Newly formed Rochford Housing Association might be small in size, but there is nothing diminutive about its ambitions. After a flying start, the real work begins to deliver on their promises.

After the joy of its inauguration in September last year, Rochford Housing Association based in south Essex has begun the long task of fulfilling the transfer promises to its tenants.

To maintain its sense of momentum the association set about establishing some significant ‘quick wins’ while it put the necessary procedures in place to begin the major long term programmes. Among the quick successes are the installation of new door entry systems to its sheltered housing and the doubling of the budget for its popular handyman service.

The real “feather in the cap” win, according to Managing Director Simon Clark is the successful clearance of a backlog of aids and adaptations still in the pipeline under Rochford District Council’s tenure as landlord.

“We had a backlog of over 22 major adaptation works just sitting there,” he said. “Now we’re delivering them all.” The improvements went down well with the residents who received them. The work included such things as flush floor showers,

kitchen improvements and a through-floor lift, designed to make life and home a little bit easier and accessible for elderly and disabled people. In the future, the organisation is looking to invest around £115,000 per annum on such improvements.

That probably doesn’t sound like much, but then Rochford Housing Association, part of the Sanctuary Housing Group, is not only a young organisation it is also small. When it went live the association took on the ownership and responsibility for around 1,740 properties.

Over the next 10 years the association intends to invest some £40 million as it starts its capital investment programme to modernise its homes and estates, with spending of around £7.5 million anticipated by April 2009.

“It’s a large slice of cash to bring our homes up to what we call the Rochford Standard, which will be better than the Government’s Decent Homes standard,”
Simon Clark added.

“We’ve secured Connaught Partnerships as our contracting partner for both the refurbishment work and our responsive repairs works. The company is also
undertaking our grounds maintenance as well, so we’ve got one contractor delivering a complete package, which will offer good value for money to our customers.”

With the investment programme now underway, the highlights of the work include the remodelling of the first of two sheltered housing schemes from bedsits into selfcontained flats.

More generally, the Decent Homes or rather Rochford Standard programme is underway to install new kitchens and bathrooms and also to modernise the electrical wiring in the homes.

The work that is underway is focused on meeting the promises made to the tenants before the transfer. After all, when the ballot took place to determine the future of the local authority’s stock, the vote proved a landslide endorsement of the new housing association.

At the time, some 1,920 tenants were eligible to vote in the ballot. The turnout was 78 per cent, with 1,234 (82 per cent) voting yes to transfer. So that proved quite an endorsement of Rochford Housing Association not to mention a heavy dose of expectation that needs fulfilling.

Simon Clark is confident that they are on course to do just this. “A lot of it is down to superb efforts by our team, the support of Sanctuary Housing Group and the leadership from our board. I think we have got off to a flying start. Rochford Housing Association is on target to deliver the commitments it made to tenants.”