We’ve published our first ever trading update highlighting our financial and operating performance, progress towards building new homes and how we are investing in homes we already own, and are improving lives for customers.
The six-month update which covers the period up to 30 September 23, shows a stable financial position.
From April 2023 we have been carrying out energy efficiency works to properties in Coventry to bring the EPC rating up to a minimum of C. This is being achieved thanks to our success in bidding for Wave 2 funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which was a collaboration with Coventry City Council.
We will spend nearly £74m by the end of 2025 to bring more than 4,000 homes up to a minimum EPC rating of a C, well ahead of the Government’s 2030 target.
These investments in our current homes are reflected in the Regulator of Social Housing’s financial viability regrade from V1 to V2 last October. We remain compliant with our G1/V2 rating. Our Moody’s rating of A3 (stable) was also maintained at the end of December.
The turnover for the period up to September 2023 was £97.4m and social housing lettings turnover contributed to 92 percent of the total turnover.
We also have strong ambitions for the future and plans to deliver 2,846 new affordable homes over the next five years.
Our chief financial officer, Gary Booth, said: “We’re pleased to complete our first ever trading update as Citizen. As a housing association we want to provide homes that are a foundation for life and are committed to investing in our homes, people and partners.
“The investment in our least energy efficient homes will make them a better place to live for our customers. The Regulator for Social Housing recognises that we’ve got a funded financial plan and are forecasting to meet our financial tests set by our lenders.
“We’re bringing forward the investment in our existing homes, to get them to minimum EPC C rating by the end of 2025, which is five years sooner than we have to – which is absolutely the right thing to do for our customers.
“We will continue to invest in our existing customers’ homes and look forward to seeing our progress over the next six months.”
Read the six month trading update up to September 2023 here.
We’ve been successful in securing a further grant of £343,000 from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to improve homes in Solihull and Walsall.
The money has been awarded through the Social Housing Quality Fund and will be used to tackle potential hazards in the home including damp, mould and condensation. This will be done through the installation of new ventilation systems in kitchens and bathrooms and the installation of environmental monitoring equipment so that it is able to collect information on the thermal efficiency of homes.
In total £178,000 will be spent on improvements to 84 homes in Solihull and £165,000 will be spent on 37 homes in Walsall, of these 37 homes in Walsall 17 will also have new heating systems installed.
This grant follows a £2.1m grant which was awarded to us in November last year by the WMCA to improve 1,045 homes in Coventry.
All works to the homes need to be completed by 31 March 2024.
Our chief operating officer, Mads Nelson, said: “We are thrilled to have been awarded further money from the WMCA to help improve our customers homes in Solihull and Walsall. Along with our previous grant for Coventry, we will be improving 1,166 homes across the West Midlands.
“Our business strategy is focused on making sure our homes are safe, sustainable and that we are investing in homes to improve their quality. This additional money means that we can deliver these services to homes ahead of our planned time.
“Thank you to the team for their hard work and we hope our customers receiving the works see the benefit of them.”
We are working with Switchee to install the smart devices that will measure the internal conditions of the homes where they are installed.
Switchee devices measure the average internal temperature, humidity, heat loss rate (how quickly a property loses heat once the heating is switched off) and the time to heat (the time taken for the internal temperature to increase by one degree Celsius when the heating is turned on).
The Switchee dashboard that we can access will also flag properties that are consistently below the Public Health England recommended temperature of 18 degrees Celsius and therefore at a higher risk of damp and mould.
Switchee CEO, Tom Robins, said: “We are proud to be working in partnership with Citizen to ensure that real, tangible results are achieved through the use of our data. Working together, we can install Switchee smart devices into residents’ homes and complete work to improve their ventilation. Our devices not only help landlords to identify the homes most affected by fuel poverty and at a higher risk of damp and mould, but they also improve the energy efficiency of the home. This could potentially lower the residents’ heating bills by up to 17 percent.
“Fuel poverty is intimately linked to poor health and evidence strongly suggests that living in cold homes and poor housing can have a direct and detrimental effect on health. Therefore, we are happy to be part of the next stage in this challenge with Citizen, to fight against fuel poverty, so together we can tackle the knock-on effects it has to the residents living in them”.
Cllr Ian Courts, the WMCA’s portfolio holder for housing and land and Leader of Solihull Council, said: “This new money from the WMCA for homes in Solihull and Walsall comes hard on the heels of the £2.1 million we made available to Citizen last year to tackle the issue of damp and mould in their Coventry properties.
“It’s great to see this latest funding being used to improve many more homes across the West Midlands. Decent housing is vital for people’s quality of life, so I look forward to seeing how this investment can make a positive difference for Citizen’s tenants while also providing data about the average internal temperature, humidity and heat loss rate of the typical home, invaluable information for supporting work to make our housing stock warmer and more energy efficient.”
Work has started to build the 2,000th affordable home in a collaboration between the Matrix Housing Partnership and Homes England.
The home is being built on the Swan Lane development in West Bromwich, which will see 147 homes for affordable and social rent built in total.
We are part of the Matrix Housing Partnership which is a consortium of social landlords. It is also made up of Black Country Housing Group, Green Square Accord, Pioneer Housing and Community Group, Rooftop Housing Association and Trident Housing Association.
Homes England, a public body which funds new affordable housing, awarded the Matrix Housing Partnership £84.5million in 2018 to support the delivery of 2,124 social and affordable homes across the West Midlands.
The homes at Swan Lane will be managed by Green Square Accord, who also lead the consortium, and the event marks an important milestone for the partnership.
Our executive director of development Nick Byrne said: “It’s brilliant that we have reached this milestone in the Matrix Housing Partnership and fantastic news to provide 2,000 more affordable homes as part of the consortium.
“Despite challenges in the housing sector over the last few years, we’re so pleased to be working together with other housing associations across the West Midlands and to be providing the homes that people need.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Matrix Housing Partnership in future and building more homes together.”
The homes at Swan Lane are being constructed by MORRO Partnerships and will be built using prefabricated open-panel timber frames supplied by LoCaL Homes – a low carbon manufacturing facility based in Walsall.
Chair of Matrix Housing Partnership and chief executive of Green Square Accord, Ruth Cooke, said: “It is an honour for the Matrix Housing Partnership to be recognised as a key strategic partner of Homes England. We have been collaborating for nearly 20 years and the construction start at Swan Lane demonstrates our continued success in delivering affordable homes.
“It was fantastic to see shovels in the ground at Swan Lane. This exciting new scheme will deliver almost 150 much-needed affordable homes in West Bromwich.
“Swan Lane is a special development as it will deliver the 2000th affordable home by the Matrix Housing Partnership since we first secured strategic partner funding from Homes England in 2018. This milestone demonstrates that despite all the challenges in recent years for our sector, we can still pull together and deliver high quality homes for our communities.
“On behalf of all the Matrix Partners, I would like to thank Sandwell Council, Homes England and MORRO Partnerships for their invaluable support for this scheme.”
Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and WMCA, Councillor Peter Hughes, said: “I am delighted that work is starting on this important development. Affordable housing such as this is key to tackle the housing crisis and homelessness and provide residents with a step onto the housing ladder.
“This shows Sandwell Council’s determination to achieve its Vision 2030 pledge to meet a full range of housing needs in attractive neighbourhoods and close to key transport routes.”
The Swan Lane development is well served by public transport with the Black Lake Metro stop less than 100 metres away and several popular bus routes in operation close by. The development is also located close to the George Salter Academy, several supermarkets and other conveniences in both West Bromwich and Great Bridge town centres.
In October 2021, the Matrix Housing Partnership also secured £185m from the UK Government’s Affordable Homes Programme to support a further 2,167 affordable homes which will start before April 2026.
We’re committed to working with a group of partners in Hillfields to make it a better place to live and work.
We’re working with West Midlands Police and Coventry City Council as part of the #OurHillfields partnership to combine and focus resources and tackle the things that matter most to the local community.
Our director of care and support Peter Gill said: “We’re committed to working with our partners in Hillfields to make a positive difference for our customers and communities.
“At Citizen we have worked hard to gather intelligence, which we have shared with our partners, and this has led to legal enforcements and prosecutions in the area.
“We’d encourage anyone in Hillfields who has witnessed anti-social behaviour to get in touch with the Hillfields team so we can address it. We’re continuing to work with our partners in Hillfields and look forward to making a further impact in the community.”
Sergeant Kim Keating from Hillfields neighbourhood policng team said : “#OurHillfields is about making sure that all those people working in Hillfields are working together and coordinating our efforts in the area. Often the issues they deal with are just one part of a wider problem that can be tackled much more effectively if we coordinate our resources.
“We know that seeing is believing and we will be working hard to keep the community updated with any progress and results we have as well as being really open about any issues that may take longer to sort out.
“Hillfields has great community spirit, there are lots of people that have lived and worked in the area for years who want to help improve some of the issues the area faces.
“Between police, the council and Citizen, we’ve got the tools and the resources to deal with the majority of issues in the area. However, we can’t do this alone, we need the local residents and businesses to work with us.
“We can only tackle issues if we know about them, so we’re asking Hillfields residents and businesses to get in touch and let us know about anything that is causing them concern.
“Whether it’s a reports of noise nuisance, problems with vandalism or rubbish or people committing crime or behaving in an anti-social way, the #OurHillfields team can look into these issues and work with you on a solution.”
A postcard has been created for all partners to give out during their daily work in Hillfields and posters and leaflets will appear in main community spaces.
Each of these give a number of options for reporting issues and we are asking those of you local to Hillfields make a note of the contact details and use them if you come across an issue.
Cllr Abdul Salam Khan, Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities and Deputy Leader of Coventry City Council, said: “The value of partnership work is crucial. We want the local community to know that there are a whole range of people working day in, day out to help improve the area and in the city.
“That includes the Council carrying out operations targeting fly tippers and clearing rubbish from public spaces, Citizen improving the level of security within their high rise blocks and the local police making sure that their officers are regularly patrolling the worst hit areas for crime and anti-social behaviour.
“We want the community to report their concerns.”
The shared approach across the three organisations is already starting to see results. The partnership worked together to design and put up a number of lamppost posters promoting Crimestoppers if people want to report issues anonymously. Reports have already started coming in that are being used to inform police and partner activity in the area.
There is also a regular ‘PACT’ (police and communities together) meeting held that is attended by all the agencies where you can go along and speak to people in person about any issues you have.
The #OurHillfields team are committed to keeping everyone updated on their work and any results and progress across their channels so follow the #ourhillfields hashtag for updates.
Find out more about what we’ve been doing in the video below:
The demolition of Vincent Wyles House is now underway as part of Citizen’s regeneration programme to transform an area ofWyken in Coventry.
The demolition of the tower block is part of a £21 million regeneration project, being delivered in partnership with Wates, that includes the demolition of Vincent Wyles House and William Malcolm House. Once cleared, the site will make way for around 90 much needed modern homes to be builtin the area.
The overall project will see major investment into Wyken and is due to be completed over the next four years, with the demolition of Vincent Wyles House being finished in summer 2024.
Kevin Roach, Director of Regeneration Services, at Citizen, said: “The demolition of Vincent Wyles House marks a key milestone in the project and is one that I know the community of Wyken will welcome. We are in the process of developing our plans to redevelop the site with new modern, affordable, homes and will be consulting with the community on the proposals in the spring and summer of this year.”
Councillor David Welsh, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities: said: “I’m pleased to see that Citizen has started work to demolish Vincent Wyles House. There is a need for more good quality affordable homes across Coventry and the demolition signals the start of much needed investment and regeneration in the area. Citizen will be replacing the current one bed flats with a mix of 2, 3 and 4 bed homes which will be more modern and more sustainable – a real win all around.”
Citizen is in the process of rehousing the residents of William Malcolm House in preparation to demolish the tower later in the year.
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