Annual Report - 2022-23

We are an independent resident group which was formed at the end of 2022/23 and replaces the Federation of Estuary Residents (FER). Our panel holds Estuary to account and scrutinises services for the benefit of all residents. 

In March 2023 we approved a new Terms of Reference and Code of Conduct for involved residents. We worked with Estuary and TPAS to develop the new model using residents feedback and guidance on structures and co-regulation. 

We welcome new and diverse members and fresh new ideas. This is an exciting time to join us and share your experiences and suggestions, and have a say in how Estuary deliver their services.

If you’re an Estuary resident and would like to help shape your services, please email involvement@estuary.co.uk, including your name, contact number and address. 

Lynda, Resident VIP member says:

"We're a group of residents, looking out for residents and keeping Estuary focused on the things that matter to us"

Pauline, Resident VIP member says:

"It's an open an honest environment, all ideas are welcome and members are kind and respectful to each other"

Visit the Resident VIP page

Our Customer Experience Committee (CEC) was formed in May 2022 combining the work of our previous Services and Care & Support Committees. The Committee consists of members of our group board as well as independent members including Estuary customers. 

The purpose of the Committee is to support the Board to hear the voice of customers, provide assurance regarding our compliance with relevant consumer and care regulations and provide detailed oversight regarding the delivery of our customer strategies. 

In its first year of operation, the Committee has monitored our work to prepare for forthcoming changes to consumer and customer safety regulations by reviewing our action plans and self-assessments. The Committee has also been involved in the review of our complaints policy and process and has drawn the Board’s attention to key lessons we have learnt from our customers’ feedback. 

The Committee has also been overseeing our exit from nursing services and registered care services, ensuring that we have mitigated any potential risks to our customers and reputation. 

A key function of the Committee is to monitor delivery of our Customer Strategy and it has done this through scrutinising detailed performance reports and trends relating to landlord services, customer engagement and feedback, repairs and maintenance, anti-social behaviour, estate management and health and safety (including building safety). In addition, the Committee reviewed detailed drafts of our new approach to customer engagement (including our work to be re accredited by TPAS) and recommended a new Customer Engagement Strategy which was approved by the Group Board. 

We’re committed to putting every pound we have into delivering social value. We’ve made large investments over the last 3 years to ensure the safety of our homes, particularly the fire safety of our blocks. Safety is our first consideration and so it’s right that we invested the money the way we did. As part of our Value for Money Strategy, we’re hoping to deliver savings which will help us spend more money on planned works and major repairs by reducing our overhead costs. 

How Money Was Spent (in £000's)

• £3,157 Major repairs - £3,757 in 2021/22.
• £7,208 Routine and cyclical repairs - £6,218 in 2021/22.
• £10,807 Fire remedial works - £6,738 in 2021/22.
• £6,248 Development of new homes - £7,420 in 2021/22.
• £15,668 Staff salaries and management - £16,276 in 2021/22.

Social value is a way to quantify how different interventions affect people’s lives – the overall impact on people’s wellbeing, or their quality of life. It is a way of measuring the positive benefits your work has on both individuals and communities. Social value is a way of measuring things that are hard to measure, like how happy you are, or if you feel safe in your neighbourhood. (Source - hact.org.uk)

Social value activity is really important when looking at Value for Money and the impact our services have on customers. We want to make a difference, for the better, through our work with customers. 

Although we have not captured everything we do in financial value, we plan to expand and improve on this going forward and have set up a social value working group which will meet several times a year to check progress in this area. 

We set a target of £1m, but we’ve managed to record over £2.4m, which is a fantastic achievement. 

Breakdown of Areas

• £100,368 - People and Organisational Development.
• £1,139,006.31 - Housing.
• £602,628 - Income and Allocations.
• £67,069 - Customer Engagement.
• £446,538 - Care and Support.
• £30,000 - Estate Services (GEMS).

TOTAL: £2,405,563.31

Activities

• Estuary in Bloom competition.
• TPAS membership for our customers.
• Cleared 80 separate incidents of fly tipping, totalling £20k.
• Invested £92k in non mandatory training.
• Over £19k has been generated by energy efficient interventions.
• Our benefit advice has brough in 550K to assist customer sustain their tenancies. 
• We have assisted 15 managed move cases, where we move customers who are in danger or have specific medical needs. 
• Provided opportunity to socialise and experience activities which would not be possible through support and intervention. 

WORKING WITH PARTNERS, DELIVERING SOCIAL VALUE

Our contractors also support social value. For example, they facilitated the Axis Spring Clean at Bexhill Drive by providing 2 x skips on the estate for customers to dispose of unwanted items and assisted with a general clean-up (£600 for skip hire).

From our clear up day in Bexhill Drive, Thurrock:

"It’s good to see you here doing something useful... this is really good, you need to do more stuff like this.”

"Thank you so much for today, we have been clearing stuff out all weekend for this, there’s no way we could afford a skip.” 

The recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic has seen inflation and cost of energy bills place financial pressures on the whole of society. Estuary is no different and is seeing the impact on its customers, in particular with rent arrears creeping upwards. We have seen operating costs increase, particularly on our repairs and maintenance services. 

Value for Money (VfM) is a concept that we apply in our daily lives. We’re constantly choosing which items or services to buy and judging the right balance between quality and cost. Estuary as an organisation is no different. For us, it’s about obtaining the maximum benefit with the resources available. It is a ‘way of doing things’ that underpins everything we do, from performance management to procurement, from business planning to consultation. VfM is included within all areas of our strategic planning and delivery of services. 

Our VfM strategy focuses on the three years from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2025 and draws upon the initiatives and objectives of our Corporate Plan, operating, enabling and cost-cutting strategies which run for the same time period. 

In March 2022, the Board approved the new Corporate Strategy with our purpose defined as “by providing housing our customers are proud to call home, we change lives for the better every day.” 

The VfM Strategy has therefore been updated to reflect the 3 strategic priorities: 

• Customer - Ensuring customer satisfaction with everything that we do. 
• People - One Estuary – Taking pride in what we do every day.
• Shaping the Future - To be a successful, ambitious, social business.

How do we compare to other Housing Associations? 

Each year, we review how we compare with other housing associations that operate in the East and South-East of England and are similarly sized. The key headlines: 

• We are more expensive than our peers - £5,576 average per unit vs. £4,821 per unit for our peers. 
• We have less debt than our peers – 46.40% vs. 51.70%. (This is a % of debt compared to the value of our homes). 
• We know we need to invest more in our properties – 1.80% vs. 6.30% by our peers. This is a key commitment area for our Board over the next few years. 
• We have comparable profitability to reinvest in our services. For every pound of interest we pay, we make £1.18. (Peer group £1.23). 

How did we do in 2022/23?

Summary of 2022/23 Performance - Key

Achieved	Yes	Up	Performance improving
Not achieved, satisfactory performance (within 10% of target)	-	Mid	Performance staying the same
Not achieved	No	Down	Performance declining

Summary of 2022/23 Performance

Metric	Actual 2022/23	Target 2022/23	Achieved	Trend 2021/22	Target 2023/24
Reinvestment	1.80%	3%	No	Down	3%
Return on Captial Employed (ROCE)	2.01%	3%	No	Down	3%
New supply delivered (social)	1.50%	1%	Yes	Up	1%
New supply delivered non-social housing units	0.00%	0%	N/A	N/A	0%
Gearing %	46.40%	53%	Yes	Up	53%
Operating margin (Social housing lettings only) %*	24.53%	29%	No	Down	43%
Operating margin (overall) %*	20.96%	26%	No	Down	40%
EBITDA (MRI)*	118.47%	135%	No	Down	130%
Headline social housing costs per unit*	£5,576	£5,350	No	Down	£5,200

There was a mixed performance against most metrics, driven by inflationary pressures, which negatively impacted on our financial performance. The Board, however, are pleased with the financial resilience and actions taken by management in these challenging times. 

We recognise that our level of reinvestment is not where we want it to be, but we are content our homes comply with the Decent Homes Standard. Ongoing fire safety remedial works continued to affect Estuary’s capacity for further investment in the year, but these works will move to completion in 2023/24. 

We’re committed to improving our position and closing the gap with other housing associations, whilst at the same time delivering a service our customers can be proud of. 

* Metrics calculated excluding fire remedial works provision.

Our overall day-to-day maintenance budget, which includes repairing empty homes, was £2.7M. Due to the increase in the cost of materials and the volume of orders we spent £4M. 

We anticipated spending just under £2.5M on Planned Works and ended up spending £2M. The overall net overspend for both these areas was £0.95M. 

Our performance for last year is set out in the table below and compared with 2021/22. It was a challenging year to deliver maintenance services, with marketplace issues such as labour shortages and inflation being experienced across the sector. This put pressure on our repairs contractor and as such, customer satisfaction and performance dipped, compared to 2021/22. 

As an example, in the first quarter of 2022/23, the number of calls made to the Axis Europe plc contact centre increased by 25%, and the difficulties with finding skilled labour to meet this demand caused even longer waiting times. 

77% of customers said they were satisfied with our repairs service, and although we are performing better than many other housing associations, we know there is room for improvement. We’re working closely with Axis to make operational changes to improve this service for our customers. We’ve also been carrying out a wider review of repairs delivery in partnership with our contractor and have started to roll out improvements to our processes and changes to structures which we hope will lead to increased satisfaction in 2023/24. 

Summary of 2022/23 Performance - Key

Achieved	Yes	Up	Performance improving
Not achieved, satisfactory performance (within 10% of target)	-	Mid	Performance staying the same
Not achieved	No	Down	Performance declining

 

Summary of 2022/23 Performance

Performance Indicator	Target	Year End 2021/22	Achieved	Year End 2022/23	Achieved	Median Performance of Our Peers
Emergency jobs completed in time	100%	99.4%	-	98.9%	Down	N/A
Job completed in time (at a time convenient for the customer)	93%	97.3%	-	81.1%	Down	N/A
Repairs appointments kept	95%	98.4%	Yes	90.1%	Down	97.3%
First time fix	75%	97.6%	Yes	89.2%	Up	N/A
Tenant satisfaction with repairs service	87%	81.6%	-	77.2%	Down	88%
Call centre satisfaction	90%	84.7%	-	82.5%	Down	N/A

 

Safety remains a priority for Estuary. Critical major fire safety work has been completed at both of our high-rise buildings (18m+) and we found additional non-critical works due to be completed on one of these buildings during 2023/24. 

We‘ve completed our fire door programme, with all doors either replaced or upgraded to achieve the highest standard of fire safety. We’ll continue to monitor the condition of the doors through regular inspections commencing early 2023/24. 

Compliance with the main statutory requirements is good: 

• Fire risk assessments have been completed at all properties within the scope of the Fire Safety Order, and remedial actions undertaken as and when required. 
• Water risk assessments have also been completed at all buildings with a communal water supply, and a routine servicing programme is in place to reduce the risk from legionella. 
• Asbestos surveys have been undertaken at all properties with communal areas built before 2000. 
• Gas compliance is good; all properties with a gas supply having had a safety inspection during 2022/23. 
• Electrical condition reports have been completed at all properties within the prescribed 10-year cycle. We’re currently reducing the frequency of these inspections to 5 years to ensure customer safety and can report that 99% of properties are within this shorter programme already. 
• All lifts and stairlifts within the stock have had an inspection during 2022/23. 

Last year, we spent £6million on improving our customers’ homes including the spending on responsive repairs and ended the year with 96.2% compliance with the Decent Homes Standard. This money was spent on works such as new kitchens, bathrooms, boilers and other larger components.

2022/23 planned and major works completions and spend (including non-cladding fire safety works and VAT): 

Planned and Major Works Completions and Spend 2022-23

Planned and Major Completions	2022/23	Spend
External redecorations (cyclical)	5	£36,691
Planned - Kitchen	39	£325,477
Planned - Bathrooms	34	£257,414
Planned - Boilers	68	£225,789
Planned - Windows (and doors)	26	£109,494
Planned - Roofs	3	£63,842
Planned - Electrical	270	£466,524
Planned - Storage heater replacement	93	£635,027
Planned - Communal lighting	15	£51,126
Planned - Other	4	£61,460
Planned - Energy performance works	1	£3,669
Planned - Major damp works	2	£13,427
Planned - Insulation	3	£26,928
Planned - Door entry renewal system	7	£20,711
Planned - Heating switch programme	37	£121,950
Energy monitoring	1	£1,012
Planned - Fire recitifcation works - REVENUE	136	£981,112
Total	744	£3,401,922

The global financial climate is impacting the cost and availability of materials and labour, but we work to achieve 100% decency and ensure value for money for our customers when repairing and improving their homes. 

This year has seen many changes with how we engage with customers. 

Our customer roadshows provided us with the ideal opportunity to ask customers how they would like us to engage with them. The Customer Voice Roadshows provided actionable insight into customers’ priorities and preferences. We received a mandate to improve our communication and increase the range of engagement activities. We know we want to do more to improve our relationship with our customers by building trust and rapport. We want to confidently provide customers with opportunities to co-regulate that are accessible and deliver impact. We took the roadshows to Southend, Colchester, Uttlesford, Dunmow and Thurrock.

Resident VIPs

The newly formed Resident Voice and Influence Panel (formally known as Federation of Estuary Residents) have relaunched their panel and have new updated TOR and Code of conduct as well as a new logo. 
Feedback on the Customer Engagement Strategy included:

"I am pleased to see that Estuary value their customers and look forward to seeing this implemented”

LB, resident, Leigh-on-Sea

"This looks nice, the photos are nice and it’s cheerful. I can read this properly.”

JF, resident, Great Dunmow

"Glad it is not very long. Much better. Thanks”

HT, resident, Rainham

This coming year we’ll be running a recruitment drive to get more customers involved with shaping the services we receive and also starting to scrutinise projects, where we deep dive into certain areas of the business. 

Our contact centre deals with all types of communication from our customers, including emails, telephone, social media and online forms. We aim to deal with as many contacts at the first point to resolve and answer any questions customers may have. Our target for this is 66%, during the year we came just within target at 65%. 

We have recently implemented a call back service, to avoid customers waiting on the phones and we’ll be reviewing our customer service standards this coming year. 

• We handled 32,794 phone calls (34,654 last year), with January being the busiest month, and December 2022 was the quietest. 
• We introduced the call back service in December 2022 and the team handled 424 call backs. 
• There were 2,336 (1,186) initial emails logged (we only record the initial email received (customer related). 
• The Customer Services team processed 773 online forms. There were 855 processed last year. 
• There were 415 social media posts logged (we only record the initial social media post received (customer related). There were 166 logged last year. 

The top reasons people contact us: 

• Make a payment or to discuss rent account.
• Matters related to responsive repairs.
• Tenancy enquiries.
• Anti-social behaviour.

Our customer feedback team has reviewed its policy and procedures this year and has updated the information on the website

Complaints Key Stats

• 634 Stage 1 complaints.
• 129 Stage 2 complaints.
• 9 Housing Ombudsman investigations.
• 46 Councillor and MP enquiries.
• 154 Compliments.

During 2022/23, we received 385 formal complaints (stage 1, stage 2 or Housing Ombudsman Investigations) (please note during 2022/23, we changed the way we record complaints). The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code was also reviewed and updated in April 2022 to strengthen provisions to support a positive complaint handling culture. This also contributed to the review of our current complaints and customer feedback policy. 

We’ve set up a ‘learning from complaints’ subgroup to review the top complaint themes and trends. We’ll be using the review of these themes to work towards improving services in these areas. ‘Lessons learnt’ will be developed over the next year, and we now also have a dedicated lessons learnt page on our website.

Complaints and Housing Ombudsman internal training was provided to all staff to help increase awareness and create a positive complaint handling culture across the business. 

We completed the Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment in November 2022. 

An assurance review of complaints management internal audit was completed resulting in ‘reasonable assurance’, meaning that we had some work to do in this area. The recommendations have been adopted as part of the complaint policy and procedure review. 
We are keen to continuously improve our delivery of complaint handling which includes everyone across Estuary, including two of our Board members who are complaints champions, they will also support us in our journey
Recurring themes over the year for complaints: 

• Appointments being kept – contractor.
• Outstanding repairs/ works.
• Quality of works/ repairs.
• Communal repairs.
• Time taken to carry out works/ repairs.
• Communication.

Compliments

"Really pleased with the Estuary call back service, it’s easy to use and saves me having to hold on the phone.” 

"My cleaner is brilliant. He is known as the Hoover man; he makes all the difference and last time sprayed bubblegum spray air freshener. He always talks to me and it starts my day off well.” 

"I’m thrilled with the work recently completed on my bathroom and ceilings. The workers really were the best and did an amazing job.” 

Supporting Customers

Housing Officers made regular contact with customers with a vulnerability and received the below feedback from a customer’s next of kin: 

"My son is an Estuary tenant, living in a disabled flat. He is disabled, on oxygen and has stage 4 terminal illnesses. The Housing Officer and her colleagues (one of whom I had the pleasure of speaking with yesterday when he phoned to ensure my son had the necessary help he needs) have all been very kind and supportive too, and it’s reassuring to have a name and number to give this much welcomed support. They too are a credit to your company. Therefore, please can you pass on our personal and grateful thanks for the kindness, care and support they give to us and others in need.”

Housing Officers supported domestic abuse victims/survivors by referring them to specialist agencies, arranging "safe" works at their property and assisting with transfers to alternative accommodation where recommended. One of the Housing Officers and Income Officer received the below compliment:

"I moved here due to severe domestic violence and relocated under your housing association. Since living here for a couple of months, I have nothing but positive praise regarding...who have done all they can to help me feel settled, safe and assisted with any queries or issues I have in a professional and caring manner. I would like this email to be recognised by their manager/s and for this to be formally noted on their working capabilities of valued hard working members of your team that are a credit to Estuary.”

Housing Officers supported 10 customers with hoarded properties; of these, 2 properties were returned to us and 2 were significantly improved. Housing Officers work closely with other agencies and continue to actively work with 6 customers.

2022/23 

• 409 residents with a vulnerability.
• 36 Domestic Abuse victoms/survivors.
• 25 Safeguarding referrals.
• 18 Floating support referrals make (new for 2022/23).
• 7 Hoarded property.

2021/22

• 383 residents with a vulnerability.
• 25 Domestic Abuse victoms/survivors.
• 13 Safeguarding referrals.
• 10 Hoarded property.

Although we have many reports on ASB, we’re keen to raise awareness in this area with customers, so they feel confident in raising issues to our attention. 

Here are some statistics for what we received this year; 

Housing ASB

• 243 Cases opened (280 in 2021/22)
• 24 Legal action taken (26 in 2021/22)
• 4 Evictions due to ASB (2 in 2021/22)
• 94% Case handling satisfaction (79% in 2021/22)
• 92% Outcome satisfaction (72% in 2021/22)
• 4 Referred to mediation (2 in 2021/22)
• Noise is the most commonly reported type of ASB (same in 2021/22)

From those cases we have worked through, the majority end happily through positive intervention. 

Here are some quotes from feedback we have received from customers regarding how they have found the process and outcomes, which has had a direct impact on their wellbeing; 

"Housing Officer did a phenomenal job couldn't ask fro anything better"

"Very happy with hose the Housing Officer dealt with the case and the matter was resolved"

There are a number of avenues and resources we can progress through to deal with ASB and we will always try and work with customers to seek the best possible outcome for them and their neighbourhood. 

We support our customers to live in their homes with the best support possible, however there are some instances where we need to take action as the requirements within the Tenancy Agreement is not being met by our customers. 

This year, we took legal action due to Breach of Tenancy (excl. ASB) in 106 cases. 
Most common type of Breach of Tenancy – failure to allow access for safety checks. 

It is vital that customers allow us access to carry our mandatory checks and works, as this is essential for us to maintain the safety of our customers’ homes. 

We also take forward action due to fraud or suspected fraud. 

Examples of this may include:

1. Unlawful subletting
   Where a tenant rents out their home without the permission of the landlord.
2. Obtaining housing by deception 
   Where a person gets a home by giving false information on their housing application.
3. Wrongly claimed succession 
   Where the customer dies, and someone tries to take over or succeed the tenancy when they are not entitled to.
4. Key selling 
   Where a customer is paid to pass on their keys in return for a one-off payment.
5. Unlawful assignment 
   Where a customer stops using their tenancy as their main or principal home, allowing another person to live there without permission.
6. False Right to Buy/Right to Acquire 
   Where a customer makes a Right to Buy or Right to Acquire application and gives false information in their application.
7. Abandonment
   Where the tenant abandons their home and has not notified us of their intentions of not returning to the property. 

Through referrals and investigations, we have had 6 properties returned to us, 5 of these were evictions and 1 of abandonment. 

Our Housing team deal with a variety of matters, essentially the team support customers to manage their tenancies effectively and provide support or signpost support avenues. We rely on our customers to engage with us and help us provide this service to them. 

As part of this we carry out a number of visits to our customers. 

Here are some stats on the visits we carried out:

2022/23

• 476 Tenancy reviews completed.
• 485 Tenancy audit home visits.
• 25 Shared owner settling in contact.

2021/22

• 471 Tenancy reviews completed.
• 38 Tenancy audit home visits.
• 2 Shared owner settling in contact.

As you can see, we’ve drastically increased the number of audits which we carry out. This is where we visit customers in their homes, look around and check the property is not only being used appropriately but that customer is receiving the right level of support to maintain their tenancy. 

We have increased the target for audits as we’re confident that proactive visits to our customers will identify support needs and help us provide timely interventions, as not all customers ask for help and tell us when they need assistance. 

Not only are we keen to see inside our properties, but we also want to maintain our communal areas. During the year, we have made 914 visits to ensure we maintain good standards in these shared areas.

Lettings and Voids

Social Rented

• 154 Properties relet - 146 in 2021-22.
• 31.29 Days to relet empty preoprties (voids) - 31.84 in 2021-22.
• 44 New homes let - 30 in 2021-22.

Market Rented

• 20 Properties relet - 32 in 2021-22.
• 22.8 Days to relet empty preoprties (voids) - 21.2 in 2021-22.
• N/A New homes let - 30 in 2021-22.

Our Income Team support customers to pay their rent on time and in the easiest way possible. We also have 2 officers available to provide intensive support to customers to access benefits and grants which they may be eligible for. 

We manage a range of tenures and the following summary shows the income collection performance; 

Social Rented

• 99.4% rent collection - 100% in 2021-22.
• 3.35% rent arrears as a % of rent collectable - 3.41% in 2021-22.
• 4 evictions for rent arrears - 3 in 2021-22.

Market Rented

• 95.6% rent collection - 104% in 2021-22.
• 1.08% rent arrears as a % of rent collectable - 0.86% in 2021-22.
• 0 evictions for rent arrears - 2 in 2021-22.

Shared Ownership

• 93.4% rent collection - 106.5% in 2021-22.
• 0.72% rent arrears as a % of rent collectable - 1.12% in 2021-22.
• 0 evictions for rent arrears - 2 in 2021-22.

The One Estuary Fund is available to our customers to assist them with unexpected costs and needs which can affect their ability to pay their rent. Typical payments can vary from £200-£600, although we have made some payments higher than this. The support is dependent on the income and expenditure of customers, and support in money management will always be offered as part of this process. 

This year we assisted 75 customers with over £22K investment in helping customers with emergencies, enabling them to sustain tenancies. £2K of this was contributed from one of our contractors as part of a social value investment. 

"...would like to thank the One Estuary Fund for taking the stress of my mental health by replacing my fridge freezer.” Mrs W, resident, Southend.

"...so I would like to thank you very kindly." Miss S, resident, Epping.

"Thank you for your help it’s really appreciated. Without the help I received I don’t know what I would have done, thank you again.” Mr S, resident, Southend.

"I asked for a new cooker, my old one was dangerous. I can now cook without being killed by electrocution.” Mrs R, resident, Southend. 

GEMS (Ground Estate and Maintenance Services) are our in-house provider of cleaning, grounds maintenance, and environmental services across the Association's stock. 
Over 15,000 services are provided annually to keep the environments around our customers’ homes clean, safe, and well-maintained. 

GEMS are also on-hand to deal with the day-to-day emergencies that arise which include dealing with fly-tipping, graffiti removal, and clearing broken glass. 

2022/23

• 6,908 Cleaning and grounds services.
• 98.6% delivered on time.
• 5.8% increase in fly-tipping.
• 7,429 Incidents responded to by GEMS including dealing with fly-tipping, waste and Anti Social Behaviour

GEMS work closely with our Housing Team providing them with information on local issues such as anti-social behaviour, repairs, and communal issues and any other issues that have an impact on our customers day-to-day lives. 

Improvement works have been carried out to a number of locations over the past 12 months to help enhance the look of communal spaces. 

This has been a positive year for our supported living schemes, as we have exited our nursing and registered care schemes and re-modelled our schemes to supported living in order to provide more independence and choice for our customers. The opening of outside activities and events since the pandemic meant that many of our usual functions could resume. For the first time in two years, we could meet up for our summer fun-day and the Christmas party. 
Our schemes continued to provide activities such as walking groups and gardening clubs and they celebrated memorable events in the schemes like the Platinum Jubilee Party and enjoyed the holidays. Staff continued to provide excellent care and support to customers during these changing times, demonstrating their resilience and commitment to our customers. 

We’re committed to investing in initiatives that strengthen communities and aid individuals, through a belief that a positive social impact is created through these activities. 
We are regulated by CQC. Our priority continues to keep our customers safe, by implementing Government guidelines on infection control procedures and Health & Safety measures. We have broadened the activities our customers can get engaged in to promote choice and independence. 

1 Apprentice

We have successfully employed an apprentice within our communications team this year, who has directly assisted one of our customers in terms of training and development. 

£92k Invested in People

We’ve invested over 92K in non-mandatory training this reporting year as well as continuing to adopt a hybrid way of working for staff where possible. 

Tenant Employment

We employ a number of staff who live locally and a number of which are also Estuary customers. We’re keen to reinvest and develop where we can. 

Sustainable Employment

Much of our staff base live in Essex, which contributes to us sustaining employment opportunities locally for the good of the greater community. 

Disability Confident Employer

We are a level 2 Disability Confident Employer as well as being a mindful employer. We offer flexible and hybrid working as well as a healthcare cash plan.

Board Member Snapshot Update

Retired	1	Female members	4 (36%)	Male members	7 (64%)
BAME	9%	New members	1	Average membership at Board of Management meetings	7

* as of September 2021

Board Members

George Kieffer Retired Sept 2022 BM | GR | EHD | AHL Chair, Board of Management	Ian Green Joined June 2022 BM | GR | EHD Chair, Board of Management from Sept 2022	Richard Moriarty BM | GR Senior Independent Director Chair, Governance & Remuneration Committee
Richard Bint  BM | AR | GR  Chair of Audit & Risk Committee	Janis Gibson BM | CE | GR Chair, Customer Experience Committee	Robert Nichols BM | EHD | AHL Subsidiary Chair
Simone Russell BM | CE	Carol Williams  BM | CE	Claudette Marcano BM | AR
Patrick Symington BM | AR | EHD	Ian Martin BM | EHD | AHL EHA Chief Executive	Michael Hadjimichael BM | EHD | AHL EHA Chief Financial Officer

 

Key

AR	Audit and Risk Committee	SC	Services Committee
BM	Board Member	CS	Care and Support Committee
GR	Governance and Remuneration Committee

 

Independent Committee and Subsidiary Membership

Tracey Gray AR	Jacqueline Adusei CE		Suzanne Horsley CE
Pauline CE Resident VIP Member	Steven  CE Resident VIP Member	Athar Rashid AHL	Richard Breen Retired Dec 2022 AHL Chair, Accession Homes ltd

Summary

The economic environment caused challenges during the year, such as increasing inflationary pressures, the continued rise in the cost of borrowing and the continued impact of Building and Fire Safety regulations. Despite these challenges, Estuary has been able to respond and remain financially resilient compared to many other Register Providers in the sector. 
Estuary is reporting a Turnover of £40.0m (2021/22: £42.1m), an Operating Surplus of £10.0m (2021/22: £17.3m), Surplus for the year of £1.6m (2021/22: Surplus of £10.1m).

Estuary’s Turnover is £40.0m (2021/22: £42.1m). The decrease of £2.1m is largely due to a fall in First Tranche Shared Ownership Sales of £3m, from £5.5m in 2021/22 to £2.5m in 2022/23. This comes following a decision to temporarily pause the Group’s Development activities during 2021/22 and 2022/23. 

In addition, Estuary began to exit the provision of Nursing Home services during 2021/22 which caused Non-Social Housing Turnover to decrease £0.8m from £0.8m in 2021/22 to £nil in 2022/23. 

Turnover from Social Housing Lettings increased £1.5m from £29.5m in 2021/22 to £31.0m in 2022/23. This was due to the annual rental income charged, rental income received from new units delivered during the year, and the transfer of income from Non-Social Housing Lettings (Registered Care Homes) to Social Housing Lettings (Supported Living Homes).
Estuary’s Operating Surplus is £10.0m (2021/22: £17.3m). Included within the Operating Surplus is the expense for remedial works at the Group’s high rise buildings totalling £0.6m (2021/22: £1.1m).

The Group achieved a Surplus for the year of £1.6m (2021/22: Surplus of £10.1m). Included within this is a gain on the value of our market rented properties of £1.2m, being £5.0m less than the gain of £6.4m recognised in 2021/22 and Interest Payable of £8.5m, being £1.3m greater than £7.2m in 2021/22. 

These movements are due to the challenging external environment which also increased the Group’s core Operating Costs for Social Housing activities, namely its Repairs and Maintenance and Management costs. Furthermore, the Surplus on First Tranche Shared Ownership sales was only £13k, compared to £2.2m in 2021/22 due to a temporary pause in Development Activities. 

Statement of Comprehensive Income

Income and Expenditure	2022/23 £m	2021/22 £m
Turnover	40.0	42.1
Turnover - Social Housing Lettings	31.0	29.5
Operating surplus	10.0	17.3
Interest payable	8.5	7.2
Surplus/(Deficit) for the year	1.6	10.1
Balance Sheet	£m	£m
Tangible Fixed Assets - Housing Properties	384.4	383.3
Investment properties	57.3	56.1
Investment in new housing properties	5.8	7.6
Capitalised major repairs	2.7	2.8
Debt	228.0	218.9
Deferred grant income	136.0	138.0
Reserves	76.5	75.3