Chair's Report

Chair's Report Eco homes and innovation

Our greatest achievement this year has been the completion of our second eco homes excellent scheme, in the village of Normandy. Normandy, like many rural communities in the south-east, desperately needs affordable housing, particularly for the sons and daughters of local residents who have been priced out of the area.

This exemplar scheme was visited by the Housing Corporation's Investment Committee in July during their tour of new schemes in the south-east. Headed by Sir Duncan Michael and the Housing Corporation's Director for the South-East, Fiona Cruickshank, members watched a presentation of our Eco Homes Plus model and then visited resident, Kirsty Young and her children in their home.

Our eco homes schemes, rural in Normandy and urban in Woking, have been featured in a number of publications, and we have recently been named by the Housing Corporation as a Design Champion.

Both housing developments were produced by the highly skilled development team of Jon Broome, architect, Engineers Ellis and Moore, Quantity Surveyors Dobson White and Boulcott, and main contractor, D J Trimming.

Greenoak's Development Manager, Adrian Buffery heads our programme to produce high quality sustainable homes that meet the needs of residents and communities in the long term.

Residents' comments about their new homes include 'The house is brilliant, we like the open plan ground floor, and find the gallery storage areas really useful,' 'The house is so quiet we can't hear our neighbours or traffic' and 'We haven't needed to use our heating system much so our bills are very low'.

This year we have been awarded grant funding from the Housing Corporation through the specialist funding route for 12 houses in Storrington, near Horsham, and in addition, are developing 12 flats on the same site for Horsham District Council.

We have also been successful in our bid for an Innovation and Good Practice grant to evaluate our eco homes plus model and disseminate good practice. This is due to be launched in January and is one of only two projects supported by the Housing Corporation in the south-east.

We are developing our eco homes model and working with partners to promote sustainable schemes. We plan to finish our 50th sustainable eco home next year.

Efficiency

Our annual efficiency statement demonstrates not only our efficiency savings of £60K but also our continuing focus on service improvement. We significantly reduced losses during the year from void sheltered properties. Some innovative marketing including opening a show home with the interior designed and furnished with the help of residents.

To compare value for money, we benchmark ourselves on an annual basis against twelve other housing associations in the south-east of England, members of SHAPE (Small Housing Associations Pursuing Excellence). This gives us an indication of the costs of our services compared to others, and members will follow this up by learning from the best performers.

The government's efficiency agenda was launched last year to staff at the SHAPE staff conference.

Next week we will be holding our third conference, which will focus on service delivery and the Respect Agenda. It also gives staff the chance to network with their peers.

Whilst SHAPE members provide local management services, there are other opportunities for us to collaborate with shared staff and expertise, and centralised systems and networks.

Services

We continue to provide a high quality service to residents with our direct labour team who provide a personal and prompt service. This is especially valued by older residents.

We have sponsored several local projects during the year through Greenoak Community Focus. We have provided primary schools in Woking with pupil work books on personal safety and taking control of bullying.

We have also continued with our sponsorship of local voluntary organisations including a three year literacy project with disadvantaged young people from diverse ethnic backgrounds in Woking.

Resident participation

We welcome here today, some of our tenants who are members of our Housing Management Committee. We are also in the process of recruiting resident members to the Board.

Our Sheltered Residents' Forum has continued with regular meetings during the year.

Congratulations to Fleetwood Court residents who have just won the Woking in Bloom award for the second year running. This is a fantastic achievement involving many of the residents.

Governance

Board members, Tony and Jean Usher are standing down after many years of service but will still keep in touch.

Gill Baker and Vicki March are stepping down from the Board but are to continue to work with us in other capacities.

We wish Tony and Jean well in their many other voluntary activities.

We had a very successful recruitment campaign earlier in the year and welcome Franco Cirillo, Bryn Edwards, Stephen Horn and Laraine Philips to our Board. They add significant and diverse skills and experience to our Board.

Our achievements reflect the great effort and commitment of our Chief Executive, Diana Kingdon particularly during a period of unprecedented staff absence, to Adrian Buffery for heading our eco homes programme and to our staff and Board Members for your hard work.

I should like to add my personal thanks to all of our partners for their support.

Chair