Annual Report for Tenants - plain text version 2022-2023

West Lancashire Borough Council - Housing Services Annual Report 2022-2023

Our properties
Total number of homes - 5830
Through Tawd Valley Developments we built 37 new homes across West Lancashire, and 68 homes have been bought through the Right to Buy Scheme.
Total number of garages - 1530

Managing Your Enquiries
The total number of enquiries received by our Customer Services team from tenants – 48,570
The total number of enquiries received via our website – 2761

Letting our Homes
We helped 495 customers and their families move into their new home, which is an increase from last year of 17 households. On average, costing £2845.75 to prepare each home.

Demand for housing remains high with 1365 applicants on the Councils Housing Register at March 2023.
We received 4701 enquiries through the Homefinder website from customers making enquiries about moving home. This is an increase of 353 enquiries from the previous year.

We created 101 furnished tenancies to support new tenants set up in their home.
172 of our tenants moved home through a transfer and 12 via a mutual exchange.
94% of housing applications are made online, which is the same as last year and we continue to support those who are unable to access the service digitally by offering help to apply over the telephone or in person.
We had 446 tenancies ending in the year, with an average tenancy lasting 10.3 years.
The main reasons why tenancies were ended:
• 24% moved to another council home
• 26% deceased
• 13% moved to private accommodation
• 8% moved into a care facility
• 4% moved to other social landlord homes
• 8% moved to live with family/friends
• 8% other
• 9% abandoned their home without informing the Council

Your Rent
£26.9M was the amount of rent collected for both current and former tenants.
We collected £105k of the former tenant arrears debt and £34,499 from rechargeable repairs.
2179 people accessed our Money Advice Service, which is an increase of 151 families using the service.
The Money Advice Team helped tenants secure a total of £354k by providing support and advice in relation to benefit applications and helping tenants with benefit issues relating to paying their rent.
The team also helped tenants to secure personal income totalling £524k through support which included benefits, budgeting, and debt resolution.
We held 12 weeks of Financial Awareness sessions in our Independent Living schemes to raise awareness and increase benefits take up. We had many successful outcomes from this support.
Example: one of our tenants had a benefits take up assessment. Our Money Advisor discovered that Council Tax Support had not been claimed. They liaised with the Councils Housing Benefit team and a backdated award of £1,037.86 for council tax support was made. This helped the tenant reduce their debts and alleviate their money worries.

We have created strong partnerships with West Lancashire Debt Advice and the Job Centres in Skelmersdale and Ormskirk so customers can get a resolution at first point of contact and to offer a wrap-around support service in one location.
627 families were helped to move onto Universal Credit and we supported 640 residents of the Borough by providing vital support on many issues including poverty, mental health, and debt.
We successfully referred a tenant suffering with Dyslexia for Universal credit, and she complimented the Money Advice Officer who had listened to her and explained everything at her pace and in detail.
We had a very successful year delivering on actions in the Financial Inclusion Strategy:
• including provision of drop-in sessions across the Borough to support those seeking money advice
• completing pre tenancy affordability assessments
• carrying out regular awareness campaigns on affordable credit and Credit Unions. Further examples can be found in the Financial Inclusion Strategy

465 tenants were prevented from facing court proceedings following help from our Money Advice Service. We supported our tenants during the pandemic, and changed the way we work. This meant only 1 tenant was evicted due to rent arrears.
We work closely with the Councils Housing Benefit team to support residents to access funds from the Government's Household Support Fund. We assisted 197 tenants to complete Household Support Fund applications, which resulted in over £42k in payments and support. The Government's Household Support Fund can support West Lancashire residents to access funds to help towards the rising costs of energy bills, food and other essentials such as white goods. To find out more about the scheme and to apply, visit: www.westlancs.gov.uk/householdsupportfund.
Money Advice worked with a tenant to support them getting housing benefit, resulting in a backdated award of £775.26 to the rent account and their income was maximised.
We received some positive feedback from one of our residents. 'Hi Rachael, I hope you are well & happy. I just wanted to send huge thanks for your huge efforts when dealing with our applications. We received an award from Council Tax last week which has been deducted from our bill. You are a valuable member of staff and hope that you are appreciated the way you should be. Thanks again Rachael, you're a Star.'

HOW WE SPENT YOUR RENT
• 31p on investment in major repairs and new homes
• 28p on our people and service running costs.
• 26p on day-to-day repairs and planned maintenance
• 14p on loan interest payments
• 1p bad debts

Improvements and Repairs
We received 28,866 repair enquires through our Customer Services Team.
99.9% of our homes had a valid Gas Safety Certificate and 94% of our homes have a valid electrical safety check completed within the last 5 years. Our aim is to achieve 100% safety checks, and we ask that you work with us to ensure we reach this by providing access to your home when we contact you to arrange an appointment.
100% of communal areas to our properties have a valid fire risk assessment.100% of communal water systems have a valid Legionella risk assessment.
We spent £3.87m carrying out 22,802 responsive repairs to your homes and communal areas, including heating breakdowns and other miscellaneous works.
• 94.3% of customers were satisfied with the repairs service against an overall target of 95%
• £4.5m invested on your homes by completing our investment programme

683 homes benefited from our investment programmes:
• £400k was spent on installing new heating to 146 homes
• £425k was spent on new windows installed in 92 homes
• £1.2m was spent on replacing 176 roofs
• £685k was spent on replacing 142 kitchens
• £320k was spent on replacing 91 bathrooms
• £321k was spent on installing disabled adaptations to tenant's homes
• £12K was spent on our environmental works programme

We made improvements to 7 blocks of low-rise flats, which improved a total of 35 homes. The work included replacement of roofing materials, external wall insulation, new windows, and internal communal area upgrades, costing a total of £1.1m.
We built 37 brand new energy efficient homes for rent at an affordable rent, costing £6M.
WLBC have completed 86% of a 100% stock condition surveys.
• 792 damp or mould issues were identified (of which 3 were category 1 hazards)
• Where we were unable to gain access for the stock condition survey, the tenants have been contacted to ask them to identify if they had damp or mould issues
• 283 properties have had mould wash treatments
• 266 property repairs have been raised
• 243 tenants have been advised on how to reduce hazards
It is now standard practice that any contact with customers where damp, mould or condensation is mentioned results in a surveyor review being carried out and for subsequent remedial works to be ordered. All our literature and website information in relation to guidance and advice to customers pertaining to damp/mould and condensation has been reviewed.
We will be writing to all tenants again asking them to contact us if they have any issues or concerns regarding damp or mould.

Your Neighbourhood
We collected 160 tonnes of rubbish over 6 community action days from across the Borough.
Our Neighbourhood Officers and other housing teams worked alongside the Councils Clean and Green team, the Police and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to provide Community Skip days. The days enabled residents to dispose of their excess waste/combustible materials and speak to the teams about a range of issues.
Our Environmental Enforcement Officers and Officers from within the Waste Management Service carried out waste and environmental audits and offered advice and support to residents regarding recycling and waste disposal.
We received 193 new Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) cases - an increase of 80 from 2021/2022.

Customer Engagement
Through our tenant engagement platform called "Your Voice…West Lancashire" we now have 234 tenants that are actively engaged with us digitally.
The engagement platform is designed to develop meaningful connections with our customers, by providing an easy and secure way for our customers to feedback and participate in a range of discussions, consultations, engagement, and involvement opportunities.
We are committed to listening to the views of our residents and tenants and have carried out several engagement projects to understand the views and feedback of our customers on a broad range of subjects.
The data gathered is used to shape our services. We thank everyone who took part for your valued input.
Some examples of resident and tenant engagement are:

• New Tenant Satisfaction Survey - this survey allows our tenants to feedback on their experience of moving into their new home. The information is used to evaluate our performance and identify what we can do differently.
• Estate Walkabout Expression of Interest – throughout the year we have a programme of estate walkabouts. At any time, tenants can register an expression of interest to participate in an estate walkabout using the engagement platform. The walkabouts allow our tenants to work with us to resolve issues in the area.
• Community Orchard – we invited residents and tenants to give their views on the locations of several Community Orchards to be planted across the borough. We also invited them to express an interest in caring for the orchards. We received over 160 responses and following analysis of the consultation, orchards have been planted in various locations creating a wildlife habitat where struggling pollinators can flourish and create free fresh fruit for the community.
• Citizen & Stakeholder Survey 2022 – this survey allows our customers to give their views on the services the Council provides, helps us to measure satisfaction and understand how effectively we are serving our residents and local communities. We had over 1100 people taking part and their feedback has been used to support the development of the new Council Plan.
• Refuse and Recycling Calendar Review – we consulted with our residents about our refuse and recycling bin collection calendars, to ensure the calendars are clear, understandable, and easy to access.

We want to ensure we achieve our priority of creating empowering, engaged, and inclusive communities and welcome all tenants and residents who would like to get involved and share their views on current and future consultations to have your say. If you would like to get involved, please visit Your Voice West Lancashire (engagementhq.com)

Customer Feedback
Following a review of our complaints procedure, we introduced a new customer feedback policy and process in October 2022. The new policy sets out how we handle comments, compliments and complaints. We reduced the number of stages in our complaint process from three to two to make the process easier for tenants to raise their concerns, whilst also ensuring we resolve issues in a timely way. Our policy also meets the requirements of the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling code and the principles of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Prior to the introduction of the new feedback policy and process, there was no formal requirement to record or report on informal stage one complaints. Following the policy and process change there has been an increase in the number of feedback cases recorded. This is a positive change and enables the Council to understand customer views as well as recording and monitoring all feedback centrally to demonstrate performance in these areas.
As the policy was launched mid-year, the data for complaint handling is split into two parts below:

01.04.2022 – 30.09.2022 – former complaints process
• 3 complaints regarding Housing Services were received.
• 33.33% of these were responded to within timescales.
• Of the 3 complaints received, all were escalated to the next stage.
• 75% of the escalated complaints were responded to within timescales.

01.10.22 – 31.03.2023 – New Customer Feedback Policy
Comments
• 9 comments were received regarding Housing Services
• 100% of comments were responded to within our 10 working day timescales.
Compliments
• 10 compliments regarding Housing Services were received – thank you!
Complaints
• 130 complaints regarding Housing Services were received and investigated at stage-one.
• 75% of stage-one complaints were responded to within our timescales of 10 working days.
• In 3 complaint cases, we needed longer to investigate the complaint and in line with our policy, we extended the timescales for our response to 20 working days.
• 100% of the complaint cases were responded to within the 20 working days.
• Of the 130 complaints, 12 complaints were escalated to stage-two.
• 50% of stage-two complaints were responded to within our timescales of 20 working days. Work is underway to improve in this area, to ensure we are meeting the requirements of the Housing Ombudsman.
• 9.2% of complaints were escalated to stage 2. This is positive and demonstrates that in the majority of cases we are understanding, acknowledging and listening to our customers concerns and responding appropriately at stage-one.
You can read more information about our Customer Feedback policy here.

Housing Advice
We received 372 housing advice enquiries; an increase of 28% on the previous year, with 256 of those resulting in a homeless case being opened.
We provided targeted Money Advice support to 58 people who were threatened with homelessness.
83 families were given homeless prevention duty meaning we prevented 61 of those families from becoming homeless with 34 families being housed by the Council.
156 families were given homeless relief duty meaning 89 families were helped into accommodation, with 76 of those being housed by the Council. Of the remaining families, 22 refused offers of accommodation.
Of all the families that presented as homeless, 50 were provided with temporary accommodation.
We will continue to address homelessness and work with our partners to help to try to prevent it from happening.

Other News
The More Positive Together team continues to work closely with the Money Advice and Income team, delivering a wraparound service to all tenants and residents in the local borough. Through this relationship, the team have managed to secure job roles for 6 tenants who were previously in rent arrears due to their circumstances. This ongoing partnership has ensured these tenants are given the financial support and employment support to avoid future rent arrears.
Relationships created by Money Advice with third sector organisations has helped the More Positive Together team secure voluntary roles for their participants who are not yet ready for employment.
The Homelessness Team successfully bid for funding to extend the Rough Sleeper Support Service. The service offers those who are sleeping rough or are at imminent risk of rough sleeping and those who have complex needs that have prevented them from sustaining their own tenancies, a chance to have their own tenancy with a dedicated support worker. We have doubled capacity and now have ten flats dedicated to the scheme.
Over the past year we have consulted customers and other stakeholders about our Allocations Policy. After listening to feedback we have made some changes including increasing the savings and income limits, time limiting the highest priority band and changing the way we allocate to homeless people. These changes will ensure that we are offering housing to those in most need. The new Policy was implemented on 6th July 2023. At the same time the Homefinder system will be upgraded allowing customers to upload any documents in support of their housing application directly onto the system, rather than having to email them later.
We have introduced a new Garage Allocations & Management Policy, reviewed the garage waiting list and after listening to feedback from customers have introduced an easier way of applying for and being offered a garage tenancy. The new Policy means those living near an empty garage will get priority, and the new process means that the Lettings team will contact applicants when they are next in line for a garage without the need to look out for adverts and place bids. So once the applicant has submitted their application, they do not need to do anything else.
We have been awarded £1.7million Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund which will help fund the delivery of energy efficiency measures to 250 properties within the Borough.
We have introduced digital information screens across our 12 Independent living schemes to ensure that residents have access to up-to-date information not only from the Independent Living team but from other services in the Council, partner agencies such as Fire & Rescue Service, NHS, and community events. The screens will help reduce usage of energy, paper, and ink for printing, reducing journeys, and staff time delivering information in paper form, meaning the team can focus on assisting and supporting customers.
We have recently employed a team of four District Caretakers to carry out the clearance of our empty homes and gardens. This was previously carried out by an external contractor. The collaborative in-house working between the new team and the voids (empty homes) repair service has seen an improvement in service delivery and cost savings.
So far 408 of our tenants have signed up to the tenant's home contents insurance scheme. This scheme provides specialist tenants contents insurance policies and cover for items such as furniture, carpets, curtains, clothes, bedding, electrical items, jewellery, pictures, and ornaments. To find out more about the scheme please visit our website. You can contact our insurance team by email insuranceservices@westlancs.gov.uk or by calling 01695 585047.

Please give us your feedback
Thank you for taking the time to read our 2022-2023 Housing Annual Report. Please visit our Tenant Hub on our engagement platform, Your Voice West Lancashire, to provide feedback.