Report 2012 - Wishaw and District Housing Association

Wishaw & District Housing Association
Annual Report 2011 – 2012

2
Chairman’s
Foreword
As you read
through this
annual report,
you will see how
Wishaw and
District Housing
Association have
been performing
in our main aims
and aspirations
during 2011/2012, particularly as a
landlord.
Our Board of Directors and staff take
our responsibilities very seriously and
continue to perform well in terms of
quality and efficiency.
I am proud to say that our rent
collection levels, the swift re-letting of
vacant houses to ensure minimum loss of
rent revenue, and repair response times are
among the best, and that our rent levels
remain competitive and affordable.
We are also proud of our ongoing
home improvements which have brought
new kitchens and bathrooms, new roofs
and external doors, and upgraded
paintwork and central heating systems. We
are continually looking for ways to improve
and extend our services.
As we look to the future, I believe
that we approach the coming year in a
strong position but times are changing and
there are some challenging situations
ahead.
We know that there is little in the way
of grant funding and this means we are
unlikely to build many new houses in the
next few years. However we hope there will
soon be some positive news about the
plans for the large site at the bottom of
Main Street, Wishaw.
There is also uncertainty about how
welfare reform will affect our tenants and I
know the proposed changes are causing
concern. We are doing everything we can
to prepare ourselves and help those
affected by these changes.
Please don’t hesitate to contact the
Association’s staff if you wish help, advice
or more information.
I hope you find this report interesting.
Edward Mullen
Chairman
Our Board of
Directors
Last year, at our AGM in July 2011, four
board members were due to stand down
having served for the three years that
the Rules allow. All of these members, Cath
Brown, Bill Graham, Charles Keeper and Liam
McCabe, opted to stand again and were
unanimously re-elected.
Kash Arshad, who had been co-opted
during the year, was also elected at the AGM,
but unfortunately Kash left us later in the
year as personal commitments meant that he
could not attend as often as he felt he
should. Additionally we had two nominations
from the general membership and Jim
Robertson and Frank McKay (who is also a
Councillor and was formerly the Council’s
representative to our Board, but who now
serves in a personal capacity) were also
elected.
As reported during the year in our
newsletter, ‘Association Matters’, we lost our
long time board member and Secretary, John
Forbes, in October 2011 when he died just a
few weeks short of his 90th birthday.
Although we continue to miss John, the
position of Secretary has been ably filled
through the appointment of Helen Russell.
We welcomed to our ranks Councillor
Sam Love, who became our local authority
representative after the election of the
previous incumbent, Councillor John
Pentland, to the Scottish Parliament.
Following the 2011 AGM the board reelected
Edward Mullen to serve once again as
Chairperson, and Bill Graham as Vice
Chairperson. Our Rules say that normally a
Chairperson will serve for a maximum of three
years. However, in view of the current

Chairman’s steadfast commitment, his ever
growing knowledge and experience, and in
the absence of any other Board Member
willing to serve, he once again received the
unanimous and unequivocal support of the
Board.
The Board deals with all business
directly and met 16 times during the
financial year 2011/12, and was quorate at
all meetings with an average attendance rate
of 73%, slightly under our own target of
75%.
At the time of writing the Board is
operating on a full membership complement.
The Board of Directors governing the
Association up to the meeting in July 2012
consisted of:
Edward Mullen Chairperson
Bill Graham Vice Chairperson
Helen Russell Secretary
Cath Brown John Carr
Jean Fagan Charles Keeper
Grant Kennedy Irene Love
Liam McCabe Frank McKay
Jim Robertson
Councillor Sam Love serving as
Representative of
North Lanarkshire
Council
Our Board of Directors. From left to right, back row:
John Carr, Grant Kennedy, Liam McCabe and Jim
Robertson. Middle row: Irene Love, Sam Love and
Bill Graham. Front row: Helen Russell, Charles Keeper
and Edward Mullen.
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Mrs Hendry and Mr Kelly, good neighbours at Russell Street, Wishaw.

Managing Tenancies
Common Housing Register
At the end of March 2012 there were 2,821 applicants on the common
Housing Register looking for housing from Wishaw and District
Housing Association.
Allocations
Set against the 2,821 applicants above, we had only 67 properties
available for let last year, of which:
16 24% Were allocated to existing tenants of the Association
whose housing was no longer suitable.
50 75% Went to applicants on the Association’s waiting list.
This includes nominations from North Lanarkshire
Council.
1 1% Were allocated to households referred to the
Association under the agreement we have with the
Scottish Refugee Council.
We continue to operate a 25% Nominations Agreement with North
Lanarkshire Council and to accept Section 5 referrals of homeless
households.
New Tenant Visits
We offer all new tenants the opportunity of a home visit within six
weeks of moving in to help people settle and provide continuing
advice and information. However, if people don’t have the time or feel
they do not need a visit, then we respect their wishes. Of the 49 visits
scheduled to be carried out this year:
29 59% Were carried out within the six week target.
2 4% Were carried out later on a date and time more
convenient for the tenant.
18 37% Declined our settling-in service.
Void Management
Last year the average timescale for carrying out all repairs and
re-letting the 67 properties vacated was 17 days.
37 56% Were re-let within two weeks.
17 25% Were re-let within two to four weeks.
11 16% Required more extensive repairs or multiple offers and
were re-let within five to eight weeks.
2 3% Required more extensive repairs or multiple offers and
took more than eight weeks to relet.
A clear corollary of the low void period is a correspondingly low 0.3%
loss in rental income which compares very favourably with other
landlords:
Average void rent loss for the RSL sector* 1.1%
Average void rent loss for our ‘Peer Group’ of similar size
and type landlords* 0.5%
Our target maximum rent loss 0.3%
WDHA actual void rent loss for 2011/12 0.3%
*Based on Registered Social Landlord Statistics 2010/11
Rent Levels
Like everyone else, the Association has to accept rises in costs and, as
our main source of income is from rents this inevitably means an
increase in rents. However we are also very aware of the financial
burden many of our tenants are facing and therefore we sought to
minimise the increase for this year. We are pleased that for the second
year running our increase of 4% was less than inflation at the time it
was decided upon.
After the increase was applied our average weekly rents were:
2apt 3apt 4apt 5apt+
£54.18 £60.48 £69.78 £74.07
Comparison with other local landlords, and particularly with those in
our peer group, indicate that our rents continue to remain amongst
the lowest, and, through our prompt payment scheme, tenants have
the opportunity to reduce their final bill still further.
Our Prompt Payment Scheme
The Association’s Prompt Payment Scheme paid out to over 350
tenants. The scheme makes a cash payment to tenants who ensure
that their rent is paid every month on time.
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Managing Tenancies continued...
Rental Income
Last year the Association had an annual rental income of £3,160,921,
the breakdown of sources being:
Rent paid via housing benefit £1,628,516 51.52%
Rent paid directly by tenants £1,402,297 44.36%
Sharing owners’ occupancy charges £129,266 4.09%
Garage rents £842 0.03%
Rent Collection
Last year we collected 97.6% of all rent due and our arrears
performance continues to be comparable with that of other social
sector landlords:
Average rent arrears of the sector* 3.2%
Average rent arrears of our ‘Peer Group’ of similar size and
type landlords* 3.6%
WDHA rent arrears target 3%
WDHA actual rent arrears 2.4%
*Based on Registered Social Landlord Statistics 2010/11
Unfortunately we had to take legal action against 46 tenants, and take
nine cases to court seeking repossession. Despite being given every
assistance one household failed to maintain repayment arrangements
and very sadly we carried out one eviction.
Estate Management
Happily, the vast majority of our residents continue to take a pride in
their homes, gardens and living environment and help to make our
estates pleasant and attractive places to live, and we wish to help this
majority by encouraging the minority who do not appear to share this
aim. Last year one tenant was issued with a legal notice because of
the unacceptable condition of their property. We are delighted that
they worked with us to make the improvements required to bring their
property back to an acceptable standard.

Living With Neighbours
The occasional thoughtlessness of a few residents inevitably
causes distress to their neighbours, and last year we received
complaints about twenty of our tenants. However, it is important
to note that we manage over 1,500 dwellings so those residents
that do display anti-social behaviour are very much in the
minority, at around 1.3%. Additionally, virtually all of these
complaints were of a relatively minor nature and most were
resolved quickly and amicably.
We are committed to keeping a zero tolerance approach to
anti-social behaviour and last year we issued notices to five
tenants advising that legal action would be taken against them if
their behaviour did not improve.
To demonstrate our support for residents that do suffer from
the behaviour of others, we once again renewed our agreement
with North Lanarkshire Council who provide advice and practical
assistance outwith office hours.
Leases and Partnership Working
Women’s Aid
The Association has been working with Women’s
Aid for almost five years and continues to lease
two flats to their organisation.
This partnership has allowed the Association to assist
Women’s Aid to support vulnerable women and their children
to leave a violent situation by providing them with a safe
haven until they are ready to start their new life in
accommodation of their own.
NLC’s Homeless Service
The Association has been working in partnership
with North Lanarkshire Council to assist them meet
their legal obligation to homeless households. We currently
lease one property to the Council for temporary
accommodation and we are exploring ways to extend this much
needed provision.
Sustaining Tenancies – Other Social Landlords
We continue to look at new ways we can work with other
organisations and agencies to provide much needed support
services to vulnerable tenants. We are currently working with
partner social landlords to explore the possibility of a tenancy
sustainment project that will offer intensive, tailored support
to tenants struggling to maintain their tenancy.
Ownership Matters
Property Management Service
We continue to look at opportunities to improve and expand the
services we offer to the 527 owners that reside in our areas. We are
pleased to note that our efforts seem to be being recognised and more
owners are co-operating with the Association.
In particular, the timeous payment of property management
invoices has improved and formal debt recovery action has only been
required in a very small number of cases. However we did refer
fourteen owners to a debt collection agency and two wage arrestment
actions were taken after court decrees were obtained.
Right to Buy Sales
During the year just two properties were sold under the old rules
governing Right to Buy.
The Association successfully applied for a ten year extension to
the suspension of the Modernised Right to Buy which was due to
expire in September of this year. This will assist us to protect our
stock for future generations who wish to rent.
Shared Ownership
As a result of a further three sharing owners buying the remainder of
their property and two recent ‘buybacks’ on the open market for relet
as fully rented properties, the Association now has only 63 properties
on the shared ownership tenure.
The conveyancing of the three properties bought by their
occupiers was all carried out within the target timescale of 90 days,
taking an average of 78 days to complete.
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8
Gas servicing. Replacement kitchens.
Replacement windows. Landscape maintenance.

Maintenance News
Scottish Housing Quality
Standard
We are delighted to report that all of our
houses meet, and in some cases exceed, the
Scottish Housing Quality Standard and we
expect our future programmes of planned and
cyclical works will ensure our continued
compliance.
Planned Maintenance
344 properties benefitted from planned
maintenance works during the past year,
some receiving more than one improvement:
• 27 new external doors to 27
properties
• New internal doors to 44 properties
• 40 new boilers or heating systems
• 24 new bathroom suites
• 79 new kitchens
• New extract fans in 36 properties
• New smoke and carbon monoxide
detectors in 82 properties
• 24 new electrical consumer units
• New flooring in common closes
serving 8 properties
• Repairs to common external steps and
pathways serving 96 properties
By undertaking these works we are ensuring
our properties remain in excellent condition
and meet all current housing standards. Our
Planned Maintenance programme for the
coming year is set down in the table
opposite.
PLANNED MAINTENANCE 2012-2013
Description of Works Address*
Replacement Roofs 281 Kirk Road, Wishaw
Repairs to Common Pathways and Stairs 12-49 Leighton Street, Wishaw
Replacement Windows Finnie Wynd and Nelson Crescent, Motherwell
Barons Road, Clyde Terrace, Merryton Road
and Muirhouse Drive, Muirhouse
Replacement External Doors 72-112 Glasgow Road, 1-27 Cleland Road and
10-32 Roberts Street, Wishaw
Barons Road, Clyde Terrace, Merryton Road
and Muirhouse Drive, Muirhouse
Harthill
Replacement Internal Doors 72-112 Glasgow Road, 1-27 Cleland Road,
72-90 Russell Street and 281 Kirk Road
Wishaw
Replacement Kitchens 293-363 Caledonian Road, 5-17 Station Road
and 184-192 Caledonian Road, Wishaw
Carbarns East, Carbarns West, Mid Carbarns
and 134 Kirknethan, Netherton
Auchter Avenue, Braedale Crescent, Hawthorn
Avenue and Mavisbank Street, Newmains
Replacement Sanitaryware 72-112 Glasgow Road and 1-27 Cleland Road
and 72-90 Russell Street, Wishaw
Replacement Central Heating Systems 2-20 McInnes Cour, 48 East Academy Street
41-53 East Thornlie Street and 3-17 & 24
McInnes Court, Wishaw
Replacement Extract Fans 2-20 McInnes Court, 72-90 Russell Street
23-53 Russell Street, 10-32 Roberts Street
17-23 Kitchener Street, 281 Kirk Road
Raven Wynd, Wren Place, Swift Close and
2a - 6d Russell Street Wishaw
Extract Fan Replacement Filters 39-65 Easter Road Shotts
Replacement Consumer Units 5-17 Station Road and 184-192 Caledonian
Road, Wishaw
73-87 Charles Street, Craigneuk
*Where house numbers are not given all tenanted houses on the named streets will be included in the programme.
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Maintenance News
continued...
Cyclical Maintenance
Each year we also undertake a programme of
cyclical maintenance to ensure our homes
remain in safe, secure and good order. Gutter
cleaning, gas servicing and the maintenance
of common landscaped areas are carried out
every year. We also undertake a cyclical
programme of electrical testing and
inspections (for each property every 7 years)
and external painting works (for each
property every 5 years). During 2011/12 we
undertook the following cyclical works:
• Completed external painterwork on
198 properties
• Completed 136 electrical safety
inspections
• Serviced all gas appliances
• Carried out gutter cleaning to all
properties
Properties that will benefit from external
painterwork and electrical safety inspections
in 2012/13 are shown in the table opposite.
Void Repair Works
67 of our properties were vacated during
2011/12 and we undertook works in each
house to ensure they met our lettable
standard before they were offered to a new
tenant. In addition, we spent over £10,000
upgrading and adapting one property to suit
the needs of a larger family and this has
contributed to the relatively high spend of
£69,127 on empty houses this year.
CYCLICAL MAINTENANCE 2012-2013
Description of Works Address*
External Painterwork 293-363 Caledonian Road, 138 & 73-109 Cambusnethan
Street, 5-17 Station Road, and 184-194 Caledonian
Road, Wishaw
Carbarns East, Carbarns West, Mid Carbarns, 134
Kirknethan, Netherton
Barons Road, Clyde Terrace, Merryton Road, Muirhouse
Drive, Brendan Way and Margaret Drive, Muirhouse
2-12 Ladysmith Street, 25-27 Shieldmuir Street,
Craigneuk
39-65 Easter Road, Shotts
7 Trows Road and 16 Brooklyn Place, Overton
Electrical Testing and Inspections 44-82 Millbank Road and 1-37 Hallinan Gardens,
Wishaw
Carbarns East, Carbarns West, Mid Carbarns and 134
Kirknethan, Netherton
9-54 Valley View, Muirhouse
4, 6 & 16 Shaw Crescent, Netherton
*Where house numbers are not given all tenanted houses on the named streets will be included in the programme.
Reactive Repairs – Contractors’ Performance
Reactive repairs are undertaken in response to tenants telling us about day to day failures
such as broken components, leaks etc, and during the past year we attended 184 emergency
and 3065 non-emergency (urgent and routine) reactive repairs. We monitor our own and our
contractors’ performance, both in terms of the speed with which they are undertaken and
also tenants’ satisfaction with the service. We are extremely pleased to report the positive
results of this monitoring, shown below:
Category Target response time % completed on target
Emergency Make safe within 2 hours 99.5%
Urgent Attend within 2 working days 99.8%
Routine Complete within 10 working days 96.6%
Tenant satisfaction with:
Helpfulness of maintenance staff 99.3%
Tradesman’s punctuality 99.7%
Time to complete repair 98.7%
Tradesman’s courtesy 99.2%
Quality of repair 98.4%
Level of disturbance caused 98.8%
We take note of all tenant feedback and use this to improve our service in the future.

The Cost of Maintenance
Works
Between April 2011 and March 2012 the
Association spent a total of £853,523 on
maintenance works. This figure is broken
down in the table below:
Total % of Spend
Spend Spend per unit
Reactive £339,973 40% £350
Cyclical £336,420 39% £978*
Planned £108,003 13% £111
Void £69,127 8% £1032*
Total £853,523
*Amount spent on each dwelling included in the programme.
Medical Adaptations
We are pleased to report that we received
£45,039 last year in grant funding that
allowed us to undertake a significant number
of medical adaptations to our properties. The
alterations we undertook were based on
medical referrals that detailed adaptations
that would enable tenants to live more
comfortably in their homes following a
change in their physical mobility. The 23
adaptations we undertook in 2011/12 are
detailed below:
8 wet floor shower rooms
2 new driveways for disabled vehicles
4 internal handrails
4 external handrails
1 additional socket
1 adapted kitchen to suit tenant needs
1 additional external light fitting
1 replacement swing door
1 widening of pass door
What Tenants Think of Us?
Following a survey of all tenants, here are some of the main findings:
• 93% of tenants were satisfied with WDHA as a landlord (5% were neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied)
• 94% were satisfied with the range and quality of our services (2% were neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied)
• 95% thought our office opening hours were convenient
• 97% felt it was easy to get to talk to the right person
• 97.5% thought they received good advice and assistance
• 100% found our staff friendly and helpful
• Only 3% felt that that the rent was not good value for money
• 94% thought the general condition of their home was good (3% thought it was
neither good nor bad)
• 93% thought their area was a good place to live (4% thought it was neither good
nor bad)
• 87% were satisfied with our maintenance of common parts and footpaths
• 97% were satisfied with the general condition of our buildings
• 14% were dissatisfied with provision of children’s play facilities and felt we
should provide more of these
• 50% felt that stray or neighbours’ dogs caused a problem
• 18% thought there was a problem with vandalism and graffiti, and 29.5% with
litter and rubbish
• 94.6% were satisfied with our repair service (2% thought it was neither good nor
bad)
• 97% thought our repairs appointment service was convenient
• 96% thought we were good at keeping tenants informed
(2.5% thought we were neither good nor bad)
• Only 3% felt they were not given opportunities to
contribute to decisions and services that affected
them
• Only 5% thought we did not take into account
tenants’ views when developing services
• 93% thought we would take the views expressed in
the survey into account when planning services.
When asked what was most important
to them as a tenant people listed the
top three things as:
• Repair and maintenance of their home
• The overall quality of their home
• Being consulted on services and
matters that affect their tenancy
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Residents at Russell Street, Wishaw, plant and care for their communal
flower garden.

People and Communities
We believe that our role need not be limited
to building and managing dwellings, and that
we can do a lot to assist and support the
development of sustainable communities.
During this last year we have continued to
lead or be involved in a number of
initiatives, described below, and we continue
to look for other ways to widen our service
where there is a clear need to do so.
Encouraging Credit Union
Membership
Credit unions provide a social banking service
and for many residents they offer a cost
effective savings and borrowing service. Our
voucher scheme continues to be offered to
new tenants, and, by arrangement, anyone
who missed out on the first offer.
Advice for Tenants and
Residents (AFTAR) Project
The AFTAR project is managed by the
Motherwell and Wishaw Citizen’s Advice
Bureau and five partner landlords including
ourselves. It was financed by its partners and
the Scottish Government’s Wider Role Fund
and ran with this funding until the end of
March 2012.
During the year, this free and
confidential service offered advice on a wide
range of benefits, money, debt and fuel
issues at our offices or to residents in their
own homes. It also provided financial
workshops to improve residents’ skills in
money management.
Over the last two years the service has
brought in over £1.35 million worth of client
financial gain to all five
partner landlords. This is
in excess of all the
targets set for the
project.
Just over £307,000 has been put into
the pockets of 398 Association residents,
with a number of claims and appeals
outstanding. People in debt also benefited
from advice in managing repayment.
Unfortunately, the Government has
changed the funding regime for projects such
as this and it must be reassessed in the
context of a new fund with new rules. At
present the partners have agreed to fund the
project at full cost until the end of June
2012, to allow time for alternative grant
funding to be assessed.
Older Persons’ Advice
Service (OPAS)
This service has built
on the work of the
former Older Person’s
Advice Project and offers advice aimed at our
tenants and sharing owners aged 60 plus.
Since the Association participated in this
project over £210,000 has been gained for
our more mature residents.
All our residents who have used the
service have been pleasantly surprised by its
quality and friendliness and have sung the
praises of staff even when they personally
did not get any financial benefit.
We have signed up to this service again
for the coming year.
Provision of Furniture
We are looking at how we can assist tenants
who are struggling to sustain their
unfurnished tenancies. We have negotiated
referral arrangements to Recap (a local
furniture recycling project) that enables
people to purchase low cost good quality
second hand furniture at the lowest possible
prices. We are in the process of negotiating a
similar arrangement with St. Patrick’s
Furniture Project and hope to include an
option to purchase new white goods. In
addition, through the AFTAR project we had
managed to get access to Scottish and
Southern Energy’s appliance service and are
currently waiting to see if this scheme has
been continued for another year.
Welfare
We have negotiated referral arrangements to
the Basics Foodbank, run by local churches.
This service offers practical support by
providing struggling households with food
packages, as well as emotional support at a
time of crisis, usually caused by a change of
benefit that leaves the household with no
income for a short period. Sadly, the impact
of some welfare reforms and other household
circumstances meant that we did have to
make referrals during the year.
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Dykehead Primary School’s Eco
Committee, funders and friends.
Housing Officer, Susan Tait,
worked closely with the school.
Depute Provost, Jim Robertson, and Edward
Mullen, Chairman WDHA, open the Eco Garden.
Pupils are presented with a weather station and sundial.

Our Little Patch of
Green – Easter Road
Eco Garden
A highlight this year has been the delivery of
our Eco Garden at Easter Road Shotts.
Created in conjunction with Dykehead
Primary School and the Restorative Justice
Team (North Lanarkshire Council) for both the
community and school to utilise as an
allotment/outdoor classroom space, the
project has transformed this little patch of
Shotts.
The garden was formally opened on
Friday 20th April 2012 when Depute Provost
Jim Robertson planted an apple tree to mark
the occasion. After the official ceremony, the
school’s eco committee delivered a fantastic
presentation on their various environmental
projects, rounded off with their own
environmental song and our Chief Executive
Anne Cooper presented a sun dial and
weather station to help get the children get
started with their new eco adventure.
We are extremely grateful to our funders,
Scottish Power Renewables, for providing
almost all the funds through their Community
Benefit Fund set up as part of the Blacklaw
Windfarm development, and also Dobbies at
Sandyholm Garden Centre who kindly donated
plants.
If you live in the area and would like to
come and get involved with the
garden please contact either
Susan Tait or Mykela Heath at
the Association for more
details.
Development News
Main Street Wishaw
In August 2011 we appointed a preferred
development partner, CCG (Scotland) Ltd,
to work with ourselves and our design
team to progress a development strategy
for the site that we own at Main Street
Wishaw. Our design options include
housing for rent, housing for sale and
accommodation for the elderly, and we
have been discussing with a care home
operator the option of constructing a care
home on part of the site. However, to date
no firm decisions have been taken as to
exactly what will be built on this site and
when.
Nevertheless, we are pleased to report
that this prominent town centre
development has been given priority within
the Council’s recently published Strategic
Housing Investment Programme and we
hope to be allocated grant funding and
secure the loan finance that will allow us
to take the project forward this year or
next.
Future New Building
In the current economic climate procuring
funding for new developments is proving to
be difficult and expensive. While
government subsidy remains relatively low,
and therefore the sums that we must
borrow have increased, we are also
expected to meet ever more stringent
building standards.
Although we remain committed to
developing new communities in Wishaw
and the surrounding areas we must, in
common with all housing associations,
ensure that we do not do so at the cost of
managing and maintaining our existing
properties. Regrettably the future of our
development programme remains uncertain
with no specific proposals beyond our Main
Street project.
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Equal Opportunities
To demonstrate our commitment to achieving equal opportunities for all the people we serve we
monitor our activities.
GENDER
Local Existing Waiting List Lettings Current Board of
Community* Tenants Applicants 2011/12 Staff Directors
2011/12
Male 49% 41% 40% 42% 35% 69%
Female 51% 59% 60% 58% 65% 31%
ETHIC ORIGIN
White 99% 35% 67% 99% 100% 100%
Non White 1% 2% 1% 1% 0% 0%
Not Known 0% 65% 32% 0% 0% 0%
DISABILITY
Disabled 9%* 8% 8% 1% 0% 31%
Not disabled 0% 14% 45% 99% 100% 54%
Not known 91% 78% 47% 0% 0% 15%
*Disability is reflective of the number of people claiming Disability Living Allowance.it cannot be
assumed that people not claiming this allowance are not disabled so the remainder is listed as
‘not known’.
There have been no recruitment events this year, and therefore no statistics are given on this
activity.
Access to Information
We continue to offer to procure translation
and interpretation services to those who
cannot read or speak English well. This
service is also available to people who have
other needs such as Braille or the services of
a sign interpreter. However, last year there
were no requirements for this service.
Our website has the capability to be read in
large print and we also have an audio version
available.
Financial News
Accounting Changes
The Association has adopted the
Statement of Recommended Practice
Accounting by Registered Social Housing
Providers, Update 2010, which is
mandatory for accounting periods on or
after April 1 2011. The key change has
been the requirement for the Association
to identify and separately account for
the major components which make up
our housing property assets and other
heritable property. All of our housing
properties are now depreciated and prior
period balances have been restated to
reflect this change in accounting policy,
reducing our opening reserves by £1.8
million
The Current Financial
Position
The Association is pleased to report that
our accounts and various financial
projections demonstrate a continuing
viable business and that this view is
shared by our auditors PKF (UK) LLP.
Our charitable status has again had
a positive impact on our financial
position as we are no longer required to
pay Corporation Tax on surpluses
generated from charitable activities. We
have also been able to take advantage of
various other cost savings afforded to us
by being a registered charity.
Consequently, we have once again
produced a healthy operating surplus and
we continue to increase our reserves.
These now stand at just over
£3,382,074.

Our capital expenditure this year on the
acquisition of ‘mortgage to rent’ properties,
shared ownership buyback and on
professional fees associated with our Main
Street development site amounted to
£523,000.
Our Future Financial
Position
The fall in interest rates has reduced
investment returns but has had a positive
effect on the cost of our variable loans and
we anticipate that we will continue to
benefit from lower loan servicing costs into
2012/13. Current thinking is that interest
rates may not rise significantly over the next
five years although inflationary pressure may
dictate otherwise. However, in line with our
treasury management strategy we have, in
prior years, fixed some of our new loans and
re-fixed some of our older loans at more
favourable interest rates. This will help to
protect the Association against future
increases in interest rates.
We anticipate that we will have to
borrow additional funds towards the end of
2012/13 in order to fund the development of
the Main Street site.
Our 2011 AGM.
Financial Highlights
Income and Expenditure Account for year ending 31 March 2012
2012 2011
Restated
Turnover 3,245,216 3,118,786
Less operating costs (2,616,165) (2,347,017)
Operating surplus 629,051 771,769
Sale of properties (17,247) (33,111)
Disposal of components (7,719) (63,952)
Interest receivable 14,714 4,375
Interest payable (524,910) (538,038)
Surplus before tax for the year 93,889 141,043
Tax on surplus on ordinary activities _ 729
Surplus after tax 93,889 141,772
Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2012
Net housing property cost 15,517,382 15,475,526
Other fixed assets 558,237 565,249
16,075,619 16,040,775
Current assets 1,944,016 2,318,143
Creditors due within one year (851,164) (789,785)
Net current assets 1,092,852 1,528,358
Total assets less current liabilities 17,168,471 17,569,133
Creditors due after one year (13,788,849) ( (14,283,403)
3,379,622 3,285,730
Capital and Reserves
Share capital 134 131
Designated reserves – _
Prior year adjustment – unrestricted reserve – (1,811,578)
Accumulated surplus – unrestricted reserve 3,379,488 5,097,177
3,379,622 3,285,730
Our full annual accounts are available on our website: www.wishawha.org.uk
17

18
Complaints and Appeals
Responding to Complaints
Whilst the Association always aims for the highest possible standards we realise that there
will be times when service users wish to appeal a decision or feel that they have just cause
for complaint. We see appeals and complaints as an important opportunity to improve our
current and future service delivery and during 2011/12 we received ten complaints about
various different aspects of our service.
Process % Meeting Target
Acknowledgements of receipt meeting 67% – average time to respond 3.1 days
3 day target
Responses meeting 10 day target 92% – average time to respond 4.8 days
Complaints proceeding to Complaints
Committee 2
Meeting target time of 20 days to convene
complaints committee hearing 100% – average time 2 days
Meeting target time of giving at least 5
days notice to complaintant 100% – average time 6.5 days
Meeting target time of 5 days to issue
decision 100% – average time 3 days
Complaints requiring Ombudsman decision 0
Complaints Upheld 10%
Rejected 70%
Partly Upheld/Partly Rejected 20%
This coming year sees the introduction by the SPSO (Scottish Public Services’ Ombudsman)
of a new model complaints handling procedure that will be require to be adopted by all
RSLs. The model procedure for RSLs has been published in line with the recommendations
of a government appointed working party called the Sinclair Committee, these
recommendations being that the SPSO simplify and improve complaints handling by
developing standardized procedures.
The RSL model has been developed in consultation with the housing sector, guided by
an advisory panel of housing association representatives and a steering group of key
housing stakeholders including the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Chartered Institute of
Housing, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Tenant Participation
Advisory Service.
Staff News
Our longest serving employee, Tracey Fyfe
(pictured below with Chairman, Edward
Mullen) reached the admirable service
milestone of 25 years in June this year.
Having staff with a long continuity of service
gives depth, stability and credibility to an
organisation. At the very least we benefit
from long memories of how things have
evolved and changed. We very much
appreciate Tracey’s part in making the
Association what it is today.
More sadly, we are sorry to have to
report that our former Customer Services
Assistant, Jane Kerr, who retired in 2010, and
who will be well remembered by many of our
tenants from her time working in our
reception, died during the year after a long
and brave battle with cancer.
In 2011/12 once again we had zero staff
turnover. Our staff absence rate due to
sickness was 3.0%.

Staff Team
Our staff team is now:
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Anne Cooper
TENANCY SERVICES
Assistant Chief Executive Elaine Lister
Housing Operations Manager John Stevenson
Allocations Officer Tracey Fyfe
Allocations Assistant Donnamarie Beattie
Owner Services Officer Alan Richardson
Housing Officer Helen Ross
Housing Officer Susan Tait
Senior Housing Assistant Robert MacAlpine
Housing Assistant Gemma Lumsden
TECHNICAL SERVICES
Technical Services Manager Colette McKenna
Maintenance Manager Terry McKenna
Maintenance Officer Ged McFarlane
Development Officer Mykela Heath
Clerk of Works Gordon Smith
Maintenance Assistant Louise McGarrell
Minor Repairs Operative Jed O’Neill
Minor Repairs Operative Willie Smillie
FINANCE
Finance Manager Andrew Whitehead
Finance Assistant Fiona Adams
CORPORATE SERVICES
Corporate Services Manager Sharon Kewley
Senior Customer Services
Assistant Anne Michelle Currie
Corporate Services Assistant Lynn Wyper
Customer Services Assistant Sharon Harkin
Customer Services Assistant Betty Young
Officer Cleaner Kitty Kilpatrick
Top left: Tenancy Services
Inset: Chief Executive
Middle left: Corporate Services
Middle right: Finance
Left: Technical Services
19

The Association is a Scottish Charity No. SC041554,
and is an approved body for the purposes of
Section 3(i) of the Housing Association Act 1985,
is registered in the Register of Social Landlords
defined by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, is
registered with the Financial Services Authority
(replacing the Registrar of Friendly Societies)
No. 1940 (R) S and abides by the Model HSA
(Scotland) Rules. We are affiliated to the Scottish
Federation of Housing Associations.
We were established in 1978 as East Motherwell
District Housing Association and changed our name
to Wishaw and District Housing Association in
1994. Our area of operation covers Wishaw,
Craigneuk, Muirhouse, Netherton, Newmains, Shotts
and Harthill.
Wishaw & District Housing Association
Strengthening communities through
affordable housing
55 Kirk Road, Wishaw ML2 7BL
Tel: 01698 377200
Fax: 01698 358712
E-mail: assoc@wishawdha.org.uk
Web: www.wishawdha.org.uk
Melville Design Associates, Glasgow 0141 637 8594