General needs performance indicators:
Period ended March 31, 2008

Rent Collection – (not being retained by Housing Corporation) Rent collection has increased during March by 2.77% to 103.58% of the year to date rent debit. This is 2.58% favourable to target and 6.38% favourable to National Upper Quartile (NUQ). In cash terms this equates to collection of £32,076,591 against a year to date rent debit (net of voids) of £30,969,224 and is reflected in the large reduction in gross rent arrears from March 07 to March 08.

Rent arrears – (being retained by Housing Corporation) As at Week 53, gross arrears were 6.14% of the annual rent debit, a decrease of 0.98% on February and 0.36% favourable to target. The net arrears are 5.68% as at Week 53, a favourable decrease on the position at the end of February of 0.40%.

% rent loss on voids – (not being retained by Housing Corporation) As at 31 March, the percentage of rent loss on voids was 0.76%. This is 0.26% adverse to target, but is 0.24% favourable to NUQ. The performance is affected by properties which have remained void for over one month. This includes Lilac Road, Almond Road, Thistle Drive and Gordon Avenue. This indicator is not being retained but can be used contextually in the relation to the 'vacant and available to let' performance indicator.

% vacant and available to let – (being retained by Housing Corporation) As at 31 March there were 33 General Needs properties that were vacant and available to let which equates to 0.41% of stock. Of the available to lets, 3 were in the Northern Area, 17 were in Eastern, 10 in Southern and 3 were in Western. It must be noted that this PI reports a snapshot of information at a given time and may not be representative of the void activity during the period.

% vacant and not available to let – (not being retained by Housing Corporation) As at 31 March there were 16 major works voids which were unavailable to let. This equates to 0.20% of stock.

% lettings to BME – (not being retained by Housing Corporation) During March, 31.51% or 23 out of 73 General Needs lettings were to BME households, 11.51% favourable to target. The analysis of the lets is as follows:
White: Other                                   5
Mixed: White & Asian                      3
Mixed: Other                                   1
Asian/Asian British: Indian                2
Asian/Asian British: Pakistani           2
Asian/Asian British: Other                5
Black/Black British: African              5
It must be noted that monthly performance for this PI can fluctuate significantly throughout the year, due to the low volume of lettings each month.

Average re-let time – (being retained by Housing Corporation) The average re-let time for General Needs for the month of March was 21 days. This performance hits the target and is 4 days favourable to NUQ. The breakdown of re-let times is as follows:
Less than 1 week 4 (7.1%)
1 to 2 weeks 2 (3.6%)
3 to 4 weeks 46 (82.2%)
5 to 9 weeks 4 (7.1%)

Responsive repairs (emergency, urgent and routine repairs) - (routine repairs being retained by HC) The March performance of emergency repairs is at its best over the past 12 months at 99.81%. This is 1.76% favourable to February and 0.51% favourable to NUQ. The split between Peterborough City Council (PCC) and Mears performance is 99.86% to 99.63% respectively. Urgent repairs in the month decreased to 93.26% in March and were 4.64% below the NUQ. The split between PCC and Mears performance is 87.88% and 100% respectively. The overall performance on routine repairs being completed on time has increased by 3.65% to 93.33% and is now 4.37% below NUQ. The data is solely based on PCC’s performance as Mears did not undertake any routine repairs in March.

SAP rating – (being retained by Housing Corporation) The SAP rating as at the end of March is 70. Whilst performance this year is marginally below the target of 71, it remains well above the NUQ level of 60.

% repairs where an appointment was made and kept – (not being retained by Housing Corporation) Appointments made and kept in the month of March were 91.3% of total appointments made; this is a decrease of 4.96% on February’s performance and is 8.7% below target and 7.7% below NUQ.

Summary:

National Upper Quartile is being achieved in rent collection, % rent loss on voids, average re-let time and SAP ratings.

Gross rent arrears are reducing and are below the target level for the first time this financial year. Routine repairs continue to fluctuate from month to month below both target and NUQ but along with emergency repairs, have shown an improvement in March. Urgent repairs have fallen for the second consecutive month but are still within 10% of NUQ.

% vacant and available is only marginally above NUQ, with % vacant & unavailable to let performing poorly against target.

Appointments made and kept have reduced to their lowest levels since November 07, after 3 months of continuous improvement.