Delivering our aims

How we will deliver each aim of the housing revenue account (HRA) business plan.

 

Delivering aim A: More affordable and sustainable homes

We will support tenants and their families to live in well maintained and sustainable homes. These will be safe, secure, and of a high quality. In partnership with CBH we will proactively seek to increase the delivery of more affordable and sustainable homes for the town, by delivering a multifaceted approach through council owned land-led schemes wherever possible to enable better place shaping, good design, stronger communities and to meet the council’s carbon net zero delivery target, as well as progressing Section 106 with developers and other acquisitions.

What success looks like

• Increase delivery of affordable homes
• Provide higher quality homes that are safe and well-maintained
• Work with CBH to make Cheltenham carbon net zero by 2030

Measures of success

• Delivered 450 additional affordable homes (over 5 years)
• Invested a further £80m of the £180m Housing Investment Plan
• Maintained 100% decent homes (of the current decent homes standard)
• Delivered 100% compliance on building safety Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs)
• Worked towards delivering 100% of EPC C by 2030
• Delivered carbon net zero new homes on 100% of CBC land-led sites

Increase delivery of affordable homes

• Working in partnership with CBH, we are increasing the number of affordable homes through our £180m housing investment plan, which will continue to increase the number of affordable net zero carbon homes on CBC owned sites and seek to achieve additionality on these sites.
• Continue to work in close collaboration with CBH to deliver affordable homes on the Golden Valley Development, as part of CBC’s overall land led development.
• Acquisition of homes for sale, such as ex-council homes, for conversion into affordable housing.
• Work in partnership with CBH to seek to reduce long-term empty homes across Cheltenham e.g. through Compulsory Purchase Order.
• Explore opportunities to secure ‘additionality’ on s.106 schemes by working with private developers to acquire additional affordable homes over and above that which would be delivered through the s.106 agreement alone.
• Maximise opportunities for regeneration and redevelopment of housing estates and other sites across Cheltenham, which could include investigating changes in the use of land around the town

Provide higher quality homes that are safe and well-maintained

• Respond to new and existing legislation, meeting property compliance and health and safety standards, including embracing a new pending Decent Homes Standard (DHS).
• Enhance the responsive repairs and maintenance service to increase customer satisfaction through the delivery of excellent services, alongside ensuring maximum value for money through process, cashable and non cashable efficiencies.
• Review our void standard for all new customers who move into our properties by involving customers, colleagues and partners to share ideas for improvement.
• Develop the net present value (NPV) analysis of homes by including wider active asset management principles within the modelling exercise.

Work with CBH to help make Cheltenham carbon net zero

• Invest in the retrofit of existing homes to EPC C through a fabric first approach, to make them as energy efficient as possible for the benefit of customers and reduce fuel poverty, while also increasing biodiversity and green initiatives to mitigate the climate emergency.
• Deliver carbon net zero homes on 100% of CBC owned land-led sites.
• Seek to improve the specification of our S106 affordable homes acquisitions from private developers to help further secure our aspirations to achieve carbon net zero homes.

 

Delivering aim B: Stronger and more resilient communities

We will support strong, healthy, and socially sustainable communities by working with customers and local partners to bring people together, reduce social isolation, increase resilience, and support all individuals within the community who need it. This will be enabled through improvement initiatives and joint community priorities, delivered through shared community investment plans with CBH which will improve customer and community outcomes.

What success looks like

• Provide cost of living support and life opportunities for customers
• Support strong and socially sustainable communities
• Ensure existing communities benefit from the economic opportunities generated by the Golden Valley development
• Work with CBH to make Cheltenham carbon net zero by 2030

Measures of success

• Delivered 1% of social value from open HRA procurement activities
• Helped over 500 customers into employment and training
• Generated £8m income on behalf of customers supported with benefit & money advice
• Utilise funding opportunities available to CBH to expand community resource base

Provide cost of living support and life opportunities for customers

• Explore external funding opportunities to review and grow the training and employment service offer with a focus on tailoring services to meet individual communities’ needs’ by engaging with residents and local businesses, for example with schools and Gloucestershire College to explore net zero retrofit collaborations.
• Develop the benefit & money advice service and link with other advice services in Cheltenham to increase support available for our most vulnerable customers and residents across our town through awareness raising sessions delivered with local partners and schools.
• Explore and invest in opportunities for further support for customers during the cost-of-living crisis and work with partners to deliver a collaborative approach for customers and residents.

Support strong and socially sustainable communities

• Continue to build trust and resolve anti-social behaviour and crime issues through collaborative and proactive working between our neighbourhood teams, CBH ASB team, with customers and other key partners such as the Police.
• Grow support for the most vulnerable customers and deliver more initiatives such as; Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Housing First and health related opportunities and support for refugees.
• Expand support for customers to work closely with each other and partners, to take ownership of their communities and create more sustainable neighbourhood led groups.
• Enhance targeted youth provision, using data and insight into our neighbourhoods to provide the right support at the right time.
• Develop shared community investment plans in partnership with CBH, focusing on social isolation, financial hardship, young people via No Child Left Behind, mental health and wellbeing via Heads Up, women and girls feel safe and respected, and collaborate in support of a sustainable community facility for St Peters & the Moors.
• Deliver and embed social value into new and existing communities through investment and procurement activities.

Ensure existing communities benefit from the economic opportunities generated by the Golden Valley development

• Employ a shared engagement worker that will build relationships between local residents, community groups and cyber-tech businesses.
• Work with partners including schools and colleges to build excitement and enthusiasm within the local community and create awareness of future opportunities.
• Ensure that the local community has opportunities to influence the shape of Golden Valley plans through effective and accessible engagement.

Work with CBH to help make Cheltenham net zero

• Support communities to become more environmentally conscious by working with partners through, for example, neighbourhood works programmes to deliver improved waste reduction and recycling.
• Manage communal spaces to increase biodiversity gain through projects.

Delivering aim C: Change to realise opportunities

To meet the current and future challenges whilst continuing to deliver high performance and high satisfaction at median cost, CBH needs to evolve as a business. CBH needs to unlock the potential in colleagues, processes, and partnerships to deliver more efficient and effective services from our finite resources and increase the positive impact on customers’ lives.

What success looks like

• Embrace technology to enhance people focused, efficient and accessible services
• Identify income generation opportunities
• Work with CBH to make Cheltenham carbon net zero

Measures of success

• Ensured 100% of customer facing processes are digitally enabled
• Increased number of digital transactions year on year
• Maximised government funding income
• Identified new income generating business opportunities
• Worked towards reducing CBH carbon emissions to be carbon net zero by 2030

Embrace technology to enhance people focused, efficient, and accessible services

• Extend our mobile device technology to deliver enhanced services outside of the office, to improve the overall customer experience and meet regulatory changes
• Develop systems and streamline processes to deliver efficiencies and improve the customer journey, quality of services and data
• Enhance the use of data in decision making, resource allocation and shaping service delivery
• Develop services to become more digitally accessible while maintaining face to face and telephone contact to meet the understood needs of customers

Work with CBH to help make Cheltenham carbon net zero

• Deliver initiatives to reduce CBH’s business impact on the environment through decarbonisation of the fleet, reduction of energy use, sustainable transport and continue to progress ‘green procurement’
• Improve ability to monitor CBH’s carbon footprint and achieve a reduction in overall carbon emissions
• Use CBC’s Climate Impact Assessment tool to ensure we are appropriately considering climate implications in project decision making

Identify funding and income generation opportunities

• Maximise opportunities available from government funding through Homes England to support the delivery of new homes
• Maximise opportunities available from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to retrofit existing housing stock by continuing to bid for all available funding
• In partnership with CBH, create opportunities to lobby the Government on the levelling up agenda which could open funding and income opportunities to support our communities in Cheltenham, which often fall into the top 10% of deprivation across the country
• Maximise PRS opportunities on CBC led strategic sites, including the Golden Valley Development, which supports the delivery of mixed tenure schemes while generating income to be used for social purposes
• Work with developers to maximise PRS opportunities on private owned schemes. Appendix C refers to a more detailed approach to PRS opportunities
• Understand external funding opportunities to grow services and resource base
• Understand income generating opportunities by exploring new business services, such as potentially rolling out some core services into the wider Cheltenham market

 

Related Pages

• Housing revenue account (HRA) business plan
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Shaping and delivering the plan
• Ability to deliver the plan
• Maintaining high quality and value for money services
• Monitoring, scrutiny, and collaboration
• Finances
• Challenges and risk