Business Plan 2004-09: Our Customers

Executive Summary Background & History The World We Work In Our Customers Looking to the Future Going Forward Financial Projections

As an Irish led organisation Innisfree is committed to responding to and meeting the needs of the Irish community living in London. Services are delivered in a culturally sensitive way. Hospitality and friendliness come naturally.

Listening to our customers

In line with our commitment to provide a customer focused service Innisfree regularly commissions surveys to establish the views of our tenants. (2000 and 2003)

There are many reasons for doing this:

to build up a comprehensive data base to assist us in identifying the needs of our tenants especially those who are most vulnerable;
to collect information on ethnic origin as part of our ongoing commitment to equality;
to ascertain levels of satisfaction with Innisfree;
to identify priorities for service review;
To identify individuals who would be interested in involvement in the association's affairs.

The Executive Summary of the most recent survey is attached as Appendix 4.

The Census and housing needs research

The 2001 census contained a specific Irish category for the first time. While the information available from ONS is not as helpful as had been hoped, we expect this to provide the basis for better quality research data in the future. We also expect to see better information on Irish need emerging from the household needs surveys being undertaken in a number of London Boroughs, as part of the new sub-regional arrangements. A report, produced by Helen Cope in (date) "Still beyond the Pale? The response of social landlords to Irish housing need" demonstrated that much work still needs to be done. Improved links with the wider Irish community will also help with identifying the needs of future customers. Our own evidence and experience indicates a growing need for provision for older Irish people. And we hope to have the opportunity to develop additional sheltered housing for this client group as well as continuing to provide housing for families and younger single people.

Affordability and Rent Strategy

Innisfree recognises that compared to other associations our rents are very high. This is due to historic reasons. All of Innisfree's homes have been developed since the mixed funded regime which was introduced in 1988. As a result the organisation has always been dependent on private finance. Unfortunately, as an Irish led organisation, Innisfree was not originally included in the Housing Corporation's positive action strategy for black and minority ethnic associations. This meant that it did not benefit from initiatives such as stock transfers from larger associations which would have assisted in increasing the stock in ownership and reducing rent levels.

Innisfree is committed to ensuring that rent levels remain as low as possible. The business plan has been drafted with this in mind. In order to achieve this Innisfree has adopted a strategy based on:

rationalising the geographical spread of its stock to ensure that services can be provided in the most cost-effective way possible;
Setting rent increases at RPI minus 1.3% for the past two years has narrowed the gap between average target rents and average actual rent. Innisfree has achieved target rents for its supported housing:
Based on the assumptions in this plan the gap between average target rents and average actual rents disappears in 2009 so Innisfree expects to achieve target rents on average by 2009 the final year in this corporate plan.

Map showing Innisfree target boroughs and Irish profile

Source: National census 2001

A MORI poll commissioned by the Mayor of London said that of the people it interviewed in London in 2001 11% had Irish parents and 18.9% had Irish grandparents (click map to enlarge)