roles across Wales and will be taking a proactive and handson approach to helping ourresidents to weather the welfare reform storm.

Across the business we are continuing to exploreand invest in new technology and our digital inclusion programme is continuing apace, in itselfplaying an increasingly important role in helpingour residents to deal with forthcoming welfare reform changes.

I am also very pleased to announce that, in recognition of our capacity as a developing association, we have been granted a substantialtranche of additional funds by the Welsh Government to help us build more much neededaffordable homes across Wales. When we sentyou our Business Plan last autumn we told you wewould deliver 800 new homes in the next fiveyears. Thanks to this new investment we are nowon course to deliver 1,000 new homes in the nextfour years.

However developingnew homes is just apart of what we do andso to ensure that we remain customerfocussed, and readilyaccountable, we are undergoing our regularselfassessmentprocess. I and my fellow directors have been conducting our annual staff roadshows and haveso far spoken to more than three quarters of allour staff across Wales, many of whom live in thecommunities in which they work, gaining invaluable insights and feedback from them.

Finally, it gives me great pleasure to tell you thatSunday Times Best Companies has ranked us thetop notforprofit organisation in Wales for the second year running – placing us 7th in the UKoverall. We not only moved one place up the ranking from our 2012 position in 8th place, butwe also retained our coveted gold standard ThreeStars rating. I’m sure you will agree that this is another very pleasing result and a testament tothe hard work and dedication of our fantastic staff. To conclude, I hope that this briefing will help tokeep you up to date with much of our grassrootswork in your area, as well as the bigger pictureabout WWH. Please don’t hesitate to get in touchat any time with your ideas and comments aboutany aspect of our work.

Yours Anne Hinchey, Chief Executive.

ANNE’S INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Spring 2013 edition of Spotlight on Cardiff, bringing you updates about Wales & West Housing initiatives inyour area. This edition features our usual mix of news aboutsome of our current countyspecific projects, plus relevant organisationwide updates.

Working efficiently with Cardiff Housing Benefit team we have been able to identify the333 WWH households in the county who willbe affected by the change.

Our staff have contacted all affected residentsto talk through the changes, discuss the potential impact on household budgets and towork with them to find affordable solutions.

To date, the vast majority of our residents havetold us that they intend to stay in their existinghomes although many may struggle to makeup the shortfall in their housing benefit.

In recognition that many of our residents willneed more help to sustain their tenancies, wehave also invested heavily in providing ongoing support through the creation ofseven entirely new Tenancy Support Officerposts.

Starting work with us now and based acrossWales – four (Natalie Davies, Amanda Collins,Stuart Lock and Sharon Jones) in the South,one (Donna Steven) in Mid Wales and two(William Brook and Jen Bailey) covering ourproperties in North Wales – they will workwith residents to help them deal with the impact of all forthcoming welfare reforms, including the introduction of Universal Credit,giving them the knowledge, choices, strengthand hope to weather the forthcoming storm.

Of course, one knockon effect of the bedroomtax is that we are now seeing some of ourlarger properties – especially three bedroomfamily homes – becoming available. Again weare working closely with all our local authoritypartners, and all other appropriate partners tomake sure that the right people in housingneed are able to access these affordablehomes.

WELFARE REFORMWEATHERING THE STORM Our agenda has been, and continues to be, dominated by welfare reform and in particular the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’which came into effect on April 1st.

3 | Spotlight on CARDIFF | LOCAL NEWS | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk


JOIN THE CONVERSATION

We now have more than 1,300 followers on Twitter. Please jointhe conversation and follow us @wwha. We tweet daily aboutnews, jobs, forthcoming events, training opportunities, charityfundraising initiatives, photos and much more.

And you can watch us on our YouTube channel wwhahomesforwales.


Overall WWH Satisfaction We are reallypleased to report that 88% (four out of five residents) were satisfied with the overall service provided by WWH. This is a 2% increase compared to 2011’s survey and a significant increase of 7% on the results weachieved in our 2007 survey.

Customer WWH Service Our scores for thestandard of customer service when makingcontact with us are very good. In particularmore than half of households (52%) gave us aperfect score of 10 for the helpfulness of staff,with the average overall score being 8.65 outof 10. There has also been a significant increase in satisfaction levels for receiving aresponse in a timely manner (7.99 average,up from 7.70).

The WWH Property On the whole, respondents were satisfied with their property, with an average rating of 7.99 outof 10, including 32% of the sample whoscored 10. In general, average scores for eachfeature of the home were equivalent to, andin most cases higher than, those reported in2011.

Cardiff specific results People’s perceptionsof their neighbourhood overall is typically animportant factor in how satisfied or not they

are with their accommodation and landlord.So it is positive to see respondents in Cardiffscored their neighbourhood with an averageof 8.8 out of 10 – with over half (56%) scoringit a perfect 10. Determining factors includedover a quarter of respondents stating it’s aquiet area (26%), that they have good neighbours (24%) and access to amenities(23%).

We also asked residents about our prioritiesfor improvement in a variety of areas of workover the coming years. The results clearlyshow that we are planning to improve areasof service provision that are relevant and valued to our residents. The top three itemsidentified by our residents in Cardiff are:

• making homes more energy efficient

• review how we deal with anti social behaviour

• review the services to support older residents to help them live independently in their homes.

So what next? We are now exploring in moredepth the results of this survey and the specific comments that residents have made.These will be invaluable to us in moving forward and further improving our services.

RESIDENT SATISFACTIONSURVEY (RSS) - CARDIFFWe carry out our annual Resident Satisfaction Survey of athird of households (approximately 2,700) every year. Weundertook our second annual, and most recent, survey in autumn 2012. Here are some headline results plus insightsinto what is important to our residents in Cardiff.


Mandy will be helping our residents to dealwith the many challenges of welfare reform,as well as providing support and advice oneffective budgeting as well as providing information on employment and trainingopportunities. Mandy will initially be concentrating her efforts on helping thoseresidents who we have already identified asbeing at risk of potentially facing financialhardship, or falling into arrears, due tochanges brought about by the ‘bedroomtax’, and other forthcoming welfare reform.Mandy’s line manager is Housing ManagerJenny Williams.

TENANCY SUPPORTHELPING RESIDENTS TO UNDERSTAND WELFARE REFORM AND BUDGETING

We are delighted to be able to introduce Mandy Collins, ournew Tenancy Support Officer for the Cardiff area.

In order to do this Moneyline is now operatingfrom our Customer Service Centre in our HeadOffice in Cardiff on an experimental basis. Theservice went live in February and the threestrong team are currently taking overflow calls from existing Moneyline Cymrubranches.

MONEYLINE CYMRUNOW OPERATING FROM OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE

Moneyline Cymru is currently operating out of a number ofbranches primarily in South Wales, including the Cardiffbranch on Cowbridge Road East, and now are expanding tooffer a telephone service to people from other areas ofWales and to people who cannot get to their offices.


DEVELOPING NEW HOMES IN CARDIFF

St Mellons: We are very pleased to be able tooffer 12 new homes at Brython Drive, St Mellons. Nine are for affordable rent to beallocated to people on the Cardiff CommonWaiting List, while the remaining three offerlow cost home ownership options. TaylorWimpey is the contractor and the build is dueto be completed this autumn.

Penylan: We are also in the process of exchanging contracts on four new homes tobe built in Ty Gwyn Road, Penylan. It is our intention to offer these for intermediate rentand we are hoping to start allocations soon.Bellway Homes is the contractor and theseproperties are due for completion this summer.

Ordinarily these two bedroom propertieswould cost over £119,000 but we have themon the market for £83,300 under our sharedequity scheme. For more details see our website www.wwha.co.uk

Roath: Wates Living Space are due to startwork on 10 apartments for us in Elm Street,Roath. This £1m development, supported bysocial housing grant, is due to complete at theend of 2013. All properties will be for affordable rent with allocations made via theCardiff Common Waiting List.

We have been successful in securing additional funding from the Welsh Government which will enable us to delivermore than 1,000 units during the next fouryears across all areas in which we operate.

The supply of enough high quality, affordablehomes for Wales remains a pressing issue.However we remain confident of our abilityto meet a range of needs. We are in a strongposition financially and thanks to this we areable to build not only more new homes, butmore of the right type and specification tomeet local demand. By providing homes atdifferent prices provides not only us, but alsomore importantly, our current and potentialresidents, with real choices.

We’re very pleased to be working in partnership with CardiffCouncil on a range of affordable new homes across the city.Currently these include:

Brython Drive, St Mellons


CAERAU COURT COFFEE MORNINGSAND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

We are glad to say that the significant environmental improvements we have madeto the area are having a real impact, with residents now becoming more actively engaged. The area now also has its own WWHcommunity newsletter, and several residentsare due to benefit from training deliveredunder our Resident Participation Programmeto help them write and produce their ownnews.

There are now two active residents’ groups:the Caerau Potters and the Tower Block Action Group.

Finally we will continue to work with residents to look to make further improvements to the area. Currently we arefocussing on potentially renewing the garages,improving paved areas and continuing to support the very proactive Caerau Potters residents’ led environmental group.

We are thrilled to see that resident engagement is also growingin the West of the capital, with weekly coffee mornings andbook swaps now becoming a regular feature at Caerau Court,Caerau.

Stan Oliver and Debbie Phillips of Caerau Potters


We are improving the energy efficiency of ourproperties beyond that required by the WelshGovernment, so that our residents savemoney, use less and are less likely to be infuel poverty. We have also invested £6m inthe past five years to ease fuel poverty in ourproperties and will continue to invest in improvement measures.

We replaced electric central heating with gascentral heating in 300 properties acrossWales during 2012. We’ve replaced electricnight storage heaters which were expensive,cumbersome and with limited control facilities with clean, efficient gas central heating in the following properties in Cardiff:

• 32 flats in Doyle Court, Fairwater • 5 flats in School Court, Grangetown • 22 houses in Moorland Court • 6 houses in Dugdale Walk and Albert Street

in Riverside • 35 flats in Penhill Close Llandaff • 2 houses in Firtree Close

We’re also supporting several environmentalprojects in this area from the very small, tothe notsosmall. One example is at Lord Pontypridd House, Canton, where our Environment Fund provided £100 of gardenvouchers to improve their wildlife areas inand around the property and to complementthe vegetable patches already installed in thegrounds.

In September 2012 WWH installed a flagstone area at St Clements Court, Pentwyn.Residents built raised beds which were madeout of sustainable innovative pine woodblockproducts so that they could grow their ownfruit and vegetables. New doors were installed from the lounge area which made itmore accessible for residents to be able toparticipate in growing their own fruit and veg.WWH Environmental Fund provided themwith £1,500 for soil, raised beds etc.

For more details about our Planned Maintenance Programme please contactCommercial Manager Mike Wellock.

And to find out more about our Environmentalworks, including our Environment Fund, pleasecontact Owen Jones, our Environment & Sustainability Office.

LOOKING AFTER THE ENVIRONMENT IN CARDIFF It is a corporate priority for us to minimise the impact wehave on the environment, and that of our residents too.

10 | Spotlight on CARDIFF | THE BIGGER PICTURE | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

Mindful of the need for many residents todownsize as a result of the ‘bedroom tax’we have joined forces with Cadwyn and LincHousing Associations to back the creationof the House Swap Wales project on Facebook. Essentially a series of countybycounty Facebook groups – eg:House Swap Cardiff, House Swap Wrexhametc – House Swap Wales is aimed at social housing tenants who need to move due towelfare reforms including the bedroom tax,or who simply want to move for other

reasons. It provides a simple and readily accessible online platform for residents toadvertise their own properties free ofcharge, find out about potential propertiesthey could move to, and facilitate the movesthemselves. Find out more at

www.facebook.com/HouseSwapWales and follow us on Twitter @HouseSwapWales

SUPPORTING HOUSE SWAP WALES


So we’re continuing to support our residentsto get online, and make the most of being online, through a range of digital inclusion initiatives across Wales.

Our aims are: • to help people maximise their incomes and

deal with welfare reform in particular the introduction of Universal Credit

• to combat social isolation by enabling residents to be better connected within, and beyond, their communities

• to assist residents to get better value by accessing information and purchases online

• to support residents to take advantage of all the educational – and fun – benefits that being online brings.

In South Wales our affordable broadband WiFi access pilot scheme at Ty Pontrhun in

Merthyr Tydfil is providing us with a greatfoundation from which we can roll out this initiative, where possible, across Wales.

And in North Wales we have also recently WiFi enabled a communal lounge at Nant yMôr, our extra care scheme in Prestatyn, Denbighshire. Work is now ongoing to WiFienable communal lounges in a number of ourretirement schemes in both North and SouthWales.

We are also running ‘how to’ sessions with residents, as part of the ‘Take Ctrl’ project,which we host on behalf of the North Wales Financial Capability Forum. To date Take Ctrlhas helped more than 500 residents get online, with the support of 48 volunteers. JenBailey, one of our Tenancy Support Officers, isconcentrating in particular on this area of demand.

GETTING ONLINETHRIVING ONLINETechnology liberates, empowers and enables. More and moreservices, including access to benefits, are becoming availableonly via the internet and yet the majority of our residents arenot connected.

This project is progressing well and with theonset of Spring – and hopefully some consistently warmer weather we are lookingforward to planting more native Welsh fruittrees on the site in Newent Road, St Mellons,as well as installing infrastructure includingraised planting beds. A core group of half adozen residents are actively involved in thisexciting project and we have high hopes that

this will grow, supported by the project’sFacebook site www.facebook.com/StMellonsCommunityGarden. To date theproject has been funded by £1,500 donatedby WWH, and other members of the St Mellons Compact, along with a £500 grantfrom the Cardiff East Neighbourhood Management Group, TNT Fund.

ST MELLONSCOMMUNITY GARDENS


Glenys Vandervolk, resident, with Alison Hayes and Alyson Robinson of WWH preparing ground on Newent Road.


CONNECT24 TELEPHONEAND TELECARE SERVICES AT WWH

Why Connect? Because it’s all about connecting people with the services theyneed to enable them to live independentlyand safely in their homes.

And 24? Because we are available 24 hours aday, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Currently we provide Connect24 emergencyalarm and telecare services to more than 4,000households across Wales and have contractswith:

• Valleys to Coast Housing in Bridgend• Pennaf Housing Group in North and Mid

Wales• Newydd Housing Association in South and

Mid Wales

We also monitor alarms for individuals inrented accommodation as well as owneroccupiers. A simple alarm monitoringservice, including the equipment, costs as little as £2.50 per week. This helps to giveolder and vulnerable people the reassurancethey need to continue living independently intheir own home, and their families somepeace of mind, and all at an affordable price.

We also offer a full 24/7 outofhours serviceand currently have contracts with the following housing associations, seeing us deliver out of hours services to 27,000 households across Wales:

• Hafan Cymru across Wales• Grwp Gwalia across Wales• Bron Afon Community Housing in Torfaen

For more information about Connect24 pleasevisit our website www.connect24.co.uk orcontact Jackie Edwards, Customer ServiceCentre Manager or Cate Dooher, Head of Support Services on 0800 052 2526.

We have been delivering telephone and telecare services formore than 10 years and such is the significance of this area ofour business that we have recently given it its own brand identity, Connect24.


Adopted by staff as our main charity partnerthis January we have already raised morethan £10,000 for Stroke. Events include regular dressdown days for staff, participation in the St David’s Day Fun Run,and most recently a sponsored skydive.

WWH charity team leader Di Barnes wasjoined by admin officer Verity Kimpton andChief Executive Anne Hinchey for the jump,from 13,000 feet over Swansea Airfield, onSaturday April 6th. Huge thanks to everyone who supported them in this hairraising enterprise. More details about

CHARITY UDPATEAfter a terrific two years during which staff and residentsraised £25,000 for Help for Heroes, our new corporate charitypartner for the January 2013 to December 2015 period isStroke Association Cymru.

forthcoming charity events and fundraisingon our website and on Twitter @wwha.

Other charities to benefit from stafffundraising include Comic Relief Red NoseDay, and Trusell Trust Foodbanks in Cardiff,Merthyr Tydfil, Wrexham, Vale and Bridgend.

Di Barnes, Verity Kimpton and Anne Hinchey WWH’s crack skydive team.


TPAS Cymru Participation Awards 2013:

Les Cooper has been posthumously shortlistedfor the Inspirational Colleague Award. Les, formerly our Money Advice Officer based atour Flint office in North Wales, sadly passedaway unexpectedly last month. An activemember of the North Wales Financial Capability Forum, Les was enormously influential and respected in the sector and hada hugely positive impact on the lives of allthose with whom he came into contact.

Greenfingered gardeners, aka ‘Western CourtEcoWarriors’ from our retirement schemeWestern Court in Bridgend, have been shortlisted for the Improving the EnvironmentAward.

CIH Housing Heroes Awards:

Scheme Manager Helen Jones from Llandudno, Conwy, has been shortlisted in theintensely competitive Inspirational Colleaguecategory.

HR Excellence Awards:

Anne Hinchey, Chief Executive, has been shortlisted for the Most People Focussed CEOAward in the Charity/ NotforProfit sector. Thisis the third consecutive year that Anne hasbeen shortlisted for this award.

AWARDS ROUND-UPAt the time of going to print we have a number of staff and residents shortlisted for major awards. They are as follows:

Les Cooper Helen Jones Anne Hinchey

Western Court gardeners

16 | Spotlight on CARDIFF | LOCAL STAFF | Spring 2013 | www.wwha.co.uk

All areas: LR Tony Wilson (Finance Director), Shayne Hembrow (Deputy Chief Executive/Commercial Director), Anne Hinchey (Chief Executive), Steve Porter (Operations Director)

All areas: Lynnette Glover, Head of Housing Nikki Cole, Head of DevelopmentAlex Stephenson, Head of Property Services

Cardiff

Housing Manager: Chris Walton (General Needs)Housing Manager: Jackie Bloxham (Retirement Housing)Commercial Manager: Robin Alldred (Repairs)Commercial Manager: Mike Wellock (Planned Maintenance)Development Manager: Vacant (to be appointed)

Housing Officers: General Needs Retirement

Alyson Robinson Elizabeth McEwanAlison Hayes Deborah Cadwallader Claire JonesSarah BoltonJo BrennanLloydMeryl Thomas

Neighbourhood Initiatives: Bridget Garrod (Manager)Herman Valentin (Community Development Project Officer)Claire Hammond (Resident Participation Strategy Officer)

Asset Management Officers: Grant Gibbon Roy PreeceGlyn Smith David Morgan

Environment: Owen Jones

Tenancy Support Officer: Mandy Collins

Telephone: 0800 052 2526Email: [email protected] Website: www.wwha.co.uk

LOCAL STAFF

Wales & West Housing3 Alexandra Gate, Ffordd Pengam, Tremorfa, Cardiff CF24 2UD

andUnit 2, Acorn Business Park, Aber Road, Flint CH6 5YN.

Telephone: 0800 052 2526 Minicom: 0800 052 5205Email: [email protected] Website: www.wwha.co.uk

@wwhawwhahomesforwales

Published April 2013

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Wales & West Housing's Spotlight on Cardiff Spring 2013