Past quarterly reports for residents

We want to have an open and honest relationship. A relationship where you’re able to hold us to account – that we do what we say and learn from things when we get them wrong. Our regular performance reports are part of you being able to hold us to account.

Your feedback, our engaged residents and resident led scrutiny also play a key role in monitoring what we do – as well as helping us maximise impact in our local communities.

The information below tells you a bit more about our performance as a landlord.

See our previous quarterly customers' performance reports

July - September 2024

Over the last three months we’ve focused on centring our services and activities around our neighbourhoods and communities. We’ve combined our opportunities for customers to engage with us by launching our new SNG framework, which included opening recruitment for, and appointing, our Customer Influence and Scrutiny Panels - giving customers an opportunity to improve our services. You can find out more about our Customer Engagement panels here and they will start to meet in the new year.

We know that rising living expenses are still a worry, especially with the colder months coming, so want to remind you about our advice and guides pages: you’ll find everything from money, jobs and debt support to benefits guidance and ways you can look for a new home if you want to move.

Tea & Technology: Digital Skills training

Throughout July, residents completed weekly Digital Skills training sessions held at some of our Housing for Older People (HOP) schemes. An amazing 93% felt these helped them to use and understand their digital device better.

Read a text-only version of the video - Tea and Tech

Jane Peabody, SNG Resident: For me, the most important thing I'm going to use is adding an attachment to an e-mail or a photograph, which I didn't know how to do before. And that’s absolutely brilliant.

Today we opened up the NHS app, which was very interesting, and something I will use. Definitely made a difference. Definitely learned a lot.

I didn't think I would because we've been using, you know, laptops and iPads for a long time, but I have. It’s been good.

Shiela Evans, SNG Resident: Getting into the National Health, you know, website would be absolutely ideal because you have to do your prescriptions, which at the moment I'm just phoning up, which I'll be able to do, you know, online.

They asked you to go online and I can't do it. But you know, we've been taught, you know, taught how to do it, so that'd be great.

So, I'm always asking my daughter to do things. I'm like, as I said, I'd like to learn how to do the shopping because I have to text my daughter my shopping list. She has to do it online, you know, and so that, you know, she'll be grateful for that as well. But yeah. Keep on doing it. You know, I now know how to get get into that one. I remembered that. As I said, it’s remembering with me. I don't remember things, but I did do that straight away today.

Rita Lewis, SNG Resident: I learned how to switch it on. I was, I was quite, quite good on it really. But it's opened up my eyes to more things that I wouldn't even think using it has.

Maybe not so afraid because I mean, if I make a mistake, I just switch off and start again. How to go on the NHS thing on my phone as well, sending pictures. Anyway, you know, just enjoy it. Then make a nice cup of tea.

They've been very, very helpful and very, very informative.

Sue Head, SNG Resident: It made me more aware of what you can do. I do use my computer a lot, so I do online banking and everything. So, but yeah, no, it has been good. And they've been very helpful when we get stuck. They were always sort of there behind you.

So yeah, so it's been, it has been good. It's been well worth coming.

More about Tea & Technology sessions

The six weeks of ‘Tea & Technology’ training had big benefits for the well-being and independence of those who took part – as well as teaching valuable skills (such as how to access the NHS app to book doctor appointments) and helping to foster a sense of community.

Our Financial and Digital Inclusion team will continue offering these sessions at some of our HOP schemes, but customers of any age can also get in touch for more information on the support we offer around digital inclusion.

One resident from Trafalgar Court shared that it had "opened up another world" for them. Another customer said, “I personally regained confidence that I had lost and learned to do things I'd not known about or hadn't tried before. Thanks, guys, for all your support!”

Local action

Youth Social Action wellbeing festival on the Isle of Wight

Our first festival took place in Ryde on the Isle of Wight on Friday 16 August. After getting great positive feedback from young people, their families and local organisations, we’re pleased to report that the first festival was a success!

The event featured lots of fun stalls and activities, including a cooking workshop, art therapy activities, facepainting, fun mini-games and more.

Emily Morris, a member of the SNG Youth Panel who co-led the Youth Empowerment stall, shared, “Proud to be part of the first Wellbeing and Youth Social Action Festival that happened in Ryde, Isle of Wight, which is excitingly the first of many. I met so many amazing young people and shared so much about the #iwill movement and the SNG Youth Panel.”

Find out about the second festival taking place on 30 October in Plymouth.

Summer Fete at the Joshua Tree

At the end of the summer holidays, the Specialist Housing and Employment & Skills teams held a Summer Fete at the Joshua Tree, our temporary accommodation scheme for homeless households in Basingstoke.

Residents of Joshua Tree and nearby move-on properties enjoyed a range of free activities, including a tombola, clown performance, coffee van, and children's games. It was also wonderful to see some former residents of the scheme (who’ve now moved into independent housing) return to take part, including running stalls and sharing their success stories of living more independently.

Community Cookery School pilot is a success

Residents of the Notre Dame House Housing for Older People scheme in Plymouth enjoyed a fantastic day learning affordable ways to elevate their cooking.

Feedback was incredibly positive:

8 out of 9 participants agreed or strongly agreed that it helped combat loneliness
7 out of 9 said it improved their sense of community
8 out of 9 reported a positive impact on their mental health

One attendee, who rarely cooks, even asked the Chef for a written recipe so she could try it at home! Many others also said the event has inspired them to cook more and explore new recipes online.

Thriving Communities grants awarded

The Thriving Communities fund panel recently met to review applications for our first round of funding, which offers grants of up to £5,000 for projects that support SNG customers and communities.

Congratulations to our winning organisations: Basingstoke Mencap Opens in new window , Home Start Basingstoke & Deane (Surrey, Hampshire & Isle of Wight), YMCA Bournemouth , Impact Boscombe Youth Club (Dorset & BCP), Design Nature CIC, Education Business Partnership (Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire), Project Food (Devon, Somerset, Bristol & Gloucester), Youth Engagement Solutions Opens in new window , The Switch , St. Andrew’s Youth Club , Little Village , Elder’s Voice, and Art4Space CIC (London).

#InBloom competition success

14 gardens spanning the whole of SNG's geography were recently selected as winners and there are some amazing photos to showcase what they achieved.

This competition was about celebrating residents who go above and beyond when it comes to their green space, but also about encouraging others to give it a go too.

The five categories included most bright and vibrant green spaces; most outstanding for beauty and flourishing greenery; best communal gardens; most innovative indoor (/urban greening) gardens; and most sustainable gardens.

Community Investment at Notre Dame House

Notre Dame House is a Housing for Older People scheme where residents didn’t speak much to one another and there weren’t any community activities. As a result, we commissioned two of our partners to run activities with residents to help bring the community together: Plymouth Environmental Action (PEA) to run planting and environmental workshops, and Fair Table CIC to run a pilot cookery workshop.

Planting and Environmental Workshops with PEA:

Raised £442,702 in social impact
32 residents benefited
5 reported an improvement in confidence
5 saw an improvement in their diet
10 found relief from their depression/anxiety

One resident, who helped pioneer this planting workshop alongside PEA, said:
“We are so happy with the way the garden has evolved over time and has been beneficial to those who visit in the early hours of the morning. They watch the sunrise and have found that the peace and quiet of their visits has really helped their mental health.”

The planting results from these workshops led to Diane Hurn at Notre Dame winning 1st place in our In Bloom Thriving Community Garden Award.

Judges’ comments: “This is a fantastic green space from an SNG housing for older people scheme. The panel were very impressed with the efforts from Diane and her husband in making this Community Garden space a wonderful place for the residents to come together, connect with nature and socialise.”

You asked, we did!

Your feedback matters to us. We value your honest feedback and ideas, which help us improve our services to better meet your needs. Through our ‘Close the Loop’ programme and new 'You said, we did' webpage, we want to show how we are listening to customer concerns - and acting upon them.

Close the Loop

Close the Loop is a new long-term programme where we call to check in with customers after they’ve received certain services. This lets us resolve any remaining issue before they need to escalate it – and the information we’re collecting will also show us where we need to improve aspects of our work to benefit other customers too.

65% of customers raised an issue that needed resolving, the rest of the feedback was compliments or simple requests.
190 issues have been successfully resolved following a Close the Loop call.
132 complaints have so far been prevented.

Encouragingly, we’ve also received feedback where customers have seen the link between their feedback and the action we’ve taken:

“I believe from a response to a survey; I have seen today someone putting weed killer down along the footpaths and driveways. It is nice to see you have taken on board what the residents say and improving the area where we live. Thank you.”

Supporting customers and investing in communities

Read a text-only version of the animation - Supporting customers and investing in communities

Between July and September 2024, we saw some great results:

Debt advice
Helped customers to save nearly £960k over the three-month period
955 customers supported around fuel poverty
The service also generated £75.4m in social value during quarter 2
Financial inclusion
Supported 3,064 cases with financial inclusion (such as through fuel/heating vouchers, food pantry packs, the welfare fund or white goods)
Employment and skills
161 people helped into work or better work
1,223 training courses or other outcomes achieved
45 people supported with business start-ups and self-employment
410 customers worked with us around employment support
Community investment
253 community organisations supported
439 customers supported through digital inclusion activities
287 young people took part in youth social action through our SNG #iwill programme
Funding
Secured over £1.08m of external funding to enable our services and support to help even more customers.

How we’re performing

In July to September, we saw another small increase in overall customer satisfaction (63.4%) as well as satisfaction with our Contact Centre team and ease of getting in touch with us.

Complaints

Satisfaction also improved slightly with regard to our performance on complaints (31% for the year to date but 34% in September).
We’ve continued to recruit more staff to improve the service and respond to more complaints in our target timescales (84% at stage 1 and 63% at stage 2).
We know we still have more to do and recently published a specific annual report on complaints, including what we’re doing to improve.
We also updated our complaints and compensation policies so they apply across all SNG homes.

Repairs

In quarter 2, our satisfaction score for repairs was 79% and our ‘close the loop’ work is also helping to flag any issues quickly so that they can be resolved.
We also have specific action plans in some localities (such as doing less planned work for a while so we can carry out more urgent repairs if sickness means we’re low on people in certain key trades).
Satisfaction around how easy it was to get a repair carried out was 7.2 out of 10 (where 1 is not at all easy and 10 is very easy).
A new process is also making it easier for our Contact Centre team to rebook repairs appointments if customers need to rearrange these.

“Keith came to assess my skirting board that had blown from a leak. I mentioned I also had a broken window handle which he replaced there and then, saving time, money for the company, and any inconvenience to myself. It's workers like Keith who go the extra mile that make such a difference. Thank you, Keith!”

Other satisfaction results

Here are some other key performance figures for the year to September:

How much customers trust SNG - 64.9% satisfaction
How satisfied or dissatisfied customers are that SNG listens to their views and acts on them - 53.7% satisfaction
How satisfied or dissatisfied customers are that SNG keeps them informed about things that matter to them – 72.6% satisfaction
The perception of how we manage ASB for the year - from our surveys with a random sample of customers – was at 58% for the year to date.
How satisfied or dissatisfied customers are with the way their recent anti-social behaviour case was handled - 70% for the year to date but 93% satisfaction in September

Our news

We publish news stories throughout the year.  In quarter 2, we released 17 stories - you can read them on our News page. Opens in new window

April - June 2024

The quarter at a glance

Over a busy three months this spring and early summer, we were focused on our core activities (including lots of locally-based improvements) as well as some new partnerships to better serve and deliver to customers.

Since the merger, we've also been working to combine our engagement offers and recently announced our new SNG framework. This includes new opportunities for customers to help improve our services and hold us to account as part of our Customer Influence Panel and Scrutiny Panel. Find out more and apply by 22 September. Opens in new window

New ways to pay making lives easier for customers

In June, we switched to PayPoint so we can offer customers the most reliable and convenient ways to pay us. The changes include new technology to show pending payments, an automated payment line which is cheaper to ring; and the ability for us to send customers a convenient payment link by text.

Another key benefit of the switch will be a vastly improved direct debit payment service later this year, allowing these to be set up and amended online, rather than via a paper form.

53-week rent year reminder for customers

In 2024/2025, there will be an extra week of rent to pay if you are on a weekly tenancy agreement or licence. This is because the days of the week fall so there are 53 Mondays in this financial year, instead of 52 (rent weeks always start on a Monday).

Working out if you're responsible for this extra payment and how much you need to pay depends on any benefits you receive, how you pay your rent and how often. But we've made it easier to find out what it means with instant personalised guidance.

Celebrating diversity

Our focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) helps to drive our progress. We also recognise that we need a diverse workforce that reflects our region’s demographics to be successful.

Houseproud Pledge

We’ve recently committed to the Houseproud Pledge, a way for housing associations and local authorities to affirm their dedication to equality and assistance for LGBTQ+ customers.

For many of these customers, the concept of home is especially important as a safe place where they can openly express their sexual orientation and/or gender identity without fear.

Committing to this pledge demonstrates our strong dedication to fostering safe, comfortable, and inclusive homes and neighbourhoods for all.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) micro grants celebrate community equality and difference

For Pride month in June, we partnered with Oxfordshire charity, Didcot TRAIN. The charity set up its LGBTQIA+ Allyship group early in 2022, to address the lack of support for young LGBTQ+ individuals outside of Oxford city centre. Their weekly ‘SHOUT!’ sessions provide safe spaces for the community and allies to connect, learn, and support one another.

An SNG EDI micro grant enabled the group to visit the Queer Britain Museum - the first and only LGBTQIA+ museum in the UK. This was a fantastic opportunity for members to celebrate LGBTQ+ history and contributions, in addition to their usual weekly sessions.

#InBloom gardening competition

This summer we ran a competition for all SNG customers to celebrate their gardens and green spaces of all shapes, colours and sizes! Winners were announced on 3 September and you can find more information here.

Bringing communities together through volunteering

In May we launched SNG’s ‘Big Help Out’ fund - providing community groups in our communities with up to £300 to empower volunteering during the national ‘Big Help Out’ weekend.

Volunteering can promote connections between generations, bridge gaps in communities and harness the strengths of all age groups. Making a difference in your community can also boost wellbeing, enabling people with different experiences to meet and develop long lasting connections.

Our SNG ‘Big Help Out’ fund supported 25 groups and funded a wide range of initiatives that promoted volunteering: from litter picks/clean ups to community fun days and volunteer recognition events.

In total, the funding benefited 3,918 people and engaged 461 in volunteering.
100% of the organisers also agreed that the support had ‘helped increase the awareness of our project or group locally’ and that the support has ‘positively impacted our wider community’.

You asked, we did!

Your experiences matter to us and we value your honest feedback and ideas to help us improve our services and better meet your needs. You can read more below about some recent local initiatives.

Picket Twenty Community Event in Andover

In June, we ran an Employment and Skills Community event for the Picket Twenty community. It was an opportunity for customers to get advice around employment, benefits, debts and tenancy support: some even came with a CV ready for review!

We look forward to building on the opportunities we identified and continuing to support the local community here.

Working together to better Bishops Green

Our team in North Hampshire analysed local Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) data earlier this year, to see how else they could address customer concerns.

Bishops Green stood out for feedback about anti-social behaviour (ASB) issues, despite us not finding any historical reports of this in the area. That insight led to a door-knock survey, when we spoke with 23 residents who reported issues like name-calling, broken glass, speeding motorbikes, and an incident at the community centre.

In response, we partnered with the police, fire services, Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council and the local Community Association. Key action included:

Community walkabouts with safety officers
Partnering with Vivid housing association and Environmental Health to resolve unsafe land issues
Co-funding a three-year community coordinator role for the community centre and acquiring funding for a wellbeing room there

These efforts also secured funding for two full-time youth workers and more activities in the area over the summer.

This is just one great example of the power of customer feedback in helping our communities thrive.

Spring Clean for Residents on the Isle of Wight!

As part of the ‘Living Together’ Programme led by the Community Investment and Partnership Team on the Isle of Wight, local teams there worked together to run six Community Spring Clean Days across SNG communities.

The days gave residents the chance to have a declutter and to help combat fly-tipping in these specific neighbourhoods. A flyer was also shared with advice on different low-cost ways that unwanted items could be collected in the future. The project was a massive success with residents saying they were very grateful and appreciated our support.

Building safety resident engagement events in Quay Point

As part of the recent Building Safety Act, we’ve developed a Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy for all our buildings over 18m/7 storeys.

After consulting all residents of these blocks about the proposed strategy, our Building Safety and Compliance team have also started organising engagement events as an extra way to gather resident feedback on communication and safety issues at each site.

Our first event was held at Quay Point in Bristol in June, where the team discussed building and fire safety and evacuation procedures with residents, and addressed any other questions and concerns they had. About 30% of customers came along and we received really positive feedback. We hope these events will strengthen relationships, build trust, and help residents feel confident and safe in their homes.

“Lovely afternoon delivered from the Fire Safety Team at Quay Point. A really lovely team of people, delivering a great job to the residents”. - Resident attending Fire Safety Event.

Resident engagement leads to action on lift advice

Following on from a successful first event at Quay Point in Bristol, the Building Safety & Compliance team have been holding further engagement events for customers of our other taller buildings.

At a session at Nile Court in Poole, Dorset, one resident shared an experience where their family were stuck in a lift while they were outside. Despite following instructions, they hadn’t felt sure about what was happening.

This feedback has helped us to improve our guidance for such situations - making sure there are clear instructions for those outside, as well as inside, a lift. It’s a great example of how such sessions can help amplify the voice of customers and further improve their experiences.

You can view the revised lift checklist and guidance on our website.

Making a positive difference in communities

The Communities and Engagement team continue to work with customers to understand their communities’ needs and provide impactful additional services. It’s always wonderful to hear positive feedback from customers about how we’ve made a difference in their lives. Here are some April to June highlights.

Read a text-only version of the animation above: Making a positive difference for customers

The Art of Giving

In our Housing for Older People schemes, residents shared memories through motivational talks, connecting with peers, family, and friends.

Jane Fletcher, Organiser: “Our older community has so much to share, and it’s been a joy to watch them reminisce, laugh, and bring generations together.”

Tony Clem, Gilbert Court: “It was surprisingly interesting! I’d love more meetings like this and look forward to the reminiscing quiz next time!”

Youth Club on Wheels

SNG helped raise £19k to support Young Bristol’s mobile youth service, engaging young people in hard-to-reach areas.

Shea Stew, Youth Lead: “We’ve had great engagement – cooking sessions and talking to young people have been highlights. Being able to chat about how things are going in their lives has been great and gives them another trusted adult they can turn to.”

Proud achievements: 32 residents benefited, with 8 reporting reduced ASB, 12 feeling more confident, and 6 doing more exercise – contributing £155,656 in social impact.

World Party Day

SNG partnered with Basingstoke Multicultural Forum for a vibrant community event celebrating different cultures.

Mayor of Basingstoke: “A fantastic and vibrant show that made our borough proud. I was so impressed by everything, including the cultures represented and the reception I was given.”

SNG Community Investment and Partnership Lead: “It’s been amazing to support an event that brings communities from different background together – it was all brilliant!”

The Talk Shop, Plymouth

In Devon’s North Stonehouse, we extended funding to Cliik’s Talk Shop, creating a welcoming space for locals to connect.

From April-June 2024, it engaged 90 residents, boosted confidence for 24 adults, and delivered £843,694 in social impact.

How we’re performing

Customer services

In quarter 1, we:

Answered phone calls in an average of 1 min 41 secs (vs 2 min target)
Answered emails in an average of 23 hrs 0 mins (vs 48 hrs target)
Responded to 82% of social media messages within 1 hour (vs 80% in 1 hour target)

We carry out regular surveys with customers, after they’ve experienced a particular service and through wider ‘perception’ type surveys. Overall customer satisfaction was at 64% for the end of June and customer trust was 67% compared. In our post-call customer surveys, we received an average rating of 4 out of 5 from customers.

We now have a new process to follow up with customers about their feedback and hope this will give us even greater insight to help improve services and provide customers with a better experience.

‘Ease of repair’ satisfaction improved slightly to 7.7 out of 10 – including 55% of customers now rating this service as 9 or 10 out of 10. We are continuing to focus on catching up with outstanding repairs and on completing repairs in a timely way as we know this is the most frustrating thing for affected customers.

Dealing with complaints also remains a top priority and an area where we know we need to do more with only 51% of these responded to within our set timescales in quarter 1.

Our centralised complaints team is beginning to have an impact, taking more proactive and effective action to resolve complaints at the earliest opportunity (and giving customers a single point of contact). This led to a 15% improvement in resolving complaints at stage 1. Our property teams also continue to focus on closing longer-standing cases.

Communities

Between April and June 2024, we saw some great results:

Debt advice

SNG helped customers to reduce or clear £9,038.70 of arrears over the three-month period
The service also generated £50,294,328 in social value during quarter 1

Financial inclusion

The service helped save an average of £5,823.71 for each customer
We supported 1,192 cases of financial inclusion intervention (such as through fuel/heating vouchers, food pantry packs, the welfare fund or white goods.)

Employment and skills

53 people were helped into work or better work
619 training outcomes were achieved
28 people were supported with business start-ups and self-employment

Community investment

160 community organisations supported
Supported 6 ageing well programmes and initiatives
182 young people took part in youth social action through our SNG #iwill programme
Contributed to 4 environment and place programmes and initiatives
Supported 196 young people with their education, wellbeing, employment and financial resilience through the Blagrave Trust
In addition, we launched four community grants programmes: our SNG Big Help Out , Thriving Communities Fund , SNG #iwill Fund , and the Move on and Thrive Fund.

Funding

We also secured £414,921,32 of external funding to enable our services and support to help more customers.

Here’s what one customer recently said about their experience of the employment and skills service:

“I have seen an extremely significant impact on my mental health, confidence and general wellbeing since we were connected. Not just in an employment or education aspect but in other key areas of my development as a person. I have gained more clarity in what direction my life is going, and with that, I have seen improvements in all areas of my life.

Having SNG’s employment and skills in work team in my corner has given me the tools I need to find success in my future.”

Localities

As well as the sorts of local action described in the ‘You asked, we did!’ section, we’ve continued to develop key partnerships in each of our ten locality areas. These delivered a wide-ranging programme of successful community investment and engagement to support over 9,500 customers. Here are some April to June highlights.

School holiday activities

We collaborated with local organisations to provide activities and food programmes for families and young people, promoting health, well-being, and reducing social isolation over the Easter holidays.

For example, over 40 children in Hungerford enjoyed creating great memories through a range of Easter activities at a local community centre, outdoor spaces, farm and cinema. They shared their excitement, saying things like “I feel like I’m taking an active part in my community”, “Spending time with family and friends”, and “The youth club makes me feel happy”.

You can also find more information about our summer holiday activities here.

Safer Streets (Newbury) and Safer Somerford (Christchurch)

In both these areas we’ve supported community-led initiatives to reduce ASB and improve safety through local partnership working, CCTV, youth outreach and community clean-ups.

Move On and Thrive grants programmes

The latest round of funding was launched for two related youth empowerment funds on the Isle of Wight. These offer grants of up to £10k for organisations, as well as individual grants for young people facing financial hardship. The focus is on five key areas: transport costs, health and wellbeing, personal development, digital inclusion, and moving into a new home. Find out about Move on and Thrive here.

Sustaining tenancies

Anti-social behaviour

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) significantly impacts people’s lives, making it a key focus for us. In April we saw 77 new cases, 70 in May and 76 in June. We report on these, and on customer satisfaction with our handling of ASB cases, to our regulator and are always striving to improve.

We’ve been working hard on our approach to ASB and have made a strong start this year. Customer satisfaction scores from surveys at the closure of an ASB case, and from surveys of random samples of customers, are on or above target.

Safeguarding

We’ve seen a slight decrease in safeguarding concerns compared to last year (76 new cases in April, 57 in May and 43 in June). However, the number of people experiencing a mental health crisis remains high - due in part to the cost-of-living crisis. Our teams are working hard to provide advice, refer people to support services, and offer grants to help mitigate these pressures.

Please remember, you can always access our fully funded 24-hour mental health text support service ‘Not Alone’ - provided by our mental health partner: Shout. To use this service simply text ‘NOTALONE’ to 85258.

Domestic Abuse

We’ve seen a significant increase in domestic abuse cases compared to last year with 34 new cases in April, 32 in May and 33 in June. We’re working hard to ensure all victims and survivors get the support they need.

This rise is partly due to national trends and the cost-of-living crisis, as well as our efforts to raise awareness of the service and develop it over the last nine months.

We’ve added extensive information to our domestic abuse webpage, including support resources for both victims and perpetrators. (Please note, clicking the link can appear in your browser history. Women’s Aid offers advice on how to cover your tracks online.)

Lettings and mutual exchange

In quarter 1, we completed 729 lettings, of which 544 were re-lets to existing homes
We also completed 185 lets on new-build homes
We received 769 applications for Swaptracker
The average time to process a mutual exchange was at 68 days, down from 77 in the last quarter
We also completed 185 mutual exchanges during the three months

Customer accounts and tenancy support

In quarter 1 our Customer Income Advisors took 700 referrals
They also closed 725 cases, with 608 (84%) of these customers engaging with the service and working with us to maximise their income and improve their financial resilience
The team assisted 316 customers to maximise their benefits, 176 customers with changes of circumstance, 106 with their Universal Credit claims, 104 with money management, 81 with budgeting advice and 80 with their rent arrears
24 customers applied for discretionary housing payments, of which 20 were successful in receiving these
The advisors also referred 105 customers to our in-house debt advice team, ensuring they received expert debt advice and could explore viable options for their situation
The team also referred 140 customers to our Employment and Skills team, which offers a personalised service of guidance, support, and practical help to access training or work.

Property services and repairs

Repairs

Our 'Maintain and improve my home' project has delivered a range of benefits for customers. These include new video repairs inspections (to make sure we can send the right person with the right skills) and extra SMS reminders about appointments - to reduce the risk of customers not being in for their repair.

Behind the scenes, we've worked to improve which core materials different trades stock in their vans. We also launched a new contractor portal and framework, so we can give customers real-time information on repairs done by our subcontractors. And we're working with our teams to find out, from the 'bottom up', what other improvements we can make to our service.

In April to June we completed over 52,000 responsive repairs (including emergency and out of hours jobs). Customer satisfaction with these increased to 86.6% and dissatisfaction dropped to 13.4%. In addition, we:

completed work on 553 empty homes
replaced 204 kitchens, 165 bathrooms and 108 roofs
fitted new windows to 121 homes

Gas            

We're responsible for safety checks at nearly 41,000 homes and non-domestic buildings with a gas supply or appliances. Only two homes were non-compliant in quarter 1.

As well as all these safety checks and repairs, we also installed:

210 replacement boilers through our planned programme
302 new boilers following a responsive repair issue
6 Air Source Heat Pump systems - in addition to our wider ‘retrofit’ improvement programme

Electrical

In quarter 1, we raised over 9,000 electrical repairs and electrically tested over 3,500 homes to make sure they were safe. We also:

completely rewired 122 homes
upgraded 1,600 electrical distribution boards
renewed main fuseboards in 398 homes
completed modernising of 2 passenger lifts

We installed modern electrical storage heating systems to 43 more homes - including a project, led by Dimplex and British Gas, to give these customers the option of cheaper electricity via a competitive overnight tariff and fitting of a free gateway (connected to the heating) that works with a smart meter to allow British Gas to charge the heating system as part of a wider UK network energy storage initiative.

A large programme of communal electrical works is also underway and we work closely with customers when communal power supplies need to be temporarily suspended for some of the work to take place. A recent example is at York House, a housing scheme for older people in Calcot near Reading.

January - March 2024

It was a very busy last quarter of the financial year, with an enormous amount of work achieved by working with customers and listening to their feedback.

Customer engagement survey results

In March, we asked customers to give us their views on how they wanted to get involved in shaping, influencing, scrutinising and giving us feedback on our services and key decisions that impact customers.

We were delighted to receive 5,291 responses and are now using this feedback to develop our customer engagement model with tenant engagement experts, TPAS.

We also completed six workshops with colleagues, current panel members and residents, with a total of 72 attending altogether. These were very productive sessions, with great conversations.

We also sent an email to 1,438 residents who said they wanted to be involved via email and are working on getting letters, text and phone calls out to those who preferred these methods of contact. We are also looking at comments from customers regarding queries and breaking down issues they are raising in more detail to then develop engagement activities or escalations to teams to remedy these.

Next steps

On 10 April, TPAS presented final feedback to all those involved in the workshops, including colleagues and customers.

We will be presenting the final Engagement Model to final feedback group 16 May, then presenting it to Executive Board on 20 May.

We will be finalising the Engagement Framework by 6 June and sending more information to customers on the new model, with details of how it will work, once it has been approved.

New self-service makes life easier for customers

We’ve launched View My Documents on MySovereign, so that customers can download their rent letters and service charge statements. Before this, customers had to email or call us if they wanted a copy.

Available 24/7, this is just one way we’re creating an effortless customer experience with self-service solutions.

Feedback from customers about using MySovereign to manage their tenancy has been positive, with customers commenting “it’s easily accessible” and “convenient to use”.

Getting new neighbourhoods off to a great start

We saw some great joint working between our Bristol teams when they helped new customers moving into our brand-new flats at the Carriageworks Opens in new window development.

The block has several complex features like Modulair Heat Pumps that customers may not have experienced before, so we felt it was important to tie their viewings in with a workshop nearby.

Customers got to know their new neighbours ahead of their move and to meet our officers. We also talked through their aspirations, move in arrangements, all of the additional SNG services they can access and their responsibilities as customers.

One customer said: “Today's been really, really good. It's nice to come into somewhere and meet people. Some people can be socially awkward, you can think ‘should I approach that person?’

“So it's nice to get to know people, see what's going to happen in the community, listen to everybody's ideas, but I just think that this is an absolutely brilliant workshop, so well done to you lot."

We hope this personalised approach for new neighbourhoods will help create thriving communities over generations.

Steps to tenancy success programme changes lives

There are times when we can’t offer someone a tenancy, even if they’ve successfully bid on a property. This is normally due to affordability or because we think they may not be able to manage a tenancy yet.

To help those we have to say no to, we offer them the opportunity to join our pre-tenancy programme: Steps to tenancy success, run by social enterprise Your Own Place (YOP).

Since we started working with YOP, we’ve referred 26 people of all ages and backgrounds who couldn’t take up the tenancy when we did our checks.

7 of them took part in YOP’s online programme of support
14 engaged with phone calls, texts and via Whatsapp - discussing their current situation and what steps they’re taking, with signposting if relevant
2 people have since moved into social housing

Watch how YOP changed Amy’s life:

Read a text-only version of the animation above

Mum of two Amy applied for an SNG home but was unsuccessful because of affordability and rent arrears issues. Determined to improve her financial situation, she was referred to our pre-tenancy programme partner =- Your Own Place (YOP)

After completing the YOP course, Amy said: “I feel ready to start a new era that I’ve been waiting for for so long... being able to do this course has given me hope ”

They worked with her one-to-one via Zoom and focused on courses around budgeting and debt management.

She was able to use her new skills to pay down much of her rent arrears and debt, and let the housing team know. When further bids on properties were unsuccessful, YOP helped her find ways to manage. Then she found a home, passing the affordability checks. She is now looking forward to living in a safe and secure home.

If you think Your Own Place can help you, and want to learn more, get in touch now at steps@sovereign.org.uk.

Energy programme success

We partnered with Citizens Advice Opens in new window to run our free Energy Outreach Programme.

This provided customers with impartial advice on how to improve energy efficiency, save money and access the very best energy deals. We also ran a series of energy advice webinars in partnership with Testlands Wellbeing Hub.

By the end of the programme, we had completed 409 individual household assessments, which led to us delivering:

310 household focused energy packs
163 warm packs
85 referrals for ongoing support from either our Customer Income Advice (CIA), Debt Advice or Employment Support services
101 referrals to the Pocket Power switching service

We also had some great feedback from customers we helped:

Customer 1

“I just cannot believe this support is available – I recently become a single parent and work full time but still cannot pay my bills. This call could not have come at a better time! The information and items you are able to provide will really make a difference to me and my son.”

Customer 2 

“Thank-you! It has been really tough….. I have no income, haven’t heated my home in 2 years due to the cost of my storage heaters and am unable to find work. This call has been so incredibly useful and I am now looking forward to accessing help to clear my other debts and find work that can help me.”

Customer 3

"My daughter isn't well, I care for her and my money doesn't last, everything is a struggle. I can't believe there is so much I can do to try save money, thank you. The air fryer will mean I am able to cook hot meals again, I look forward to hearing from your CIA team to see what I can do to increase my income."

If you’re struggling with costs, please visit our Cost of living support webpage for details on what support is available.

Mutual exchange changes make a massive difference

In February, we launched our new digital mutual exchange process through HomeSwapper. Before this, all applications were done manually and customers had to call or email us to check on the status of their exchange.

Now they can manage their whole exchange online and get live status updates any time of day or night, seven days a week. We make decisions on whether an exchange can go ahead within the statutory 42 days and since launch, the average time to complete an exchange has nearly halved, from 114 days last October to 77 days in March.

Working locally

Our teams work hard to provide good services, so it’s always lovely to hear positive feedback from customers about how they’ve made a difference to their lives.

Read a text-only version of the animation above: How our teams are making a difference

Our carpenters are a credit

“I have never come across such lovely operatives - they were nothing but professional, tidy, knowledgeable, polite and respectful. They were an absolute pleasure to meet and deal with.”

Debt advice changes lives

“The help I received was exceptional, I was made aware of things that I had no idea existed, and if it wasn't for the help from your Jon [Debt Advisor,] I would still be struggling, or worse still, homeless. We are now looking forward to a brighter future and hopefully will never be in that place again.”

Apprenticeships matter

“The operative teaching the apprentice was wonderful and encouraging. The apprentice was clearly excited about the work and they very clearly worked very well together and to a very high standard.”

Life-changing benefits support

“I cannot thank you enough, I’m due to pay every single penny of my rent arrears. It’s [because of] your guys’ hard work, patience, and resilience with me as a person and also all the hard work with the [PIP] paperwork. Thank you so much.”

How we’re performing

Customer service

In quarter 4, we:

answered phone calls in an average of 1 min 52 secs (2 min target)
answered emails in an average of 25 hrs 41 mins (vs 48 hrs target)
responded to social media messages in 49 mins 45 secs on average (vs 1 hr target)
responded to webchat in 42 secs (no target as it’s a new channel).

In our post-call customer surveys, we received an average of 4.1 out of 5 from customers vs our target of a minimum 4 out of 5.

Complaints

In quarter 4, our Complaints Specialists continued to work hard to provide quality responses in a timely manner, with a view of reaching the right outcome for our customers.
1,531 complaints were received and 58% of cases were responded to within 10 working days.

Although we continue to focus on the quality of our responses, and ensuring we resolve our customers’ complaints effectively and efficiently, our performance is not where we, or our customers, want it to be. We are seeing an improvement, and this will be enhanced with the recruitment of a number of new roles, that will be put in place during the spring.

We have also, appointed a Board Member to be our Complaints Champion, and they will ensure we report and challenge our complaints performance on a regular basis, and that complaints are being managed, change is happening and that customers are being heard through the complaints process.

Communities

Between January and March 2024, we saw these great results.

Community investment

31 community organisations supported
463 young people took part in youth social action through our  SNG #iwill programme
Invested in 14 'environment and place' programmes and initiatives         
Supported 10 ageing well programmes and initiatives     
Contributed to 8 health and wellbeing programmes and initiatives
Invested in 25 social inclusion/isolation reduction programmes and initiatives

We also launched three community grants programmes: our Commercial Support Fund Opens in new window , EDI community microgrants and Black History Month (BHM) 365 Fund .

Debt advice

In the financial year 2023-2024, we helped customers reduce or clear £27,332.44 of arrears
The service also generated £1,734,444 in social value

Employment and skills

97 people were helped into work or better work
237 training outcomes were achieved
10 people were supported with business start-up and self-employment

Financial inclusion

We helped save customers £73,424.78
We supported 1,814 cases of fuel poverty

Funding 

We secured £1,037,081.96 of external funding

Localities

We have seen some great results from our teams working closely with customers to understand what they want us to focus on in their communities.

In Greenham, our Localities teams worked alongside the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Newbury Neighbourhood Police team, Berkshire Youth and West Berkshire Council to offer the community:

free half-term activities
safety advice
free skip use
repairs advice
housing, budgeting, benefits and training support

The community was pleased with the help provided - a lot of information and support was given, skips were filled, fly-tipping and litter were shifted, and gardens and communal areas cut back.

Tenancy sustainment

In quarter 4, we saw:

ASB

January – 81 active cases
February – 76 active cases
March – 100 active cases

ASB is an emotive topic and has a big impact on people’s lives. It’s therefore a key focus for us. We report internally and externally to our regulator on numbers of cases and how our customers feel about how we manage issues. We also report on Hate Crime. We are always looking to improve in this space.

We recently got together the teams responsible for managing ASB cases and shared some of the challenges.
We also looked at the key actions that both our customers and industry experts tell us drive good customer satisfaction. We’ve mapped all of our ASB incidents on to our Electronic Mapping System and have new management information on cases per 1,000 homes in our various localities, which will help us identify hot spots and take action to address things proactively.

Safeguarding

January – 107 cases
February – 81 cases
March – 73 cases

We’ve seen a real increase in Safeguarding concerns coming in to and from our teams in the last year. We’ve also seen a sharp increase in people experiencing a mental health crisis. We believe much of this is linked to the increased pressures in the community due to the cost-of-living crisis. Our teams are working hard to advise and signpost people to support available as well as referring them to the range of grants and supportive offers SNG has to mitigate some of the worst of the cost-of-living crisis.

Please remember our fully funded 24 hour mental health text support service ‘Not Alone’ provided by our mental health partner ‘Shout’. To use this service simply text ‘NOTALONE’ to 85258.

Domestic abuse

In the financial year 2023/4, we had 261 reports of domestic abuse.

We have been adding lots of information to our domestic abuse webpage, including additional places you can get support if you are a victim or a perpetrator.

(Please note, clicking the link below can show in your browser history. Women’s Aid has advice on how to cover your tracks online Opens in new window .)

Lettings and mutual exchange

In quarter 4 we completed 705 lettings, of which 502 were re-lets to existing homes and 203 were lets on new build homes.
We also completed 131 mutual exchanges.

Customer accounts and tenancy support

In quarter 4 our Customer Income Advisors took 773 referrals.
They also closed 725 cases, with 580 (80%) of these customers engaging with the service and working with us to maximise their income and improve their financial resilience.
They assisted 496 customers with their Universal Credit (UC) claims, representing 27% of all UC-related support provided in 2023/24.
And they referred 80 customers to our money partners - ensuring they received expert debt advice and could explore viable options.

Property services and repairs

Repairs

Preparations and training last summer and autumn increased our resources and gave us more capability to meet the extra demand for repairs over the winter. In January to March, we completed over 64,000 responsive repairs and customer satisfaction with these increased to 85%.

We know it’s also vital to deal effectively with reports of condensation, damp and mould. We continued to focus on this, improving how we identify the extent of any problems – such as by enabling customers to upload photos and introducing video calls so we can make initial assessments more quickly. Our website and leaflets also include extra sources of support and tips to avoid condensation, damp and mould.

In addition, we:

completed work on 586 empty homes
replaced 232 kitchens, 227 bathrooms and 126 roofs
fitted new windows to 304 homes
replaced 1,065 front and back doors, flat entrance fire doors and garage doors

Gas            

In quarter 4, we installed:

403 planned boilers through our planned programme
359 new boilers following a responsive repair issue
13 Air Source Heat Pump systems

For the financial year 2023/24, we were 100% compliant for domestic and commercial properties with gas. We also negotiated savings of £500k with our boiler supplier: money we can plough back into other activity.

In total, we installed:

1,253 responsive boilers
1,396 planned boilers
34 Air Source Heat Pumps

Electrical

In quarter 4, we completed the modernisation of 5 passenger lifts and, over the financial year 2023/24, we:

installed 154 new modern efficient electrical heating installs (responsive only)
upgraded 1,600 electrical distribution boards
completed 122 full property rewires

Did you know?

We now include arc fault detection devices (AFDD) into our new fuse boards and have done for some years. These aren’t mandatory unless buildings are over 18 metres tall, but we choose to provide them for all new fuse boards as they can detect a fire risk from a faulty appliance and switch off the power. This is in addition to the normal tripping feature if an appliance is faulty.

We were Highly Commended for this approach in the ‘safety and compliance initiative of the year’ category of awards run by the Association of Safety Compliance Professionals (ASCP).

October - December 2023

It was a busy three months, with lots of holidays and celebrations mixed in with some difficult global and local events.

However, within our communities, there have been many things worth celebrating, including our merger on 1 October 2023, with Network Homes.

We are now called SNG (Sovereign Network Group) and work across the South and South West of England, London and Hertfordshire.

Our CEO Mark Washer said: “This is an important moment for SNG, but we are now absolutely focussed on delivering the benefits for our customers, and future customers. Our combined strength gives us the opportunity to remain ambitious in our plans to create more homes, and more sustainable homes that people can love living in over many generations. This commitment to our environment and enabling wider social success within our communities is built into SNG from the very start.”

You can still contact us the same way as you normally do for any questions around your tenancy, repairs and services.

Giving you the best experience

As a result of customer feedback, we made some significant changes so that we can provide a far quicker service for those who need simple aids or adaptations to their home – our target is now to respond within 20 days.

We’re also making various changes to our repairs service following the results of a major resident-led scrutiny into the damp and mould service plus a further piece of research with customers into their experience of repairs.

In Q3 we started using video visits to gather more information quickly after a report of a serious damp and mould issue; sharing extra information by SMS about preparing for appointments; and making it easier to access our support services by giving our trades information they can share with customers - and then a way to ask our teams to get in touch if you would like our help. And we added lots more content, suggested by customers, to our tips on avoiding condensation, damp and mould and winter tips, advice and support pages.

Great news for our customers

In December, two new SNG customers, one who had left a difficult relationship, and another who had been living in shared housing for years, were finally able to say they had a home of their own. Watch the video below to hear what difference it’s made to them.

We launched our mental health text messaging service with our partner, Shout, who can provide SNG customers with free, confidential mental health support, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Find out how the service works and how you can access it if you need it.

We’re also now working in partnership with the homeless charity Shelter to prevent avoidable evictions and to support customers to re-engage with us as their housing provider.

And we’ve expanded our digital inclusion offer, which now includes free training from Barclays Digital Wings and free sim cards.

In our communities

Alongside Clarion, Brighter Places, and Abri Housing, we helped fund The Youth Club on Wheels, a new mobile youth service, which works with young people in hard-to-reach areas of Bristol and rural areas where there are currently little to no services for young people to interact, engage and enhance their skills.

We also supported a resident-led winter market offering free surplus food at Rectory Park, Northolt, in West London (this is one of the new areas we work in). We teamed up with charity The Felix Project to supply the food to residents at the estate’s community centre.

And we distributed 126 microgrants to organisations within our communities to raise awareness of, and support, improved mental health and wellbeing. Watch the video below to see some of our Q3 highlights.

Our Q3 highlights

We gave 652 customer keys to their new home
Answered calls in less than a minute on average
Supported 520 customers through our Financial Inclusion service
Replaced 700 boilers
We supported 375 customers with Universal Credit claims
We helped 10 people with business self employment
We helped 1,344 in fuel poverty
Supported 143 community organisations

Working locally

Our teams work hard to provide good services, so it’s always lovely to hear positive feedback from customers about how they’ve made a difference to their lives. Watch the video below to find out more.

Employment and skills make a difference
“Thank you a trillion for rewording and fixing my supporting statement. I truly appreciate your hard work and support and I'm applying for the position right away.”

Life-changing support
Our Customer Income Advisors helped one customer appeal an unsuccessful application for Disability Living Allowance (DLA). They attended the tribunal together and the customer was awarded £68.10 DLA a week, with £4,300 backdated.

Fantastic customer feedback
“I've had a new kitchen and bathroom and wanted to say how amazing it looks. The men on the job are a credit to you, always so polite and cheerful.”

We listen
After feedback from our customers, our Dorset Localities team built two new parking spaces at a housing for older people scheme, making an instant difference.

More fantastic customer feedback

To the Service Charges team and Wiltshire Locality Manager

“[I wanted to] express my sincere thanks to the Service Charge Team & Ian. Not only were they helpful, but also really kind & professional too, they have really gone above & beyond to help us.”

To our Devon trades team

“The Two Johns arrived at 8am yesterday and DID NOT STOP. What they managed in one day is just exceptional and outstanding.

“Thanks also to Ricky for making this happen!! Please let them all know and the whole of the company too. Very happy to live in a Sovereign home.”

To our Customer Specialist Claire

“She didn’t cut me off when I explained what I had gone through. Didn’t judge or change her tone of voice. She's a complete asset and went above and beyond and I wanted to make you aware of her hard work and dedication."

To our Greenham Trades team

"I just wanted to say a big thank you to the gentleman (Caz) that came to my house to treat the damp. He was extremely helpful, he was very tidy, polite and went above and beyond to help myself and my neighbour with some issues we have had of late.”