YHN Delivery Plan 2012-13 - Your Homes Newcastle

Forewordby Steve Murphy,Chair of Your HomesNewcastleI am very pleased to introduceYHN’s Delivery Plan for 2012/13. Itprovides information about ourservices and how we will deliverthem. It also sets out ourrelationship with Newcastle CityCouncil and identifies what weintend to achieve next year.Once again we have had a very busyyear in which we have made furtherstrides towards achieving our longtermstrategic objectives.Despite an increasingly challengingfinancial environment we have strivento provide excellent services for ourcustomers. Over the past year wehave completed a comprehensivereview of our housing managementservice, the aim of which was to domore for less; this has resulted in anumber of improvements for ourcustomers including increasednumbers of estate inspections, freeingup housing officers to spend more timeout and about on estates, moreproactive approaches to managingrent arrears, and improving the ways inwhich tenants can access ourservices. We have also been workinghard to improve the level of service weprovide out of hours and we plan toimprove access even further when welaunch our new enquiry centre in April.To help support our customers inpreparation for welfare reform we haverecently refreshed our financialinclusion strategy. Our revisedapproach will include theimplementation of a brand newfinancial inclusion service to ensurethat customers have access to a widerange of information and support tohelp them to manage their finances inthese increasingly difficult times.Over the past year we have continuedto make great progress in building andrefurbishing homes. In July 2011 wereceived confirmation from the Homesand Communities Agency that ourproposal on behalf of Leazes Homesfor grant funding under the affordablehousing programme had beenapproved. This £3.2 million grant willenable us to deliver approximately 345private homes and 144 affordablehomes over the next four years - greatnews for the city.It has been a particularly busy year onthe Byker Estate. In July 2011 itstenants voted in favour of setting up acommunity trust which will take overownership of the estate and all itsbuildings in May 2012. This will pavethe way for much needed majorinvestment in this iconic grade listed IIestate and enable local residents to beat the heart of decision making on itsfuture. I represent YHN on the BykerTrust Board and I look forward tohelping to oversee the excitingchanges that lie ahead.3