Linking repairs and asset management to neighbourhoods

Transcription

1 Linking repairs and asset management to neighbourhoods Dave Smethurst Senior Associate: CIH consultancy Date: 19 th May

2 What I want to look at today We think that linking the impact a neighbourhood has on your properties Demand Value Expenditure is the next big area for asset management Richard & I have led the work CIH has been doing nationally on developing Neighbourhood working principles and service planning Today I want to look at some useful ideas, observations and questions that may help you develop your own neighbourhood focused approach Just like that!

3 Location, Location, location! Whether people want to live in a neighbourhood is not just about the condition of their home...its about what their neighbourhood is like as well If the neighbourhood is troubled then demand for properties suffers So Intelligent asset management needs to focus on the neighbourhood as well

4 Why was that again? To protect the organisation s long term investment This means: Knowing what you need to do differently in different areas to protect your investment legacy Being able to make better decisions about what and where to carry out future asset investment and new build / refurbishment in the future Often the stock can t be sold or swapped so you may have no choice but to improve the neighbourhood You also need to know what you need others to do in the neighbourhood to protect your investment

5 But how? N hood focus sounds good but how? Obvious route is through existing N hood managemen t/ service delivery frameworks Need to understand: What s being done in the neighbourhood & by whom Why it s being done What you want to do, encourage or support Need a way to approach this systematically

6 CIH N hood working Model CIH has developed a neighbourhood working methodology aimed at improving neighbourhood sustainability Tested it in an 18 month national Pilot with 15 landlords Aimed at improving demand for the neighbourhood and retaining the tenants already living there using neighbourhood Service Plans (NSPs) Based on this we have developed a series of effective neighbourhood working principles We will soon be launching these as a CIH Neighbourhood Working Charter (currently part of another national Pilot) Principles are aimed at the best way to focus services and resources on neighbourhood sustainability We think the principles are of real importance to asset and property service managers.. if they want to understand where they could develop and influence wider local service activity.

7 So what? The key connection for you is neighbourhood sustainability Because it is about stock demand and viability What are the key issues relating to this? How do the N hood working principles apply to asset management and help it to impact sustainability?

8 Defining N hood Sustainability Plans Focus on neighbourhood sustainability Sustainability = whether people want to live and stay in a neighbourhood Determined by Quality of, and access to Services Quality of life Opportunities & life chances Plans identify what needs to be done to Improve neighbourhood sustainability = interventions

9 What do you most easily influence? Access to/ quality of services? (e.g. Housing management, repairs, police) Quality of life? (e.g. Appearance, conditions, crime, mobility,) Life chances? (e.g. Jobs, education, proximity to opportunities/work) Is there anything you influence more? Is there anything you can t influence? Point is once you identify sustainability factors you can focus on them to protect and develop demand How do you do this?

10 How do we impact sustainability? So questions for asset management function here are: What sustainability factors do we normally affect in neighbourhoods? What could we affect but don t or only sometimes? What do we want to affect but can t? Closely linked to another concept: Total, Partial or no Control (TPN)

11 TPN Way of determining the extent you need to rely on others to do something In terms of sustainability interventions and asset management e.g.s are: Total control: Building type, standards & design, major works Partial control: Day to Day Repairs, housing management, environmental services No control: Policing, employment support, congestion, educational standards, community cohesion Means you have to think about What strategies you want to employ to protect your assets? What else you can do to protect the neighbourhood? How do you want to work with others to do things you can t?

12 Asset management plus? Do you remember Housing Plus? About: What over and above the core housing management function should be done to improve the neighbourhood and help tenants? I think there is a need to develop the idea of Asset Plus to address neighbourhood issues What could this involve? E.g.s Helping address management issues through design Enhancing customer quality of life in shared areas Supporting health and education provision (Broadband, adaptations) Providing missing neighbourhood infrastructure Looking at customer profiles and impacts on property Effective partnership working and influencing strategies Want to look at how the CIH N hood working principles may help flesh out the asset management plus activity

13 N hood working principles We have a clear set of N hood working Principles Evidence based decision making Having clarity through one list of agreed N hood issues Having a common working framework that everyone is part of N hood staff commissioning the services they need Developing N hoods people want to live in and are economically viable to manage Maximising the impact of all internal resources used in N hoods Maximising the level of external resources deployed in the N hoods

14 Questions these principles raise What evidence do you currently use to make decisions? What else might be useful and why? Do you know what the neighbourhood issues are? What things do you share a consensus on with others? Can your staff influence local service provision? Can others influence your provision or decision making? Do you just focus on core property factors to decide investment patterns? What about demand factors? Are the resources you spend and those of other teams being maximised to support your investments? What awareness of external agency services priorities, resources, projects or funding do you have? How could these complement your asset investments?

15 Comparable local units/local focus We have a local service focus Have the asset team broken its stock down into local units? If not its hard to act at a local level.. or understand where different issues occur Do you use the same local area units as other internal teams to plan or collect PI data? Do other teams local areas make sense to you? Do you know what areas external agencies use? Is your stock postcoded so you can can fit it into different local areas? What are neighbourhood level numbers for you? Very hard to address local sustainability if this isn t thought about

16 Life Model Used as a tool to decide what management stance to take in neighbourhoods depending on stock numbers Stands for: Lead Follow Influence Exit Understanding your stock numbers in the context of local N hood operating areas may be crucial in deciding whether to Exit and dispose of your assets! 16

17 Sustainability Rating and comparison We can rate and compare our stock in terms of sustainability? Can you compare different areas for sustainability? If yes can you do it easily? At a glance? Do you have area ratings? Important for prioritising investment and spotting different trends How would you measure sustainability? Anything else you would you measure for viability? (cost? VFM?) What data do you actually have? What data do you use operationally What impact should sustainability issues have on stock viability assessments?

18 Simple Neighbourhood indicators Internal E.G s Voids Turnover Rent Arrears Neighbour Nuisance Customer Satisfaction ASB Repair costs External E.G s Income Crime Employment Education Statistics Health Indicators Access to services Environment ( these are just Government IMD s)

19 More sophisticated ones Indicator Household income Demand Property sustainability Resources/ VFM Community safety Disadvantage N hood satisfaction Neighbourhood sustainability indicators Measure % tenants on HB % of Tenants subject to Size Criteria % of Current Tenant Arrears No. of Evictions Tenancy Turnover % of Tenancies Terminated in 1st 12 months Average Re-let Time Average Void Rent Loss per Property (%) No. of Jobs per Property Non-core Works Cost per Property SAP Rating - Energy Efficiency Planned Spend per Property (next 10 years) Cost per unit Surplus per Unit - Surplus as % of Total Cost per unit Resource Intensity Perception of Crime in area High Level ASB Cases Medium Level ASB Case Low Level ASB Cases IMD - overall deprivation score Digital Inclusion - Access to the Internet Children in Poverty Pensioners in Poverty Level of Unemployment Level of Disability Level of Educational attainment satisfaction with the neighbourhood satisfaction with the property satisfaction with the housing service satisfaction with other services satisfaction with shops and facilities

20 Neighbourhood sustainability indicators Indicator Measure Household income Housing benefit subject to Size Criteria Overall impact on sustainability Tenant Arrears Demand Property sustainability Resources/ VFM Community safety Disadvantage N hood satisfaction Overall rating? Evictions Tenancy Turnover Tenancies Terminated in 1st 12 months Re-let Time Void Rent Loss per Property (%) Jobs per Property Non-core Works Cost per Property SAP Rating Planned Spend per Property Cost per unit Surplus per Unit Resource Intensity Perception of Crime in area High Level ASB Cases Medium Level ASB Case Low Level ASB Cases IMD - overall deprivation score Digital Inclusion Children in Poverty Pensioners in Poverty Level of Unemployment Level of Disability Level of Educational attainment satisfaction with the neighbourhood satisfaction with the property satisfaction with the housing service satisfaction with other services satisfaction with shops and facilities Some sustainability issues

21 What indicators could you influence? Indicators asset management could influence directly and partially? Direct influence? Partial influence? No influence? % Tenants on housing benefit Perception of Crime in area % of Tenants subject to Size Criteria High Level ASB Cases % of Current Tenant Arrears Medium Level ASB Case No. of Evictions Low Level ASB Cases Tenancy Turnover IMD - overall deprivation score % Tenancies ended in 1st 12mths Digital Inclusion Internet Access Average Re-let Time Children in Poverty Average Void Rent Loss (%) Pensioners in Poverty No. of Jobs per Property Level of Unemployment Non-core Works Cost per Property Level of Disability SAP Rating - Energy Efficiency Level of Educational attainment Planned Spend per Property (10 yrs) Satisfaction with the neighbourhood Cost per unit Satisfaction with the property Surplus per Unit - Satisfaction with the housing service Resource Intensity Satisfaction with other services Satisfaction with shops and facilities

22 Viability and sustainability Indicator Cost per unit Surplus per unit Resource intensity (The hidden variable??) VFM for stock investment/spend Components of Cost viability Measure Property cost + Management cost (+debt?) Surplus Generated as % of Total Cost per Property % of Current Tenant Arrears against Debit Tenancy Turnover Average Re-let Time No. of Jobs per Property Non-core Works Cost per Property Volume of ASB Cases - Rate per 100 Properties Planned Spend per Property (Based on next 10 years) Combined score for Cost, Surplus, Resource intensity

23 Getting the best out of PI s Indicators can really help you identify: What s impacting on demand Where you could act now Where you could expand what you do Where you need others to help Also can help you make better decisions on stock investment A lot of asset viability/npv assessment systems only use simple IMD neighbourhood appraisal Probably need to use this more sophisticated kind of data Because they better reflect demand and management viability (Been using this approach to develop the CIH stock appraisal tool)

24 Understanding local issues We use a range of perspectives to understand local issues How do you understand what local issues are? This is different to trends from Indicators..Its how the issues actually manifest themselves in specific areas? E.g. The type of ASB issue will make a big difference to potential asset management solution. (surveillance? lighting? fencing?) So how would you find this out? Mainly from your staff, other teams staff, customers, partners? What is your local/ operational intelligence network like?

25 Who may know what? What different perspectives might tell you: Housing team may know: key vandalism hot spots and where to put CCTV Need for different security systems Where property face lifts would help lets Tenants may know: Key environmental eyesores Need for shops and transport Where they feel unsafe Partners may know: Nature of criminal activity you may face Disability issues Need for broadband

26 Who can do what? We have a range of possible interventions we can do on our own or with partners Generally nobody has a clear picture of the full range of solutions open to them. Do you know what you could do to improve N hood/ asset sustainability or help others to? Do you know what the rest of your organisations teams could do? Do you know what other organisations could do? Do you know what solutions most fit your strategic goals? Usually developing a list of possible interventions is helpful with all of the above?

27 What you bring to the party Below are the sort of things Asset management often delivers in NSP s: Improving infrastructure, shops and community facilities Developing complementary open spaces Solving traffic congestion and parking problems Improving visibility and surveillance Target hardening Improving security and kerb appeal And of course: Improving the usage, utility and liveability of properties with external and internal improvements Massive quality of life impact!

28 Example of wider interventions Neighbourhood and community Increase staff presence in ASB hotspots Introduce advice services in community facilities More outreach youth services Home Improvement programme for garage sites Fencing review Improved parking provision More communal lighting Tenancy Debt advice More support services for young tenants Additional services for elderly Increase tenancy enforcement activity Involvement and empowerment Tenant inspectors Gardening club Set up neighbourhood face book page

29 Local service plans Have clear local service plans that show what we think needs to be done to improve or maintain that local area These can act as a focal point for action, defining the problems and solutions Shows the blend of services needed to solve problems. (e.g. property, environmental, etc.) These plans can be modified to have a much greater focus in one service area or type of issues What would you focus these plans on if you could? What management role would you have in the plans? i.e. would you run them? Or do a plan with others? Would you do ones for customers?

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31 Clear targets We have clear internal and external operational targets and accountability Often involves developing operational action plans These break each intervention into the specialist tasks for each team Then says who specifically should do what by when These give you practical process maps for who should do what on joint working Really clear on accountability & great for staff empowerment Could you link these to your own operational action plans? Would it help asset teams to have more defined roles within tasks? Do you think the increased accountability would be helpful for you?

32 Example action plan Neighbourhood plan implementation table: Tipton N hood Intervention Area Action in plan Detailed/ sub actions N hood and community Increase Targeted work on fly tipping and littering. Also target graffiti in partnership with council Increase day to day monitoring of fly tipping By caretakers and N hood coordinators Due date Responsible team Managed by Assigned to 1/10/2013 N hood team N hood Team leader (named) Caretaking team Caretaking manager (named) N hood coordinator (named) Local caretakers (named) Increase frequency of work on fly tipping and littering for caretakers Agree protocol with council on who does what for graffiti and agree response times 15/10/2013 Caretaking team Caretaking manager (named) 21/11/2013 Caretaking team Caretaking manager (named) Regen team Regen manager (named) Local caretakers (named) N hood manager (named) Regen manager (named)

33 Monitoring and Impact We are able to effectively monitor what we do and assess its impact About are you doing what you should be? And is it having an effect? What indicators and action plans do you use now? What do they tell you about progress? How would you measure impact of asset management? Useful to know how asset management issues in N hoods impacts different parts of the business How would you measure this?

34 Asset Management balanced scorecard? Balanced scorecard: organisational asset management Neighbourhood impacts Impact on Performance and sustainability Cost Improved property PI s Level of customer generated costs and Increased demand recharges Increased quality of life interventions Cost of repeat repairs Benefit of SAP rating and fuel costs Spends against neighbourhood budgets More broadband connections change in management costs Customer satisfaction with homes Change in overall maintenance costs Customer satisfaction with communal areas Change In VFM % s Customer satisfaction with appearance Internal infrastructural expenditure Staffing costs versus performance costs Partnership Working Corporate strategy and Growth Number of partnership sessions/forums/ Alignment of asset strategy in each N hood initiatives Creation or support of social enterprise and Increase in joint working with council teams jobs Level and frequency of inter agency contact Increase in stock values Level of external funding in cash and in kind Return on investment decisions generated Increase in number of units Level of external infrastructural expenditure Level of customer scrutiny on Property

35 So what About Asset + So what do these do these principles tell you in respect of developing your A+ approach? : N hoods sustainability is key to long term stock viability and should be the focus of A+ Need to determine to what extent your A+ should focus on asset interventions and on non asset interventions Then need to decide how you will do this strategically and on a day to day basis across all neighbourhoods Hopefully the questions posed by the working principles will help here But developing N'hood working also gives you an opportunity to reposition your function in the organisation. This could be another element of your A+ approach

36 Smoothing the way? Some kind of neighbourhood planning approach can: Be a key access point for property teams in terms of strategic planning and collaboration Be a springboard for something you need to do organisationally Develop joined up working capability in property through selected projects (e.g. matrix management/action planning arrangements) There may also be benefits in developing a distinctive & positive narrative for property services that complements other teams goals. Lots of examples of asset teams initiating neighbourhood plans to develop a broader approach.

37 Final thoughts Obviously N hood sustainability Impacts your assets long term Not only does it affect you.. You can affect it! Hopefully some of these concepts and tools have been useful I do think it is the next big focus for you Really is Intelligent Asset Management! I think some kind of Asset Plus (A+) approach will help bring this to life for the sector The main thing is to use some of the things here today creatively to help you protect your assets by influencing your own and others local service planning.

38 Questions and discussion Thank you for listening Let s discuss! dave.smethurst@cih.org