Housing Annual Report 2011-12 - South Derbyshire District Council

Housing Services
Annual Report 2011/12
in
partnership
with
Tenants
4
Tenants
South Derbyshire
Tenants’ and Residents’
Forum
South Derbyshire
Changing for the better

Welcome
Contents
Tenant lnvolvement and Empowerment 1-5
Tenancy 6
Neighbourhood and Community 7
Dreamscheme 8-9
Home 10-12
Value for Money 13
Diversity 14
lntroduction
It has been another eventful year delivering housing services to you in what are challenging times.
The biggest financial transaction the council has ever undertaken occurred this year when we took
on nearly £60 million pounds worth of debt to ‘buy out’ of the previous national housing financial
system, which if it continued, meant we lost around 40% of our income each year to the national
government.
With the knowledge that this change means we can keep our income, our long term business
plan created with the help of tenants, sets out how we will deliver our services over the next 30
years and explore new opportunities to improve your homes and services you receive. As a result
we’re spending more this year on improving homes than we have ever done before.
The success of the Dreamscheme (read about this on pages 8 and 9) has created many more
opportunities for you and younger generations to work with us to improve the places we live and
the lives of vulnerable people.
We have also explored innovation with the construction of a green Ground Source Heat Pump
system which reduces the fuel bills of tenants and reduces our carbon footprint.
In this report we will highlight the successes as well as those areas we need to improve. As always
we welcome your views on what we do so if you would like to be involved in shaping policies and
services please contact our Tenant Participation team on 01283 595788.

Tenant lnvolvement and Empowerment
lt has been another
fantastic year, with even
more tenants getting involved
with Housing Services.
One of the most positive ways we have engaged with young
people across the district this year is through our Dreamscheme.
A total of 21 youngsters and their families took part in two of these
projects and associated tidy-up events, making the Dreamscheme
one of our success stories.
More generally tenants have got involved with Housing Services
through 15 various Tenant Panels, events, competitions and projects
we have run. We have also launched a Housing Services’ Facebook
page (details below) where you can view photographs taken
during our various events and projects, find out about forthcoming
involvement opportunities and discuss issues affecting tenants living
in South Derbyshire.
To give you even more opportunities to influence and shape
services, and to participate, we have also increased the number of
tenant initiatives for 2012/2013. This includes new events such as:
• A Tenants’ Photography Competition - My South Derbyshire.
• Community Champion Awards – a celebration of tenants
who go the extra mile for their neighbours or communities.
• A Youth Panel to give young tenants a voice to discuss their
needs.
• An Events Panel to help our Tenant Participation Officers
identify, organise, market and co-ordinate Housing Services’
events across the district.
lf you would like to get involved with us, or find out
more, contact Laurie or Sharon on 01283 595788.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
SDDC-Housing-Services/
121787601257070
1

Tenant Panels
Our tenant panels are
continuing to work in
partnership with us to improve
and develop services. Here are just
some examples of the work they have
been doing over the last year, and plans
for 2012/2013:
Performance and Scrutiny Panel
The Performance and Scrutiny Panel have continued to play a key role in the way we deliver
services to our tenants. Performance data is shared with the Panel on a quarterly basis for
them to review and provide recommendations on. For the first time this year the Panel was
involved in setting targets against key performance indicators for the forthcoming year.
ln April the Panel met with officers and tenants of Wolverhampton Homes. The purpose of the
day was to share best practice around performance and scrutiny and to discuss plans for the
future. We also recruited three new Panel members.
Supported Housing Working Group
Members have recently discussed the £27 million programme of works to improve the Council’s
housing stock. Members are currently being consulted about ways in which to reach even more
tenants living in Supported Housing.
Home Standard (Repairs) Working Group
Members have followed the ground source heating project, in Brook Street, Hartshorne, and
seen the successful completion. The Panel is reviewing the Repairs Policy and continues
to be involved in the tendering selection process for new contractors.
Publications Panel
Members have continued to review each edition of
Housing News and the 2011/2012 Annual Report to ensure
what we report on to our tenants is accurate and what
you want to read. Plans for 2012/2013 will include
setting up and recruiting a Youth Panel to work
with the Publications Panel to produce
a dedicated section in the Housing
News.
2
Tenants
4
Tenants
South Derbyshire
Tenants’ and Residents’
Forum
“This year the Forum has played a much more
active role in promoting Tenant Participation, from
assisting the Council with community events such
as the Gardening Competition and Dreamscheme, to
continuing to develop our website. We have purchased
a printer from our annual grant and also have an
email account to enable us to correspond with tenants
and external agencies and produce material to further
promote the Forum. Six new members have joined us,
and we continue to work hard to get even more tenants
involved.” Denis Woolley, Chairman of the South
Derbyshire Tenants’ and Residents’ Forum

Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH)
Council tenant David Bown has been chosen for the second year running to sit on the
ARCH Tenants’ Group.
national
The Group is a national network of tenant representatives from ARCH member authorities across England, including South
Derbyshire District Council.
Residents have been recruited from across England to ensure the ARCH Tenants’ Group fully reflects the views of people who
live in social housing to ensure they are fed into national reviews.
David and his fellow members have also formulated a response to the Housing Minister on Government policy proposals.
He updates Council officers and the Tenants’ and Residents’ Forum on any issues that could affect tenants in South Derbyshire.
“Members of the ARCH Tenants’ Group have
a fantastic opportunity to inuence and
shape social housing across the whole
country, as well as in our local areas, to
help deliver services that tenants want
and need. We are currently preparing
questions to put to the Housing Minister
asking for his view on the future of
social housing.” David Bown, ARCH
Tenants’ Group member for South
Derbyshire District Council
local
regional
Derbyshire Landlords Group
To show our commitment to sharing best practice and
supporting our tenants in networking with other social
housing tenants across the county, South Derbyshire
District Council has signed up to the Derbyshire Landlords
Group (DLG) Service Level Agreement (SLA). Four tenants
attended the Derbyshire Tenants’ Network conference last
year.
The DLG was set up in 2012 to enable six Derbyshire
social housing landlords, to:
Share best practice.
Achieve efficiency savings by sharing resources.
Provide a local, cost effective and immediate training
response for resident involvement.
Enable a mechanism for residents and staff to share
information.
South Derbyshire Tenants’ and Residents’ Forum
We continue to work in partnership with the Forum, which currently has 17 active members from across the district, some of
whom sit on the our tenant panels. During 2011/2012, Forum members have assisted Housing Services by:
attending Estate Tours
volunteering on the Dreamscheme projects
supervising groups of young people during a trip to Alton Towers
judging the 2011 Gardening Competition and helping run the Prize Giving Ceremony
two tenants from the Tenant Forum attended the roofing contract interviews
The Council supports the Forum by giving them a £1,000 annual grant, offering in-house, regional and national training and
funding tenant networking events.
More information about the Forum is available by phoning 01283 558216, or emailing sdtrform@hotmail.co.uk
3

Performance
Our key achievements in 2011/2012 were:
• Worked towards the new HRA Self Financing model following the abolition of the HRA Subsidy
system and took on nearly £60m of debt.
• Launched our new 30 year Business Plan to invest £27m in the stock over the next 5 years and
£108m over the next 30 years.
• Supported a Tenant Representative to sit on the national tenant body of ARCH.
• Set up a Consortium with 2 Local Authorities in Derbyshire with the aim of delivering call
monitoring services for elderly and vulnerable people across Derbyshire.
• Continued to work in partnership with Trident Housing and Derbyshire County Council in the
provision of the unique Extra Residential Care scheme in Swadlincote.
• Launched the remodelled and restructured Housing Support service to elderly persons following
an extensive consultation process.
• Launched our first Dreamscheme working with young people to turn an area of waste ground in
to a community garden.
• Carried out our 2 nd Dreamscheme working with young people to pack and deliver Christmas
Hampers to vulnerable people in South Derbyshire.
• Replaced over 1000 Carbon Monoxide detectors in all our elderly persons’ accommodation.
• Worked alongside the local health authority and Derbyshire County Council to review falls
recovery for vulnerable people across South Derbyshire.
• Completed the region’s first ever green District Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) at Brook Street,
Hartshorne.
Areas for lmprovement
We always recognise there are areas of the Service we can
improve on, and we use your feedback to help us do that.
ln 2011 we said we would … We did …
Reduce the time taken to register applicants on the Choice Based
Lettings system
lmprove performance and satisfaction levels with day
to day gas repairs carried out by our partner contractor
Consider the overall strategy for the management of garage stock for
the future of garage sites
Carry out an assessment of open spaces and
neighbourhood renewal
Address former tenant rent arrears recovery rates
Address the average length of stay in bed & breakfast
Offer consistent customer focus across the Service
4
Plans for 2012/2013:
We have also identified several
key areas for improvement in
the Housing and Environmental
Service Plan 2012/2013, which
we published in April 2012.
These are
• Addressing the length of stay in
temporary accommodation
• lmproving our empty property re-let
times
• lncreasing the use of mobile
working to ensure timely customer
service
• lmproving guidance and information
available to customers making it
more accessible via the internet and
other media forms
This public document is available on our
website at www.south-derbys.gov.uk/
council_and_democracy/council_policies_plans/service_plans/default.asp.

Local Offers Update
In April 2011 we made important promises to our tenants, which are
called Local Offers. The information below gives an overview on how
Housing Services has performed against our measurable promises
during 2011/2012:
We promised our tenants we
would…
Home Standard
Carry out emergency repairs within 24
hours
Carry out urgent repairs within 72 hours
Carry out non urgent repairs within 20
working days
Aim to complete the repair on the first
visit
Personally contact every complainant
Aim to maintain the decent homes
standard
Ensure our contactors are courteous and
polite at all times
General
Answer the telephone within 10
seconds
Reply to your correspondence within 10
working days
Tenancy Standard
Register your completed application
within 10 working days
Publish information each quarter for
number of properties let
Neighbourhood & Community
Complete initial assessment of ASB
case in 1 day
Agree an action plan to resolve your
case in 2 working days from the initial
contact
Complete all investigations required
within 10 working days
Resolve the ASB case within 2 months
on the initial report
We did …
2011/2012 Results
Our repairs team carried out 414 emergency repairs, 413 were
carried out within 24 hours, achieving 99.7% against a target of 99%.
Our repairs team carried out 832 urgent repairs, 829 were completed
within 72 hours, achieving 99.6% against a target of 98%.
Our repairs team carried out 5485 routine repairs, 5394 were
completed within 20 working days, achieving 98.3% against a target
of 97%.
Our repairs team were able to carry out repairs on their first visit
99.4% of the time, which achieved the target of 95%.
In 2011/2012 we received 3,068 satisfaction responses for repairs
completed by our tradesmen and contractors. Of these 2,984
tenants were satisfied and 84 (2.7%) were dissatisfied with part of
the repairs process. Each of the 84 tenants were contacted by either
the Repairs or Improvements Manager to follow up on the issues
raised.
All of our properties continue to meet the Decent Homes Standard.
We monitor our contractors’ performance via satisfaction surveys
completed by our tenants. Responses confirm you are 98.6%
satisfied with the attitude of contractor tradesmen.
We are currently working on a new reporting system to facilitate
accurate reporting on all incoming phone calls into Housing Services.
During 2011/2012 we received 272 letters from our tenants. We
responded to 255 (94%) within 10 working days, falling under the
target of 95%. We aim to improve our response in 2012/2013.
Completed housing applications were registered on average within 5
working days of receipt.
Our website is updated on a quarterly basis. In addition, this
information is supplied to the Performance & Scrutiny Panel during
the quarterly review meetings.
On average initial ASB assessments were completed within 1.4 days
We aim to improve our response in 2012/2013.
On average it took 1.3 working days to complete action plans.
All investigations were completed within 3.8 working days.
On average it took 61 working days to resolve ASB cases.
5

Tenancy
Empty Property and Re-let Statistics
We operate a district-wide common housing register through our Choice
Based Lettings system, advertising and allocating all social rented housing
in the area. As of March 31, 2012, there were 1,603 applicants on the
housing register, compared to 1,735 last year. The reduction in applications
is a result of our annual application review.
Lettings of South Derbyshire District Council and RSL partner
properties 2011/12 (from 04/04/2011 to 01/04/2012)
Band Properties let Total %
A 112 41%
B 91 33%
C 27 10%
Emergency 45 16%
Total 275 100%
237 of these lettings were to our own council properties. 186 of these
lettings were to new tenants of social housing. A further 38 properties were
let by other Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in South Derbyshire.
Average Empty Property Re-Let Times 2011/2012
Within the local area, South Derbyshire District Council is ranked joint first for
the re-letting of our properties.
Local Landlords to South Derbyshire District Council
(source Housemark 2011/2012)
Landlord Average Re-Let Time Rank
South Derbyshire District Council 22.5 1
Trent & Dove Housing 22.5 1
Derby Homes 23.4 2
North West Leicestershire 24.0 3
Derwent Living 25.0 4
Dales Housing 47.91 5
National Comparison Top 5 Nationally and Bottom Ranked
(source Housemark 2011/2012, 500 properties or more)
Landlord Average Re-Let Time Rank
Pembrokeshire Housing Association 5.5 1
Pickering & Ferens Homes 10.3 2
Housing Solutions 10.33 3
Radian (Avon Region) 11.63 4
Nexus Housing Association 12.0 5
South Derbyshire District Council 22.5 37
Radian (Thames Region) 114.64 86
lt took us on average 22.5 days to re-let our empty properties, compared
to 16.17 in 2010/2011. This was due largely to us carrying out much more
planned work, such as electrical rewires, whilst properties were empty,
which reduces inconvenience to tenants later on.
6
“As I have always found, excellent first
class from start to finish with contractors
and Council. I’ve never complained!
No need to and never will! I would
recommend them as the best in everything
and should be fully supported and
rewarded highly for outstanding service
constantly for the Council tenants. Very
well done!’
Mr Jones, Netherseal
Compliment
“No appointment just turned up.”
Mrs Barton, Hatton
Tenant Feedback
We have a corporate
complaints system that deals
with serious complaints.
During 2011/2012 there were 7
corporate complaints regarding
Housing Services which were
investigated and responded to.
ln the 2010/2011 Annual Report,
we told you that to capture the
smaller things that went wrong
we set up a ‘grumbles’ log in
December 2010.
During 2011/2012 we received
254 grumbles. We try to
contact most of you to discuss
your grumble further and
see what we can do to help
rectify your complaint. You also
continue to compliment us
when we get things right. We
received 867 compliments for
our service, compared to 245
last year.
Complaint
Repairs Manager’s Response:
“When fitting grab rails or carrying
out external works no appointment with
the tenant is necessary as long as the
tenant is informed that the workmen are
there sometime on the day agreed by the
tenant. In this instance the tenant was
advised.”

Neighbourhood and Community
Our Annual Gardening
competition went from
strength to strength in
2011 with Mr Flatt of
Newhall winning the
overall prize.
A selection of the
amazing gardens
across the district are
shown ...
Anti Social Behaviour
2011/2012 was the first full year we worked with our new ASB policy and targets. This policy was drawn up with
the help of tenants who had experienced ASB in the past. We had 99 cases of anti social behaviour reported
to us across the district in 2011/2012, compared to 73 in 2010/2011. These were due to the following:
59 Noise 19 Verbal abuse
5 Alcohol related 5 Pets & animal nuisance
2 Vandalism and damage to property 2 Hate-related incidents
2 Garden nuisance 2 Misuse of communal areas
1 Drugs & substance misuse 1 Physical violence
1 Litter/rubbish/fly tipping
7

lt has been another successful year for
even more youngsters from across the
Christmas Hampers
Following on from last year’s summer
pilot project to create a community
garden at Vale Road, Hartshorne, we
ran a Christmas Hamper Scheme in
December 2011.
Young people made Christmas
hampers for tenants across the
district that were house or
bed-bound, disabled or just in need of
some festive cheer.
After designing and making each
tenant a Christmas card, the youngsters
set off to deliver the hampers to our
tenants’ doors, chatting to them and
wishing them a Merry Christmas. The
youngsters were also interviewed on
Radio Derby, and told how rewarding
they had found the project.
More than 20 Council tenants across
the district benefited from the scheme.
One young Dreamschemer, Chloe
Devine, 12, from Hartshorne, said:
“l really enjoyed watching the faces of
people light up when we gave them
their hamper.”
The youngsters were rewarded for their
hard work with a screening of Puss
in Boots 3D, courtesy of Swadlincote
Odeon Cinema, followed by a
McDonalds meal. Those youngsters
who took part in the Vale Road project
and tidy-up chose trips to Alton Towers
and Tamworth Snowdome as a reward
for their efforts.
A huge thank you goes out to our
generous sponsors Swadlincote and
District Round Table, Harvey & Clark,
the Swadlincote branches of Boots,
Iceland, and Morrisons, Swadlincote
Odeon Cinema, Nestle, United Biscuits,
and Petals in the Forest. Swadlincote
Community Transport also provided a
minibus at a discounted rate to deliver
the hampers.
8
One happy tenant, Molly
Ransome, 79, from Penn
Lane, Melbourne, said: “It was
marvellous – I have never seen
anything like it in my life. The
children were lovely; l think l
enjoyed the visit even more than
they did. It made my Christmas,
it really did!”

Dreamscheme, with
district taking part.
Neighbourhood and Community
Diamond Jubilee
ln June 2012, we held our third Dreamscheme project, to create a Jubilee Garden for
tenants living at our supported housing site, in Unity Close, Church Gresley. While
we will tell you more about the scheme in the December Housing News and the next
Annual Report, here are just some of the great comments we have received from the
23 youngsters who took part:
It was a good chance
to learn and help other
people. l really enjoyed
it and l would like to do
it again.
Josh Thompson, 11,
Church Gresley
lt meant a lot to me
because it means building
bridges between the
young people and older
generation. l thought it
was really fun.
Sarina Dhesi, 12,
Hartshorne
l loved taking part, making
new friends and helping the
elderly.
Meggie-Rose Calder, 12,
Church Gresley
l just loved it.
It meant a lot because
of the work we did in
the community.
Max Calder, 10,
Church Gresley
l loved it because
l made new friends
and helped the
residents.
Alice Cotton, 11,
Church Gresley
lt was very good fun
to take part in the
Dreamscheme.
Evie Cotton, 7,
Church Gresley
9

Home
Looking after
existing
properties
A major project to repair one of our
homes and bring it back in to use
demonstrates our commitment to
delivering good quality homes.
The three bedroomed property,
in George Street, Church Gresley,
had suffered extensive subsidence
and was therefore deemed
uninhabitable. Before building work
could commence safely, surveys
were undertaken to assess the
severity of movement.
Realigned walls, doors, floors and
windows were installed, together
with a replacement kitchen and
bathroom, at a cost of £58,000.
The transformation is now complete
and George Street’s new tenants
moved in to their new home in
August 2012.
Plans for the future
We will be spending a massive
£27 million on maintaining and
enhancing your homes over the
next five years. The change in
how local authority social housing
is financed means we have had
to make a £60 million one-off
payment to the Government to
‘buy out’ of the previous system
– but we are now in control of
our own finances for the first time.
We can now keep all rents and
use them to plough back in to
improving and maintaining our
housing stock.
lmprovements to kitchens,
bathrooms and central heating
systems will be carried out as part
of a programme of works more
than doubling the previous level of
investment made.
ln 2012/2013 we will
be investing in:
• heating
• replacing windows and doors
• electrical rewires
• re-roofing works
• communal area modernisations
• lift upgrades
• all properties receiving showers
over baths
• carrying out more disabled
persons adaptations
• replacing smoke detectors
before
after
during
10

Reducing
environmental
impact
Our repairs and maintenance
team has also been involved
in a pioneering project this year
to reduce the Council’s carbon
footprint – and tenants’ energy bills.
Housing Services has installed a
ground source heat pump to heat
18 Council flats in Brook Street,
Hartshorne, in place of electric
storage heaters.
As the electricity required is
substantially lower than that
consumed by more traditional
methods of heating, tenants will
save between £150 and £200
a year on their energy bills.
The innovative scheme uses
heat lying below ground which is
collected by a series of 22 bore
holes up to 125 metres deep. The
heat passes through a compressor
and is pumped through ground
loops to heat exchangers in each
flat. The heat is then transferred
to the internal pipes, radiators and
hot water cylinder. The electricity
used to power the heat pumps and
circulation pumps is between half
and a quarter of the energy required
to heat the properties by more
traditional methods.
The system was installed following
a £175,000 grant from the Energy
Savings Trust and the Department
of Energy and Climate Change.
Tenants from our Home Panel have
been on regular site visits throughout
the project with the Council’s
Heating Project Officer, Mark
Walster, to check on progress and
give us their feedback. Our Repairs
and Improvements Manager, Lee
Carter, and his staff, also met with
Brook Street tenants before work
commenced, to consult with them
on the project.
“I knew that it was a good scheme from
the start. We went to a meeting where
everything was explained to us and it
quickly became apparent that this was the
up and coming way of doing things. I have
been really happy with the benefits – and
obviously the cost savings on our bills can
only be a good thing.”
Kenneth Hazeldine, Brook Street tenant
11

Responsive Repairs
Our own tradesmen carried out 6,731 responsive repairs last year: 414 as emergencies (within 24 hours), 832 as urgent
(within 3 days), 5,485 routine repairs (within 20 days). Performance against target was high, with 99.6%* of urgent
repairs and 98.3% of routine repairs completed on time. ln total nearly 12,157 repairs were completed by us and our
partner contractors over the last year.
Percentage of all urgent repairs* completed on
time 2011/2012 Top 5 nationally and bottom ranked
(source Housemark 2011/2012, 500 properties or more)
Landlord
% of repairs
completed on time
Rank
Rockingham Forest Housing Association 100% 1
“The work was done
promptly, efficiently and to my
complete satisfaction within
a few hours of my request for
help. Thank you very much”
Warrington Housing Association 100% 1
WATMOS Community Homes 100% 1
Mr Hirst, Swadlincote.
Dales Housing 99.9% 4
Muir Group Housing Association 99.9% 5
South Derbyshire District Council 98.3%* 45
King Street Housing Society 78.4% 108
*99.6% of urgent repairs relates to those completed by our own tradesmen.
*98.3% in the table above relates to urgent repairs completed by both tradesmen and contractors.
ctors.
Compliment
Tenant satisfaction with repairs and
maintenance Local Landlords to South
Derbyshire District Council
(source Housemark 2011/2012, 500 to 5,000 properties)
Landlord Score Rank
South Derbyshire District Council 97.9 6
Dales Housing 96.6 11
North West Leicestershire 84.6 54
Derwent Living 78.8 68
Top 5 nationally
(source Housemark 2011/2012, 200 to 5,000 properties)
Landlord Score Rank
Thrive Housing 99.1 1
Warrington Housing Association 98.8 2
Magna West Somerset Housing Association 98.2 3
Lancaster City Council 98.1 4
Cymdeithas Tai Clwyd 98 5
South Derbyshire District Council 97.9 6
lmprovements
Some examples of the type of work we carried out in 2011/2012 are:
Type of work
Number of
properties
£’ 000’s
Electrical rewires 238 551
New external doors 273 156
Replacement windows 11 9
New central heating 230 652
Kitchen replacements 129 343
Bathrooom replacements 56 172
Other (ramps, stair lifts, etc.) 11 28
12
Harden Housing Association 61.8 79
“I was told when I had the light
fitted that the Council would repair
it. They say now they will not.”
Mr Burgham, Midway.
Repairs Manager’s response
“This is not a repair. The tenant
is responsible for the replacement
of the bulb.”
Complaint

Value for money
How we spent your money
Day to
day repairs
£1,791,245
16p per £1
Planned
maintenance
£869,000
8p per £1
Larger repairs and
improvements
£1,956,630
18p per £1
Other £103,530 1p per £1
Total lncome
£10, 975, 204
Management
and landlord costs
£2,178,991
20p per £1
Payment to
Government
£4,075,808
37p per £1
Performancermance
ln terms of providing value for money services, maximising income
and reducing costs we have:
• Launched our restructured Supported Housing Service
• Published our Business Plan for the next 30 years
• Gained grant funding for the installation of a Ground Source Heat Pump
system reducing costs in the long term
• Worked with partners to gain sponsorship funding for tenant events
• Increased satisfaction levels and compliments
• Increased the income from payment of former tenant debts
• Promoted an apprentice to our full time tradesman team
• Took on two new apprentices, supporting local young people to get in to
paid work
However we know we need to do better when it comes to:
• Reducing current tenant rent arrears
• Reducing temporary accommodation costs
Careline
Our 24 hour Careline team takes
many calls from tenants concerned
about their welfare or who need
help in an emergency.
In 2011/2012 they received 42,660
calls from our 990 Supported
Housing tenants and answered
97.28% of them in 30 seconds. They
answered 99% of these calls
within 60 seconds, well within the
industry standard target of 98.5%.
This helped our Careline
team achieve the full Telecare
Services Association accreditation for
the sixth year running.
13

Diversity
ln the last Annual Report, we told you we had launched a project to gather updated profile
information from all our existing tenants. We recognise the importance of understanding
who our customers are so that we can meet varying needs. Our Housing Officers now
issue Data Collection Surveys to all new tenants for completion when they sign their
Tenancy Agreement, which helps us to keep the information we hold about you accurate
and up-to-date.
% of tenants on whom we hold diversity information
Gender 100%
Ethnicity 99%
Age 93%
Disability 60%
Religion or Belief 1.4%
Sexuality 1.1%
Age
awaiting
data
Number of
tenants
18-25 128
26-35 304
36-45 398
46-55 407
56-65 441
66-75 477
76-85 445
86-99 219
188
Ethnicity
Number of
tenants
Asian Other 1
Black African 5
Black Caribbean 3
Black Other 2
Gypsy/Traveller 1
lndian 1
Not stated 20
Other Ethnic Origin 2
White and Asian 3
White and Black Caribbean 1
White British 2,948
White Irish 4
White Other 7
Published by South Derbyshire District Council, September 2012.
Photography by: South Derbyshire District Council. lmages contained in the report are all of South Derbyshire.
Front cover: My South Derbyshire Photography Competition participants.
Contents page: Gardening Competition entry
Tenant involvement and Empowerment: New flower bed planting, Unity Close, Church Gresley; Dreamscheme gardening;
gardening competition award winners; My South Derbyshire photography competition entrants at Rosliston Forestry Centre.
Dreamscheme: Making Christmas cards and hampers, Dreamschemers day out.
Home: George Street property improvements, Brook Street Ground Source Heat Pump project; repair man improving a South Derbyshire property.
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