The last financial year saw us deal with the fall out of a tough economic climate, a requirement to progress our journey to net zero and legal changes which had an impact on our workloads. Demands on the sector to do more, with less resources are increasing. We have faced the challenges ahead of us and we are proud of what we have achieved.
Those challenges are contributing factors to our decision to look into merging with another housing association, so as we put together this Annual Report I am mindful that it is likely to be one of the last ‘Melin’ annual reports, before we form a new organisation with Newport City Homes, to become one of the largest in Wales. These are exciting times!
This report demonstrates that we have continued to face the challenges ahead of us and we are proud of what we have achieved, and always have an eye on future progress.
Once again, this year’s annual report shows how we have worked with our partners and residents and had a positive impact at both an individual and community level. It’s also an honest reflection of the challenges we have faced. I am pleased to see that our staff teams are committed to listening to our residents’ feedback and that our board and executive teams have backed changes to the way that we do business, in a bid to provide the best possible services.
We want to be brilliant at what we do and focus on the issues that matter to you, so please keep talking to us as your views are vital in helping us meet our objectives.
Find out how to have your say on our contact page.
Paula Kennedy
Chief Executive Melin Homes
Communities
All of our residents become a Melin Voice when they have a home with us, in that everyone is encouraged to share their opinions, and be part of the conversation. By taking part in surveys, chatting to us on the phone, emailing or talking to a member of staff everyone has the chance to shape the services we provide.
If residents would like to get more involved, they can you can join one of our Voices focus groups. Our Community Focus Group is a dedicated group of residents who meet monthly with our Communities Team to plan and fund neighbourhood events, support residents and make a difference to our communities.
Here’s what they have achieved during 2023/24…
Supporting residents in need
The group donated over £12k in food and fuel vouchers to our Advice team, helping them support more residents during the cost-of-living crisis.
Fun activities for our over 55s schemes
The group has supported funding totalling over £5,500 for activities to our 15 sheltered schemes from King’s Coronation celebrations, Easter fun to festive frolics and Pets for Therapy. They have also made donations towards garden furniture to help our residents get together in the great outdoors.
Community group out and about
The group attended community events such at our schemes, Love Your Health and Wellbeing Event, sponsored the Torfaen Volunteer awards, which celebrates volunteers like our Voices who make a difference in communities.
Group members sat in on staff interviews, had GDPR training, sat in on Board meetings and are regularly updated on policies, service changes and government legislation affecting residents. They also regularly proof-read and sense check communications that we are sending out.
This year the group was actively involved in reviewing;
- The choice of front doors that our residents are given
- Our complaints policy
- Our service charge policy
- Our landscaping contracts
- Digital communications
And they tested out our new digital reception and made recommendations for improvements in all of the above.
Communities Team
A terrific trio, Helen Alan and John make up our small but mighty Communities Team. Their dedication to putting residents at the heart of all we do, always puts people at ease, and the interaction they get with residents gives people the confidence to trust us to address things that people aren’t so happy with, and the opportunity to build on positive relationships.
The rest of the staff team are always eager to help the team. In fact, over the year staff volunteered at community events speaking to over 1,250 of our residents.
It isn’t only our staff who line up to be part of the community team magic, their infectious enthusiasm has also helped to build effective partnerships with other agencies, teams, associations and local authorities.
Working in partnership... Together we can
We know we can achieve even more by working together and this year some of our partnerships have helped us reach people in the communities throughout the five local authority areas we work in.
These have included:
- The Healthy Futures Art Project working with Gwent Public Service Board, Building a Fairer Gwent and Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre;
- The Pantry – helping to beat food poverty in Newport;
- Torfaen Community Volunteer Association – rewarding the efforts of those who volunteer in our community;
- Pontypool Community Council – providing the tented village at Party in the Park;
- Sporting Partnerships with County in the Community, Dragons, and Clock Cricket offering people the opportunity to get together while trying some fun fitness activities;
- Gtech/Lego – funding to provide a Lego Spike STEM project at a Pill Primary School.
Many of our contractors also donated towards our Melin Quiz which raised over £1,800 split between our Jump2 Fund and our charity of the year All Creatures Great & Small.
We also make sure that a little Melin magic reaches young people in our communities...
- St Michael’s Primary – benefited from the Lego Spike Project
- Caldicot Comprehensive – our Data Protection Officer gave a talk at their assembly about all the work we do.
- King Henry VIII 3-19 School – Our exec director Joanne and Finance director Elizabeth attended to show the wide variety of career opportunities provided by housing associations.
- Lliswerry High – we attended an assembly to present a cheque raised to support their community foodbank.
- Goytre Primary – we are progressing a project with Dulux to paint their classrooms and corridors.
Engaging with residents – it’s what we do best
This little team has also hosted an additional 60+ engagement events (not including the Christmas, Coronation and Easter events)
These included garden get-togethers at our schemes, information sharing events about the Renting Homes Act, potential merger, community action events tackling litter and flytipping, equalities and diversity and antisocial behaviour. Not forgetting the fun events like the inter scheme snooker loopy tournament, or the face painting balloon art etc many of our young people enjoyed when we visited.
On the bus
Our Melin bus racked up some miles supporting our communities and partnership organisations.
Did you spot our bus, out and about? You had 80 chances to spot it.
It was used to support our partnership working at engagement events with Keep Wales Tidy and Monmouthshire Council Waste Wardens, travelled to engagement events with local Police Crime and Disorder Reduction Officers and PCSOs, as well as taking sheltered scheme residents out to Ross on Wye, Hereford, Macarthur Glen and other day trip destinations. Maybe, most importantly the bus got Father Christmas to 11 of our sheltered schemes and seven of our estates.
Christmas 2023
A total of 48 staff helped the team with Santa runs handing out over 200 selection boxes, not to mention cakes, biscuits, raffle prizes, food donations, selection boxes, Christmas lights donations and more.
Community organisations and charities like our Melin Jump2 Fund, Helping Hands Support Group, Newport Safeguarding Group, Torfaen Age Connect, Front Row Café and All Creatures Great & Small all benefited from monetary donations, donations of food, activities and entertainment & sponsorship.
We always look forward to a visit from the Melin Santa bus. We love a good sing-song and they always bring some extra Christmas cheer to the scheme.
Customer Contact Team
Our friendly and helpful Customer Contact Team are the first people you will speak to when you call, email, text, write, WhatsApp or send us a message on social media.
The wealth of knowledge and experience in the team helps ensure that when you contact us, we can normally resolve your query at the first point of contact.
We offer a variety of ways for you to speak to us and know that you like the convenience of contacting us when it suits you while knowing there is a friendly human on the other side of the line.
- 3,800 of you text us
- 1,644 sent WhatsApp messages
- 40,238 emails were dealt with
- 380 used the live chat on our website
- Over 400 messages on our social media
- Your preferred method of contact is still the telephone with 53,433 calls received.
Outstanding service from Melin - always happy to help with any inquiry and the staff are very polite.
Tenancy Sustainability team
Working with our most vulnerable residents and in partnership with Melin colleagues and external organisations, this team help keep residents in their homes providing help and support.
Working with our most vulnerable residents and in partnership with Melin colleagues and external organisations, this team work towards keeping residents in their homes by providing help and support.
The team has helped 214 residents.
This can be; helping a resident settle into their home, welfare calls, helping arrange support services or medical appointments, white goods, benefits or grant funding, referring residents for food vouchers, energy or money advice as well as help getting online.
The team made 562 visits to residents
They have fantastic partnerships with local authorities, working closely with social services, community mental health teams and South Wales Fire and Rescue.
Thanks so much for everything and all the support I've had. Been grateful and appreciate it.
Our Maintenance team
Our friendly, dedicated team is busier than ever providing an excellent service to our residents and can often be seen in and around our communities.
The team is made up of electricians, multi-skilled operatives, plumbing and heating engineers and painters who are available on weekends, holidays and out of hours helping to keep you safe in your homes.
- Emergency repairs completed – 4,987, Our in-house teams completed all emergency repairs in the 95% target within 48 hours.
- And 11,887 routine repairs were completed with 86.7% of residents saying they were happy with the work carried out.
- The team completed 4,386 gas services with a customer satisfaction rating of 93.6%.
Our average time to complete repairs was improved on last year’s (28.3 days) to this year being 23.1 days, bringing us closer to our target of 20 days.
Very nice blokes felt comfortable with them in my home.
Always great service from Melin staff thank you.
[The operatives were] very kind, very helpful and treated us with respect. You always keep your promise when things go wrong, I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Sustainability
This team is here to make sure we are doing our bit for the environment, improving the energy efficiency of our properties, offices and transport which will help us achieve net zero. They also make sure we get value for money when we buy goods and services, so we can invest back into our communities.
Find out more about what the team is doing to help us be a more sustainable organisation.
The team has brought more than £5 million in goods and services, with 80% of our contracts awarded to Welsh businesses.
Through working with our contactors and service providers the team has provided around £24k for our sustainable community fund which helps support vulnerable residents in need across the communities we serve. This year it also helped to fund an innovative project with LEGO at a local Pill Primary School.
The students at St Michael’s could be future residents, employees or key people in Melin or our partner organisations, so helping them achieve their potential and feel positive about Melin now, is an investment for the housing association as much as it is for their community.
Making our homes more energy efficient
The team is working on projects to improve the energy efficiency of your homes, trialling new technologies to help reduce energy consumption and bills.
We started the role out of the Nexgen heating system targeting void properties, installation has been completed in two different style properties with success with a larger project planned for 2024/25.
The decarb team managed the upgrade of energy efficient lighting in six of our sheltered schemes – this was funded with Optimised Retrofit Program (ORP) money totalling £53,541.09.
In conjunction with our planned program of works, we were able to upgrade our double-glazing program to triple glazing with around £99k Optimised Retrofit Program (ORP) funding.
While working on new roofs in an Abergavenny estate the team took the opportunity to use ORP (2.2) funding worth almost £75k to install Solar PV giving residents a low carbon power source.
The team is also spearheading a ‘grow your own talent’ approach and using opportunities presented to:
- upskill two existing staff members who gained promotions to Retrofit co-ordinators;
- get additional training for two other existing staff members and a subsequent promotion to become Retrofit Assessors.
My bills are almost half what they were last year thanks to the infrared heating panels from Nexgen. The heat is also almost instant it is easy to use and has made a huge difference to my finances. I am nowhere near as worried about this winter now.
Neighbourhood Housing
Our Neighbourhood Team let our homes and manage our neighbourhoods and communities. You may have spoken to them about general queries relating to your home including, parking issues, dog fouling complaints, and queries about moving and mutual exchanges.
Over the last year they have overseen:
- 162 general needs re-lets;
- 42 residents who needed help swap homes, either moving to Melin or to another housing association;
- four privately rented homes re-let;
- 64 properties allocated specifically to alleviate homelessness.
Very satisfied excellent customer service from the person who met me at the property. She was very patient and went through it all with me. Thank you!
Independent Living
Our Independent Living team manages our Sheltered Housing homes for over 55s, extra care schemes. specialist housing and homes for our leasehold homeowners.
Our scheme managers are based on site, so are on hand to help our residents, providing social activities as well as practical housing advice and support.
Let 140 homes to people over 55 years old.
The team began their sixth sheltered housing scheme refurbishment at Llys Ebwy and Ty Penry Thomas in Ebbw Vale. A large empty office space has also been converted at the scheme to provide a care and assessment flat in partnership with Blaenau Gwent Social Care.
Working with Social Care, the team let homes at two new supported housing schemes in Torfaen and Monmouthshire, providing homes for ten residents with learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities.
The team have partnered with 14 care and support providers at our supported housing and extra care schemes.
To the very special Sara and the team my heartfelt thanks. You all could not have done more for me during a very stressful time while I was recovering from a medical issue.
Melin Advice
This team is helping more residents than ever due to the cost-of-living crisis, the work they do helping residents is more important than ever.
The team specialises in:
- Money Advice – ensuring people are getting the correct support and benefits
- Employment Advice – helping people with training and getting them back into work
- Energy Advice – helping people with energy debt and saving money off their bills
- Digital advice – helping residents get online
Rent payments – with the increase in energy, fuel and food more and more people are struggling. The team helps people manage their rent and provide further support.
Working with residents the Advice Team have put over £1.7million of unclaimed benefits back into our residents’ pockets, helping them keep on top of the bills.
- 281 households have received help with energy vouchers totalling over £22k, to help keep homes warm and safe.
- 361 households have been given supermarket vouchers totalling over £16k. At time when the cost of food is so high, this has been a lifeline for many residents.
- 415 households have been helped with energy advice and the value of that advice to people equates to £56,620.04worth of gains to residents.
- We helped get 52 people employment, which given the current climate is a massive achievement and testament to the teams' hard work.
- 287 people received employment achievements, this is things like help with support and advice, qualifications, clothing, expenses, driving and CV help.
- 74 people had digital support; tablets, SIM cards, help getting online, and internet support.
The team has helped keep rent debt low, despite such challenging circumstances. Rent debt is just 1.82% of our rent roll.
I have found the work of Mr Gavin Payne (money advisor) invaluable. Without his help and support with financial issues, I wouldn’t like to think about where I would be today.
Compliance team
Keeping people safe in their homes and making sure Melin meet all legal and regulatory requirements. This team have their work cut out booking in five-yearly electrical tests, annual gas services and legionella testing.
- 100% of our properties have a valid legionella safety assessment
- 99.8% of our homes are gas safety compliant
- 99.6% of our homes are compliant with electrical tests and standards
Our surveyors
Our surveying team works hard to make sure your homes are fit for human habitation.
The team carried out 4,312 stock condition surveys, which help us keep the information we have on your homes up to date, so that we know when things we are responsible for replacing are due and can be renewed, if necessary.
217 Physical Adaption Grants (PAGs) and minor adaptions were carried out. PAGs are things like stairlifts, hoists, bathroom adaptions. We had additional funding from Welsh Government which helped us make a difference to more people.
Minor adaptions include things like grab rails, shower seats and small adaptions within residents' homes.
Community Safety
Our Community Safety Team takes a person-centred approach, engaging and working with our residents. Through taking positive action and working in partnership the team provides lasting solutions for residents and communities.
The team has…
- Resolved 179 antisocial behaviour cases, despite the increase in ASB cases and complex social issues exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis and cutbacks to key public services.
- Attended 280 partnership meetings, through working with other agencies we know that we find the best solutions for our residents and communities.
- Obtained nine civil injunctions to help protect and support victims of ASB, improving the situation for individuals as well as having a positive impact on the wider community.
- Attended court on eight occasions to respond to breaches of civil injunction orders.
- Obtained one suspended possession order to manage and address an individual’s behaviour.
- Provided 21 residents with home security measures (ring doorbells, cameras, CCTV systems, window, and door alarms) to help them feel safer in their homes.
- Attended or held 11 engagement events to educate residents and the public about ASB and what services we provide as a landlord.
One resident, Debbie* told us
“I would just like to thank you for all the time and effort you have gone to in helping get this resolved and for all the updates provided.”
*not her real name
Building affordable homes
Our Development Team and Melin Homebuy have had a busy year building affordable homes for people and helping create communities, their work doesn’t stop there they also help people onto the property ladder.
The year in numbers
- We have handed over 99 new homes.
- We had 15 development schemes on site.
- We have 267 new homes in progress.
- We secured £5.371 million in Welsh Government funding.
- We have completed 37 Homebuy transactions worth £1.5million, generating £500,000 surplus, which is reinvested into building new homes and maintaining our properties.
- We have worked with 16 different construction companies.
- We have provided new homes in five different counties.
- Working with our suppliers we were able to donate over £2,750 to our sustainable communities fund, which is invested back into the communities we serve.
- The team also supported 14 customers to buy their dream home from the open market, sold 13 new homes, and helped 12 owners sell their homes to first time buyers on the housing register in Torfaen and Monmouthshire.
It is a dream come true getting the keys to my first house, I can’t wait to make it my own.
Governance
Good governance is at the heart of our organisation. It sets standards of leadership, accountability, integrity, transparency, fairness and inclusiveness.
Our Board is at the core of ensuring we remain a high performing and well-run organisation. They have adopted the Community Housing Cymru code of governance, undertake annual appraisals and monitor our key risks, Regulatory Performance and Key Performance Indicators.
Our Board are clear on the key risks that our organisation faces, they are provided with regular updates and assurance that risk is properly mitigated.
- Melin has 66 risks on its Board Assurance Framework
- 32 Strategic risks
- 34 Operational risks
From April 2023 to March 2024 we formally welcomed one new Board member Clare Marshall.
Our Board is made up of 14 people including two executive directors.
Over the year we have carried out 12 internal audit inspections, we use a company called TIAA to administer these audits on aspects of our services. Most of the audits were given the highest award of Substantial Assurance and others we had some recommendations for improvements we can make to make us even better.
Every year the Welsh Government looks at our Governance, Service Delivery and Financial Viability. It then passes a ‘Regulatory Judgement’ on how we are doing. The judgement is designed to give residents and partners an understanding of our financial viability and how well we are performing. Melin was given a green compliant score in July 2022, which is the highest level of assurance Welsh Government can grade.
Staff health and wellbeing
We know that happy staff make for happy residents, here’s what we do to look after our staff’s wellbeing and keep them safe.
Our staff are gifted time to attend our annual Festive party, Thank You Event, Corporate BBQ and Zest Fest a health and wellbeing bonanza. You can watch a video on our YouTube channel.
Here’s what our staff have to say...
On Zest Fest 2024...
”Just a massive thank you to all involved, it really was a lovely afternoon.“
”Thank you for all the hard work that goes into organising these events.“
”Love our Zest Fest Health and Wellbeing event – lunch, animals, relaxation, crafts and exercise = bliss!“
Not many companies give their staff an afternoon off to socialise with team mates, enjoy relaxation activities and crafts – just what the doctor ordered.
What do staff love about working at Melin?
This year our Saturday Strollers continued stepping out on Saturdays for wonderful Welsh walks in the countryside, our bring your dog to work day has been ‘pawsome’, seeing furry faces around the offices brightens everyone’s daywork and walking group; our Menopause group ‘Zenopause’ have been meeting monthly for our ‘Zenopause café’ and have benefited from nutrition and skincare sessions. We maintained our focus on supporting staff with their mental health and wellbeing and launch our new dedicated pages on our intranet with a charity breakfast and ‘mood mugs’.
We supported Community Housing Cymru ‘Perfect 10 walking challenge’ our staff completed a 10k walk for The Wallich, as part of a national walking challenge raising 'invaluable' funds for homelessness charities. The challenge was supported by 12 Welsh housing associations taking on sponsored walks, runs or cycling in a bid to support numerous homelessness and prevention charities.
Our Melin & Friends Charity Quiz 2023 raised over £1,700, and our annual charity golf day raised £6500 which was shared between our Jump2Fund and our Resident Support Fund – a pot of money which saw staff raise funds to help support residents during the cost of living crisis.
On top of that during the year we organised; mini health checks, massages, reflexology, free snacks, craft workshops, health and wellbeing webinars, healthy breakfasts, free fruit and, celebratory cupcakes and Tasty Tuesday our ice-cream day.
The added extras
We want staff to be themselves at work and feel supported whilst enjoying a healthy work-life balance.
You can find out more about what we do to support our staff health, wellbeing and work life balance.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
We are proud to be a diverse business which puts our people and residents first. We have a dedicated and passionate Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) group, including four board members, with everyone championing this within the organisation.
We are the first housing association in Wales to pilot Tai Pawb’s QED Leaders programme, and at the time of this report we were still on our journey to achieve it. We know it’s a little outside of the Annual Report window, but we can’t omit that we passed our QED Leaders accreditation, making us the first housing association in Wales to achieve this prestigious award. Watch this video which talks about the journey we have been on.
You can find out more about this incredible achievement on our News section.
Gender pay gap
Under legislation that came into force in April 2017, UK employers with more than 250 employees are required, annually, to publish their gender pay gap.
At this year’s ‘snapshot date’ Melin employed fewer than 250 staff and we are therefore not required to publish our gender pay gap and report. As of February 2024, our median gender pay gap was 0%, pay transparency is an important driver of equality.
Our commitment to pay transparency can also be demonstrated by the CEO Pay Transparency report which can also be found on our Publications page.
Here’s what our staff have to say about working for Melin
“Melin is very inclusive with great benefits such as working from home and flexible working hours.”
“Melin really cares about looking after the wellbeing of its employees. The flexi-working really helps take the pressure off working parents to try and fit everything in and not be constricted by the stresses of a 9-5 working day.”
“The people we work with and the culture.”
“Zest is amazing and the focus on staff wellbeing and understanding the positive impact on service delivery is clear.”
Melin is such a family orientated workplace. everyone is so kind, and caring and supportive. We all help each other, it’s a wonderful place to work.
Our housing stock
- Melin rented 3,858
- Other; including garages, Henry Burton and Queen Victoria Almshouses 45
- Home-ownership 496
- Commercial (garages, offices, shop, store) 65
- Service costs only (Homebuy, Leaseholder etc.) 240
- Candleston sales 52
- Total 4,756
Financials
Summary Income & Expenditure Account | |||||
2024 | 2023 | ||||
Money received | £36,374,000 | £28,726,000 | |||
Money spent | –£33,774,000 | –£26,669,000 | |||
Actuarial gain on pension | £7,752,000 | £7,752,000 | |||
Surplus for the year | £10,352,000 | £9,809,000 | |||
2024 | 2023 | ||||
Fixed assets | £345,000,000 | £338,000,000 | |||
Current assets (cash & debtors) | £1,000,000 | £5,000,000 | |||
Monies received from Welsh Gov | £155,000,000 | £155,000,000 | |||
Monies owed by the association | £156,000,000 | £155,000,000 | |||
Reserves | £33,000,000 | £33,000,000 |
The Melin Board and Senior Management
We have two dedicated groups of people that make up our Board and Senior Management teams and there’s no doubt the members of our Board and those at leadership positions of Melin make decisions which have a long-lasting positive impact for future generations.
