One Team
Going for Gold
Your Annual Review 2015/16
Contents
Welcome
Welcome from the Residents’ Council
Working together
How we’re doing where you live
Improving our services
Making it easier to use our services
Your home
Homes for the future
Home Ownership
Your tenancy
Building communities
Value for Money
Diversity and Governance
Who's who
International Day, Lansdowne Green, South London
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Welcome
We’re pleased to say that 2015/16 has been a fantastic year for AmicusHorizon.
Despite the continuing challenges of the housing crisis, cuts to welfare benefits
and a reduction in income, we’ve ended the year in a very strong position, reaching
some impressive targets. The theme of this year's Annual Review; 'One Team
Going for Gold', celebrates how residents and staff worked together in unison to
make this happen.
This year marked the culmination of
our three year strategic plan; ‘Take the
Leap’. In 2013, we consulted and asked
you what you wanted us to focus on. You
highlighted five priorities that mattered
most to you and we committed to achieving
results that would make you proud.
Underpinning this was our ambition
to become the No1 Large Landlord in
the UK by April 2016. Your five priorities
became our 'gold medal' targets, and like
Team GB, we aimed to claim top spot in the
Olympic year.
So, how did we do? The results have
now been validated by HouseMark, the
independent benchmarking authority, and
I’m delighted to say: “We did it!”
We’re now No1 for resident satisfaction in
the country. And we beat each of our five
'gold medal' targets:
zz
zz
zz
zz
zz
Overall satisfaction – 98.5%
Complaints satisfaction – 97.3%
Repairs satisfaction – 98.8%
Re-lets – 10.1 days
Satisfaction with handling of anti social
behaviour – 98.2%
What’s more, this was all achieved against
a backdrop of delivering better value
for money – realising £0.54m savings
in operational costs and identifying a
further £2m to be realised in 2017.
But time doesn’t stand still. We’ve a housing
crisis to address and a tough funding
environment in which to operate. The
lessons we’ve learned over the last three
years will stand us in good stead to get the
job done: focus on the things that matter
and involve residents to drive performance,
save money and build more homes!
This year, we’ve produced one annual
review for all areas, highlighting local
performance data for each region in which
we operate. This outlines our commitment
to keeping you fully informed about our
performance across the business, from the
local level up.
We hope your enjoy reading this
review. Please tell us what you think
by completing our short survey at:
www.surveyserver.net/?f=10022.
Lord Charles Falconer
Paul Hackett
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Summer Fun Day, Netherfield, East Sussex
Welcome from the Residents’ Council
It's been a successful year for AmicusHorizon and to be part of the success makes
volunteering as an involved resident worthwhile.
Residents’ Council comprises 16 involved residents who have been elected from
the eight Area Panels. We work in partnership with the Board and the staff to
challenge and scrutinise the services provided by AmicusHorizon. This ensures our
residents receive value for money for a great service. It's also great news that we've
been officially recognised by HouseMark as the No1 Large Landlord in the UK.
Over the past year involved residents have:
1.
2.
3.
4.
iscussed and contributed to 14 policies
D
and six key strategies which have a
direct impact on resident services
Monitored performance and
prioritised services to ensure
resident satisfaction was maintained
while reducing overall costs
Scrutinised the Older Peoples’ Services
and recommended changes to the
aids and adaptations service
Through residents and staff working
together as one team we’ve continued
to lead the way in performance helping AmicusHorizon become
No1 Large Landlord in the UK.
Looking ahead, our big challenges
over the next year will be to:
1. Review ways to deliver great value
for money services while continuing
to reduce operational costs
2. Work towards partnership with Viridian
Housing to create a new governance
structure with resident counterparts
3. Involve more residents in shaping
services, in a way that suits them. This
will include more digital opportunities
4. Continue to work in partnership
with the Board and staff on
behalf of residents to challenge,
scrutinise and shape our service.
We're always looking for more involved residents to help us shape the services provided
by AmicusHorizon. So if you feel you’re up for the job, then please contact our Resident
Involvement Team.
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Working together

Overall resident satisfaction
98.5%
Change from 2014/15 improved by 1%
At AmicusHorizon we work as ‘one team’ alongside our residents. The results
of this approach speak for themselves – better services and increased resident
satisfaction.
This year we achieved an overall resident
satisfaction rating of 98.5% - the highest
rating out of all the large housing
associations in the UK.
Residents are involved at every level, from
neighbourhood projects to Strategic Board.
Our residents drive us to improve our
services by:
zz Leading the organisation as resident
members of the Strategic Board
zz Shaping services through the
Residents’ Council
zz Monitoring services as members of Area
Panels, Repairs and Maintenance Panels
and Resident Monitor Teams
zz Improving estates through local
Residents’ Associations
zz Mystery shopping to check staff are
delivering high quality services
zz Influencing our communications through
the Communications Task Group and
Editorial Panels
zz Checking our customer policies are
fair and realistic through our Policy
Task Group
zz Challenging and scrutinising how we
spend money through the Value For
Money Task Group.
How we ensure our residents’ voices
are heard…and acted upon
3,591 residents got involved in 2015/16.
We met residents through consultations,
events, forums, Residents’ Associations,
training and Resident Assemblies. In total
we involved residents on 190 occasions
over the year.
We used these opportunities to consult
with residents on key issues, such as the
new website, the Resident Involvement
Strategy and local issues, such as
anti social behaviour.

Watch our One Team
Going for Gold video
http://tinyurl.com/js8yo92
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How we’re doing where you live
Number of homes
we manage
27,394
11,332
in London
and Surrey
7,729
in Kent
8,333
in Sussex
Resident
Satisfaction
Complaints
Handling
Repairs
satisfaction
Re let
homes
ASB
handling
London and Surrey
97.1
100
97.9
10.3 days
100
Kent
99.3
100
99.7
9.7 days
96.5
Sussex
98.8
96.4
98.7
10.4 days
100
Average weekly
rents
4
London
and Surrey
Sussex
Kent
Bedsit
£102
£73
£76
1 Bed
£110
£79
£86
2 Bed
£127
£90
£102
3 Beds
£142
£108
£112
4 Beds
£161
£120
£126
5 Beds
£170
£131
£131
6 Beds +
£177
£132
£141

Improving our services
Residents satisfied with complaints handling
97.3%

Change from 2014/15 improved by 2.1%
At AmicusHorizon we find the best way to improve our services is to listen to our
residents. We value your feedback, good and bad. Every complaint is acted upon to
improve our services.
In 2015/16 we received 262,855 calls to
our Customer Service Team. Of these,
1,300 were informal complaints and
186 were formal complaints. We received
220 formal complaints in the previous year
– a decrease of nearly 15.5%.
1,300
186
informal
complaints
formal
complaints
 15.5%
262,855
calls received
What you complained about
Here are some of the improvements we’ve
made as a direct result of complaints
received:
zz We’ve reviewed our Mutual Exchange
Policy and Procedure. We’ve added
a checklist to the application form
to ensure all information is received.
We’ve also improved communication by
ensuring we update you through every
step of the process
zz You told us you wanted quicker
resolution to your complaints. We’ve
listened and changed our Complaint
Policy from 3 to 2 stages
zz We’ve reviewed our rent notification
letters to clearly communicate our
arrears process. This has made it easier
for you to understand what you need to
do if you fall behind with rent payments
zz We’ve worked closely with our out of
hours contractor. We’ve added extra
services to the contract to ensure
repairs are dealt with out of hours.
Formal complaints (2015/16)
Comparison (2014/15)
107
22% 
Housing management
54
9% 
Home ownership
19
17% 
6
33% 
Repairs and maintenance
Other
5
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AmicusHorizon staff demonstrating MyAccount at Lansdowne Green
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Making it easier to use our services
We want to make it even easier for our residents to access and use
our services. This year, we’ve made great progress improving our digital offer.
Get Connected
We want to help as many residents as
possible get online and make the most of
what the internet offers. We now have
103 Digital Champions (staff and
volunteers) who coach residents in their
communities to develop computer skills.
These skills help people find work, write
CVs, stay in touch with family and friends
and build confidence. Last year we ran
3,080 digital skills sessions for residents.
Find out how you can get involved at:
www.amicushorizon.org.uk/Support/
Help-getting-online.aspx
New website
We’re really proud of our new website,
launched in January 2016.
www.amicushorizon.org.uk
It was designed and produced in
cooperation with residents. We had an
amazing 900 residents provide their views
on developing the site.
Residents also carried out ‘test-driving’ on
the site to ensure it was easy to search and
find information.
Resident, Angela Palmer, a member of the
website panel said: “The new website is so
much simpler to use and easier to understand.
I use it all the time to find out things about
AmicusHorizon and do what I need to do.”
By the end of March 2016 nearly 5,000 residents had signed up to MyAccount.
We aim to increase sign ups to 7,763 (35%) by 1 April 2017.
With MyAccount you can:
zz Report a repair and
select appointment times
zz Check your rent account
zz View service charge information
zz Report anti social behaviour
zz Update your details
zz Contact us and make requests,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Register now online at:
www.amicushorizon.org.uk/MyAccount
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Your home

Repairs satisfaction
98.8%
Change from 2014/15 improved by 1%
The quality of our homes is our residents’ top priority. We work with you, our
contractors and our in-house repairs teams, to keep your home safe and well
maintained. We make sure we’re getting things right by listening to you.
In 2015/16:
zz We spent £16.8m repairing our homes
zz We carried out 83,028 repairs across the
three regions
zz On average we took 12.9 days to
complete repairs.
We have a rigorous scrutiny setup to ensure
the quality of our repairs. In each region
we have teams of Resident Monitors who
assess repair work and see first hand
what’s being done. The reports produced
by Resident Monitors are reviewed at our
Repairs and Maintenance Panels (RAMPS).
RAMPs are forums for residents and staff to
work together to monitor the performance
of our Repairs and Asset Management
Teams to ensure they deliver an excellent
service. Last year:
zz Our Resident Monitors visited
550 homes, checking with residents
that our repairs consistently met our
service standards
zz We completed 3,390 customer
satisfaction surveys on repairs jobs
we’d carried out.
Improving your home
We’ll never stop improving our homes. Each
year we carry out planned repairs to ensure
all our properties are maintained to the
highest standards.
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Fun Day in Minster,
Isle of Sheppey, Kent
Helping older residents
Nearly half our residents are aged over 50.
Over the last year we’ve carried out
1,057 minor adaptations to enable
residents with disability or mobility issues
to live more comfortably in their homes.
Last year we spent
£34.9m on
7,230 home improvements, including:
896
kitchens installed
474
bathrooms installed
770
electrical testing and
upgrades carried out
1,410
heating upgrades completed
881
homes fitted with new
doors and windows.
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Homes for the future
We’re not just about great customer service and community development at
AmicusHorizon – we’re also committed to tackling the housing crisis in the UK by
improving the supply of housing across London, Kent and Sussex.
2020 homes by 2020
We began a new four year development
programme this year and have an
ambitious target to build 2020 new homes
by the year 2020.
Starting in 2016/17 we’ll:
zz Deliver 108 new quality homes costing
£25m and housing over 280 people
zz Claim over £6m in government grants to
help pay for building new homes zz Start another 423 homes to add to our
ongoing development programme. We’ll
complete over 600 homes in 2017-18.
A new look for retirement living
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To find out more about our
Extra Care schemes, watch
our video at:
http://tinyurl.com/zh3tupy
We’ve become specialists in the design and
delivery of Extra Care schemes for older
people. This year we completed our second
Extra Care scheme, The Orangery, in Sidley,
Sussex, which was nominated for two
prestigious Placemaking Awards.
Our schemes offer more than traditional
retirement housing; they provide
personalised care, top notch facilities
and state-of-the-art apartments
designed to make our residents’
later years stress free and happy.
Residents at Lansdowne Green
International Day, South London
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Home Ownership
We’ve homes for sale across London and the South East. Shared Ownership makes
home ownership more affordable.
You buy a share of a home, this can be
as little as 25%. Then we charge a low
rent on the remaining share. You can
build up the share you own over time.
You can find out how to apply for Shared
Ownership and view our properties on
our website: www.amicushorizon.org.uk/
Property-home.aspx
How we performed in 2015/16:
zz Our target for new sales proceeds was
£7.22m and we achieved £10.93 m
zz Right to Buy and staircasing, whereby
shared ownership tenants increased
their stake in their homes, brought in
another £12.60m.
Right to Buy
The Government’s proposed introduction
of ‘Right to Buy’ to allow housing
association residents to buy their homes
hasn’t begun yet. If you’re interested, keep
watching the news as we think any changes
in legislation will be widely publicised in the
press and media. For further information
and to register for updates on when the
extended Right to Buy will be introduced
please visit www.righttobuy.gov.uk
Number of homeowners
Number of shared ownership
and leaseholders
4,275
565
in Sussex

Read Saqib's story about
becoming a home owner here
http://tinyurl.com/hgvnv4y
3,233
477
in Kent
in London
and Surrey
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Fun Day in Minster, Isle of Sheppey, Kent
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Your tenancy
Average time taken to re let homes
10.1 days

Change from 2014/15 improved by 2.5 days
We understand how important it is to have a home. That’s why we make it a
priority to turn around vacant properties as soon as possible so we can provide
much needed homes for those who need them most. Our re let times for empty
homes are amongst the very best in the country.
Helping you through Welfare Reform
We’re doing all we can to help residents
stay in their homes. Last year we helped
860 residents, affected by Welfare Reform,
with money management advice.
In 2015/16 we:
zz Organised 30 advisory events for
residents on Welfare Reform
zz Secured £2.4m worth of additional
income for residents
zz Obtained £547,466 worth of one-off
payments for residents in need.
Energy and Environment
We’re committed to helping our residents
to keep warm and save money on their
utility bills. At the same time, we're reducing
our impact on the environment. Since 2012
we’ve:
zz Improved the energy efficiency of
5000 homes
zz Helped residents save enough water
to fill 80 Olympic size swimming pools
a year
zz Saved residents more than £500,000 a
year on their energy bills through our
water efficiency programme.
We’ve developed a five year plan to address
fuel poverty and reduce our environmental
impacts. You can read our new strategy at
http://tinyurl.com/hw32coy
In June 2016 we achieved a SHIFT Gold
rating – SHIFT is a national scheme that
measures how well housing providers
are reducing environmental impacts and
addressing fuel poverty.
Residents at Lansdowne
Green, South London
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Building communities
Residents satisfied with handling of ASB
98.2%

Change from 2014/15 improved by 1.7%
We work with our residents and our partners to build cleaner, safer
neighbourhoods and strong communities.
Anti social behaviour (ASB)
We take anti social behaviour very seriously
as we know it can affect your quality of life.
We work in partnership with the police,
local councils and other agencies to prevent
and tackle ASB. You can also help us by
reporting crimes and intimidation to the
police directly. It’s also important you take
personal responsibility for sorting out
minor disagreements. Noise disturbances
for example, can often be resolved
with a sensitive conversation with your
neighbours who may not be aware their
behaviour is causing a problem.
Last year we resolved 98% of ASB cases
without the need for legal action.
Our aim is to help residents feel safe
in their homes and neighbourhoods.
Find out what you can do and how we’ll
help tackle ASB in our ASB Statement.
at http://tinyurl.com/hwxbvkc

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Helping you back into work
We have an active community development
programme, helping people back into
training and work.
Last year over 4,222 people took part
in community projects such as Motiv8,
Build Yourself, Doorstep Learning and
Employment Matters.
Over 500 participants progressed into
employment or accredited training and 50%
of participants were under 25 years of age.
Contractor Give Back scheme
We work closely with our contractors and
suppliers to maximise jobs and training
opportunities from across our supply chain.
We’ve placed over 50 young people in paid
trainee roles through the scheme in the last
two years.
Watch our video on how
we're working with our
contractors to provide
work job opportunities
for young people:
http://tinyurl.com/zchsusm
Residents at Lansdowne Green, South London
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Value for Money
We are committed to delivering better Value For Money (VFM) in our business.
Our Strategic Board drives the delivery of VFM and our staff and residents work
together to deliver value for money and efficiency.
Our residents helped us define value for
money as “spending money wisely”. We
aim to balance cost, quality and meeting
expectations. In the face of sector austerity,
welfare reform and reducing grants, we’ve
made significant progress in reducing
spend and improving value for money.
Our full VFM report and Accounts
are available on our website.
www.amicushorizon.org.uk/
Leaflets-Publications.aspx
£1
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Services
Office and management
Staff and related costs
Maintenance
Landlord payments/other costs
Depreciation
Net interest costs
Retained surplus
We completed our three year Ways of
Working efficiency programme (WoW).
We identified £7.3m recurring savings
against a target of £6.9m. Resident
engagement throughout the programme
has helped ensure we cut waste and
deliver more efficient services.
Examples of what we’ve achieved include:
zz £2.5m asset management savings,
including: introducing an innovative
‘value chain’ model for delivering kitchen
and bathroom replacements; a new day
to day repairs and vacant homes repairs
service; bringing services in house
zz £1.2m procurement savings on
contracts tendered in 2015/16
zz Maintained the overall social impact
value of our Community Development
programme at £24m (for employment
support and training activities)
zz Sourced £2.2m support funding for
residents
zz Delivered 600 in-home energy advice
visits to help residents manage utility
costs and secured £0.55m grant
funding towards the affordable warmth
programme.
How we spend every pound
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Achievements in 2015/16
7p
4p
17p
22p
5p
9p
18p
18p
Diversity and governance
Valuing diversity plays an important part
in our role as a landlord. Our goal is to
appreciate our residents’ needs, so we
can shape our services accordingly. We
want residents to be at the heart of
everything we do, treating everyone fairly
and with respect.
We know we can deliver the best level of
service by understanding the residents and
communities we serve.
As part of our commitment to the
Chartered Institute of Housing’s ‘10 by 2020’
challenge we’ll be publishing diversityrelated data on the profile of our Board,
Executive Team and workforce on our
website at
www.amicushorizon.org.uk/Jobs/
Diversity-and-Inclusion
To find out more about our approach to
equality and diversity, read our Diversity
and Inclusion Strategy on our website:
www.amicushorizon.org.uk/Corporate/
Strategies-and-Policies.aspx

Watch our video of staff
taking part in the 2016
Brighton Pride Festival
http://tinyurl.com/hjfwna7
Thornville Grove, Mitcham
We will ensure our leadership and
governance structure reflects the diversity
of the communities we serve.
International Day, Lansdowne Green
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The Board
Lord Charles Falconer
Chair
Steve Douglas
Vice Chair
David Clifford
Independent Member
Paul Crouch
Resident Board Member
Michael Davis
Independent Member
Bianca Layne
Resident Board Member
(until 31 January 2016)
David Oliver
Independent Member
Neil Robertson
Independent Member
Linda Seddon
Resident Board Member
(until 29 February 2016)
Beverley Spear
Independent Member
Nick Stephenson
Resident Board Member
Andrew Wiseman
Independent Member
Jane Porter
Executive Director
– Operations
Mark Miles-Lea
Executive Director
– Commercial
Kate Dodsworth
Executive Director –
People and Strategy
Strategic Executive Team
Paul Hackett
Chief Executive
Sarah Smith
Executive Director –
Finance and Resources
Residents' Council
Glen Cady
Chair
Monica Barnes
Vice Chair
Helena Ingham
Joint Vice Chair
(from March 2016)
Pat Baker
Hastings
Natasha Carpenter
Mid Kent
(until November 2015)
Andrew Creed
Kent Gateway
& Kent RAMP
Paul de Bernier
London South West
Melanie Johnson
London South East
Eamonn O’Kane
Croydon & Surrey
Roderick O’Regan
Hastings
Martin Osment
East Sussex
(until January 2016)
Angela Palmer
Mid Kent
Linda Scamp
East Kent
Penny Walker
Croydon & Surrey
Chris Wickerson
East Sussex
Carol Hayes
East Kent
(from March 2016)
Graham Whitehead
Mid Kent
(from March 2016)
Mark Wilde
Sussex RAMP
(from March 2016)
AmicusHorizon is a Registered Society (Community Benefit Society) no: 30786R