Moving forward

_MANAGING CHANGE FOR THE FUTURE

ANNUAL REVIEW 2011-2012

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Contents
_OUR PERFORmANCE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

The story of the year Investing in communities Putting people rst Improving our neighbourhoods Building homes Financial highlights Our year in numbers

_04 _06 _08 _12 _14 _16 _22

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The story of the year

_GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE BJORN HOWARD

Aster Homes development in Abbottswood, Hampshire

During the past year the housing landscape has radically changed, with the reduced housing budget, changes to tenure, rents, welfare and benets, all of which have brought various challenges to our business.

A condent future ahead

Its easy to set grand-sounding goals, or make lofty commitments. But turning words into deeds is harder. Over the past year Aster Group has tried once again to display a pride in performance and a passion for excellence. And its pleasing to read in this report stories of where weve managed to do just that. Asters biggest change in the past year was our restructure into four new businesses: Aster Communities, Aster Homes, Aster Living and Aster Property. This step, involving and supported by our customers, shareholders and regulators, was really signicant. Because we now have teams focusing exclusively on excellence for their own customers. A powerful example was Aster Living, which came together from Ridgeway and our care and support teams at Flourish Homes and Testway on November 2011. Aster Livings Home Improvement Agency (HIA) has also continued to perform well and provides a range of help, assistance and support services to elderly and disabled people across Somerset. The agency is funded by a strategic partnership consisting of Somerset County Council, the ve District Councils and the Somerset NHS. The type of services provided include free advice and support to help customers remain independent in their own homes, repairs and adaptations, a home from hospital service and a friendly repairs and maintenance service called Handihelp. Another great story was Aster Property, our new maintenance and asset management business, which through relentless efciency saved over 1 million during the year. This is money we can now reinvest in better services for local people. All 1,200 Aster colleagues were immensely proud to serve more than 40,000 customers in the past year. Of course we didnt (and dont) get everything right rst time, every time. But with your continued support were committed to being even stronger and better in the year ahead. And thats a promise. Bjorn Howard Group CEO

92

million turnover

675
million assets

Middle: Signing session at Testway House in Andover, Hampshire

Above: Better Off Green project at Waiblingen Road in Devizes

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Investing in communities
_CUSTOmERS ARE AT THE HEART OF OUR BUSINESS Active engagement with our customers is fundamental to us providing the right services now and in the future.
Putting customers at the heart
In September 2011 we launched a recruitment campaign to get Aster customers more involved in social housing decisions. Three customer boards were created representing our regions Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire and continuing to work with customers in Devon and Cornwall to give them the same opportunities and form their own customer board. Each customer board is made up of six local customers, a representative from the local authority, an independent person and Asters regional director. The customer boards form part of our new governance structure for Aster Communities. The customer boards review how Aster Communities housing services are performing, suggest areas for change, identify opportunities for improvements and make decisions about the direction the business should take in the future. In 2011 Aster Property was successful in making efciency savings of 1.5 million and one of the customer boards rst tasks was to consider how we might use this money to improve our services to customers. The customer boards continue to be actively involved in the next stages of our development working with Synergy Housings customers as we plan for the future merged organisation.

Weve worked with communities, local residents groups and other partners to develop a range of community activities. This included the Fun in the Sun programme which offered hundreds of children free sports activities through the summer months, with Aster Communities working closely with Wiltshire Council. We created a special outdoor art exhibition in Andover, Hampshire to showcase the artwork created by members of the local community with over 60 people attending the display. In Somerset, we organised free activity sessions for children in partnership with Somerset Police and other local communities groups, creating an opportunity for children to compete in mini-football tournaments, arts and crafts and other play activities.

With Andover Darts Youth Academy, we launched a pilot scheme called Darts in Schools, using the game to improve childrens mathematical skills. The pilot scheme at Smannell and Enham Primary School produced impressive results and great feedback from children and parents. And now were looking to promote the scheme in other local schools.

215

involved customers

125,000

in new grants for community projects

Embedding customer involvement

In November 2011 we launched a resident involvement DVD which we developed working closely with customers who advised on the content and design. Several customers appeared in the DVD showcasing some of the activities theyve been involved in. Weve used the DVD in our ofce reception area, at events and shown it to our new residents as part of their sign-up process when they move in. Weve also used YouTube with 1,313 views to date. In the past year weve involved 250 customers in many ways including mystery shoppers, skills training, events and residents groups.

Community engagement and partnership

Last year we launched a new grants programme called Wishing on a Star. This replaces previous programmes run by each of the housing associations, and provides a single, simplied process for awarding grants in local communities. Each region has a dedicated budget; 39,000 in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset and 8,000 in Devon & Cornwall. This money funded many projects helping people to remain t and active, nd work, cope with disabilities and build community spirit. Projects funded in the past year have included fun days and sporting events for children such as riding for the disabled.

Top: Aster customer at a pavement-painting project in Pewsey Bottom: Aster customers at the opening of Singers Knoll in Frome

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Aster Living telecare customer

400

care and support staff

Putting people rst

_SUPPORTING OUR mOST VUNERABLE RESIDENTS

We want people to enjoy independent and healthy lives at the heart of their community.

The Supporting People programme was introduced in 2003 to provide funding for support services for vulnerable people. These include older people, those with mental health needs and services for people with learning disabilities. As part of the governments cost-cutting programme, budgets for supporting people have been reduced. And commissioning local authorities face competing priorities on where to spend their budgets. Were committed to continuing to provide high quality care and support services which are increasingly in demand. And to help us continue to do this we created Aster Living, combining our services previously provided across central south and south west England by Ridgeway Community Housing Association, Flourish Homes and Testway Housing. By bringing this expertise together weve created a new division employing more than 400 care and support staff and providing services to over 12,000 customers.

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18

extra-care schemes

Customer at Crammer Court, Devizes with a member of the Aster Living staff

Aster Living customer attending a drama session in Frome, Somerset

Weve also recently launched Handihelp in Hampshire replacing our previous service Twice as Handy. This means we can provide a more efcient and costeffective programme while maintaining high service quality. Handihelp undertake general maintenance works, minor adaptations, plumbing work and security measures with all work charged at a subsidised hourly rate. We have completed over 6,000 repair jobs, 200 draught proong schemes, 180 decorating jobs and 500 gardening jobs. We also completed 220 major adaptations and other repair work so helping our customers remain independent in their own homes.

Increasing our range of care and support services

Children and adolescents can often need specialist support whether that be for complex care needs or social inclusion activities away from home. We successfully won grant funding of 107,000 from The Henry Smith Charity and Children in Need to support a child support worker for the next three years. We provide a range of telecare services, from personal alarms to sensors alerting a monitoring centre if theres a problem. Last year we obtained accreditation by the Telecare Services Association (TSA) for the quality of our equipment, installation and expertise. And we currently have 15,000 customers. In 2011, working with Medequip (a supplier of telecare equipment) we successfully secured the contract to provide an Integrated Community Equipment & Support Service (ICESS) for Wiltshire County Council and Wiltshire NHS, for the whole county. Two years ago we developed a scheme called Moving Made Easy funded by Mendip District Council. This encouraged and supported some existing customers to downsize from family sized homes to smaller properties freeing up houses for homeless families on the waiting list. In the past two years 15 tenants have successfully downsized making a real difference to homelessness families.

Promoting independent community living

Last year we were selected by Wiltshire Council to deliver its care and support services to over 1,000 customers in the south and east of Wiltshire for the next ve years. The new contract Help to Live at Home provides new services combining traditional homecare with support for older, vulnerable and disabled people. This lets them continue leading their own lives independently and live in their own homes longer. For the past 13 years weve been providing a handyperson service across the south. In 2010 Handihelp was the rst handyperson service in England to receive a TrustMark, a Government-backed scheme recognising service quality. In April 2012 we celebrated the rst anniversary of our Somerset Home Improvement Agency, funded by a partnership of district councils, Somerset County Council and Somerset NHS. This provides repairs and adaptations to homes for older, vulnerable and disabled people.

70

sheltered schemes

Creating more extra care housing

We completed a new extra-care housing scheme called Keyford Heights in Frome, Somerset. This provides 36 new homes for people who want to live independent and active lives with support and care tailored to their needs. We now have 18 extra-care schemes in the South and South West.

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Improving our neighbourhoods

_LISTENING mAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE Creating pleasant and sustainable neighbourhoods where people want to live.
Efciently managing repairs and gas servicing
In 2011, we rebranded our property management services to create Aster Property. This is responsible for the repairs and maintenance of over 17,000 homes owned by Aster Group companies. The new structure means we can focus on continually improving our services whilst remaining cost effective.

327
26
miles of electric cable tted

new bathrooms

Greener Environment
Aster is committed to looking after our environment and weve a dedicated team focusing on environmental management and reducing our carbon footprint in our construction projects and day-to-day operations. Weve introduced projects in the past year to enhance our sectorleading approach on sustainability (recently recognised by being shortlisted for the Sustainable Housing Awards 2012). Weve been encouraging local communities to think about how they can minimise the impact they have on the environment and save money with our Better off Green project. This has also been nominated for a Community Involvement/Engagement award at the Sustainable Housing Awards 2012.

Sustainable homes
We continue to invest signicantly in ensuring our existing homes continue to be desirable and sustainable. We spent 28 million on improving our homes and communities including routine and major repairs. During 2011/12 we invested 16.9 million on delivering planned improvements as well as redecoration contracts and specialist works like electrical upgrades. This included 576 new kitchens, 327 new bathrooms and 806 boilers/heating installations. We exceeded our target for income generated from external organisations and in 2011/12 returned a net prot of 12%. The prot generated from our external contracts provides additional funds to help with neighbourhood improvement projects.

Neighbourhood Regeneration
Last year we started work on three major regeneration projects in Somerset and Wiltshire to improve neighbourhoods. We want to support our customers and communities to live in safe, attractive, sustainable and positive places. And we work closely with residents to identify key areas for improvement. One example is the Hillmead Estate in Shepton Mallet, Somerset which includes 13 blocks of ats built around 40 years ago. Through extensive consultation with local residents we identied key areas for improvement and work has started on a range of projects including loft insulation and roof ventilation, electrical cabling upgrade, private gardens and balconies and new communal bin areas. We introduced a new estate inspection process last year to ensure we worked more closely with residents and other partners to ensure we helped to improve local neighbourhoods.

Investing in people
Weve continued with our apprenticeship programme, providing young people with opportunities to gain skills and qualications as plumbers, gas engineers, electricians and decorators. West Berkshire Training Consortium recently presented Aster Property with an award recognising our investment in training. A new company-wide apprenticeship programme was launched in 2011 extending the apprenticeship programme across the Aster Group offering positions in housing and business administration roles as well as the more traditional trades.

Top: Bathroom at Aster Homes new development in Abbotswood, Hampshire Bottom: Aster Homes development at Singers Knoll in Frome, Somerset

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Ensuring new homes for the future

As part of the New Futures Partnership we were successful in bidding for development funding from the Homes & Communities Agency. The Partnership will receive 10 million towards the building of 600 new affordable homes over the next four years. To receive this allocation weve adopted the Affordable Rent programme, charging rents of up to 80% of market rent on our new homes and some of our existing homes. This raises additional funds to help us continue building new homes. The rst large-scale passivhaus affordable housing development in Cornwall was completed last year, providing 20 new affordable homes for rent and shared ownership. Each home has been built with super insulation to keep homes warm, a heat recovery system and solar panels to help provide more affordable energy costs.

100

224

shared ownership schemes

new homes

Working with local communities

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) introduced in March 2012 creates more emphasis on community involvement at an early stage of development. The Localism Act introduced in April 2012, marks a shift of responsibility for planning from government back to local communities. Some of the measures introduced directly affect housing like the Community Right to Build, changes in social housing regulation and the introduction of exible tenures. This provides an opportunity for us to work together with local authorities and communities, to ensure we provide housing local communities need and want.

Plugging the funding gap

In 2011 we created Aster Homes, which provides design and build services to businesses within the Aster Group and other housing associations. This new company offers a range of services including large-scale regeneration, land purchase and development agency services. This commercial subsidiary helps us build and buy homes for private sale and rent, reinvesting the prots to the charitable parts of our organisation. This will go some way to replacing government funding so Aster can continue to provide affordable homes and community initiatives. In February 2012 we completed our rst ten homes for open market sale in Chippenham. Shared ownership continues to be a popular option for many customers and demand far exceeds supply. Last year we completed over 100 shared ownership homes, allowing people to access home ownership affordably. This included the development of a Grade II listed building in Bristol, previously the headquarters of Imperial Tobacco, creating 36 shared ownership homes. In December 2011 we signed a contract with Wiltshire Council to deliver 350 new affordable homes in Wiltshire through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The PFI allows local authorities to work with private sector partners to build, improve and manage housing. This scheme is just one of 13 the government has continued to support following its spending review in November 2010. The rst phase of construction of 242 homes started in January 2012, with eight homes completed in Westbury and handed over to new residents in August 2012.

Regeneration of existing sites

Many of our current schemes include redeveloping existing properties no longer t for purpose. We recently completed a 16 million redevelopment of an estate in Frome, working closely with Westbury Partnerships and the Homes & Communities Agency. We replaced 54 properties with 133 new homes. And we also built a 36-unit extra care housing scheme. The local community played a key role in the regeneration scheme.

Building homes
_PROVIDING COmmUNITIES WITH THE HOUSING THAT THEY NEED AND WANT The need for affordable housing has never been greater and we have continued to develop new properties during the year.

Aster Homes development Ford Farm View in Cornwall

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Financial highlights
_A STRONG PERFORmANCE IN AN UNCERTAIN CLImATE
Aster Group Board
Colin Martin Bob Cribb John Brace Doug Fisher (1) Carey Gage (1) Anne Goymer (1) Sally Higham Bjorn Howard John McGibbon Wendy Murphy (1) Phillip Owens Roger Shepherd (1) Mary Watkins Rob Yates Chair Deputy Chair Group Resources Director

Aster Group Income & Expenditure and Balance Sheet

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2012 (000) Turnover Operating costs Administrative expenses Operating surplus (Total) Surplus on sale of properties not developed for outright sale Surplus/(decit) on sale of other xed assets Interest receivable Interest payable and similar charges Other nance costs Surplus on ordinary activities for the year before taxation Tax on surplus on ordinary activities Surplus on ordinary activities for the year after taxation Transfers from designated reserves Transfers from revaluation reserves Retained surplus for the year after reserve movements Balance sheet as at 31 March 2012 (000) Housing properties Other xed assets Total xed assets Current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Total assets less current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year Provisions for liabilities and charges Pension liability 2012 602,561 17,958 620,519 54,174 (17,377) 657,316 380,332 - 17,231 2011 582,543 17,995 600,538 24,919 (15,824) 609,633 347,814 58 12,518 2012 92,049 (68,702) (2,008) 21,339 708 3 226 (17,273) (222) 4,781 2 4,783 7 1,239 6,029 2011 83,386 (59,714) (1,111) 22,561 113 (57) 255 (11,887) (619) 10,366 (433) 9,933 6 354 10,293

603

million worth of properties

Group Chief Executive

Governance at Aster Group

A group leadership team led by the group chief executive works with Aster Groups board. The nonexecutive directors bring a diverse range of skills and experience to ensure that Aster is run in an efcient and effective manner, and that we meet our established high standards of corporate governance and ethics.

Aster Communities, Aster Property, Aster Living and Aster Homes each have their own board and details of their membership can be found on our website www.aster.co.uk In addition four new customer boards were set up in 2011 as part of our governance structure, whose membership is made up of our customers across the regions in which we work.
(1) Retired from the Aster Group Board May 2012

Aster Group continues to perform well

The nancial climate continues to look uncertain with the double dip recession, the ongoing Euro crisis, banking scandals and restricted lending making life difcult for many, but Aster Group continues to perform well, with turnover reaching 92 million last year. A planned increase in repairs activity led to a small drop in the operating surplus, before interest costs, to 21.3 million, which was well ahead of the budget for the year. The low interest rate environment meant that there was sufcient headroom in nance costs for us to change some xed rate agreements, bringing forward approximately 5.2 million of interest from future years and saving well over 5.5 million in interest costs in the next two years. Whilst this reduced the nal surplus from 10.3 million in 2011 to a still very healthy 6 million in 2012, this has given us much greater nancial strength and exibility in the two years ahead. The last nancial year saw the conclusion of the work to amalgamate the three housing associations in the Group to form Aster Communities, creating greater capacity to support development in the difcult years ahead. It was very pleasing to conclude the Wiltshire Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project, which will see the rst 242 homes being nanced by a completely different route involving 80 million of government subsidy over the 22 years of the contract. Aster Group spent a further 42 million building more homes in 2011/12 and now owns housing properties worth over 600 million, which are nanced by loans of just over 380 million; a sound nancial position from which to face the increasingly uncertain times ahead.

Capital and reserves Revaluation reserve 241,128 Restricted reserve 208 Designated reserves 56 Revenue reserve 38,507 Pension fund decit (20,146) Total 657,316

235,296 208 63 29,297 (15,621) 609,633

The gures above for the years ending 31 March 2012 and 2011 relate to Aster Group which included Aster Group Limited, Aster Communities, Aster Property, Aster Living, Aster Homes Limited, Silbury Housing Holdings Limited and Silbury Housing Limited.

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Aster Communities Income & Expenditure and Balance Sheet

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2012 (000) Turnover Operating costs Operating surplus (Total) Surplus on sale of properties not developed for outright sale Decit on sale of other xed assets Gift aid receipts Interest receivable Interest payable and similar charges Other nance costs Surplus on ordinary activities for the year before taxation Tax on surplus on ordinary activities Surplus on ordinary activities for the year after taxation Transfers to designated reserves Transfers from revaluation reserves Retained surplus for the year after reserve movements Balance sheet as at 31 March 2012 (000) Housing properties Other xed assets Total xed assets Current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Total assets less current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year Provisions for liabilities and charges Pension liability 2012 602,567 21,510 624,077 24,170 (12,351) 635,896 363,222 - 15,610 2011 577,263 19,632 596,895 23,327 (14,973) 605,249 347,814 58 11,351 2012 80,956 (57,424) 23,532 708 (1) - 343 (17,273) (239) 7,070 - 7,070 - 1,239 8,309 2011 77,468 (57,663) 19,805 113 (16) 382 369 (11,881) (543) 8,229 26 8,255 (3) 1,280 9,532

Aster Living Income & Expenditure and Balance Sheet

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2012 (000) Turnover Operating costs Operating surplus (Total) Decit on sale of other xed assets Interest receivable Interest payable and similar charges Other nance costs Surplus on ordinary activities for the year before taxation Tax on surplus on ordinary activities Surplus on ordinary activities for the year after taxation Transfers from designated reserves Transfers from revaluation reserves Retained surplus for the year after reserve movements 2012 11,364 (11,350) 14 - - - - 14 - 14 7 - 21 2011 5,472 (4,666) 806 (8) 1 (152) (12) 635 635 9 6 650

Balance sheet as at 31 March 2012 (000) Total xed assets Current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Total assets less current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year Pension liability 2012 282 5,219 (3,268) 2,233 - 308 2011 319 6,472 (1,073) 5,718 3,475 237

Capital and reserves Revaluation reserve 241,134 Restricted reserve 208 Designated reserves 14 Revenue reserve 33,755 Pension fund decit (18,047) Total 635,896

Capital and reserves Designated reserves 42 Revenue reserve 2,316 Pension fund decit (433) Total 2,233

49 2,295 (338) 5,718

234,302 208 14 25,446 (13,944) 605,249

The gures above for the years ending 31 March 2012 and 2011 relate to Aster Living, formerly Ridgeway Community Housing Association.

The gures above for the years ending 31 March 2012 and 2011 relate to Aster Communities which was formerly Flourish Homes Limited, Sarsen Housing Association Limited and Testway Housing Limited.

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Aster Homes Limited Prot & Loss and Balance Sheet

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2012 (000) Turnover Cost of sales Administrative expenses Loss on ordinary activities for the year before taxation Tax on loss on ordinary activities Loss on ordinary activities for the year after taxation 2012 858 (783) (106) (31) (1) (32) 2011 (3) (3) 1 (2)

Aster Property Limited Prot & Loss and Balance Sheet

Income and expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2012 (000) Turnover Operating costs Administrative expenses Operating prot Gift aid payments Prot/(loss) on disposal of other xed assets Other nance income/(costs) Loss/(prot) on ordinary activities for the year before taxation Tax on surplus on ordinary activities Prot for the nancial year after taxation 2012 31,846 (28,898) (1,902) 1,046 (1,192) 4 25 (117) 871 754 2011 18,618 (16,039) (1,111) 1,468 (33) (22) 1,413 (457) 956

Balance sheet as at 31 March 2012 (000) Current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Total assets less current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due after one year 2012 1,546 (296) 1,250 1,284 2011 51 (53) (2) -

Balance sheet as at 31 March 2012 (000) Total xed assets Current assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Pension liability Total assets less current liabilities 2012 927 8,355 (8,721) (498) 63 2011 938 3,805 (4,982) (250) (489)

Capital and reserves Prot and loss reserve (34) Total 1,250

(2) (2)

Westbury Partnerships development in Westbury, Wiltshire

Capital and reserves Prot and loss reserve 872 Pension fund decit (809) Total 63

118 (607) (489)

Far left: Kitchen at Aster Homes development in Abbotswood, Hampshire Left: Rural Youth at Singers Knoll in Frome, Somerset

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Our year in numbers

_KEY FACTS AND FIGURES Over the last twelve months we have worked tirelessly to make real changes to our customers and our business. These statistics speak for themselves. 6 miles
of copper piping tted

327

new bathrooms

576 new kitchens

2 miles

100,000
kitchen and bathroom wall tiles tted

million spent on improving properties

of kitchen worktops tted

400

care and support staff

806

new boilers

17

million on planned improvements

15,000
telecare customers

125,000
in new grants for community projects
70
sheltered schemes

32

million invested in new homes

Keyford Heights Frome

Design and production by www.astercreative.co.uk

Aster Group Sarsen Court, Horton Avenue, Cannings Hill, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 2AZ www.aster.co.uk