Teign_Corporate Plan 2018-2021

6 7 Creating Futures Together / Corporate Plan 2018 - 2021 Our customers Our customers are our tenants, shared owners, leaseholders and the wider community who may wish to live in our homes or work for us. Statistics from 2011 show that Teignbridge has six areas within the most 25% deprived areas of England: 1) Central Newton Abbot and Abbotsbury 2) Central Buckland 3) West Buckland 4) Teignmouth Town Centre 5) West Teignmouth 6) Central Dawlish 58% of Teign Housing tenants are currently in receipt of full or partial housing benefit. Teign’s last census of residents in 2015 found that 40% of customers were retired, 27% employed or self-employed, 16% unable to work for heath reasons and 7% caring for family or home. The retirement age population in Teignbridge is 8% ahead of England and by 2030 the gap will increase to 10%, when almost one in three of the population will be over 65. This means that Teignbridge is now about 30 years ahead of the rest of England with regard to its retired age population. The average age of all Teign Housing tenants is 59, with the average age of sheltered housing customers slightly higher at 61. 50% of customers report that they have a disability or long term health condition which affects their daily life. This includes 39% of general needs households and 71% of sheltered housing customers. Social housing allocations in Devon are managed through Devon Home Choice. At the end of 2016/17 946 households with a housing need were on the register for Teignbridge. During the year 436 applicants were housed in Teignbridge via Devon Home Choice. Operating environment There is no doubt that continual change is the new normal within the social housing sector. National government policies of austerity are impacting our customers, not least with Welfare Reform and the introduction of Universal Credit. It also brings the move to “Digital by Default” with the Department for Work and Pensions who only accept applications online, something which we’re helping our customers to prepare for through our Digibug service. The 1% rent reduction announced for four years reduced costs for our customers by a small sum but the cumulative effect on our business was the reduction £2m in income over the 4 years. We faced these challenges with determination to succeed – we used the rent reduction as a driver to increase efficiency and further streamline our processes. The lack of grant for affordable housing led us to recruit our own development team and begin to explore open-market sale to subsidise our social housing builds. Our business plan includes the delivery of 345 homes in 6 years. With the change in conservative leadership we have begun to see a change in government policy, with an increase in funding for affordable homes in the 2017 autumn statement, the return to inflation- linked annual rent rises and the removal of a plan to cap Housing Benefit at Local Housing Allowance rates. However, Brexit is fast approaching and the economic impact will likely have an effect on our business, the extent of which is currently unknown. Government finances may take a turn for the worse in the next few years, which could lead to cuts in funding. Banks may also come under stress meaning the availability of loan funding is restricted. This is a time of heightened public interested in health and safety in social housing – predominantly because of the tragic tower block fire at Grenfell House in June 2017. We have reviewed our buildings and working practices to ensure we meet high safety standards and will review and respond to the health, safety and compliance changes likely to be introduced to address the causes of this disaster. There is continued high demand for our products. TDC’s Housing Strategy 2015-2020 identified that compared to the national average there is half the amount of social housing in the District. Housing charity Shelter predicting that nationally there will be a shortfall in supply of over 130,000 new-build homes in the year 2018/19. * We expect the operating environment to remain challenging and fluid over the life of this Plan but as a strong business we will remain viable and flexible to deliver the homes and services our communities need. * Source https://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/ pdf_file/0011/689447/Solutions_for_the_housing_ shortage_-_FINAL.pdf