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Impact & Financial Report 2023-2024

Our team

In our 62nd year, our Squared team continue to be proud of the work we do. For over 60 years we’ve provided housing, support and most importantly opportunity for local people in need. We’re passionate about what we do and how we do it, knowing that the impact of our work can be felt in the lives of our customers for years to come. Click below to see what our team members enjoy about working at Squared.

Glyn Early
Chair of the Board

A word from our Chair

read glyn's thoughts

Meet our board

Tap on a member below to read their bio.

Glyn Early
Chair of the Board

David Cheesman

Mostaque Koyes MBE

Iain Smith

Jo Simcox

Homes

We offer a range of accommodation at Squared, including Homes for Independent Living and Homes with Support. We also work closely with private landlords to enable us to offer more homes for those that need them.

We provide

756 homes

across Luton and Central Bedfordshire.

Homes for independent living

357 properties are Squared owned independent homes.

28 flats for our sheltered scheme for over 55s.

15 new tenancies created this year.

Accommodation leased through the private sector

112 Private Sector scheme properties which were formerly Luton Lets Squared (LLS) (105 are owned by landlords).

23 Temporary accommodation scheme homes (15 are owned by landlords).

‍Squared owns 11 properties over these two schemes for private and temporary accommodation.

3 customers transferred from our Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) to independent living.

4 internal transfers.

112 agreements made to sustain tenancies.

3 referrals to Time to Talk internal therapy service.

1 customer supported from our welfare fund.

1 mutual exchange.

4 new Luton Borough Council (LBC) temporary accommodation tenancies.

5 LBC nominations into private leased tenancies.

85% planned visits completed on schedule in private sector homes.

3 anti-social behaviour cases reported.

Following the ending of Luton LETS Squared (joint venture with Luton Borough Council) on 31st July 2023, we continue to work independently with local landlords to offer managed leased properties to our community.

Homes with Support – Hostels

69 supported single occupancy rooms available.

448 referrals received.

172 total number of customers accommodated this year.

55 new customers supported.

42 positive planned move ons.

Our Customers
Achievements

11 customers gained employment this year, many of which started careers in hospitality, working locally in bars, pubs and restaurants. We also had customers who begun working in construction as labourers too.

3 customers attended university; one customer from our mother and baby hostel went to study midwifery in Bedfordshire; one customer from our female hostel went to study Biochemistry and another customer from our female hostel was accepted into Cambridge University. She moved to Turkey where the course is held to do Arabic Studies.

3 customers gained valuable volunteering opportunities. One customer volunteered at Whipsnade Zoo through The Princes Trust. They completed the course and absolutely loved it, from feeding the animals to support with maintaining their environments and learning about conservation. One customer volunteered at TOKKO with the Local Youth Work sector, supporting and running weekly activities which involve exercise, helping them with confidence and experience. Their aim is to work with young people in the physical education field. Another customer volunteered with a local charity working with children who have learning difficulties, which was organised through Luton Community Interest.

25 Hostel customers attended college this year, with many studying ESOL Levels 1 – 4, all of whom passed. Other courses studied included hairdressing, barbering and beauty courses alongside Maths and English. We also had a customer study a BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Sports Coaching & Development – they passed despite lots of challenges along the way before beginning volunteering at TOKKO.

Our available accommodation for 2024 increased by 17% from last year.

We are now OFSTED compliant, so we can continue to provide accommodation to younger people (16 & 17 year olds).

We received a grant for our mother and baby hostel to purchase new equipment for our projects, including garden furniture, garden toys and other accessories for the hostels.

Homes with Support – Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

140 supported single occupancy rooms available.

425 referrals received.

138 customers have move in (inc. internal moves).

4 customers supported into employment & also private rented accommodation.

2 customers supported with relocations nearer family in London.

30 refugees supported.

Through working with customers and the local authority, we greatly reduced the number of customers who lost their tenancy. This included preventing arrears from building up, supporting people to get back into work and then supporting them into private rented accommodation.

We’re planning to increase our available accommodation over the coming financial year, working with landlords to provide more accommodation to those in need.

Property Services

We invested over

£600k

in our homes this year...

Our investment included:

350 vacant properties were refurbished ready for new tenancies.

43 heating upgrades.

21 bathroom replacements.

17 kitchen replacements.

7 roof refurbishments.

15 electrical upgrades.

3 substantial structural repairs such as French drains to alleviate damp and mould.

45 window or door upgrades.

We completed a large communal boiler upgrade program at our sheltered over 55s scheme which has provided a contingency backup in case the existing boilers fail.

We completed wall insulation and heating upgrades to our transitional flats, increasing the warmth and comfort levels for our customers.

We have developed monitoring regimes for a wide range of compliance criterias and have increased our understanding of when safety systems are due for inspection or testing in advance.

Our average overall customer satisfaction score for the year was 88%, which steadily rose throughout the year.

Improving our service
to you.

We aim to continue to provide high quality services to our customers that are valued by all. At the end of 2023, we conducted an independent survey in line with the Housing Regulator's Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).

All customers were invited to participate in the survey, in which we asked for their feedback around our performance as a landlord.

221 customers took part in the survey, out of 711, which is considered a good representation of customers' views.

7 out of 10 residents are satisfied with the overall service provided by Squared (71%).

Whilst 71% were satisfied overall, this was a slight decrease in satisfaction since our last survey. We truly appreciate this feedback provided as our customers' views are important to help us learn and plan our future strategy and support us to continually develop and improve our services.

Click to read our full Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) Customer Report.

What we’ve learnt from you.

We have recognised key aspects of our services which are a cause for some dissatisfaction, learning from this feedback to resolve these where we can, to ensure our services are improved and in turn our customers feel happier.

Read Key Themes

Our complaints performance

We view complaints and any other feedback, including comments and compliments, as a valuable opportunity to learn, improve our service delivery and team member development, as well as to communicate with our customers more effectively. Complaints give us an opportunity to put things right for our customers in a fair and reasonable way.

As a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, we follow the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and assess our complaints handling performance annually against this. Our annual complaints performance and service improvement report 2023-24 includes details on the number and types of complaints we received and handled. The report also includes our complaints handling self-assessment.

Visit our complaints handling page to view the report and self-assessment.

Summary of the number and types of complaints we handled including the issues raised by our customers.

We received 25 complaints during 2023-2024. On average complaints were resolved within 19 days.

SEE COMPLAINTS

According to our Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), an annual survey across our customers, four out of ten residents who made a complaint in the last 12 months were satisfied with our handling of their complaint (40%).

Some of the key changes made since our last complaints annual report are:

We have reviewed our Complaints Policy and Procedure to ensure it reflects the Housing Ombudsman Code.
The appointment of, Jo Simcox, as Board member lead responsible for complaints to support a positive complaint handling culture.
Review of our in-house complaints system.
E-learning and delivery of in-house training to all team members on the practical application of effective complaint handling.

We are continually learning at Squared, the following provides a summary of our learning and service improvements we propose to implement to improve our complaints process.

Improve our response time to complaints.

Improve our communication with customers during a complaint investigation.

Introduce new IT software to improve our record-keeping and reporting.

Increase customer satisfaction with our complaint handling by focusing on resolution first time.

Ensure that complaints about neighbours are managed with clarity.

Utilise the introduction of CX feedback software to facilitate spot surveys to monitor any service improvements.

Kierson Benfield

A word from our CEO.

I was delighted to accept the role of Chief Executive at Squared, from April 2024. I am passionate about providing good quality, affordable accommodation for those in need, especially as Luton is my hometown. I am looking forward to continuing to work with our Leadership Team and dedicated team members to continue to deliver the excellent services our customers rightly deserve.

Our Financial Report 2023/24

Impact & Financial Report 2023-2024

Working with us

Our team