A snap shot of City West Life

Published by Melanie Hughes for IPB Communications in Housing and also in Communities

CITY WEST Life is an information rich magazine for City West Housing Trust customers – celebrating the homes, neighbourhoods and people of the West Salford-based housing association.

The magazine replaces the traditional annual report and is aimed to be a reader-friendly guide highlighting what City West has been up to over the past 12 months, how the social landlord is providing value for money, sharing its success stories and performance data, and looking forward to the year ahead.

City West is proud of what it has achieved over the last 12 months and the positive impact it has had on the people who live in its communities. Highlights include refurbishing homes, regenerating communities, creating jobs, positive progress on delivering neighbourhood plans and improving performance.

Some key statistics from the report highlight the housing association’s success over 2011/12 include:

• Over 99 per cent of customers were very or fairly satisfied with the overall improvement to their home following the completion of investment work
• The newly refurbished energy efficient Engels block atBartonVillagehas saved customers up to 60 per cent on their heating and hot water bills in their first month back
• New contract agreements for repairing empty homes is set to save £300,000 annually
• 100 per cent of emergency repairs were completed on time
• Overall performance of neighbourhoods, based on 14 indicators, has improved
• Overall our Survey of Tenants and Residents showed 85 per cent of customers were satisfied with services provided by City West.

Tim Doyle, Chief Executive for City West Housing Trust, said: “The last 12 months have been a great year for City West. We have achieved so much during our first three years in line with our corporate plan. We are all looking forward to the positive challenges facing us as we move forward with delivering our new corporate priorities and stepping up to the challenges in the year ahead to further drive the organisation forward.

“One of our top priorities in the coming year will be to continue to support and inform customers about the forthcoming welfare reform changes. I’m also personally looking forward to seeing our development plans for hundreds of new homes inSalfordstart to come to fruition in the year ahead.”

Copies of City West Life are available on the City West website at http://www.citywesthousingtrust.org.uk/resource/corporate-plans-and-reports/annual-report-2011-2012-city-west-life