Dear Residents,
As the Executive Member for Housing and Development in Manchester, I am proudly writing the foreword to our first annual report as Manchester City Council. This follows the resident test of opinion in 2020, where 93% of local residents supported the integration of Northwards (the former ALMO) back into Manchester City Council in July 2021.
Since this time we have made some changes, including a name change, from Northwards to MCC Housing Services. Much more importantly though, we have made improvements to the services you care about most, such as repairs and maintenance.
We have also invested £20m in home improvements, building safety and our journey to become a zero-carbon city by 2038. You can see how we are performing in this annual report and although we have made good ground on improving the repairs service, we know there is still much to do, particularly on adaptations and re-let times.
In Manchester we are proud of our history of social housing. We led the way nationally when we built the first Council homes in 1894 at Victoria Square in Ancoats. Today our commitment to delivering quality, affordable homes is just as strong. That’s
why this year, we also launched our new Housing Strategy which set out our ambitions for our world-class city, people and places.
We have also been listening to you, our residents about what matters to you most as a Council tenant and what you expect from your social landlord. The result of which, is our new A Place Called Home vision which sets out our shared priorities for housing services that are delivered to you.
These are:
- Resident led services, putting you at the heart of everything we do.
- High quality housing services and home improvements for secure, warm, sustainable homes.
- Welcoming, safe and vibrant neighbourhoods.
Running through these priorities are the fundamentals of good housing services, which are getting the basics right and ensuring that Our Manchester values and behaviours help us to deliver a housing service we are all proud of.
We know that the current national landscape is proving incredibly challenging for our residents on the back of austerity, covid and now the cost of living crisis. It is estimated that the cost-of-living crisis could adversely affect up to 100,000 households in Manchester this winter.
Manchester City Council is here to support you and in response, more than £8m is to be made available to support residents across the city through the expansion of welfare schemes as well as helping to provide access to food.
A dedicated web page - manchester.gov.uk/financialsupport - has been set up to clearly outline the Council’s Welfare Provision Scheme offer. This will make it easy for residents who are in financial difficulty or crisis to apply for grants and support. A Cost of Living Advice Line also runs Monday to Friday, 9am – 4.30pm. The number for the hub is 0800 023 2692.
2021/22 has also seen significant changes for social housing providers with new legislation introduced, and more powers given to the regulator of social housing and to residents. This is welcomed and to support the increased focus we have created the new Housing Advisory Board.
The board is made up of MCC Housing tenants, local councillors and independent housing professionals to provide scrutiny and direction on key issues such as repairs, home improvements, resident experience and more. You can read more about the board later in this report.
Looking ahead to 2023/24 we have a wide range of initiatives which include:
- Multi-million investment in our decent homes programme to ensure that your homes are secure, warm and sustainable.
- Working with our partner Equans to continue to embed the improvements to the repairs and maintenance service.
- Supporting the development of Silk Street and continuing to support residents in the cost of living crisis with our money matters team.
- Implementation of the new national tenant satisfaction measures in April 2023.
I would like to reiterate the Council’s commitment to providing good quality housing services to you, our residents. This was true in 1894 when we built those first council houses and in these challenging times, it is even more relevant today that we ensure you all have a house and community that you can truly call home.
With my best wishes,
Cllr Gavin White
Executive Member for Housing & Development
Manchester City Council
Annual Report 2021/22
This year saw Northwards Housing go back to Manchester City Council and so a new era for council housing in north Manchester began.
The move also brought a new leadership team. Dave Ashmore, Director of Housing Services and Angela Raftery, Assistant Director immediately got to work with employees, improving services for residents.
We appointed a new repairs contractor. Equans impressed us with their commitment to delivering social value in our communities and their efforts to reduce carbon.
We also started working on a new vision for Council housing services, inviting residents to give us their views on the improvements that really matter.
Our new vision, A Place Called Home focuses on You, Your Home and Your Neighbourhood and is coming soon.
The following statistics show our performance over the 12 months...
You
- 76% of calls were answered by Customer Contact Centre.
- 81% of residents were satisfied with our Customer Advisors.
- Our Money Advice Team helped residents receive £608,845 of financial support.
- 1,955 resident’s queries were dealt with on social media.
- 305 people saved a total of £51,577 with a little help from our Energy Advisor.
- We delivered digital support to 1,478 people.
Your home
- 93% of residents were satisfied with their repair. (April - December 2021)
- 91% of repairs were completed on the first visit.
- We spent £21,503m on home improvements... Including energy efficiency work which saved 384 tonnes of carbon.
- 49% of repairs were completed on time (A backlog of 6,000 outstanding repairs following the pandemic affected our capacity to complete repairs on time. We got it down to 1,800)
Your neighbourhood
- We relaunched our Hobin’s Community Fund and gave £10,000 to local community groups.
- 266 new ASB cases were investigated.
- 2,400 people partied in local parks during our summer events.
- Our contractors delivered £12,000 of social value to our communities and provided 57 employment opportunities.
Where your rent goes?
- Capital Works - 42%
- Employee costs - 30%
- Interest Payable and similar charges - 23%
- Housing Services Repairs & Maintenance - 20%
- Communal Heating - 1%
- Contribution to Bad Debts - 1%
- Other Expenditure - 2%
What’s next?
In summer 2022 our new governance arrangements launched.
Our Housing Advisory Board oversee the delivery and review the performance of services to the Council’s housing stock and residents.
They also oversee the development of significant projects around service delivery including:
- The implementation of the social housing white paper, including the emerging consumer standards and tenancy satisfaction measures.
- The performance of the repairs and maintenance service.
- Maintaining Decent Homes and Fire and Building Safety.
The board meet five times a year and is made up of local councillors, professional people with the skills to help us succeed and north Manchester residents.
So 2022/23 will be a busy one as we establish the board and get to grips with the new legislation.
We’ll also launch our new resident engagement strategy which will make sure that resident’s voices are heard and remain at the heart of the services we deliver. There will be three tiers of engagement on offer for residents to choose to get involved at the level that suits them and works around their lifestyle.
We’ve made great progress so far improving existing projects to create sustainable, meaningful outcomes for residents to have their say.
Alongside traditional resident involvement activity we’ve developed some exciting new engagement projects which will be ready to launch in 2022.
There will be opportunities for young people and lone parents and we’re on the lookout for local cultural ambassadors and environmental champions.
Watch this space for more details.
View the PDF version of the Annual Report here:
