Making the most of its assets

These days we’re used to hearing about mammoth RSLs, but Manchester’s Arcon Housing Association is showing that small organisations can make a difference too

Small and beautiful is the way chief executive Peter Schilizzi described Arcon Housing Association, but he added that it sits in a somewhat odd position as the “largest of the smalls and the smallest of the big”.

That may be so, but its diminutive size has done nothing to dampen its ability to deliver for its tenants – or indeed to hinder its staying power. The organisation has been around for some time, having been established in 1972, and these days it owns and manages just under 1,100 properties. But it doesn’t just manage and maintain properties – it also builds new ones.

Indeed, a high proportion of its stock consists of new build, though its portfolio also includes around 25 per cent of older refurbished properties, including traditional terraced houses some of which date back to before 1919. The majority of the organisation’s stock is socially rented, including 231 refurbished terraced homes, but it also partly owns 25 shared ownership properties and 38 homes aimed at those with special needs.

Arcon also provides management services for 16 properties owned by the Fairfield Moravian Housing Association and it is the trustee for two almshouses that provide 18 homes. Arcon also owns a Companies Act registered development arm called Arcon Developments Limited that owns and manages market rent and shared ownership properties.

Based in Manchester city centre, the organisation operates in 11 local authority areas with the majority of its homes in Greater Manchester but it does reach out further afield, with a presence in Macclesfield and Lytham.

In essence, Arcon operates in a territory that is “no more than an hour’s drive from the city centre”, so it is able to maintain a relatively intimate relationship with tenants without the need for the kind of call centre and help desk style of mobilisation that its far larger counterparts need to establish.

“We are a traditional housing association and we offer a very personal service and we know our tenants pretty well,” Schilizzi said. “We’ve been ISO 9001 quality registered for over 10 years and we pride ourselves on the high personal service we provide to our tenants, which is evidenced by top quartile satisfaction levels.” In its latest STATUS survey, Arcon scored 91 per cent in its overall tenant satisfaction levels. Last year, the organisation established a tenant scrutiny committee to increase the level of tenant involvement in the organisation. Providing oversight to the repairs and voids activities, among others, it not only gives the tenants input into decisions, it also creates a forum for networking with other housing associations for the sharing of best practice and the ‘cross fertilisation’ of ideas.

“The key issue with housing associations is the balance between investment in new development and the amount invested in the existing stock,” Schilizzi said. “One of the things about Arcon I am proud of is that we do have a high planned maintenance to responsive repair ratio of 65:35 so that the majority of our repairs budget is going into refurbishment and improvements. We do have a good long-term strategic repair programme – we know our stock very well.”

Indeed, one of the organisation’s refurbishment programmes earned Arcon recognition in the National Home Improvement Council’s awards. Since then, the organisation is moving forward with a green
retrofit programme to improve the energy efficiency of some of its pre-1919 era terraced homes in Gorton and Levenshulme.

“We’ve been successful in obtaining some money from the E.on 100 Day Challenge to retrofit these homes and we’re getting involved with Adactus Housing on delivering that,” Schilizzi said. “This is going to be a key area for the future, to try and improve the environmental efficiency of our properties.”

It’s not just about benefitting the environment, but also helping to address fuel poverty. Arcon also provides a handy guide via its website for tenants, covering not only energy efficiency measures for heating their homes, but in tackling damp, water conservation and other helpful tips suitable for anyone regardless of their tenure.

The retrofit programme it is currently engaged in makes use of external cladding to improve the thermal performance of the houses, and in another scheme it is also installing photo-voltaic solar panels. Inevitably, as is the case with so many of its peers conducting similar upgrades, there is an experimental aspect to the programme, to assess the performance of the installations and learn how to get the best from them.

Arcon’s goal over the next few years is to grow by between two and three per cent a year, translating into around 30 to 40 new properties a year. One way it is doing this is by taking on properties from organisations undergoing stock rationalisation, as happened recently in Middleton. It is also taking part in Great Places Housing Group’s mortgage rescue scheme, which will bring new homes on to its books, and is looking to boost its stock through a programme of newbuild.

The organisation has gained funding through the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) for two schemes in Trafford and Salford. The first will see the construction of nine two-bedroom flats, while the latter will provide six houses.

The organisation has identified a growing need in the intermediate rental market, which, though still in its infancy, is something that Arcon is looking to address as it pursues its growth strategy. “There are a lot of prospective first-time buyers out there who are not able to meet their housing needs through that route,” said Schilizzi. “So we are trying to meet that by offering, in addition to our existing shared ownership programme typically at the 25 per cent level, further properties with an intermediate rental at 80 per cent of market rent on a three-year fixed assured tenancy.”

As can be gleaned from the activities mentioned above, Arcon doesn’t stand aloof or unnoticed in the wider housing sector in the city, but puts itself about to work in partnership with others. The organisation is part of the Northern Lights Group, so it has good links with Accent, Johnnie Johnson, Muir and its other member housing associations. It is also a member of the North West Small Housing Associations Group.

Arcon is certainly keeping itself busy with a variety of activities not, perhaps, expected of a small housing association, but it is by all accounts going well as it follows its growth strategy.

As Schilizzi put it: “So far so good.”