About this report
This report is for you, our customers, so we can share some of the highlights of the past year and provide you with an update on some of our key projects aimed at improving our services to you. It sets out our progress against our Strategic Plan 2021-24 and explains how we’ve spent our income.
We work hard to provide great services to our customers of mhs homes and Heart of Medway Housing Association (HoM). And where things haven't been quite right, we aim to put them right as quickly as we can, learn from our mistakes, and take action to improve your experience.
This year has seen more engagement with our customers than ever before. We've seen customers help us evaluate and choose our contractors, our Estate Champions have been actively working with us in our communities and our Tenant Board members continue to provide a customer perspective at all of our board meetings.
As you go through this report, you’ll see the performance of mhs homes and Heart of Medway Housing Association (HoM). These two companies are part of mhs homes group. The group provides some centralised services, such as when you contact us, you'll see these reported as mhs homes group.
Key facts from 2022-23
| mhs homes | Heart of Medway | |
|---|---|---|
| No. of homes we own or manage | 8,651 | 982 |
| No. of customers living in our homes | 21188 | 2,155 |
| Our average household size | 2.4 people | 2.2 people |
| The average age of our customers (main tenants only) | 52 | 42 |
| The average tenancy length | 12 years | 5 years |
We know one of the biggest concerns for our customers is the cost of living crisis. In the past year, we’ve made it a priority to help you through these difficult times.
We’ve put new measures in place including a Customer Support Fund which offers grants of up to £500. The fund has already been accessed by more than 200 customers to pay for essential items. We’re committed to keeping this support going for as long as it’s needed.
Energy bills are putting huge financial pressure on struggling households. We’re providing warms hubs and free energy advice through our network of local partners. And because we know lots of people miss out on benefits they’re entitled to, we’re continuing to help customers check your eligibility for financial support.
Customer service is more important than ever and we’re investing in staff training and resources, and strengthening our relationships with community partners to give you the experience you deserve.
In the past year, we’ve been pleased to see an increase in customer satisfaction in our services and we’re determined for this to continue. This means listening to what you tell us and making the changes you want to see.
85% of customers who responded to a survey said they were satisfied we provide a safe and secure home.
We know we need to do better in areas like complaints, our response times, and handling anti-social behaviour, and we’ll continue to focus on these to make sure you receive the best possible service.
The safety of our customers and our buildings remains central to everything we do and we’re proud that our commitment to this has been recognised. We were one of the first organisations to be awarded ‘Building a Safer Future’ Champion status as part of a new assessment process.
This provides an excellent foundation for our ongoing programme of improvements to your homes. We’re striving to reach our energy efficiency targets and it’s a big achievement that over 65% of mhs homes properties and over 90% of Heart of Medway properties have an EPC C rating. This is well above the sector average.
We remain committed to our ultimate ambition of helping to end the housing crisis in north Kent. We’ve built over 100 new homes, with another 300 in the pipeline.
As a landlord with a strong social purpose, we’ve made decisions which allow us to build new homes, improve our existing ones, but keep rents affordable for our customers. We know the importance of a decent home, and this drives our decisions.
Thank you to our customers, partners, and colleagues for all that has been achieved over this last year.
Nigel Hopkins, Chair of mhs homes group
Lord Roy Kennedy, Chair of Heart of Medway
The Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) has reached new heights in 2022-23 and has gone from strength to strength. We’ve recruited a strong and dedicated panel of customers who are all committed to helping mhs homes provide better services for its customers.
During the year we completed two impactful service reviews on anti social behaviour and responsive repairs. Extensive research was carried out for both reviews that involved talking to customers and mhs colleagues. This was so we could fully understand the services and make realistic recommendations to improve them.
June Patey, Chair of the CSP said: ‘We’ve seen a real positive shift in how the Scrutiny Panel works this year, we’ve re-defined our position which has meant more panel members recruited who have a diverse range of skills. This can only mean better outcomes for mhs customers.
I commend all the Panel for their continued proactive efforts in service reviews, monthly meetings and taking ownership to utitilise their skills for the benefit of customers.
This year we’ve enjoyed collaborating and building relationships with mhs homes colleagues who have actively supported us with our service reviews. Working in partnership with mhs is key to our success.'
You can learn more about the CSP and read their reviews here.
Performance areas
We've broken our performance into key areas to help you find what you're looking for. Click on a section below to explore our performance relating to that service area.
Where our money came from
Our annual turnover for 2022-23 was £63,048,000 across mhs homes group. This is a breakdown of: - £56,212,000 for mhs homes - £6,836,000 for Heart of Medway The money we receive is all reinvested back into providing safe and sustainable homes and improving our services and communities.
| Source of income | mhs homes | Heart of Medway |
|---|---|---|
| Social housing rent | £49,137,000 | £5,132,000 |
| Shared ownership rent | £1,482,000 | £1,076,000 |
| Other income | £1,463,000 | £213,000 |
| Property sales | £551,000 | £251,000 |
| Market rent | £3,579,000 | £165,000 |
How every £1 was spent
| How every £1 was spent | mhs homes | Heart of Medway |
|---|---|---|
| Paying off interest on loans | 18p | 8p |
| Investment in new homes | 24p | 21p |
| Covering service charge costs | 5p | 9p |
| Managing our homes | 25p | 15p |
| Repairing and improving our existing homes | 28p | 47p |
Feedback and other versions
We hope this report has been useful in understanding how we’re performing as your landlord. If you have any feedback or comments on how we can improve our annual report, including if there’s any other information you’d like to see, let us know by completing this short form.
If you need this report translated or a large font or brail printed copy, please let us know by emailing contactus@mhs.org.uk