Corporate plan 2023-2026

Connexus is a rural housing association which provides over 10,000 affordable rented homes and associated services.

Operating across the counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire, it strives to be a trusted landlord that values its customers and staff, makes a positive impact, and enhances the lives of those living in its communities. As well as being a great place to work, Connexus aims to build a customer focussed culture delivered by one team embracing a shared approach.

Creating a long-term plan for any organisation in 2023 is no easy task. With global events causing disruption and affecting everything from the price of energy to the availability of materials, it would have been easier to limit our ambition or maintain the status quo.

But as a community and customer focussed organisation, that wouldn’t help those struggling with the cost of living, looking for an affordable place to live, trying to find work or learn new skills. It also wouldn’t help the organisation develop in any meaningful way. It is therefore up to us to use our organisational strength, people, and expertise to develop something which tackles these issues and creates opportunities for growth.

To do this, we must have three things in place: firm foundations, an understanding of what we want to achieve and the means to make it happen. This plan has been developed with all three of those things being carefully considered.

In terms of foundations, stability starts with good governance and our ability to manage risks. In 2022, Connexus was re-graded by the Regulator of Social Housing and now holds the highest possible rating of G1. Having robust governance means that whatever decisions we make during the life of our plan will be underpinned by the right checks and balances.

To understand what we want to achieve, it is crucial that our priorities reflect those of our customers and other stakeholders, otherwise we will find it difficult to meet and manage expectations. They must also reflect Connexus’ own aspirations, and for us this is to provide decent, safe homes for those on lower incomes. After all, a good quality home is a basic human right for everyone.

When we spoke to customers during the development of this plan, they wanted to see services change for the better, especially when it came to maintaining and improving their homes and accessing services. Demand for repair work has increased significantly over the last two years, and we must respond to this challenge with significant improvements, something this plan sets in motion.

Many of our homes were built before 1982, which brings a number of challenges – especially when combined with the dispersed nature of our geography. Older construction methods mean some homes aren’t as energy efficient as they could be, and this plan begins the process of ensuring all properties are rated SAP C by 2030.

And while there is a need to bring homes up to date and invest in this type of work, we also need to make tough choices about those homes which are no longer viable. This means that some homes will be lost, but we plan to continue developing sustainable new homes across our areas each and every year, working to meet demand and create affordable places to live in the heart of our communities.

Away from the bricks and mortar of our homes, we must improve access to our customer services to reflect changing habits and levels of expectation, especially around access through digital channels. This must be done without losing focus on the in-community delivery of wider housing and support services.

Understanding what we want to achieve has been an important part of developing this plan, but we will not meet our objectives if we do not have the means to deliver them. That’s why we will be investing in change for our people, systems, and processes. This will involve transformation and modernisation across the organisation, but it will also mean embracing new ways of working.

To support this change, we will introduce a new approach of making sure we get the most out of each interaction we have with customers, colleagues, or stakeholders. We call this our ‘make it count’ approach. Alongside our values, this will help us deliver a more customer focussed culture.

We hope the plan explains where Connexus is heading over the next three years in a straightforward way. What it means for our customers, colleagues and stakeholders is explained most simply in our new vision, our North Star – good quality affordable homes for all.

It serves as our statement of intent, of where we want to be.

Richard Woolley, chief executive 
Michele Ibbs, chair of Conneuxus' board

The plan contains five priorities shown in the diagram above- three customer priorities and two enabling priorities. Each priority has a series of objectives which will deliver outcomes over the three-year life of the plan. There are also things that will need to happen on a day-to-day basis to support their delivery. We call these business-as-usual (BAU) achievements.

Our customer priorities are based on things customers have told us are important to them. They will put customers at the heart of Connexus’ service delivery. Enabling priorities support the delivery of our customer priorities, and make sure key business functions like finance, IT and the colleague experience remains strong and continues to develop over time.

All five priority areas include objectives which are cross cutting and are delivered by teams working together across the organisation.

To make sure objectives are delivered successfully, each is linked to a strategy. These are in turn delivered through team and individual plans.

Each objective also links directly to an element of the North Star. We call these pillars. Each pillar ‘Good Quality’, ‘Affordable’, ‘Homes’, ‘For All’ has its own definition shown below.

Good Quality – at least middle quartile service performance delivery within the parameters of affordability and based on frequent benchmarked data.

Affordable - in its wider context and not defined by a single formula, we want our homes to be “not too expensive for people of limited means.”

Homes - a focus on our existing homes and tenures, but with an open mind about other tenure types in the future.

For all - we will operate in the two counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire.

Each priority, its North Star pillar, associated strategy and outcome is shown in the following tables.

Connexus works across a wide geography. The transformation will ensure a consistent efficient repairs service across the two counties that responds quickly and appropriately to customer needs, while improving value for money.

The average age of Connexus homes is increasing matched by a low average energy efficiency rating. By investing significantly, Connexus will improve the quality of its homes and the energy rating to SAP C. This will make them better places to live and more sustainable over time.

BAU achievements

• Ensure our homes are safe by maintaining 100% compliance in gas safety
• Maintain all our homes at Decent Homes Standard
• Undertake five yearly electrical checks, asbestos, fire safety, water hygiene and LOLER (Lift Operating and Lifting Equipment Regulations).

Customers are at the heart of everything Connexus does. The organisation needs to listen to and have greater understanding of customer needs and respond with a high-quality service.

BAU achievements

• Be fully compliant with the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
• Target for satisfaction with letting - 90%
• Net Promoter Score for new customers - 60%.

Customers are at the heart of everything Connexus does. The organisation needs to listen to and have greater understanding of customer needs and respond with a high-quality service.

BAU achievements

• Continue to nurture and develop partnership working with our customers and stakeholders to deliver our services and use the community investment fund and available grants to benefit the communities in which we serve
• Have an apprenticeship scheme and other people initiatives embedded in Connexus to form part of our workforce planning and contribute to our wider community objectives.
   

Strong governance and financial viability are the critical foundations to any successful organisation. Connexus is committed to maintaining these strengths to enable the successful delivery of what matters to its customers.

BAU achievements

• Retain our governance grading of G1 with viability no less than V2
• Ensure all regulatory and statutory reporting will be of high quality and timely
• Ensure our compliance with the Regulatory Standards and National Housing Federation (NHF) Code of Governance on an annual basis
• Minimise security risk to computer data, and as such maintain as a minimum, accreditation with Cyber Essentials Plus
• Maintain strong finances through embedding efficiency measures across the business delivered through service improvements, that drive improved service delivery for our customers. Delivering asset cover no less than 167%, operating margin (including void/RTB sales/staircasing) 27% and interest cover better than 230%
• We will maintain rent arrear levels at 3% to ensure healthy business and affordability of rents for customers
  Develop a renovation and disposal plan.

To support the delivery of the plan over the next three years a series of strategies have been developed. The outcomes outlined in the plan's priority areas form part of these strategies which are in turn linked to a supporting team or delivery plan. This ensures focus is maintained and there is clear accountability from strategy through to operational delivery. 

Homes Strategy
The Homes Strategy emphasises the importance of good-quality homes, and the vital role in developing neighbourhoods, communities and contributing to the economic growth of surrounding areas. It acknowledges the role of homes in enabling individuals and families to thrive, and emphasises Connexus' commitment to affordable, comfortable, and secure housing.

Customer Strategy
The Customer Strategy works hand in hand with the Homes Strategy, aligning with Connexus' PRIDE values, Voice of the Customer delivery framework, and Make it Count approach to shape the business around our customers. These principles ensure that interactions with colleagues, customers, and external stakeholders are meaningful and result in positive outcomes.

People Strategy
The People Strategy aims to support Connexus in achieving its corporate objectives through well-planned initiatives that optimise the contributions of its employees. Safety, well-being, equality, diversity, and inclusion form the foundation of this strategy at every stage.

Corporate strategies
A series of corporate strategies are focused on maintaining strong governance and robust financial viability for the organisation. These strategies are designed to further strengthen Connexus' ability to serve its customers without compromising on service delivery.

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Connexus’ make ‘Make It Count’ approach will ensure all interactions across the business with colleagues and customers, as well as external stakeholders, are meaningful and deliver a positive outcome. Colleagues can ensure a meaningful outcome by asking themselves and positively challenging others through their interactions whether they have:

• Resolved an issue
• Prevented an issue
• Answered a question or query
• Acted on feedback
• Used insight and data to improve performance
• Aligned processes, policies, responses to ensure consistency
• Delivered better value for money
• Improved team-working
• Improved partnership-working
• Enhanced communication
• Completed or progressed actions or projects.

“Did you make it count?”, “Have you made it count?”, “Not sure you made that count?” are also useful questions and comments that can be employed by colleagues to challenge others in a non-confrontational manner using accepted “business-speak”. The outcomes from meetings can also be gauged using this approach – “did we add value to our business by having that meeting? What did we achieve? Did we make it count?”

Connexus will also be building the ‘Make it Count’ principles into the roll-out of our locality model which provides a framework to deliver services in a focused, collaborative way that meets the needs of our customers. The model brings together key colleagues to work directly for the benefit of customers, communities, and stakeholders within their defined area. Through collaborative working, the locality team will make decisions and respond directly to the needs of their customers, improving and delivering services in the most effective and efficient way.

At Connexus we want to deliver our core services to the highest standard, and this will always be our priority as we strive to achieve our North Star.

However, we also want to nurture our ambition and innovative thinking beyond the life of this corporate plan.

During the lifetime of the corporate plan, we will be taking the business forward by planning for the delivery of the following objectives:

A huge thank you to the customers, colleagues and stakeholders involved in the creation of this corporate plan. Your views, feedback and insight were crucial in developing its themes and shaping the outcomes it will deliver.