Putting a bounce into Chorley

Whether it’s the bread and butter services tenants expect of a social landlord or arranging for sociable
forms of football antics for young people, Chorley Community Housing puts the community first and
foremost

Footballs made out of foam rubber might sound like an unlikely piece of kit in the ongoing efforts to tackle anti-social behaviour, but they are a very real – and rather popular – means of kicking the problem into touch.

The footballs are the brain-child of Chorley Community Housing’s (CCH) anti-social behaviour team. Of its many successes in the field, the use of the foam footballs to defuse disputes caused by children playing footie on estates is something they are especially proud of. “The foam balls are designed so that kids can kick them around, just like a normal football, but unlike a real football they won’t damage cars or smash windows,” said Richard Houghton, the housing association’s director of operations. “We’ve even had requests for the footballs from people who aren’t suffering from anti-social behaviour so they don’t have to put up with the constant thud of a ball being kicked against the side of the house by their own kids.”

The association was formed in March 2007 with the transfer of Chorley Borough Council’s housing stock to the newly created subsidiary of Adactus Housing Group. Much of CCH’s work is focused on building stronger communities, but tackling anti-social behaviour is another key aspect of its work. Indeed, it’s very much a part of the stronger community focus; anti-social behaviour after all often undermines the social bonds that help to create a resilient sense of neighbourliness. That CCH should have its own dedicated ASB team was one of the transfer promises made by Chorley Council in the run up to stock transfer, and the team has been in place now for three years.

The organisation’s work is very much about the community, Houghton says; all the more so given that it works within a wide range of separate self-contained communities. Many of CCH’s 3,000 homes lie in the market town of Chorley in Lancashire, but the organisation also owns stock in the surrounding villages, each of which has its own sense of identity and unique community links.

“Most of the tenants on the board of CCH have been involved with the organisation since the start. They know what was agreed with the council prior to transfer and have a very clear vision as to how they would like to see services delivered,” Houghton said.

The CCH board comprises a third each of independents, councillors and tenants, and it is tenants’ wishes that drive the business forward.

“Apart from anything else, Chorley is a small town and if tenants see a board member out and about they don’t hesitate to tell them what they’re thinking if something goes wrong,” Houghton said, and jokingly, he added: “The chair of the board has said that if we ever make a mess of things she’ll have to switch to shopping in Southport because she’ll never get round the supermarket in Chorley.”

Joking aside, it demonstrates the seriousness with which tenants’ needs are taken, not just by the management and the board, but by the tenants too. And that, of course, creates a strong working relationship that enables the organisation to get things done.

Houghton was appointed by the board to run the organisation in September 2008, and he says that CCH takes full advantage of being a member of Adactus Housing Group. He added: “The group provides a number of back office functions for CCH, delivering efficient and effective support services, whilst enabling the housing management staff in Chorley to concentrate on providing front line services in the neighbourhoods in which we work.”

A major part of that work, and indeed something that is at the heart of CCH’s reason for being, is the modernisation of the 3,000 homes that were transferred from Chorley Council.

The £29 million investment programme is being delivered for CCH by Adactus Housing Group’s Development Department, project managed by Morna Maines, with support by Arcus Consulting who provide cost consultancy. The partnership – with Midlands-based social housing refurbishment specialist Bullock Construction – has seen almost half of the 3,000 housing stock refurbished in a little
over 18 months. Each property receives a full rewire if necessary, and a new kitchen and bathroom, unless the tenant has already installed their own.

“Satisfaction ratings amongst tenants who’ve had the work done are averaging 95 per cent, which is testimony to how well the project team have worked together,” Maines said. “We collect satisfaction information via questionnaires when the work is completed but we also have a regular session to which we invite the last 50 tenants to have gone through the investment programme.

It’s a chance for them to get any individual gripes off their chest, but also a great opportunity for us to get an overview of how things are going and allow us to tweak things where necessary.”

The stock improvement programme isn’t just focusing on internal improvements, as Houghton explained: “Like many large scale voluntary transfers, much of our stock was built in a time before car ownership was commonplace, so one of the stock transfer promises was the provision of additional car parking spaces across the housing stock.”

This is provided either in the form of individual hardstandings and pavement crossings for single dwellings or, where there is available land, through communal parking areas.

Environmental improvements are also part of the investment programme, with works focused on two 1960s built Radburn estates, located in the villages of Coppull and Euxton. Both estates were designed to separate cars from people, a design which has not survived the test of time. The remodelling for both estates – work has already started on one – will provide defensible space for residents, including giving them their own front gardens where feasible, and reducing the amount of open space which has previously acted as a spot for local youths to congregate.

When it comes to responsive repairs, getting this service spot on is essential given its high priority among tenants’ concerns. The works are carried out by CCH’s own direct labour organisation (DLO), but the service is managed centrally by the Adactus Housing Group on its behalf.

“We’ve just introduced hand held technology and work scheduling software for the DLO across the group, which means that repairs can be carried out more quickly and more cost effectively,” Houghton said. “The efficiencies that are being projected groupwide will be reinvested in the communities in which we work, so tenants will see a real benefit from this new approach.”

In 2010, a budget of £80,000 realised from these kinds of group efficiencies is being made available to tenants and they will control and determine how it is spent.

Adactus provides a whole suite of asset management services to CCH, freeing it up to concentrate on the communities where it works, and part of this package covers gas servicing. The group’s gas services manager Gary Heaton said: “We service over 4,000 appliances a year. The national average for completing work in line with the manufacturer’s instructions is 87 per cent. In a recent audit the CCH gas team achieved 100 per cent.”

As a little inducement to help achieve such a result, CCH has encouraged residents to give its teams first time access by introducing a monthly £50 prize draw for those residents who open the door to the engineer on the first appointment. Heaton added: “Our tenants have responded magnificently to the message we’ve been giving which is – ‘let us in first time and let us get the job done’. Because of that, 83 per cent of tenants let us in on the first visit and 99.75 per cent of properties have a valid gas safety certificate.”

Another transfer promise made by CCH and the Adactus Housing Group was to provide an extra 200 homes over five years in addition to those that would be funded by the Housing Corporation or, latterly, the Homes and Communities Agency. To date, 91 homes have been completed, acquired or are under construction. Houghton said: “In partnership with Adactus, we’re well on the way to meeting the 200 homes target and helping Chorley Council tackle its homelessness problem by building new homes to house new communities.”

Back to the ‘beautiful game’ – and not with foam footballs on this occasion – the housing association has teamed up with Bolton Wanderers FC to organise a five-a-side football tournament for local youngsters. This is one of a number of community-focused initiatives CCH has developed, including gardening and ‘good neighbour’ competitions. The organisation is prepared to make resources
available to support community development initiatives, it says.

Houghton said: “We’ve already given one house over to the community and now we’re looking at making a second one available. This will act as a community hub from which partner agencies can deliver outreach services to tenants on one of our estates, whilst at the same time providing a drop-in centre and a place where tenants themselves can meet and arrange social activities.”

CCH has certainly been busy over the last three years, putting a bounce back into the community, and scoring where it matters – with the tenants.