Customer Annual Report 2024
A message from our CEO
Welcome to our Customer Annual Report 2024. Last year, we began making important changes at A2Dominion. Listening to your feedback, we know we haven’t been performing to the standards you expect and deserve.
We’ve been working with customers more to develop plans for improving your services and shaping future priorities. We’re making progress, and while we recognise there’s still lots to do, we’re determined to get there. The key areas we’re focusing on are:
- Responding to your enquiries more quickly, without you having to chase us
- Delivering a faster and better-quality repairs service
- Tackling damp and mould and anti-social behaviour more effectively
- Increasing satisfaction with how we resolve your complaints
- Getting more customers involved in shaping our services.
Our grading from the regulator
Last year, the Regulator of Social Housing reviewed our regulatory grading, which indicates how well we’re meeting its standards. We’d become concerned that we weren’t meeting regulatory standards for some areas and services, so we made what’s known as a self-referral.
The regulator’s assessment showed that whilst we continued to meet its financial viability requirements (known as V2), we needed to make significant improvements to our governance arrangements to fully comply with its Governance & Financial Viability Standard. We were downgraded from a compliant G1 rating to a non-complaint G3 rating.
We’re now working closely with the regulator to deliver our improvement plans to help us return to a fully compliant governance grading.
Customer satisfaction
Last year, the regulator introduced Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) to show how well social housing landlords are doing at providing good-quality homes and services to tenants and shared owners. These measures have been adopted by all social landlords as a way to compare and benchmark performance.
Overall satisfaction with our services was 58% among social and affordable rent customers and shared owners, below our 63% target and lower compared to other housing associations.
Whilst we do some things well, we also know some things don’t go well at all for you. Many of the concerns you spoke with us about relate to the issues we’re working to address. Take a look.
We have a clear plan of improvement over the next 2 to 3 years
and we are all committed to building stronger foundations and
doing better for you. If you’d like to get involved in helping
us improve and shape services, there are lots of ways to do
this
How can I take part in your Customer Involvement
Programme?
Investing in communities
Over the past year, we’ve continued to invest in the communities where we work.
We built 668 much-needed new homes, invested £38m into fire safety works and supported more than 2,000 customers to access £9.7m grants and benefits. You can find out more about our work later on in this report.
Best wishes,
Ian Wardle
Chief Executive Officer
View Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Repairs
| Social and affordable rent | Compared to our target for 2023/24 | Our target 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. | 0.6% | 1% | 0.75% |
| Proportion of non-emergency responsive repairs completed within the landlord’s target timescale. | 68.8% | ||
| Proportion of emergency responsive repairs completed within the landlord’s target timescale. | 66.6% |
| Social and affordable rent | G15* landlords 2023/24 (social and affordable rent) | Compared to our target for 2023/24 | Our target 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction with our overall repairs service (from customers who’ve had a repair in the last 12 months) | 57.2% | 62.3% | 55% | 60% |
| Satisfaction with the time taken to complete your most recent repair (from customers who’ve had a repair in the last 12 months) | 54.6% | 59.3% | 55% | 60% |
| Satisfaction that your home is well maintained | 54.9% | 62.4% | 58% | 60% |
Our repairs improvement plan
We know our repairs service isn’t as good as it should be, which is why we’ve developed a rapid repairs improvement plan to help us deliver a faster and better-quality service.
We started with appointing a new repairs contractor, Mears, and our focus has been on working together to get the basics right. We also recruited a new senior leadership team including A2Dominion’s first Repairs & Maintenance Director, Jo Evans, whose priority is delivering the improvements.
Changes we’ve made so far include:
- Launching a live tracking service, so you can understand progress with your repair and communicate with your operative directly via text message
- A new process to ensure we carry out a more thorough assessment of your repair at the first stage to ensure we fix more repairs first time
- New timescales for when repairs will be completed.
Customer case study
A2Dominion customer Andrew Grattan, who lives in Spelthorne, used the live tracking portal for his repair, and said:
“I think it’s a really good idea. It was useful for managing my appointment for having the extractor fan replaced in my kitchen. I liked receiving a text message on the day telling me that the contractor would be arriving in a certain timeframe.
“Being able to contact him directly and track him on his way to me worked well. Although my repair couldn’t be completed that day, he was friendly and professional and explained why the repair couldn’t be completed. I received new appointment details soon after the appointment.”
Future improvements
We will be:
- Ensuring our repairs vans are better stocked with the most frequently needed parts. This means we can complete your repair quicker as our operatives don’t need to source parts as often from suppliers
- Adding more qualified surveyors to our team to assess complex repairs and carry out inspections to ensure the quality of the work completed
- Enhanced training for our repairs teams, including customer experience training to improve our communication with residents.
We received 5,497 complaints last year, with key themes being repairs, response times and communication. Last year, we resolved 72% of cases at the first stage of investigation, below our 82% target. If you’re not happy with the outcome, your complaint moves to stage 2 and we investigate further.
We have a 10-day target for resolving all Stage 1 complaints, set by the housing ombudsman and 20 days for a Stage 2 complaint.
Last year, 42% of stage 1 complaints and 68% of stage 2 complaints were resolved in this timeframe. 1.3% of complaints were escalated to the housing ombudsman for further investigation, above our 1% target.
View Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Complaints
| Social and affordable rent customers | Shared ownership customers | G15* landlords 2023/24 (social and affordable rent) | G15* landlords 2023/24 (shared ownership) | Compared to our target for 2023/24 | Our target 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction with our approach to handing your complaint (from customers who’ve made a complaint in the last 12 months) | 32.5% | 9.5% | 30.8% | 14.6% | 38% | 40% |
| Social and affordable rent customers | Shared ownership customers | Compared to our target for 2023/24 | Our target 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of stage one complaints received per 1,000 homes. | 151.8 | 143.5 | 111 (social and affordable rent target) 79 (shared ownership target) | 108 (social and affordable rent target) 77 (shared ownership target) |
| Number of stage two complaints received per 1,000 homes. | 21.9 | 32.7 | 6 (social and affordable rent target) 8 (shared ownership target) | 6 (social and affordable rent target) 8 (shared ownership target) |
| Proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. | 43.5% | 38.5% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of stage two complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. | 63.1% | 76.7% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. | 43.5% | 38.5% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of stage two complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. | 63.1% | 76.7% | 100% | 100% |
We regret that there were 4 cases where the housing ombudsman issued Complaint Handling Failure Orders. This was because we took too long to respond or provide information.
There were also 10 cases that had severe maladministration. A severe maladministration is when we have taken too long to address issues and are required to provide higher levels of redress. We’ve offered our sincere apologies to the individual residents affected. We fully accepted the ombudsman’s findings and recommendations and we’re using what we’ve learnt to drive improvements.
Improvements we’ve made
In the last year we’ve:
- Made it easier for you to report a complaint in different ways, including in-person, online, by letter or by phone
- Introduced complaints champions across the organisation, who investigate complaints and develop action plans to put things right
- Launched a new system to help us better monitor and track complaints and spot if there is a delay
- Improved how we assess and award compensation payments, so they are based on what is considered fair in the circumstance of the case in line with ombudsman guidance. We’ve also simplified the policy so you can better understand how we decide on payments.
Future improvements
We will be:
- Holding customer feedback workshops focusing on complaints and communication.
- Working towards new timescales for resolving complaints in line with the Housing Ombudsman Service’s code and guidance. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and respond within 10 working days (unless we need more time to investigate)
- Streamlining the process for communicating with the Housing Ombudsman Service about complaints that have been escalated
- Setting up a Resident Complaint Quality Assurance group to scrutinise anonymised complaint letters. Their feedback will drive changes to our complaint responses and inform staff training.
Fire safety programme
Our fire safety programme began in 2019 with a focus on replacing cladding where needed to comply with government safety regulations. We carried out 770 inspections and identified 65 buildings requiring work. We’ve invested £38m to date and our remediation programme is on track, due to complete in 2026. Last year we:
- Supported customers by responding to 6,500 building and fire safety enquiries
- Secured £8.4m from the government’s Building Safety Fund to pay towards remediation works at 6 buildings
- Set up an Enhanced Housing Management Team to provide additional support to customers in complex buildings and 600 tall and mid-rise buildings impacted by the Fire Safety Act and Building Safety Act.
Damp and mould
Last year, we launched a major new project to tackle damp and mould more quickly and effectively. To date, we’ve:
- Reviewed 5,366 historical cases of damp and mould, contacting customers to ensure issues are fully resolved and arranging any further works where needed
- Received 3,033 new cases of damp and mould
- Introduced new case managers to support customers in more complex cases.
View Tenant Satisfaction Measures: Safety
| Social and affordable rent customers | Shared ownership customers | G15* landlords 2023/24 (social and affordable rent) | G15* landlords 2023/24 (shared ownership) | Compared to our target for 2023/24 | Our target 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction that your home is safe | 63.9% | 39.2% | 70.6% | 55.6% | 65% | 68% |
| Combined result | (Low cost rental accommodation and low cost home ownership) | Compared to our target for 2023/24 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of homes for which all required gas safety checks have been carried out. | 92.8% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of homes for which all required fire risk assessments have been carried out. | 90.2% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of homes for which all required asbestos management surveys or re-inspections have been carried out. | 99.0% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of homes for which all required legionella risk assessments have been carried out. | 79.2% | 100% | 100% |
| Proportion of homes for which all required communal passenger lift safety checks have been carried out. | 89.8% | 100% | 100% |
Customer case study
A2Dominion customer Andy Walker has lived in his leasehold flat in Ealing for almost 15 years. The development, which is managed by A2Dominion’s Enhanced Housing Management Team, has had its cladding replaced and other fire safety works completed. Andy says he has benefited from having a dedicated property manager who is on site regularly and on hand to resolve issues.
Andy said: “The creation of the Enhanced Housing Management Team is greatly welcomed. I find it easy to contact the manager for this estate. He is often seen within the building and is approachable and helpful.
“I am a wheelchair-user and have had on-going problems with an automated door in my corridor. The local property manager is doing much more to resolve this problem. Things are changing for the better.
“I believe that this informal and ongoing face-to-face relationship with a member of the estate team works really well and results in better outcomes for everyone.”
Future priorities
We will be:
- Strengthening our technical teams to help us address damp and mould even faster
- Continuing to deliver our fire safety remediation programme
- Continuing to share information with customers on how to stay safe at home and how to contact us for help
- Introducing new technologies to help reduce condensation levels and identify issues at an earlier stage by 2025/26
- Ensuring we comply with the changes being proposed with Awaab’s Law.
Our performance
Rents
Last year, social housing rents increased by 7.7%, in line with government rules. Shared ownership rents increased in line with individual lease agreement terms. We wrote to you to provide advance notice and explain the support available for anyone struggling with finances.
Service charge
Service charge costs increased last year due to rising prices for services such as cleaning, lift maintenance, buildings insurance and the price and high demand for materials and tradespeople.
We don’t make any money from service charges; we only recover the costs of providing the services. We strive to achieve good value for money through our contracts.
Last year we had 2,595 service charge queries which we answered in an average of 23 days, ahead of our 30-day target. Last year 0.74% of service charge estimates were revised due to an error.
Rent arrears
We saw a 57% increase in referrals for help with money management last year. However, because of the many support schemes on offer, the number of our customers in rent arrears remained relatively low at 3.6%. Whilst this was marginally higher than our 3.4% target, it was among the lowest level in the G15, a group of London’s largest housing associations.
Future improvements
We’ve set up a working group to review and improve how we set and check service charge costs. This will help to ensure service charge estimates are more accurate and increase your confidence in the information we provide you.
Customer case study
Coretta Scott has been an A2Dominion customer for 13 years and is a resident member of the Customer Services Committee, which is consulted on performance and key projects.
She said: “I am passionate about making sure the voice of our customers is considered when decisions are being made at A2Dominion. As a resident, I have lived experience of the services provided, such as reporting a repair or querying a service charge. This enables me to help influence change and improve customer experience.
“I’ve really valued the opportunity to be part of the Customer Services Committee and have learnt a lot about resident involvement and the impact it can have on lives, homes, services and communities.
“A2Dominion is making it much easier for customers to get involved and share their experience. It is a huge step towards embedding a culture across the organisation that values the voice and experience of residents.”
Customer case study
A2Dominion customer David Kingsley signed up to take part in our customer engagement programme. He is now a member of a customer panel providing feedback on digital services and customer communications.
He said: “Resident engagement is so valuable. I really enjoy being part of the customer panel as it provides an opportunity to engage with residents from different backgrounds, hear their views and build trust.”