BIH Housing Association - Annual Report and Accounts 2007/2008

The return of devolved government has challenged us all to be responsive to local Ministers with local policies and local commitments. The outworking of the Minister’s New Housing Agenda has commenced. The Association will seek to actively participate in the delivery of this strategy for the future. We are mindful too that we are engaged with our partners in the Abacus Housing Consortium in preparing for changes to respond to the Department’s Procurement Strategy. Working with Abbeyield, Ark, Connswater Homes, Hearth, Open Door, Ulidia and Wesley Housing Associations has continued throughout the year with a preliminary agreement being signed by all members to work collaboratively to deliver this strategy. These are indeed changing times.

The Association has continued to meet its Business Plan objectives with 17 key performance indicators being exceeded. The delivery of new homes continues to be a priority within this business plan and this year BIH commenced work on 352 new homes and 40 new homes for Wesley HA. So exceeding our target of 286. We also outperformed in completions with 232 new homes becoming available for letting. Overall the Association carried out 535 allocations whilst our voluntary partners provided 516 new temporary homes. This impact on our community is the reason this Housing Association exists and all other services supplement the provision and management of homes.

The Association at 31 March 2008 had 4537 properties. With the completion of properties currently under construction it is expected that we will reach 5000 in Northern Ireland in 2009. BIH (Ireland) is also continuing to grow and on the Island of Ireland we are above 5000 properties so providing good quality, secure and comfortable homes for our community. To achieve this success and to maintain it requires constant high quality management at corporate and operational levels. The Board continues to monitor the outworking of the Corporate Plan and Business Plan setting will be important given the financial situation likely to occur in construction in the coming months and years. The Board wishes to place on record its thanks to the staff of the Association for their commitment and dedication in achieving high results for our tenants and for the pride which they have in taking the organisation forward.

The Association’s resources are carefully managed and this year we can report a 16% increase in turnover bringing the annual total to £14.1 million with rents collected now standing at £11.6 million. The development activity has added £66.5 million to the value of the Association. We have also secured further loans to take forward the anticipated development activity over the next three years. We are therefore well placed to respond to the development challenges ahead.

Development is only the beginning of a relationship with tenants present and in future. In February 2008 the Tenants Forum elected a new Chairman who will soon join the Board of the Association as one of the tenants representatives. Regretfully this means that Geoff Hindley will be leaving the Board but we are delighted that he will continue to give service on the Executive of the Tenants Forum. We wish to place on record our sincere thanks to Geoff for his unfailing support to the Board and the tenants and we look forward to working with Kathleen Quinn in the future. The inaugural Tenants Conference held in October 2007 was a landmark in the development of the Forum.

We are pleased to report that BIH is on target to have all existing properties meet the decent home standard by 2010. This has involved a comprehensive programme of upgrading to existing properties over a period of years. We have also this year installed solar panels at Fairholme in South Belfast and thus contributing to the reduction in electricity usage in this elderly persons supported housing scheme. Further schemes are under consideration. The Association is also contributing through its Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy to the wider community.

The Board has accepted the Chief Executive’s recommendation that the Association will go forward for assessment in 2008 against the model of the European Federation for Quality Management (EFQM) and we look forward to reporting on progress against this rigorous test in subsequent reports.

The Board and staff continue to look forward to meeting the challenges ahead and to delivering high quality services to our tenants and to our consultants, contractors and suppliers. We wish to place on record our thanks to the Minister, the Department and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive for their support to the Association in achieving the outcomes for 2007/8. We set out to Achieve Excellence in all of our activities and look forward to their support as we collectively seek to meet the housing needs of our community.

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