Annual Report 2019/20 is here
Latest performance and achievements for us are now available to view online in our 2019/20 Annual Report.
Highlights include supporting over 700 local people with employment support, lowest rent arrears since 2013 at just over £616,000 and setting up a new Board structure to enable us to run even more efficiently.
Janine Garner, Involved tenant, said: “There has been so much great work over the last 12 months. My proudest moment has to be us getting back onto our feet and dealing with the governance review so well.
“Not just because of all the progress we’ve made, but because us tenants were able to help and support with something so business critical. This to me really proves how valued tenants are.”
Steve Hepworth, Chief Executive, said: “The last 12 months have been a time of learning and change for us here at Ongo. We continued to work through our governance review and the voluntary undertaking we agreed with the Regulator of Social housing, which I’m pleased to say we have recently completed. A recommendation to come from the review was to look at our Board structure, which we have, and now we have a new more streamlined structure. This means we’ll be able to run more efficiently as a business.
“What has made me most proud over the last 12 months is how Ongo colleagues have worked closely with our tenants on a number of different projects, to really improve the way we do things and make positive changes. Whether this has been working to redesign our rent statements and saving over £13,000 a year, making savings of £180,000 by moving to a new kitchen supplier; our tenant group played a key role in selecting this new supplier or working together as a group to really raise the issue of equality, diversity and inclusion in everything we do.
“Of course, towards the end of the financial year, something we could not have predicted had a huge impact on us – the global coronavirus pandemic. I would like to say a huge thank you to my colleagues for working so hard during this time to keep our services running, and to our tenants for being patient with us and working with us to make sure we all stay safe.”
A focus for 2019/20 was improving the way in which we offer our services digitally. Sessions were held with tenants on the look, feel and functionality of our website to see how it could be further improved. Following these sessions, a plan was put in place with many already implemented and more planned in over the coming months. Our My Home app also saw further improvements to make it simpler and more efficient to use. There was an increase in tenants using the app over the last 12 months too, increasing from 3,405 to 4,384 active users.
Supporting local people with employment and skills opportunities is also an area of huge importance to us, and during 2019/20 invested £1million in programmes and projects to improve local communities and opportunities for tenants and clients. There was also an additional £447,723 external funding to deliver employment support and wellbeing type activities. This money has been spent on projects such as Ongo Talk, which is a counselling and life coaching service to help people to improve their mental health, emotional well-being to create a brighter future for themselves.
New homes being built was another highlight for us, with a variety of tenure types becoming available in the region. This included the completion of their first outright sale site in Blyton, first Rent to Buy homes becoming available; which are a great option for those looking to get on the property ladder but don’t have a deposit saved, and more shared ownership homes.
There were 26,295 repairs and maintenance jobs completed by our team during 2019/20, with 95% of tenants satisfied with the quality of the work, and 84% satisfied that the work was completed right first time. Overall, 86% of tenants were satisfied with the repairs service as a whole.
Here is the full Annual Report 2019 – 2020.