Posted on 28 August 2024
We’re a different, kinder and more community-focused organisation today, than we were even three years ago, says Hyde CEO.
Our 2023/24 Annual financial results show that, over the past 12 months, we’ve spent more on customers’ homes, communities and services, despite the financial challenges in the sector and economy.
We’ve shown our sharper focus on putting customers first by launching our new and more local neighbourhood approach to supporting customers in their communities, opened our new Customer Service Centre that is getting more of customers’ queries sorted first time, and we’ve launched more digital services for customers.
“Our Neighbourhoods and Specialist Housing Service, launched in January 2024, is fundamentally changing the way we manage customers’ homes and neighbourhoods,” said Chief Executive Officer Andy Hulme.
“Our new Customer Service Centre, which opened in January 2024, is now able to solve nine out of ten enquiries when customers first get in touch.
“Customers are now at the heart of a coherent and consistent service, with about three quarters of our colleagues in roles serving them directly; meaning we’ve been able to double the amount of time colleagues spend in our communities.”
We’re also making it easier for customers to get in touch. We’ve invested in more digital platforms, so customers can raise queries whenever, and wherever they want to, giving them better access to the services that matter the most.
Through our online portal, MyAccount, tenants can book repairs and all our customers can raise a complaint and check their rent or service charge account balances; we’re adding more services all the time. A quarter of customer enquiries are raised on digital platforms.
“We’ve been able to do all of this because of our conscious decision to increase investment in the past few years, which has reduced our margins in a planned way, but is the right thing to do for our customers and for the long-term,” explained Rod Holdsworth, Chief Financial and Resources Officer.
“We’re part of a group led by a charity, which means we always reinvest all our surpluses in homes and services. For example, in 2023/24, we spent £109m on maintaining, repairing and improving homes; about £15m more than the year before. We plan to spend more than £1.7bn maintaining and investing in homes over the next five years.”
This year, we continued to bring more of our repairs services in-house, to improve quality and response times. About 95% of repairs are now carried out by Hyde colleagues, a five-fold increase from a year ago. Customers tell us they’re either satisfied or extremely satisfied with the Hyde colleague carrying out the repair, in 95% of cases.
We’re £2.1m into a £12m programme of work (including £6m from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund) to improve the energy efficiency of nearly 1,000 homes in Chichester. This will make homes more comfortable and help cut customers’ bills.
And, despite public funding for affordable homes being cut by 60% since 2010, reducing the ability for many housing associations to build much-needed new homes, we’ve taken a different approach to keep building, using institutional investment to support our development programme.
“We’ve continued our commitment to build more affordable homes, starting 823 new homes this year and we’re still on track to deliver, on average, 1,500 homes a year for the next ten years. Importantly, almost all of our schemes are 100% affordable, compared with 25% five years ago,” Andy said.
We’re also continuing to bring about positive change for customers and neighbourhoods through funding from Hyde Charitable Trust (HCT) and our social investment team, Hyde Foundation. This year HCT grants supported 32,503 people, preventing homelessness, supporting people’s aspirations and connecting communities.
Together with our supply chain partners, we indirectly and directly contributed more than £12m in social value, specialist support and direct grants to our most vulnerable customers and community partners. This includes £9.6m in social value contributions from our suppliers, five times more than the year before.
“We’re a different, kinder and more community-focused organisation today, than we were even three years ago,” Andy said.
“We recognise we’ve got more to do to. We’ll continue to listen, to put things right when they go wrong, and to never lose sight of wanting the best for our customers.
“The recent acceleration of our plans is starting to make a difference to people’s lives and is ensuring all of our communities are thriving, vibrant places that people are proud of and want to live in.”