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New Home and Property Services Directors

L to R: Suzanne Horsley and Sasha Harrison

We've recently appointed Suzanne Horsley and Sasha Harrison as Home and Property Services Directors to further the Group’s commitment of delivering quality services to our customers.

Suzanne joins the Group as Home and Property Service Director – North Region from One Housing Group, where she successfully transformed operational services and introduced new ways of working that made a difference to customers’ lives. Having previously worked for a number of local authorities and housing associations, Suzanne holds a successful track record of leading multiple service improvements, implementing new systems and developing customer service teams.

Joining as Home and Property Service Director – South Region, Sasha brings 20 years housing operations and customer service experience having previously worked at West Kent and Riverside Housing. In her most recent role at Circle Housing, she managed a number of key projects including digital and organisational culture transformation.

Both Suzanne and Sasha will take the responsibility for improving customer experience and providing quality homes. They will focus on driving consistency across the Group’s two regions, working collaboratively to provide high quality front-line housing management services and delivering efficient home maintenance and repairs services.

Energy advice service a popular choice

Southern Housing Group’s Home Energy Advice Team (HEAT) has been helping residents from Viridain Housing to use energy more efficiently.

HEAT team members began the work after winning a tender to provide services to 50 residents in in Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis.

The work included providing guidance on how to use heating systems more efficiently, switching energy tariffs and suppliers to save money, reducing water bills and how to apply for the Warm Home Discount, as well as installing free energy saving devices.

Established in 2014, HEAT holds a successful track record of providing personalised and face-to-face energy advice to our residents and has supported more than 950 households to save a total of £237,000 off energy, gas and water bills; an average of £250 per household.

Building our Future

The Group is working hard to improve the services it provides to our customers. To do this we’re making some changes to the way we work and aiming to be a more customer-focused business. To guide this process we have introduced a transformation programme called Building our Future, which will help prepare the company to excel at customer service.

We have already started making changes, for example; this year we introduced a new online chat service, so customers can get in touch with us in a new and simple way. We’re going to introduce a new Customer Relations Management system, which will give the Group a single view of our customers. This will mean whoever our customer speaks to in the Group they will have access to the same information and we can be more consistent.

We’re also investing in technology to empower our staff to make decisions quickly and efficiently for our customers through the access to new technology and better phones. We’re also aiming to have team members work more locally.

Customer Voice Forum

As a Group we're taking a fresh approach to resident scrutiny and have launched Customer Voice Forums, which will form our approach to listening and acting on what our customers tell us.

There are three forums, each having a chairperson alongside a group of customers who will be our champions and have a particular portfolio to focus on. Customers will review information about an area of the business, share their views and challenge us so we can understand where we need to improve from our customers’ point of view. Members will give their views on key areas of the business as we develop and change and this will dictate the customer involvement agenda.

Bow River Village

One of our biggest multi-tenure developments in London, Bow River Village was named 'Best Large Development' at the First Timer Buyer Readers' Awards 2016. It has now launched the sale of its shared ownership homes to the public. The development offers waterfront views of the River Lea and consists of one, two and three bedroom apartments. In total there will be 86 new homes available for shared ownership in one of east London’s most sought after locations. Southern Home Ownership will lead on sales, providing another great example of the Group building affordable and sustainable housing.

1% rent reduction

The introduction of a 1% reduction on social housing rents each year over the next four years has required us to make plans and take into consideration a significant reduction in incoming between now and 2020.

We have adapted our business plans to ensure we can withstand the impacts these policies will have on our finances, although financial modelling shows that this reduction will result in a cumulative £45m loss in income over the four years.

Our response has been to identify savings through efficiencies to make sure we remain a strong and viable organisation and to continue our approach to financial management. This includes continuing to have a robust arrears recovery process and identifying growing markets that will help the business grow in the long term, including working households who require subsidised housing.

We are also working closely with our customers and continuing to invest in programmes to help them find work and financial assistance and guidance, which in turn helps reduce reliance on benefits and reduces the risk of them falling into arrears. These proactive services form a core part of our business and offer customers excellent support, yielding significant results and helping to minimise the impact of the Government changes.

CIH Housing Review

For the second year in a row, Southern Housing Group joined other industry leaders in helping to fund the Chartered Institute of Housing’s UK Housing Review 2016.

This high-profile document provides organisations with evidence-based data about the housing sector to help business leaders make strategic decisions.

This year’s publication offers valuable insights into Government housing policies and their impact on the sector, welfare reforms, statistical data on development, house building and different types of tenures.

Group’s position on Government housing policy

As housing continues to face significant changes through Government reform, we are monitoring what is happening and will develop policies in line as detail emerges.

Be social and follow us

Did you know you can get in touch with us on Twitter, where we currently have almost 3,000 followers? To find out more about the work we do and how to get involved, follow @SHGroupUK.

We’re also on LinkedIn where you can find out about our developments, resident initiatives, career opportunities and more.