VICTORY HOUSING TRUST DELIVERING ‘EXCELLENT’ VALUE FOR MONEY
A new study has shown that north Norfolk’s biggest social landlord is providing excellent value for money – performing above the national and regional average in almost every measure.
Victory Housing Trust’s Value For Money Self-Assessment for the year ending March 2016 shows that the housing association has increased its financial return on its assets by almost a third, has reduced management, maintenance and major repair costs, and has thus increased the number of new homes it is building.
As a result, resident satisfaction levels relating to the value for money they receive for the rent they pay has reached 89 per cent – comparing favourably with satisfaction levels for many of the country’s most-loved commercial organisations, including Amazon (86.6 per cent), First Direct (85.7 per cent) and Waitrose (85 per cent).
“This report shows that we continue to work hard to provide maximum value both to our residents, and to the wider community in north Norfolk,” said Victory’s chief executive John Archibald.
“We are a non profit-making organisation, and we plough every penny into providing as many good quality affordable homes as we can. That rigorous focus has seen us cut costs, procure services more efficiently, and manage our assets to capitalise on their inherent value.
“An independent survey has also shown very high levels of satisfaction amongst our residents for the value for money we provide. In the context of welfare benefit reform, this is an increasingly important driver of overall resident satisfaction, and a major factor behind our overall resident satisfaction score of 89 per cent, with 50 per cent saying they are ‘very satisfied’.
“We are acutely aware of our responsibility to deliver maximum value, and we continue to seek ways to become more efficient, so that we can plough ever more cash into our core activity or providing much-needed affordable homes.
“These are an excellent set of figures. However, we are not resting on our laurels, and we have implemented an action plan for 2016/17 to ensure that we deliver even better value for money.”
The report shows:
- Management costs per home fell by 4.1 per cent during the year, and are 23.3 per cent lower than the national average for comparable housing associations
- Maintenance costs per home fell by 9.3 per cent, principally due to improved procurement, and are 7.5 per cent below the national average for comparable housing associations
- Careful asset management has resulted in significant cash gains which have been invested in building new homes
- sales of older, poorly-performing homes have brought in £6.26 million and provided savings of £735,000 in improvement works
- sales receipts from garage sites are being reinvested in building new homes
- Victory has significantly increased its development programme, with 104 new homes completed during the year, and a further 130 under construction at 31st March 2016. The Trust’s average for the past three years is 121, which is a 160 per cent increase over the previous three years
- A focus on better procurement delivered a saving of £440,000 during the year
The full Value For Money Assessment document can be downloaded from https://www.victoryhousing.co.uk/value-for-money-self-assessment.