Residents - Swan Housing Association

Residents’ 

Annual Report 

Summary 

2009/10

Contents 

Our Mission Statement: 

To create homes and communities 

that people want to live in. 

Page 

1 Purpose of Annual Report 

2 Message from the Chair and Chief Executive 

3 Chapter 1 : Tenant involvement and empowerment standard 

Customer service and choice 

Complaints 

Tenant involvement and empowerment 

Understanding and responding to the diverse needs of residents 

10 Chapter 2 : Home standard 

Quality of accommodation 

Repairs and maintenance 

14 Chapter 3 : Tenancy standard 

Allocations 

Rents 

Tenure 

18 Chapter 4 : Neighbourhood and community standard 

Neighbourhood management 

Local area co-operation 

Anti-social behaviour 

22 Chapter 5 : Value for money standard 

25 Chapter 6 : Governance and financial viability standard 

Governance 

Financial viability 

Cover image: 

Bow Cross Estate, Tower Hamlets

Purpose of 

Annual Report 

The regulator for housing, the Tenant Services 

Authority (TSA) requires us to issue an annual 

report to tenants every year. This is a summary 

of Swan’s full annual report which can be 

provided on request or viewed on our website 

www.swan.org.uk. The TSA measures and 

monitors the performance of all Social 

Housing Providers. 

The aim of our annual report is to let you 

know how well we performed in 2009/2010 

against the new National Standards. We have 

set out what we are doing to meet these new 

standards and provided details of the plans we 

have developed with residents to improve our 

services for the coming year. 

The report is set out in sections using the six 

National Standard headings. 

The standards are: 

• Tenant involvement and empowerment 

(customer care) 

• Home (maintaining your home) 

• Tenancy (allocating your homes 

and setting rents) 

• Neighbourhood and community 

(looking after the neighbourhood 

and communal areas) 

• Value for money 

• Governance and financial viability 

(ensuring we are financially secure) 

residents and residents working with us 

for the first time. 

A number of meetings were held where 

residents agreed the contents, reviewed the 

first draft and signed off the final version. 

Residents were keen that the annual report was 

jargon free and included information on: 

• 

Breakdown 

Anti-Social 

of 

Behaviour 

Homes owned 

(ASB) and numbers by 

and 

case 

Managed 

type. 

by Swan 

• Value for money 

625 

682 

– costings for services 

provided. 33 

5,561 

1,348 

• Repairs/Gas performance. 

• Residents’ views on Estate Services. 

• Complaints – how many in the year, and 

response times. 

• Customer satisfaction information. 

• Lettings and empty homes information. 

1,373 

Residents also agreed the layout, colour 

448 

scheme, headings 81 and font size for the report. 

The report was also considered by the Resident 

Consultative Committees in London and Essex. 

Swan owns and manages 10,727 homes 

and garages 

1,348 

33 

682 

529 

47 

625 

5,561 

We aim to work closely with our residents 

to continually improve our services. Thank you 

to those of you who have given up your time 

and worked with us this year to help develop 

our services. 

Developing Swan’s 

Annual Report 

We asked residents to work with us to develop 

this annual report. 14 residents came forward 

to join our new annual report editorial group. 

The group was a mix of previously involved 

1,373 

448 

81 

529 

General needs 

rented housing 

Keyworker housing 

Shared ownership 

housing 

Housing for older 

persons 

47 

NHS keyworker 

accommodation 

Forest Gate – London 

Borough of Newham 

Market rented housing 

Leasehold housing 

Supported housing 

Garages 

Swan Annual Report 2009/10 www.swan.org.uk 

01

Message from the Chair 

and Chief Executive 

Swan has had a busy and productive year. We 

are committed to involving residents at all levels 

in the running of our business and improving 

our services. 

In order to help us do this we have reviewed 

our governance structure. We replaced 

our Regional Boards with resident majority 

Regional Committees with plans to have 2 

resident representatives on our Board by 

Autumn 2010. We have entered into a formal 

14 year partnership with our repairs provider 

Axis, launched our new tenant and leaseholder 

handbooks and worked with residents to 

produce a DVD on how to access our services. 

We have started work to regenerate the 

Craylands Estate in Basildon. The regeneration 

of Bow Cross in Tower Hamlets is ongoing with 

the year seeing the opening of Priestman Point. 

We have also celebrated a successful first year 

working to improve the homes we manage 

at Forest Gate on behalf of London Borough 

of Newham. 

In January 2010 we were inspected by the 

Audit Commission who looked at our approach 

to resident involvement, gas safety and repairs. 

Inspectors also looked at more general areas 

of our business that affect the services they 

inspected. This included looking at the quality 

and costs of our services and how we compare 

with other Housing Associations. 

We achieved a positive result from the Audit 

Commission. They found that we did well on 

providing easy access to services, involving 

our residents in developing our services and 

in carrying out gas servicing to homes, with 

strengths outweighing weaknesses in all these 

areas. However, the picture was more mixed 

for repairs, our approach to ensuring value for 

money, and in how Swan meets the varying 

needs of different residents. 

To help Swan improve its service to all 

residents, the Audit Commission made some 

recommendations. 

The action plan we developed with residents to 

address the areas of weakness that the Audit 

Commission found is available on our website 

www.swan.org.uk. 

In October 2009, Swan was the first 

organisation in Essex to receive accreditation 

under the Quality Assessment Framework for 

our work in supporting people. This means 

that Swan has been accredited as providing an 

‘Excellent’ service for Floating Support and are 

considered leaders in this area of work. 

Swan has been independently assessed 

as achieving the Charter Mark and Quality 

Housing Services standards. These standards 

demonstrate that we are striving to achieve high 

standards in customer care. 

We are looking forward to working with you 

in the coming year to continue to improve 

our services, have more of you involved in 

monitoring what we do and developing local 

offers to meet residents’ needs. 

We hope you find this report useful. 

Richard Frost 

Chair 

John Synnuck 

Chief Executive 

02 www.swan.org.uk 

Swan Annual Report 2009/10

1 

Tenant 

involvement and 

empowerment 

standard 

Our Values 

Imaginative: 

We create solutions, breakdown 

barriers, achieve against the 

odds – make sure things happen. 


03

Customer service 

and choice 

TSA national standard for 

customer service and choice 

Registered providers shall: 

• Provide choices, information and 

communication that is appropriate to 

the diverse needs of their tenants in the 

delivery of all standards. 

Our Service Offer – How we 

are meeting the standard 

We offer a range of choices for you including: 

• 2 hour repair appointment slots, a range of 

rent payment methods and the option of an 

enhanced cleaning service. 

We provide information to meet the needs 

of our residents by offering: 

A range of translation services including a DVD 

in our most commonly used languages and 

leaflets in Makaton. 

How did we do 

Performance from April 2009 to March 2010. 

Answering the phone 

Swan 

We promised to answer 90% of calls 

within 20 seconds. 

We answered 85.6% of calls within 

20 seconds. 

Axis – Our Repairs Partner 

Axis received 89,853 telephone calls in 2009-10. 

They answered 91.24% within 20 seconds. 

Responding to letters 

We promised to answer letters within 

10 working days. 

Letters responded to in 10 working days 

100% 

100% 

90% 

90% 

We provide a number of ways for you to 

access our services by: 

0300 303 2500 phone number for cheaper access 

to Swan, a freephone number for Axis to report 

repairs 0800 783 2768, e-mail, text, our offices 

and our website. 

We have worked with you to agree a 

number of service standards. These are set 

out in our: 

Service standard leaflets available on our website 

www.swan.org.uk and in our office receptions. 

Our standards are monitored by a group of 

residents who carry out quality checks and mystery 

shopping and by the Quality Housing Services 

inspectors who visit our reception areas and audit 

our services. 

Target 

Target 

Performance 

Performance 

95% 

95% 100% 100% 

Seeing customers at the offices 

We promised to see 95% of visitors to our 

offices within 5 minutes. 

Visitors seen within 5 minutes 

Target 

Target 

Performance 

Performance 



Annual resident 

satisfaction survey 

Annual resident satisfaction survey 

We carry out an annual tenant and leaseholder 

satisfaction survey using a company called 

“The Leadership Factor”. We also carry out 

service specific satisfaction surveys covering 

anti-social behaviour, complaints, lettings, 

rent recovery, repairs, resident involvement, 

and floating support. 

We analysed the results of the annual survey 

completed in July 2009 and developed an 

action plan to address the areas which needed 

the most improvement. This plan is on our 

website at www.swan.org.uk 

Getting better in 2010/2011 

You told us that our ability to solve problems 

was our biggest weakness. 

In response to this we set up a “Right First 

Time” project in partnership with residents 

and Axis, our repairs partner. We consulted 

with staff and residents to identify changes 

that we could make to provide you with more 

effective help at the first point of contact. 

We also looked at other similar housing 

organisations to see if we could learn from 

good practice. The final proposals will be 

considered by the Regional Committees 

and Board in November 2010. 

How satisfied are you with the 

overall service provided by Swan 

76% 75% 78% 86% 

2008/ 

09 

2009/ 

10 


overall 

target 

General Needs 

Top 

performance 

average 

How satisfied are you with the way 

your landlord deals with repairs 

and maintenance 

68% 66% 

75% 

2008/ 

09 

2009/ 

10 


overall 

target 

General Needs 

84% 

Top 

performance 

average 

How satisfied are you with the 

opportunities for participation in 

management and decision making 

63% 

78% 

57% 55% 


2008/ 

09 

2009/ 

10 

overall 

target 

General Needs 

Top 

performance 

average 


05

Complaints 

TSA national standard 

for complaints 

• Have an approach to complaints that 

is clear, simple and accessible that 

ensures that complaints are resolved 

promptly, politely and fairly. 



Our complaints policy and procedure 

are available on the Swan website 

www.swan.org.uk, the Web4residents 

website and in reception areas. 

We review complaints each month and 

report performance against our targets to 

the Resident Consultative Committees, 

Regional Committees and the Board. 

Outcomes are also published in our resident 

newsletter “The Communicator”. 

We offer compensation for service failures 

and ask for your views at the end of the 

complaints process. 

We compare our performance with other similar 

housing organisations through a HouseMark 

benchmarking club. 

Following recommendations from the Audit 

Commission Inspection we: 

• Reviewed our complaints leaflet to include a 

flowchart so it is easier for you to understand 

the process. 

• Have relaunched our service standard 

leaflets following consultation with you. 

How did we do 


2008/09 2009/10 Target 

Total number 

of complaints 

received 264 333 

Acknowledged 

within 3 

working days 92% 98% 95% 

Stage 1 

response within 

10 working days 86% 96% 95% 

We have improved our performance since last 

year and exceeded our target to respond to 

complaints within 10 days. 


• We will continue to review your feedback 

to help us improve our services. We will be 

checking the quality of complaint responses. 

• We will seek to increase satisfaction with 

the outcome of complaints to 70% for the 

coming year. 

• We will develop a text messaging feedback 

service to better understand your views. 

• We will work towards achieving the 

Government’s “Customer Service 

Excellence” standard award. 



Involvement and 

empowerment 


on involvement and 

empowerment 

Registered providers shall support 

co-regulation with their tenants by: 

• Offering a wide range of opportunities 

for tenants to be involved in the 

management of their housing, providing 

opportunities to agree local offers for 

service delivery and arrangements to 

scrutinise performance. 

• Providing support to tenants to build their 

capacity to be more effectively involved. 



We meet this standard and have a Resident 

Involvement Strategy and Service User 

Involvement Strategy which have been 

developed with staff and residents. They show 

resident involvement objectives and how local 

needs and aspirations can be met over the next 

three years. 

You can get involved in your local area to 

help improve our services in a number of 

ways including estate inspections, residents’ 

associations and the supported housing 

service user forum. 

Details of how you can access our involvement 

structure can be found on www.swan.org.uk 

Community development events and 

fun days 

We can provide a Community Grant of up 

to £500 to community, voluntary or resident 

groups to set up a project in their area where 

Swan residents are likely to benefit. 

To ask for a grant application form call the 

Resident Involvement team on 01277 844 242 

or download one from Swan’s website at 

www.swan.org.uk 

What has your involvement in our 

service improvement programme 

helped us to achieve 

Mystery Shopping Programme 

We have developed a residents’ mystery 

shopping programme involving 14 residents 

from the Customer Feedback Panel. Below is 

a summary of the changes we have made to 

improve our services since the mystery shop in 

January 2010. 

You said 

You were put through to the wrong department 

and felt that the staff did not want to help. 

We have now 

Trained 150 members of staff on our telephone 

handling system called Contact Manager. This 

system logs all calls coming into Swan and also 

those made by us. New call guidance scripts 

help provide better information for staff to help 

residents. 

Re-launched the Customer Feedback Panel 

Through the Customer Feedback Panel we have: 

• Developed the new regeneration service 

standard leaflet. 

• Improved information provided on our 

rent statements. 

• Developed our Decent Plus Homes Standard. 

• Produced our DVD for residents. 

• Implemented our new tenant reward scheme 

– StarCard. 

Set up the Resident Repairs Quality Panel 

This panel has helped us scrutinise the quality 

and delivery of our repairs service, including the 

work to monitor our repairs partnering contract 

with Axis. 

Resident Suggestion Scheme 

As a result of our Resident Suggestion Scheme 

we have installed a British Heart Foundation 

charity bin on Turners Road in Romford. This will 

benefit the environment but also provides a great 

service for the Heart Foundation. 


07

Involvement and 

empowerment 

Swan resident involvement 

How we support you to get involved 

annual satisfaction survey results 

• We provide support through our dedicated 

resident involvement team. 

• We currently spend £40.70 per household 

each year to support resident and service 

user involvement. 

• We have a residents training programme to 

help build skills and expertise. 

• We provide travel allowances, assistance 

with child care/carer’s costs and help with IT. 

How we report back to you 

We feed back to you through leaflets, our 

website and our various Resident Committees. 

How did we do 


Swan resident involvement 

annual satisfaction survey results 

43% 

4% 

8% 

Very satisfied 

Fairly satisfied 

Neither satisfied 

or dissatisfied 

84% of involved residents were either fairly or 

very satisfied that their views are taken into 

account by Swan. 

Swan We benchmarked resident involvement 

performance and satisfaction 

annual through the satisfaction HouseMark survey Benchmarking results club and 

we compare well with other providers. 

2% 2% 13% 

4% 

Fairly dissatisfied 

Very dissatisfied 

No opinion 


41% 

48% 

Very Good (48) 


Fairly Good (35) 

We will be building on the 

recommendations Neither (2) made by the Audit 

Commission Short Notice Inspection: 

Fairly Poor (2) 

• We have already set up two youth forums, 

Very Poor (0) 

developed a black and minority ethnic (BME) 

residents’ No Opinion action (13) plan and set up an Asian 

Women’s group. 

• Develop a value for money framework 

involving residents. 

• Develop a public relations strategy to 

promote the work the resident involvement 

team does. 

• Involve residents in setting the annual budgets. 

• Continue to review our websites with 

residents and service users. 

• Work with residents to produce monthly 

performance reports. 

Helping us to perform better 

Many of you are involved in helping us keep 

a check on how we perform. As well as 

learning from complaints we have developed a 

residents’ scrutiny framework. If you would like 

to join our resident Mystery Shopping Panel, 

become part of our Residents’ Quality Panel 

for repairs or join us on our monthly estate 

inspections to help score our cleaning services, 

please call us on 0300 303 2500 or e-mail 

us at involvement@swan.org.uk 

There are also places on our London and Essex 

Resident Consultative Committees who look at 

the performance of all service areas including 

repairs, rents, complaints, empty homes, antisocial 

behaviour and estate services every month. 

“Local Offers” – What are they 

Local offers are additional standards agreed 

with residents that are tailored to meet local 

needs and priorities and help us improve our 

services. An offer may apply to all residents, an 

estate, or to a group of tenants such as older 

persons or those with a disability. 

What have we done so far 

We have set up a resident and staff project group 

to oversee the development of local offers. 


Resident profiling 

information 

We have identified your priorities for local 

offers by: 

• Using what you have told us in satisfaction 

surveys and consultation exercises. Over 

1000 residents replied to our survey after the 

Short Notice Inspection and your views are 

built into each chapter. 

• Consulting you through the residents’ 

conference, focus groups and Resident 

Consultative Committees. 

• Speaking with staff who work closely 

with you. 

You can see our progress on local offers by 

visiting our website www.swan.org.uk 

All local offers will be in place by April 2011. 

Going forward – Local Offers 

agreed with residents so far 

Set up a resident inspection team. 

We will be training a group of residents to carry 

out regular checks of Swan’s services. 

Understanding and 

responding to the 

diverse needs of 

tenants 


• Treat all tenants with fairness 

and respect. 

• Demonstrate that they understand 

the different needs of all tenants. 

Service Offer – How we are 

meeting the standard 

Equality and diversity issues are central to the 

way we develop policy and deliver services. 

We aim to treat our customers with fairness 

and respect and encourage residents to raise 

equality and diversity issues through resident 

involvement opportunities and by providing a 

variety of activities such as celebrating cultural 

and religious festivals including Eid, Diwali, 

Christmas and Black History Month. 

We use resident profiling and equality 

monitoring data to: 

• Deliver tailored services that meet the needs 

of individuals. 

• Review access to our services and levels 

of satisfaction by equality group (across 

equality strands). 

• Provide documents in accessible formats. 

• Involve residents in our Diversity Action 

Forums to deliver real equality outcomes. 

How did we do 


Resident profiling information. 

We use our resident profiling data to help us 

tailor our services. An action plan has been 

developed to help us do this. We hold resident 

profiling information for 81% of households. 

Ethnicity 

Overall ‘White British’ is the majority ethnic 

community of residents living in our homes. The 

second largest ethnic community is Bangladeshi. 

Further details of the breakdown of our resident 

profiling information can be found in our full 

annual report at www.swan.org.uk 

Getting better for 2010/2011 

Since our Short Notice Inspection in January 

2010 we have used the resident profiling 

information to further improve the way that we 

provide our services to the diverse communities 

we serve. 

Promoting equality and inclusion remains 

central to everything we do at Swan. 


09

2 

Our Values 

Insistent: 

We go the extra mile for our 

residents; we put energy into what 

we do because we believe in it. 

Home Standard 



Quality of 

accommodation 


quality of accommodation 


• Ensure tenants’ homes meet the 

Government’s Decent Homes Standard 

by 31 December 2010. 



Swan is compliant with the current Decent 

Homes Standard, with less than 1% of homes 

being classified as non decent. This means 

all homes are warm, weatherproof and have 

reasonably modern facilities. 


We will: 

• Build homes that exceed the Decent Homes 

Standard and meet your needs. 

• Work with you to develop a ‘Decent Homes Plus’ 

Standard and produce a booklet for residents. 

• Upgrade the Telecare system at our Older 

Persons sites. This is the alarm system that 

enables older tenants to live independently. 

• We will exceed the Government Standard on 

Fuel Poverty by providing additional insulation 

to ensure our targets exceed those required. 

We have developed an Asset Management 

Strategy which sets out how we make 

decisions on developing, retaining and investing 

in our homes. This ensures that we meet the 

standard now and in the future. 

How did we do 


We spent £2 million on planned works during 

the year and installed: 

• 120 new kitchens. 

• 55 new bathrooms. 

• 131 new boilers/full central heating systems. 

• Loft insulation to 100 homes and wall 

insulation to 20 homes. This provided an 

average fuel saving of 25% per home. 

We achieved a 90% satisfaction rating 

for works completed under our planned 

programme against our target of 85%. 


11

Repairs and 

maintenance 


repairs and maintenance 


• Provide a cost-effective repairs and 

maintenance service, offer choices 

to tenants and have the objective of 

completing repairs right first time. 

• Meet all statutory requirements that 

provide for the health and safety of 

residents in their homes. 



Swan meets this standard and has a 14-year 

partnering contract in place with Axis to deliver a 

value for money responsive repairs service. 

To keep your home in good repair we will 

give you: 

• A phone number to report repairs that you 

can call 24 hours a day. 

• Your repair’s priority and timescale 

for completion. 

• A 2 hour appointment slot. 

• An emergency out-of-hours service. 

• An order number for each repair you report. 

We offer a new way to order non-urgent repairs 

on our website www.swan.org.uk through the 

introduction of pictorial options to help identify 

and diagnose the repair. 

We have a Health and Safety Committee 

overseeing compliance with legislation including 

fire risk assessments, Legionella control, 

asbestos, gas, and electric safety. 

How did we do 


Repairs/Gas performance jobs completed in target 

Priority 2008/09 2009/10 Target Top performers 

average 

Immediate 99.9% 99.7% 99% not available 

Emergency 99.9% 99.59% 99% 97.2% 

Urgent 99.9% 98.97% 97% 96.4% 

Routine 99.5% 98.22% 97% 97% 

Gas safety check 98.7% 99.8% 100% 100% 

Gas repairs 98.7% 82% 95% not available 

Repairs completed at 1st visit 93% 90% 91% 

Appointments made and kept 62% 90% 98% 



Repairs and 

maintenance 

The Audit Commission found that our repairs 

service had a balance of strengths and 

weaknesses, while the gas safety service 

was considered good. 

• 18,000 repair requests were made of which 

98.7% were completed on time. 

• Our partnership with Axis has generated cost 

savings including: 

– £100,000 on general repair expenditure. 

– £36,000 by transferring the out of hours 

service to Axis. 

– £16,000 by checking smoke alarms and 

immersion heaters at the same time as the 

gas service is undertaken. 

• To deliver “right first time” repairs we asked 

you for feedback through our repairs quality 

check. You told us 93% of repairs were 

completed right first time. Of those that were 

not, you told us this was due to: 

– Axis needing to obtain parts. We have 

now identified the most commonly used 

parts to ensure these are stocked on the 

Axis vans. 

– repair timescales were not fully explained. 

We have provided refresher training for 

Axis staff. 

– you not being able to stay in all day. 

We now provide 2 hour time slots. 

– works poorly completed and another person 

had to come back and rectify some of the 

work. We now use performance reports to 

review individual staff performance. 

• Our performance in March 2010 on keeping 

appointments was 62%. By July 2010 this 

had risen to 93%. 

• We spent 32% of our budget on day to day 

repairs and 68% on major repairs. 

• Our average cost of a repair was £103 which 

compares well with other housing providers. 

• We introduced call recording for the Axis Call 

Centre to help improve customer satisfaction. 


We will: 

• Set aside £150,000 to fund major adaptations. 

• Send a text to you the day before and 

another text 30 minutes before a repairs 

operative is due to call at your home. 

• Improve our website to enable residents to 

book and manage appointments online. 

• Provide a 2 hour time slot for appointments 

for post inspections. 

• Offer repairs and gas servicing to 

leaseholders at a competitive cost. 

• Review 80 recorded telephone calls each 

month to ensure that telephone answering 

meets the standards we expect. Calls will 

be scored out of 40 with an acceptable 

standard set at 30 and above. The Resident 

Quality Panel expect that 75% of calls meet 

the standard. 



Provide an online system for tracking 

repairs. 

Develop a ‘Decent Homes Plus’ Standard 

for our homes. 

Offer residents the option to purchase 

additional units or better quality units 

when kitchens are renewed. 

Provide a Rapid Response Team on the 

Exmouth Estate in Tower Hamlets. 


13

3 

Our Values 

In Touch: 

We listen and respond to our 

residents and involve them 

in decision – making, we are 

aware of the latest developments 

in housing. 

Tenancy 

standard 

“ Staff are always on hand, we’ve got a lot of freedom 

and people respect each other. I love it.” 

Miriam Ojera 



Allocations 


for allocations 

Registered providers shall let their homes 

in a fair, transparent and efficient way. They 

shall take into account the housing needs 

of tenants and potential tenants. They shall 

demonstrate that they contribute to local 

authorities’ sustainable communities plans. 

There should be clear application, 

decision-making and appeals processes. 



Swan meets this standard and developed its 

Allocations Policy in consultation with residents 

on the transfer list and a focus group which 

included residents and staff. The policy is 

available on our website www.swan.org.uk or 

on request. 

All homes that become available for tenant transfer 

are let through a web based Choice Based 

Lettings scheme that we developed with residents. 

We provide advice and information on available 

housing options for those who would like to move. 

All our homes meet our ‘lettable’ standard, which 

was agreed by residents. We issue new tenants 

with a welcome pack for their new home. 

We publish details on how all our homes are 

let in “The Communicator” and on our website 

www.swan.org.uk 

How did we do 

We made the best use of available 

housing by: 

• Using chain moves to give more of you 

the opportunity to transfer. 

• Offering downsizing payments of between 

£1,000 to £4,500 to help free up family 

sized homes. 

• Tackling overcrowding by giving adult children 

the chance to move into their own flat. 

• Promoting the use of mutual exchanges. 

• Successfully meeting our challenging target 

of re-letting our homes within 17 days. 

• Giving you the opportunity to change how we 

do things, through our reviews and surveys. 

We contributed to the local authority’s 

strategic housing function and sustainable 

communities by: 

• Developing a Homelessness Strategy to 

assist our local authority partners in tackling 

homelessness. 

• Introducing local lettings plans for estates 

with sustainability concerns in Tower 

Hamlets and Tendring. 

• Chairing the Tower Hamlets Common 

Housing Register Forum which manages 

how social homes are let in the borough. 

• Undertaking assessments on new tenancies 

to ensure appropriate support is in place 

to reduce the chances of someone losing 

their tenancy. 

• Supporting sustainable communities. 94% 

of Swan tenancies lasted more than a year. 

Homes available to let 

501 homes became available for letting in the 

year. Of these 311 were existing homes and 190 

newly built. 

Time taken to turnaround 

empty properties 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

20.6 20.5 

18.7 

18.5 

17.2 

14.7 

2008/09 2009/10 

Top Performers 

average 

London Essex Overall 

27 

Target 

17 days 


15

Rents 

Lettings Satisfaction Survey 

Each summer we survey those on the transfer 

list to see how good our lettings service is and 

then publish the results in “The Communicator” 

and on our website www.swan.org.uk 

87% of people told us they understand their 

banding and 58% were satisfied with the 

lettings service overall. 

Feedback from residents moving into newly 

built homes 

84% of residents moving to a newly built home 

were satisfied. This compares favourably with 

the Home Builders Federation survey which 

achieved only 77% satisfaction. 


We will: 

• Continue to carry out a yearly review and 

survey of transfer list applicants with results 

published each autumn. 

• Monitor the impact of the new Swan web 

based Choice Based Lettings system, 

HomeKey and publish regular updates in 

“The Communicator” and on our website. 



Develop local lettings plans for our new 

developments – We will work with the local 

councils to introduce local lettings plans for 

new developments to help them succeed. 

Develop a ‘Space Saver’ scheme that 

offers home assessments to those living 

in overcrowded accommodation. 

Develop a ‘Keep in Touch’ scheme providing 

regular contact for those who want it. 

Extended moving in time for those who 

need support. 


for rents 

Registered providers shall charge rents 

in accordance with the objectives and 

framework set out in the Government’s 

Direction to the TSA of November 2009. 



Swan meets this standard by providing rents that 

are reasonable and service charges that cover 

the costs of the service you receive. We set rents 

using government guidelines depending on the 

number of bedrooms in your home, value of your 

home and the average wage for the area you live 

in. This formula aims to harmonise the rents for 

similar sizes of property, irrespective of who your 

landlord is. 

Swan provide a welfare benefit service for 

residents. Last year this service received 760 

referrals and helped residents claim an additional 

£921,270 in benefits, rebates and tax credits. 

We provide training for residents on 

money management. 

How did we do 

Average rents 

Average rent costs in 2008/09 for Swan 

properties in Essex and London compared 

against local councils and other registered 

providers are shown in the graphs on the 

next page. 

The rent levels shown do not include service 

charges and show the average rent per property 

size for all occupied properties. 

A recent survey showed that 83% of those 

surveyed confirmed they understood the rent 

increase letters Swan provides. 

Provide a handyperson service for all 

new sheltered housing tenants within 

48 hours of moving in. 



Bedsit 

1 Bedroom 2 Bedroom 3 Bedroom 4 Bedroom 

Bedsit 1 Bedroom 2 Bedroom 3 Bedroom 4 Bedroom 

Rents 

Swan in Essex 

Swan in Basildon 

Other registered providers 

in Basildon 

Tenure 

Swan in London 

Swan in Tower Hamlets 


in Tower Hamlets 

Essex rent levels 

140 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

London rent levels 

140 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

£58.95 

£58.93 

£58.85 

Bedsit 

n/a 

Bedsit 

£63.59 

£69.30 

£66.70 

£66.02 

1 Bedroom 

£81.72 

£80.41 

£75.61 

1 Bedroom 

£83.78 

£83.14 

£82.70 

2 Bedroom 

Swan in Essex 

Swan in Basildon 


in Basildon 

£94.18 

£93.41 

£85.28 

2 Bedroom 

Swan in London 

Swan in Tower Hamlets 


in Tower Hamlets 

£94.79 

£95.42 

£93.84 

3 Bedroom 

£101.76 

£99.22 

£97.03 

3 Bedroom 

£102.75 

£102.63 

£101.04 

4 Bedroom 

£119.76 

£123.78 

£110.67 

4 Bedroom 


• We will set up an income management focus 

group to look at how we can further improve 

our service. 

• We will review changes to welfare benefit 

legislation which directly affects our residents 

and tailor our welfare benefit advice service to 

help you. 


for Tenure 

Registered providers shall offer and issue 

the most secure form of tenure compatible 

with the purpose of the housing and the 

sustainability of the community. They shall 

meet all applicable statutory and legal 

requirements in relation to the form and 

use of tenancy agreements. 



We meet this standard and use a number 

of tenancies depending on the type of 

housing you live in. These include secure 

and assured tenancies, assured shorthold 

tenancies and licences. 

As agreed with residents all new Swan tenants 

moving into general needs housing are offered 

a starter tenancy, which is a type of assured 

shorthold tenancy. This converts to a more 

secure tenancy, an assured tenancy, after a 

probationary period of 12 months. 

Existing tenants who transfer to another Swan 

home are offered the same type of tenancy 

they already have. All new tenants receive a 

tenants handbook and a DVD. 

How did we do 


• Swan aims to complete tenancy audits for 20% 

of its homes each year. Last year we visited over 

600 homes and took appropriate legal action in 

the few cases where that was needed. 

• We are part of the National Fraud Initiative 

and cross check our data with others to 

expose tenancy fraud. This helps ensure 

there are as many homes available as 

possible for those who need them. 


• We are reviewing our tenancy agreement 

to check it is fair and easy to read and 

understand. We are doing this by meeting 

with a number of tenants to discuss both 

the content and appearance of the new 

agreement before we carry out consultation 

with all tenants later in the year. 


17

4 

Our Values 

Imaginative: 

We create solutions, breakdown 

barriers, achieve against the 

odds – make sure things happen. 

Neighbourhood 

and community 

standard 

Our estate cleaning work is agreed 

with residents. 



Neighbourhood 

management 


for neighbourhood 

management 

Registered providers shall keep the 

neighbourhood and communal areas 

associated with the homes that they 

own clean and safe. They shall work in 

partnership with their tenants and other 

providers and public bodies where it is 

effective to do so. 


are meeting the standard: 

We feel we meet the main requirements of 

the standard by: 

• Having an in house Estate Services team 

that maintains communal areas to a high 

standard as measured by residents through 

surveys and estate inspections. 

• Carrying out bi-monthly inspections with 

residents, Swan staff and Axis. 

• Having the Police, Essex County Council and 

the local authorities attend inspections on 

some of our larger estates. 

• Tailoring the cleaning schedules and 

specifications for individual estates/blocks 

in consultation with residents and displaying 

these on estate notice boards. 

How did we do 


The average cost for communal cleaning in flats 

was £5.28 per week. 

The results from our annual satisfaction surveys 

showed that: 


We will: 

• Develop a new combined Neighbourhood 

Management policy to cover estate services 

and anti-social behaviour (ASB). 

• Carry out a full review of the cost of 

delivering our estate services to residents. 

• Hold estate inspections at a range of times 

to encourage more residents to attend. 

• Better publicise the availability of 

environmental improvement grants to 

encourage residents to make suggestions for 

improving their local areas. 

• Develop a guide to help residents and 

staff measure the cleaning standards in our 

communities. 



Carry out estate inspections at weekends 

and evenings involving residents and other 

agencies where requested. 

Set up a low cost gardening scheme for 

older persons and those with a disability 

– If you cannot manage your garden you will 

be able to purchase a low cost garden service 

from us. 

Expand our CCTV service – If a group of 

residents asks for this we will investigate the 

feasibility and advise you of the costs. 

Develop a Parking Policy for Bow Cross in 

Tower Hamlets – If you live in Bow Cross, we 

will work with you to develop a Parking Policy 

to tackle the problems of limited parking in 

the area. 

• 92% of residents felt that internal and external 

cleaning was of a good or excellent standard. 

• 93% of our residents felt that our caretaking 

and cleaning service provides value for money. 

• 74% of residents were satisfied with their 

neighbourhood as a place to live. 


19

Local area 

co-operation 


(ASB) 


local area co-operation 

Registered providers shall co-operate with 

relevant partners to help promote social, 

environmental and economic well being in 

the areas where they own properties. 



We work closely with others to address local 

community issues. This includes youth projects 

and training opportunities. 

By working with others we can help you benefit 

from initiatives such as helping overcrowded 

families and emergency domestic violence 

transfers. 

Our Supported Housing team works with other 

landlords to provide services for residents and 

to help them stay in their homes. 

How did we do 


We worked closely with other landlords and 

organisations to: 

• Promote clean up days and recycling, waste 

disposal and to ensure open spaces are 

effectively maintained. 

• Tackle anti-social behaviour by working with 

local Crime and Disorder Partnerships. 

• Part fund a mediation service for homeless 

people in the Maldon area. 

• Help people with disabilities access services 

through the government trailblazer scheme 

“Right to Control”. 


We will: 

• Part fund a Family Intervention Project 

Worker in Tower Hamlets to work with those 

families who are at threat of eviction. 

• Work with residents to signpost information 

on credit unions. 



for anti-social behaviour 

Registered providers will work in partnership 

with other public agencies to prevent 

and tackle anti-social behaviour in the 

neighbourhoods where they own homes. 



• We have signed up to the Government’s 

Respect Standard. 

• Residents monitor our performance at Estate 

Residents’ Boards and the London and 

Essex Resident Consultative Committees. 

• We have an Information Sharing Protocol in 

place with local councils and staff attend 

multi-agency partnership meetings. 

How did we do 


• Our residents’ ASB Group asked us to 

develop a guidance note on the most 

frequently asked questions about ASB. 

• Set up fortnightly surgeries in partnership 

with the Police at our Exmouth Estate for 

residents to report ASB. 

• Introduced an out-of-hours telephone 

service for residents to report ASB when 

our offices are closed. 

• Introduced an on-line reporting form for 

incidents of ASB. 

• Our ASB satisfaction survey for the year found 

that only 47% of residents were satisfied with 

the way their anti-social behaviour case had 

been handled. When compared to others our 

performance is less than we would like to see. 

We have worked hard to improve satisfaction and 

at the end of July 2010 this had risen to 69%. 

• 77% of residents found our staff to be 

helpful and responsive, compared to the 

average top performing organisation which 

was 86%. 



(ASB) 

How did we do 


Type of ASB reported (329 cases in 

2009/2010) 

100 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

93 40 21 21 21 5 21 6 7 11 18 1 3 2 59 

Number of cases 

Noise 

Verbal abuse 

Hate related 

Vandalism and 

damage to property 

Pets and animal 

nuisance 

Vehicle nuisance 

Drugs/substance 

misuse/dealing 

Alcohol related 

Action taken to deal with ASB 

Domestic 

violence/abuse 

Physical violence 

Litter/rubbish/ 

Fly-Tipping 

Garden nuisance 

Misuse of 

communal areas 

Prostitution/sexual 

acts/kerb crawling 

Other criminal activity 


We will: 

• Develop an ASB minimum standards pledge 

with our partner agencies working in 

Tower Hamlets. 

• Develop new information packs with details 

of victim support, domestic violence, hate 

crime and other support agencies. 

• Our new ReACT IT system will help 

us effectively record and monitor ASB 

cases and help us achieve our customer 

satisfaction target. 

• Provide information on what we spend each 

year on ASB. 

• Set up local focus groups on the Exmouth 

and Bow Cross estates to address issues 

of ASB. 



Provide better feedback through our website 

on reports of ASB, including those made 

anonymously, to encourage residents to 

come forward. 

Provide area specific anti-social behaviour 

reports to each Residents’ Association and 

Estate Residents’ Board. 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

228 56 40 5 

Early interventions from Neighbourhood team 

Referal to other agencies including mediation 

Acceptable behaviour agreements/contracts 

Legal action taken 


21

5 

Our Values 

Insistent: 

We go the extra mile for our 

residents; we put energy into what 

we do because we believe in it. 

Value for 

money standard 

How we make best use of our resources. 



Value for money 


for value for money 

Registered providers shall have a 

comprehensive approach to managing 

their resources to provide cost-effective, 

efficient, quality services and homes 

to meet tenants’ and potential 

tenants’ needs. 

Our Service Offer – 

How we are meeting 

the standard 

We have developed our value for money 

strategy with residents. This can be found 

on our website www.swan.org.uk 

To support this strategy we established 

our Service Improvement Committee. 

The Committee is made up of Board 

Members, residents and Swan employees. 

The purpose of this Committee is: 

• To demonstrate ongoing value for 

money (VFM) in service delivery. 

• To manage our growth in a cost 

effective way that provides you with 

good quality services. 

• To involve you and other stakeholders 

in our value for money reviews. 

Our staff Value for Money Review Panel 

meets regularly to discuss how we can 

better use the resources we have. 

We want to show you how expenditure 

has been prioritised in relation to each of the 

standards, in the delivery of local offers and 

in meeting other needs such as investment 

in any new homes we build. 

How did we do 

Performance from April 2009 

to March 2010. 

We retendered a number of contracts including 

the contract for our office photocopiers. Over 

a 5 year period, the new contract will save over 

£300,000 which will be reinvested in services 

to tenants. 

We set a number of value for money targets. 

These ranged from savings on operating 

costs, through to answering telephones. 

The purpose of these targets is to work in a 

more efficient way and save money that can be 

re-directed to other services. Our objective is to 

increase the quality of our services without any 

increase in cost. 

Cost Targets 

Build your new homes 

for only 95% of the full 

budgeted cost. 

Save 3% on all 

operating costs. 

Save 8% on staff costs. 

Keep the average cost of 

borrowing below 4.10% 

Receive £50,000 of 

revenue grant to support 

Swan Foundation. 

Met 

Yes 

We achieved 

2.4% in savings. 

We achieved 

6.2% in savings. 

Yes 

Yes 

During the year we spent over £124 million on 

providing services and building 395 new homes. 

This money was used for housing management, 

repairs and maintenance, resident involvement 

and interest payments on loans and overheads. 

In our annual survey 70% of residents said they 

received good value for money for their rent. 


23

How your rent is spent (per £1) 

Interest paid 

on bank loans 

2010 2009 

26p 

28p 

Housing Management 22p 19p 

Repairs & Maintenance 22p 20p 

Resident Related Costs 2p 1p 

Overheads (incl. office costs, non 

housing staff costs, marketing and 

IT.) 

28p 

31p 

£1.00 £1.00 

We compare our services against other similar 

housing providers to see whether we provide 

a good level of service for a reasonable cost 

compared to others. These results will be 

published each year in “The Communicator”. 

Here are some examples of our value for 

money achievements: 

Former tenants arrears 

We saved £18 per case by tracing former 

residents ourselves. The total saved this year 

was over £4,000. 

Fuel Poverty 

“Climate Energy” installed free or reduced cost 

insulation. We also obtained low energy light 

bulbs for new tenant decoration packs. 

Out of Hours Service 

Axis now provides our out of hours service. 

This has saved £36,000. 

Repairs courses for residents 

During the year Axis held free repairs 

workshops for residents. These residents are 

now able to undertake minor repairs to their 

property which are their responsibility. This 

saves residents unnecessary repair bills and 

reduces calls to the Axis free phone number. 

Gas Servicing and Repairs 

By being a member of a bulk purchasing club 

Axis buy the same quality radiators and boilers 

cheaper than before. This saved over £12,000. 

Golden Goodbye scheme 

This scheme has saved over £10,000 by 

reducing the time properties are empty, saving 

repair costs and rewarding those of you who 

have looked after your home. 

Targeting graffiti 

Using anti-graffiti paint in communal areas 

in our new homes makes long term savings 

on re-painting costs. 


• We will complete our service reviews on 

value for money in estate services and 

service charge administration. 

• Develop a Value for Money Toolkit with 

residents to help you tell us how we can 

achieve better value for money. 

• Continue to benchmark our services to 

compare ourselves against others and report 

these results to you. 

Going forward – 

Local Offers agreed 

with residents so far 

Provide regular information on costs 

and satisfaction with our services. 

Set up an independent resident led 

Contractor Monitoring Board. 

Involve residents in the procurement 

process for repairs and estate services. 

Report how money is spent on all services in 

a block or where a service charge is paid. 

Compare our costs with other social 

landlords in Tower Hamlets. 



6 

Governance 

and financial 

viability standard 

Our Values 

In Touch: 

We listen and respond to our 

residents and involve them 

in decision – making, we are 

aware of the latest developments 

in housing. 


25

Governance 

Financial viability 


for governance 

Registered providers shall ensure effective 

governance arrangements that deliver their 

aims, objectives and intended outcomes for 

tenants and potential tenants in an effective, 

transparent and accountable manner. 



The work of Swan is overseen by a Board of 

independent members supported by a range 

of committees and resident majority Regional 

Committees in London and Essex. 

The adoption of an appropriate governance 

standard is central to Swan’s governance 

structure. We have adopted the new 2010 

National Housing Federation Governance 

code, – “Excellence in Governance” – which 

has been prepared to meet the new regulatory 

framework. We feel this is the most appropriate 

and relevant code for Swan. 

The governance code seeks to guide 

organisations in developing and maintaining an 

effective leadership team, which directs and 

controls its operations whilst observing the 

highest standards of conduct. 

As required by the code, Swan continues to 

maintain clearly established roles for its Board, 

Chair and Chief Executive as well as senior 

management and staff. We undertake regular 

assessments of our performance. 

How did we do 


• Board members were trained on the new 

regulatory framework. 

• New code of governance adopted by the Board. 

• Our risk framework was regularly reviewed 

and considered by the Board. 


• Two places have been set aside on Swan’s 

Board for residents to be elected from the 

Regional Committees in September 2010. 



for financial viability 

Registered providers shall manage their 

resources effectively to ensure their 

viability is maintained. 



Each year the Tenant Services Authority 

produces a Group Viability Report, the purpose 

of which is to form an annual assessment of 

the financial viability of Swan. This year’s report 

confirms that Swan meets the expectations of 

the TSA. 

How did we do 

Performance from April 2009 

to March 2010. 

• We have sufficient funding in place to meet 

our Business Plan. 

• We have a good track record and experience 

in developing large complex regeneration sites. 

• Regeneration schemes do not depend on 

new property sales. 

• Our 2008/09 audited accounts and 

management letter raised no issues of concern. 


5 year financial summary 

For the year ended 31 March 2010 

Income & expenditure account 

2010 

£’000 

2009 

£’000 

2008 

£’000 

2007 

£’000 

2006 

£’000 

Total turnover 66,259 53,816 36,694 29,556 25,889 

Income from lettings 41,412 35,799 29,581 26,622 22,395 

Operating surplus 13,243 13,407 7,762 8,705 6,926 

Surplus/(deficit) for the year (432) (379) (3,597) (1,505) (2,607) 

Balance sheet 

Housing properties, net of 

depreciation & grants 

496,653 451,242 463,244 362,433 305,806 

Other fixed assets 4,614 4,548 5,093 3,922 3,068 

Net current assets/(liabilities) 44,726 52,038 (358) (19,332) (11,361) 

Total assets less current liabilities 545,993 507,828 467,979 347,023 297,513 

Loans (due over 1 year) 400,009 387,559 344,873 236,983 205,712 

Reserves 145,984 120,269 123,106 110,040 91,801 

Accommodation figures 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 

Total housing stock at year end 

Owned 

Social housing 8,020 7,943 6,846 6,331 5,700 

Non social housing 1,142 1,162 1,154 1,155 411 

Managed on behalf of others 

Social housing 1,367 1,374 111 121 130 

Non social housing 198 198 


27

Speaking your language 

0300 303 2500 

0300 303 2500 

303 2500 

0300 

0300 303 2500 

2500 

0300 303 

0300 303 2500 

0300 303 2500 

0300 303 2500 

Swan Housing Association 

Pilgrim House 

High Street, Billericay 

Essex CM12 9XY 

0300 303 2500 

www.swan.org.uk

Residents - Swan Housing Association

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