Robin Lawler Northwards Sponsored by
Northwards Housing Case Study 2 By Robin Lawler, Chief Executive www.northwardshousing.co.uk
Introduction Manchester & Northwards context Assessing R&M service R&M partnership with Morrisons Customer satisfaction levels Value for Money achieved Value for Money examples Continuous service improvement
Context The City and North Manchester Manchester has mixed social housing economy Our patch extends from City Centre to northern boundary on M60 motorway
Context The City and North Manchester Northwards Housing is only ALMO in the City There are three housing PFIs and five MCC-sponsored Housing Trusts, with two more PFIs proposed Plus several transfers to existing HA s High levels of worklessness and Harpurhey is second most deprived Ward in England
Northwards Housing- who we are & what we do Set up in 2005 following tenant ballot 12,600 homes 200m Decent Homes Programme - will finish on target this month Audit Commission Inspections in 2006 & 2008 - awarded 3 Stars and Excellent Prospects in February 2009
Northwards Housingwho we are & what we do We manage Victoria Square - first Council housing in the city built in 1896. Now used as retirement housing
There are two judgements as to whether R&M service is improving Quality of service to customers Achieving better Value for Money That is doing it better year on year
R&M Partnership with Morrisons started in August 2006 Created JV Company - Manchester Working Limited (MWL) MWL was awarded 60% of Decent Homes Programme (worth 120m) and all R&M work for Northwards MCC retained housing stock, and civic buildings maintained by MWL Value of Northwards' R&M contract is c. 10m. per annum - day to day, voids and servicing
R&M Services Continued Partnering philosophy underpins relationship - we're in it together! Set up the IMPACT Manchester procurement consortia in 2006 to deliver 40% of our DH programme MWL appointed to IMPACT framework in its own right MWL work with four housing trusts 60,000 responsive repairs, approx 1,100 void repairs and 12,500 homes gas serviced annually. Plus legionella testing, lift servicing, M&E testing Northwards appointed MWL its Contact Centre provider in 2008 - not just repairs calls
So how well are we doing? Value for Money (VfM( VfM) ) and customer satisfaction should be complimentary Significant progress made and good VfM secured savings - cashable and non-cashable Customers fully engaged in evaluating service On-going scrutiny of costs through VfM Project Group
Customer satisfaction We have averaged 9.7 out of 10 (over the last two years) based on 90% return rate Customer satisfaction with repairs was 84.6% in 2006/7 now it is 96.12% Use handhelds - saving 8.5k per annum - and get higher response rate
Value for Money Achieved Whole range of measures initiated but significant headlines: Value engineering Reduced prelim costs and greater community benefits eg 200 trainees Benchmarking costs and performance within, and outside Savings on Decent Homes procurement fed into R&M rates Specialist in-house asbestos/fire safety surveyor
Examples of Value for Money Central Heating boilers procured at 9% saving, and with extended warranty period - saved 43.5k (on purchase cost alone)
Examples of Value for Money Electric showers procured at 53% cost reduction - 16k saved
Examples of Value for Money Wherever possible we upgrade rather than do a full re-wire. Saves money and minimises tenant disruption
Examples of Value for Money Offered electric fires to tenants - saved 476k compared to cost of gas fire and new flue liner. The fires are popular with tenants and there are recurring saving from not having to service gas fires
Examples of Value for Money Seven retirement housing schemes have solar panels and sun pipes - on-going saving to Northwards and our tenants. Photo-voltaic panels fitted to nine blocks with 250k grant support - annual energy saving of 4.7k. plus CO2 reduction
Examples of Value for Money Sure stop water valves fitted in retirement flats - tenants can easily operate, preventing flood damage
Examples of Value for Money Gas servicing moved from 10 to 11 month cycle saving 61k per annum but still achieving legal requirement; current rate 99.95%
Other Examples Co-location of gas servicing teams - saving 1.5k per annum MWL use Optimtime workforce scheduling with handhelds - increased first time completion rate and reduced repeat visits Revised rechargeable repair procedure - payment up front for non-urgent items Total responsive repair cost reduced by 225k from 2009/10 to 2010/11 ( 396k compared to 2007/8 after inflation)
Void Repairs - Examples Improved Void performance - 65 days in 2007/8 to 36.6 days now resulting in a void rent loss saving of 434k. Void banding time (max 6 weeks) and cost (saving 90k per annum) Increased proportion of one week void category Joint Empty Homes Manager leading co-located teams from Northwards and MWL saving 16k per annum Signed with Pride handover sheet for MWL and cleaning sub-contracting Re-spraying bathroom sanitary ware - 112k saving per annum (and 36k on responsive) Key management system introduced using external key safes Total forecast savings on void repairs - almost 1m for 2010/11
Continuous improvement underpins our relationship with Morrisons 3 Star rating by Audit Commission in 2009 - but still not perfect! Moved to Price Per Property for Repairs and Servicing in April 2010, already had Price Per Void Negotiated contract savings for R&M in return for extending Decent Homes contract (saving 210k) Piloting One2One service for vulnerable tenants - named contact in Call Centre Housing Quality Network review of Value for Money best in class for R&M Prices (March 2010) Certainly not complacent! The key is continuous review of service using customer feedback