Our Corporate plan progress update (April – September 2024)
We wanted to share an update with you about the progress we’re making towards our Corporate Plan and achieving our three objectives (Be a great landlord, Customer Focus and Growth and Sustainability).
Our three strategies and Annual Strategic Plan detail the goals we need to achieve each year to deliver our objectives by 2029.
We will review our progress to identify things we are doing well, as well as areas for improvement. We’ll do this by looking at how we are performing against annual targets and Tenant Satisfaction Measure surveys.
Below shows our progress from April – September 2024:
| Things we are doing well | Impact of this |
| Stock condition surveys are progressing well and on course to complete in September 2025. | A schedule of works plan will be developed and published for tenants to access so they know when works will take place in their homes/communities. |
| There is a reduction in the escalation of complaints from Stage 1 to Stage 2, due to more focused work at Stage 1, including home visits with the complainant. This work supports our customer focus strategy and having a customer focused culture. | It is hoped that by the end of the year, tenants will be more satisfied we have dealt with their complaint well and hopefully this will impact on the number of escalations to the Housing Ombudsman. |
| Our Customer Resolution team has developed a new process to manage, monitor and govern actions coming from complaints, including more collaborative working. | Collaborative working ensures the team has more of an eye over how we will address complaint actions to increase customer satisfaction and reduce complaint escalations. |
| Progress in our repairs and maintenance service is ongoing, which includes reviewing processes and responsibilities, appointing new colleagues and additional in-house tradespeople, and applying recharges more consistently. | Our repairs service remains a key area of focus, and we want to deliver a better service for our tenants and customers. Improving this area is expected to have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and complaints in the longer-term, given that repairs is the largest cause of complaints and lower satisfaction levels. |
| We are achieving 99% compliance with the Decent Homes Standard, and Housing Health & Safety Rating System hazards are being prioritised to be achieved. 76.8% of tenants told us they feel safe in their homes, according to Tenant Satisfaction surveys. | We are ensuring our tenants live in safe, quality homes, which is a key part of our being a great landlord objective. |
| We are exceeding our target of 90% (95%) satisfaction with the overall condition of our homes at the time of letting. | This means that we are providing good quality homes at time of let. |
| We have improved satisfaction in the positive contribution made to neighbourhoods, from 54.4% to 60.2%. | This means that more people are aware of and are satisfied with the work we are doing to improve local communities. |
| We are exceeding our target of 50% (51.8%) in our approach to handling ASB. | Improved communication, keeping tenants and customers informed and managing expectations has contributed to this outcome. |
| 98 new properties have been completed (as of 30 September 2024). | This is part of our overall target to build 285 new homes by the end of the 24/25 financial year. Building more affordable housing is essential to support demand and tackle homelessness, ensuring more people have access to safe, quality homes. |
| Areas for improvement | Actions for improving |
| Improving our repairs service means that we are spending more than we had budgeted for in this area. | Overspending is expected to be short term, and improvements are expected to future budgets. |
| Satisfaction that communal areas are clean and well-maintained has not seen any significant improvement (66.8% from 66.1%). | A review of resources and how they are utilised in this area will be completed to support improvement. |
| Less tenants believe that we keep them informed, dropping from 59.5% to 57.7%. | This fall in satisfaction is linked to lower scores around repairs and complaints, with themes including not keeping tenants informed when it comes to the progress of repairs, and ASB. This is not just at Ongo, but across the sector. Improving in repairs and maintenance will likely see an improvement in these scores. |
| Information we hold about our tenants and customers needs to be reviewed, to ensure we are capturing vulnerabilities, reasonable adjustments, and customer alerts. | A review of our customer profiling and consent procedure is taking place, with the first step understanding and agreeing all the data we collect. Longer term, our Tech and Innovation team will commence a project on how tenants can self-serve to ensure their data is accurate. |
Our three strategies and annual strategic plan, which provide our focus for the year, was approved and published a little later than anticipated so progress against some areas has been slower.
Frequently reviewing our services means that we can look to improve areas more quickly, helping us to deliver a better service for our tenants sooner.
We’ll update you again in April, when the next review has happened for the period October 24 – March 25.