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How are we performing for you?
Our annual report for customers 2023/24
Home Achievement Programme
Customer case study
Customer apprenticeships
Involvement and engagement
Complaints
Where we spend your money
Our performance
Our mission
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4th Best place to work in the Great Place to Work UK survey
£493m turnover
14,000+ supported customers
125,000+ people living in almost 56,000 homes
80+ years in housing
We do this by providing homes in the right places, delivering innovative solutions to support the demand for housing, providing quality housing services to our customers across England and Scotland, and shaping healthcare services that meet the ever-changing needs of society.
We are one of the UK’s largest providers of quality housing, health and care. We are committed to delivering our mission, ‘building homes, independence and aspirations’.
Building homes, independence and aspirations
Our performance last year:
We engaged with almost 4,000 customers to get their views.
The Home Group fund had 1,641 applications, providing £372,000 of support to customers.
We invested £149m improving and maintaining customers' homes.
Our financial inclusion team has benefitted customers by £6.28m in additional income and £1.35m in lump sum payments.
We built 916 affordable homes.
We invested £187m to build more new houses.
We rank as 4th overall Best Workplace, 8th best for Development, 9th best for Women, and 16th best for Wellbeing in the 2024 Great Place to Work UK survey.
We built 1,284 new homes.
See how we performed for our customers and colleagues.
71.2% of our homes achieved an EPC rating of 'C' or better, due to our focus on retrofit.
We have divided our operations into six communities, appointing a new Regional Director for each region.
Our overall scores in our Tenant Satisfaction Measures were 66.9% for Rented and Supported, and 44.5% for Shared Ownership.
The Regulator of Social Housing has introduced new Tenant Satisfaction Measures, a set of 22 measurements for housing associations like us. These measures cover: Customer satisfaction How we’re keeping properties in good repair How we’re keeping homes safe How we’re delivering respectful and helpful engagement How we’re handling complaints How we’re dealing with anti-social behaviour Responsible neighbourhood management. 10 of these measures are information that we already track in our organisation to make sure it is running smoothly and safely. The other 12 measures are based on customer research to get their views on how we are performing in key areas.
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
Learn more
work together with customers and partners
tell you where your money goes
help communities grow
care about you
deliver a reliable repairs service
provide a safe place to live
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We worked with almost 300 customers nationwide to develop our customer promise, which is a set of guiding statements to...
Our customer promise
Our surplus before tax In 2023/24 we made a surplus of £23 million. We reinvest our surplus back into the business where it helps pay for things like this:
Last year (2023/24), we spent £338 million on our rented homes, which is split like this:
Gives us financial stability Lets us invest
Improvements to our existing homes – we invested £50 million last year Building new affordable homes for rent – we invested £101 million last year
Making a surplus is important as it:
Want to know more? If you want to know the detail behind our finances then read our financial statements. Our customers shape everything we do. Find out how you can get involved in how your money is spent by visiting our website.
£7m other
£48m service charge costs
£55m interest payment
£53m depreciation
£73m on housing management
£102m on repairs
£7m other Other costs include £4m on lease costs where we rent property, and £3m of bad debt cost where we haven’t been able to recover all of the rent and service charge we are owed.
£48m service charge costs This includes £5m on repairs and maintenance for communal areas, £11m on utilities, insurance and security, £8m on cleaning communal areas, gardening and grounds maintenance and £15m on concierge and night security for our supported services.
£55m interest payment Interest is a charge we pay to our lenders (banks) to borrow money that we use to build homes.
£53m depreciation Depreciation is the decrease in the value of an asset over time (in our case, the “assets” are houses or other buildings). This decrease in value is recorded as an expense every year in our accounts.
£73m on housing management This relates to the day to day costs of running the organisation as well as providing services to customers. It includes £40m of employment costs for our colleagues working in housing services and our back office functions. Other significant costs include £7m on IT equipment and systems, and £5m on insurance. The cost per property of housing management is £1,368. (Within this amount, £28.22 per property relates to the amount we pay our Executive Directors and Board Members, including £5.06 to our Chief Executive.)
£102m on repairs This included £56m carrying out over 230,000 responsive repairs, £31m on gas servicing, fire risk assessments and other safety checks. And £15m on major repair works.
£187 million on building new homes
Approximately 25% of a new affordable home is funded through a grant from the government and Home Group funds the rest. We do this by reinvesting the surplus we make on the homes we build to sell, or borrowings that we then pay back from the rental income we receive.
We don’t always get things right, and we know that can be frustrating for customers. Making a formal complaint means we look into what’s gone wrong and sort it out. We also use the reasons for complaints to drive improvements.
Report it online at homegroup.org.uk Call us on 0345 141 4663 Write to the team at FAO The Complaints Team, Home Group, One Strawberry Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4BX Speak to a Home Group colleague in person
Outcomes of the complaints: The majority of complaints (64.76%) were resolved and upheld 10.90% of complaints were not upheld, but they were resolved 4.18% of complaints were withdrawn 2.52% of complaints were partially upheld and resolved 4.33% of complaints were upheld and unresolved For 2.95% of complaints we were not able to contact the person who complained. The rest of complaints were either logged in error, not upheld and not resolved, ongoing, recorded as unreasonable or referred to the legal department
Complaints we received last year: Leasehold complaint – stage 1: – 311 Leasehold complaint – stage 2: – 66 Rented complaint – stage 1: – 3,132 Rented complaint – stage 2: – 442 Scotland complaint – stage 1: – 256 Scotland complaint – stage 2: – 78
What are the top causes for complaints?
What were the outcomes of the complaints?
How many complaints did we receive last year?
Damp and mould Missed appointments No heating / hot water Leaks
We hope you don’t need to make a complaint, but if you do, we want to make it as easy as possible.
No matter what your experience or skills, you can spend as much or as little time as you have getting involved and telling us what you think. Find out more by visiting our website or speaking to a Home Group colleague.
There are lots of ways customers can get involved, have their say, and make a real difference to their communities.
Involvement and engagement at Home Group
Between April 2023 and March 2024, we asked 3,793 customers their views, listened to what they said, and acted on their ideas. An additional 909 customers took part in over 17 different local engagement activities.
16 customer consultations involving 1,466 customers.
105 customers involved in recruiting colleagues into 228 roles.
255 nominations for our customer awards, with 5 customers judging and 11 celebrations across the country.
29 Life Swap members delivered 25 Life Swaps to 1,865 customers, colleagues and stakeholders.
20 customers involved in 4 Home Group repairs scrutiny group meetings.
146 viewpoint team members involved in 31 viewpoint meetings.
2 customer board members on Home Group Board and 1 on Home Scotland Board.
89 customers from 15 independent living schemes met with colleagues across 8 regions as part of the over 55s forum.
anyone@home, our digital customer group, has 396 members who contributed to 18 consultations.
29 customer assessors assessed 43 neighbourhoods, services and schemes. against the customer promise, speaking to 518 customers.
Other areas in which our customers were involved: Do You Hear Us, our multicultural customer group We are Unique and Proud, disability group Alphabetti Spaghetti, our customer led LGBTQ plus support group FrieNDs, our customer neurodiversity support group Equality and diversity training Reviewing complaints Home Group colleague inductions and training
This is how our customers were involved:
There are a number of ways we support customers at Home Group, one of these is our apprenticeship programme.
120 apprentices employed by Home Group each year.
70 annual apprenticeships exclusively for Home Group customers who have been long-term unemployed.
60% apprentices who were long-term unemployed feel they would not have been offered a job or an apprenticeship elsewhere.
£1m spent per year in employment costs for our customer apprentices, and over £200k on their learning.
26 different apprenticeship types we offer that range from Level 2 (GCSE level) right through to Level 6 and 7 (Degree and Masters level).
90% apprentices stay in jobs within Home Group.
64% apprenticeships are filled by disadvantaged and diverse groups.
“I became a Home Group customer in March 2020. In June, I received a leaflet from them promoting a housing management position as part of their apprenticeship programme. I was thinking about a career change, so I applied online and ended up being offered the role. “I was paired with an amazing housing manager who showed me the ropes so I could learn through shadowing her job. Alongside this, I was studying for my Level 2 qualification in Housing Management and achieved a Distinction, which I’m so proud of. In September 2022 I applied for a housing manager secondment in my area, which I did for 12 months whilst starting my Level 3 qualification, which I’ll complete this October. “I became a permanent colleague in September 2023, and now I’m even training my own apprentice. There’s no way I’d be in my dream job if it hadn’t been for the apprenticeship programme and the brilliant support of my Home Group colleagues. “I’d recommend other customers looking for employment visit our website and see what roles are available. What have you got to lose?”
Gracie Clark housing manager
Case study
“I became a Home Group customer in March 2020. In June I received a leaflet from them promoting a housing management position as part of their apprenticeships programme. I was thinking about a career change, so I applied online and ended up being offered the role. “I was paired with an amazing housing manager who showed me the ropes so I could learn through shadowing her job. Alongside this I was studying for my Level 2 qualification in Housing Management and achieved a Distinction, which I’m so proud of. In September 2022 I applied for a housing manager secondment in my area, which I did for 12 months whilst starting my Level 3 qualification, which I’ll complete this October. “I became a permanent colleague in September 2023, and now I’m even training my own apprentice. There’s no way I’d be in my dream job if it hadn’t been for the apprenticeship programme and the brilliant support of my Home Group colleagues. “I’d recommend to other customers looking for employment, like I was, to visit our website and just see which roles are available. What have you got to lose?”
The Home Achievement Programme
The Home Achievement Programme (HAP) is Home Group’s unique training programme helping customers work towards achieving an accredited qualification that aims to improve their quality of life in a variety of subjects based on:
Health and Wellbeing Employability Social Responsibility Promoting Independence
This year customers completed 773 modules, which resulted in 107 customers achieving their Full Level One Award.
A focus on customer apprenticeships
A focus on complaints
A focus on where we spend your money
If you want to keep up to date with how we are performing, you can find out more in Homelife magazine, or on our website. If you have any feedback on what you would like to hear more about, please contact us at
communications@homegroup.org.uk
