This year has seen us recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, including completing the backlog of repairs and supporting customers with their rent arrears.

Our teams have worked hard to return our services to normal, whilst continuing to make improvements so our customers receive the best experience when dealing with us.

As we reflect on the last year for both mhs homes and Heart of Medway (HoM), there’s much for us to be proud of, as well as areas of focus to improve. As you go through this report, we’ve highlighted the areas we know we need to improve, and where possible, said what action we’re taking.

One action we have taken is to create a Customer Experience Group (CEG). This group gives customers the opportunity to shape, influence and improve the services we provide so they meet customers' needs and expectations.

Another new area where we’ve made improvements, is around our sustainability and impact on the environment. Our journey to net zero carbon, means over 65% of mhs homes properties and over 90% of HoM properties are already rated at EPC “C”. Our commitment to the green agenda is wider than our properties, and we’ve begun introducing electrical vehicles too.

We know areas like complaints, our response times, empty homes and dealing with rent arrears remain above our desired performance targets. These are essential services which we have to get right. We’ll continue to focus on improving these to make sure you receive the best possible service.

We continue to monitor the rise in inflation and the impact on our customers. As a landlord with a strong social purpose, we’ve made decisions which allow us to build new homes, improve our existing ones, but keep rents affordable for our customers. We know the importance of a decent home, and this drives our decisions.

Thank you to our customers, partners, and colleagues for all that has been achieved over this last year.

Nigel Hopkins and Lord Roy Kennedy 

It has been a successful and rewarding year for the Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) as we continue to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. We've seen new panel members recruited and have been fully embedded and trained to deliver effective independent scrutiny with mhs homes group.

During the year, we've welcomed the opportunity to be involved with a number of activities by providing valued customer insight and assisting with identifying potential service improvements from a customer perspective.

We’ve successfully delivered two reviews during 2021-2022 which covered all estate service and tenancy support activities from an operational and management perspective. The reviews highlighted both challenges and opportunities to improve the experience for residents. Both reviews have positively contributed to an increase of service improvements.

June Patey, Chair of the Customer Scrutiny Panel said "Being an integral part of the mhs governance structure reinforces the important role of scrutiny and working with the business to ensure that residents are at the heart of decision making. The CSP ensure that residents have a real voice by allowing us to share customer insight, removing barriers and promoting joint working between decision makers, those delivering services and residents.”

You can learn more about the CSP and read their reviews here.