On December 12th 2015, we celebrated our fourth birthday. It is hard to believe that 1,460 days ago, our tenant-led community organisation was born following a stock transfer from Wycombe District Council. And since that day, we have worked in partnership with our customers, which include hundreds of our own tenants and leaseholders, to deliver thousands of improvements and positive changes in our communities. Here is just a selection of achievements that we would like to say thank you for and celebrate today, as we look back over the last year at Red Kite:

  • 67% of the total promises made at transfer are complete, with 30% on target and only 3% not yet started or in progress
  • 92% of our improvement promises are done (against an aim of 73% at this point), which includes:
    • 3,251 kitchens
    • 3,275 bathrooms
    • 388 roofs
    • 2,993 boiler upgrades
    • 1,216 windows
    • 2,683 electrical upgrades
    • 3,729 external doors
    • Hundreds of balconies, soffits, fascias and gutters.
  • We have reduced the average repair cost for bringing empty homes back into ones that we can let to new customers to just over £1,800, against a sector average of £3,000...
  • ...and we have drastically reduced the time between a home becoming empty and re-letting it, from more than 50 days to just 19 (and on 15 occasions, there was no time between!)
  • The average repair cost per home is now £244, compared to £374 four years ago
  • Customer satisfaction with repairs has been above 90%, thanks to our new contractor Axis
  • More than 94% of repair appointments are kept and 89% are completed on time
  • Gas compliance is consistently at 100%
  • The average wait time for adaptations (such as handrails and ramps etc) is just 14 weeks, compared to a sector average of 23
  • In October, for the first time ever, we received more compliments than complaints
  • Since transfer, we have made savings of more than £2.6 million
  • Satisfaction levels are on the rise, with our improvement programme at 90%, satisfaction with neighbourhoods on the up, as well as our overall service and the percentage of people who would recommend us
  • We have also started a really successful partnership with Dot Dot Dot who act as property guardians in some of our homes that are waiting for redevelopment. They have carried out a total of 782 volunteer hours, with a social impact value of £10,664, while at the same time saving us £12,554 in council tax, and more than £23,000 in security
  • Our brilliant partnership with Open Doors will deliver 100 Christmas food parcels for families most in need, and during the summer we gave free meals for kids during school holidays. The partnership has also provided digital training to local residents to help them access online services
  • And our social enterprise with the ToolShed provides unique traineeships with an attitudinal programme for local young people, giving them the skills and confidence to move into employment.

With one year to go before all our promises are delivered, it is clear that we have made great progress and are well on the way to doing all that we said we would for our customers, and more.