Gentoo was recently inspected by the Regulator of Social Housing to assess how well we are delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and meeting the governance and financial viability requirements. This inspection assessed all four of the consumer standards: the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, the Safety and Quality Standard, the Tenancy Standard and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.
The Regulator has concluded that Gentoo is delivering the outcomes of the Consumer Standards and has confirmed the highest grading of C1. Gentoo also continues to meet the Governance and Financial Viability requirements with gradings of G1 and V2, respectively.
Gentoo is one of the first social housing providers in the North East to be assessed against these new consumer standards.
Read a full copy of the Regulatory Judgement.
In its regulatory judgement, the Regulator:
- acknowledged that Gentoo has the appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of our customers in their homes and that we keep an accurate record of the condition of homes at an individual property level and keep this information up to date.
- stated that Gentoo demonstrated that it provides “an effective, efficient and timely repairs service”, takes action to improve the service when issues occur and that our approach to repairs is informed by the needs of our customers.
- was assured that Gentoo works with partners to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour in our neighbourhoods, and how we work with our customer committee and scrutiny panel to review our approach for reporting anti-social behaviour and hate crime incidents.
- recognised how Gentoo recently reviewed its allocations policy to “ensure all properties are let in a fair and transparent way” and supports customers to sustain their tenancies.
- noted how Gentoo learns from information on complaint types and outcomes and uses this to seek to make improvements, with customers having been asked to scrutinise our approach to complaints handling.
- saw there are a wide range of meaningful opportunities for customers to influence and scrutinise Gentoo’s strategies, policies and services. With evidence that Gentoo considers customer input to make improvements, including at board level, and that customer feedback has improved service delivery and strategic decision making.
Louise Bassett, Chief Executive, said: “I am pleased the Regulator has recognised the strength of our governance and the improvements in our financial performance. We have been on a journey over the past 18 months to improve our service to customers and I am delighted to see this has also been recognised by the Regulator. However, whilst we are making good progress, there is still much to do. More than ever, I am committed to continuing to improve our services to customers and deliver on our Customer Promise and I will not rest until we have achieved this.
I am enormously proud of our colleagues who have worked tirelessly to improve our governance, financial performance, and our services to customers. Without their incredible work and commitment to Gentoo we would not have achieved this outcome.
We have set up a Customer Committee and are listening to customer feedback more than ever to improve our services. They are influencing our decisions, and we value their feedback.
We are spending our money wisely and continue to invest over £1million each week in our homes in Sunderland, including new roofs, electrical rewiring, bathrooms, and kitchens. 75% of our customers’ homes now have energy ratings of EPC C or above and we have plans to improve the energy efficiency of all homes by 2030.
Our repairs team has significantly reduced wait times for repairs, and we have increased the numbers of trades colleagues we have to serve our customers. We have a dedicated Damp and Mould team, and we also have a plan to build over 700 new affordable homes by 2029. In addition, our Money Matters team helped customers to claim more than £3 million in benefits in the past year.
We do not get everything right and when we receive complaints and feedback, we take this very seriously. Gentoo is committed to improving our customers’ homes and our services as we continue our journey to provide excellent services to customers and help the communities of Sunderland thrive.”
