Helm Housing

In early December 2011 Helm Housing received a report into its work resulting from an inspection visit conducted by the Department for Social Development (DSD), the regulator for housing associations. The inspection visit was actually carried out in 2010/11. While overall the report does not reflect well on the Association, the DSD was able to draw some assurance from the work of our Housing Management and Finance departments. However, it criticises us for our Development record and the overall Governance of the Association.

The Association's Board has faced up to these criticisms and put in place a programme of improvement throughout all areas of our work.

As a result of the findings detailed within the report, we are already well under way to delivering an extensive stock condition survey to give us an up-to-date analysis of the condition of our housing stock. As I reported to the Tenants Forum at its meeting of 28th November 2011, the Association is determined to demonstrate its commitments to the residents living on Helm Housing schemes by keeping all stock in good repair, improving both its planned and response maintenance programmes. We will also be looking at new ways in which we can resolve problems of Anti-social Behaviour.

In the coming months we will be meeting resident groups to learn more of their hopes for their homes and the communities in which they live. We are acutely aware of the fact that a large part of the Association's reputation with our tenants is based on only being as good as our last repair and we need to drive up the percentage of repairs which is right first time. Repeat visits to correct the same fault waste your - and our - time and money. Enhanced resident feedback and quality control is the answer.

There have been several changes to our Board with some members standing down. New members will be joining us in January and they will bring a range of business and financial skills to help us run what is a multi-million pound organisation.

In particular we have introduced a new business planning process and have begun the re-organisation of the finance department. We have strengthened our governance of the organisation not just by reviewing the membership of the Board and the senior staff but by introducing new checks and balances to ensure we meet best practice requirements. We bought several sites during the period 2007-10 and some have turned out to be unwise acquisitions where our original plans proved unrealistic. We are beginning to look at these sites to see if there are ways in which we can develop these sites for new homes.

We are beginning positively to respond to the DSD report and have accepted the recommendations made by the report. We will be judged on the provision of high quality housing management and maintenance and I am confident we shall succeed.

Greg Lomax,
Interim Chief Executive
16th January 2012