A responsible social business
We take the long view and make decisions to ensure that we can always deliver on our social purpose and provide great value for money for residents.
By 2030 we will be:
- Strengthening how we involve residents in running our business.
- Continuing to use our data and what residents are telling us to improve the services we provide, achieving a resident trust score of 9 or more.
- Remaining financially strong through any economic challenge, so that we are able to do the right thing for residents.
- Managing and investing in our people to grow a professional, diverse and inclusive workforce – 35% of our workforce have achieved or are working towards CIH qualifications by 2030.
- Achieving the highest possible G1 and V1 ratings for governance and viability from the Regulator of Social Housing.
By 2030:
Resident on settle Board Committee
Resident trust score of 9 or more
V1, G1 and C1 or equivalent rating achieved from the Regulator of Social Housing
Our data reflects a skilled, diverse, inclusive workforce
We delivered the commitments of our previous plan due to being a well-run business.
Group turnover increased from £64m in 20219/20 to over £83m in 2023/24, and our operating surplus remained consistently above £20m - all invested back into improving and providing more affordable homes. As we embark on our new plan, our Big Door Knock, where colleagues across settle speak to residents every few months to understand how we are doing and what we can improve, is heading into its sixth year. We started surveys against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures over a year early and we have launched new ways to hear from residents, including on online engagement platform. All of these achievements have been underpinned by investment in our systems, technology and workforce to ensure we are a strong and resilient organisation.
Our focus during recent years has been on establishing the strength of our culture at settle; to make sure that this translates into an engaged colleague base, committed to delivering the best possible outcomes with partners, for residents.
How do we know these are the areas to focus on?
We know there is more we need to do across the breadth of our work at settle, and that is reflected in the priorities detailed across this plan.
We are proud of the achievements we have made in recent years. We delivered these against a backdrop of immense global instability, a pandemic and significant financial pressures. We start the period of this new plan seeing the ongoing impact of these challenges and there will inevitably be trade-offs we need to make.
It is vital that we work as a responsible social business throughout the delivery of this plan. Our residents, partners and colleagues will rightly expect this of us, and it is the right thing to do. We will continue to closely monitor the external environment and work with colleagues, our Board and partners, to ensure we progress all commitments responsibly.
How will we know we are achieving these ambitions?
In line with all other areas of our plan, will monitor specific performance indicators for each priority supporting these ambitions. These will include the following areas in particular.
Resident influence
Hearing the voice of residents is integral to all that we do. We will strengthen this area of our work, ensuring we continue to gather and report on feedback in a range of ways. By 2030 we will also have at least one resident sitting on our Board Operations Committee, ensuring the resident voice is shaping our organisation now and into the future.
We will continue to secure feedback reflecting the voice of all residents. The success of our work will be measured through residents scoring high levels of trust in us because they feel we take the right actions for them. By 2030 we will aim to achieve a trust score of 9 or above.
Reporting on our performance
We will improve how we report on key performance including against the aims of this plan. We will make sure this is clear on our website, with updates linking our new plan, the decisions we take and outputs that impact on residents, live from June 2024, updated annually after this and shared in services updates with residents.
Ongoing compliance
Our intention is that by 2030, we will achieve an A rating with a credit rating agency. We also aim to achieve G1, V1 and C1 [or equivalent] ratings with the Regulator of Social Housing, these being the highest possible ratings we could achieve for governance [G], viability [V] and compliance with the consumer standards [C].
Our people
Our ability to deliver all of the ambitions of our plan will be underpinned by making sure we have effective workforce plans, so that we have the right skills in place across our organisation at all times. We will aim to set the bar high on having a professional workforce – colleagues will want to work for us, and other organisations will want to come and learn from us.
We will track this through our data. This will show that our workforce has a diverse representation at all levels, and feedback from colleagues will demonstrate that we have an inclusive culture where everyone feels they can be their true selves.
At our core at settle we are a people organisation. We are proud of working hard and caring for residents. It takes a great team of people to do this. Our commitment is that our colleagues will work closely with partners and stakeholders, with the needs of residents at the core of everything we do.
