T4: Affordability and Security
Provides affordable and secure housing
SDG Goals - 10 & 11
Our homes continue to be affordable.
- Average rent as a % of Private Rental Sector (PRS) = 55.3%
- Average rent as a % of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) = 64.7%
for comparison last years reported %s were:
- 2024 rent as % of PRS = 54.6%
- 2024 rent as % of LHA = 69.7%
As with last year, this looks at only General Needs (GN) and Housing for Older People (HOPS) needs categories across the whole of Aster Group based on data provided by Finance.
We have nearly 38,000 homes. Our vision is 'everyone has a home' and we're pleased that 25,394 of those homes are provided for social rent, which offers the best social value by being the cheapest rent available for our customers. This is the majority (67.4%) of the homes we provide.
A further 5,676 (15% of our homes) are let on an affordable rent basis (which is up to 80% of the local private market rent).
We also have 4,466 shared ownership homes which provide routes to more affordable home ownership. Shared ownership is a secure alternative to private renting providing an affordable way onto - or back onto - the housing ladder. Buyers purchase a share of a property and pay rent on the remaining share. This reduces the size of the initial deposit required and if they want to, purchasers can buy more shares in their property (known as staircasing), eventually leading to outright home ownership.
Through our charitable entities – the Aster Foundation and Enham Trust – and through our brands East Boro Housing Trust (East Boro) and Central and Cecil Housing Trust (C&C) we aim to make as much positive impact in our communities as possible. 3,979 people were positively impacted by Aster Foundation programmes. Enham Trust reached over 5,500 individuals, through services which promote equality, dignity and choice, and supporting disabled people to live, work and enjoy life as independently as possible. C&C care services maintained an impressive 9.4/10 rating based on direct feedback and positive comments from family, friends and loved ones on the Care Home UK website.
Social Rent: 156
Affordable Rent: 327
Low Cost Home Ownership (shared ownership): 380
Market Sale: 121
Total: 984
Occasionally, when a home no longer meets modern standards or would require disproportionate investment to achieve long-term sustainability goals, we review all options as part of our responsible Asset Management Strategy. In some cases, this may include releasing the property. Where we do decide to sell a customer’s home, we work closely with them to ensure they are offered alternative accommodation that meets their needs and preferences. Crucially, all proceeds from the sale are reinvested directly into improving existing homes or delivering new, high-quality, sustainable housing.
The most important way in which we can reduce the effect of high energy costs on our customers is by providing them with an energy efficient home that is economical to heat. Almost all (99.4%) of the new homes completed during the last financial year achieved an energy efficiency rating of EPC B or better.*
We have set a minimum standard of EPC C by 2030 for our existing homes, and to date 85.1% have achieved this. Through our new Asset Management Strategy we are working to ensure the remaining properties meet the standard.
Some of our customers pay us a service charge for energy, either to heat their own home from a communal heating system or for heat and /or power supplied to communal areas. Through the energy brokerage arrangements we have in place and the procurement decisions we make, we always seek to ensure that we achieve best value for money for our customers. During the year we saved over £700,000 for our customers through strategic procurement. Additionally, more than 1,000 of our homes benefit from rooftop solar PV, allowing residents to benefit directly from the electricity generated.
Our Financial Wellbeing team supports customers struggling to pay their bills. The team provides assistance through access to grants, energy vouchers, advice, guidance and signposting to other sources of help. During 2024-25, our Financial Wellbeing Hardship Fund provided £60,000 of financial assistance, and energy vouchers worth over £6,000 were issued. In addition, we carry out checks to ensure customers are receiving all the benefits for which they are eligible, including government lump sum fuel payments where these apply. Our free and simple Money Advice Tool helps customers check if they are entitled to additional benefits, find links to local advice agencies, and manage their household bills. Through our engagement with Pocket Power, we offer a review of energy tariffs to ensure customers are receiving the best deal.
* Note that this is a slight increase from the 99.1% recorded in our Annual Report due to improved data.
We have 212 care home bedspaces and 106 temporary social housing homes, which by their nature will be let on a licence.
Our Lettings Policy sets out the support we offer to help customers maintain their tenancies. We take a person-centred approach, working directly with customers and referring them to other organisations to ensure they receive the support needed to maintain their tenancy. We have a Tenancy Sustainment Team, who actively work with customers to help them maintain tenancies.
For customers who fall into financial difficulty, our arrears process supports customers to maintain their tenancies. Our Financial Wellbeing Team work with customers and to understand their current financial circumstances with customers and seek ways to help them maximise their income.
We also have a tenancy sustainment fund available, which can be used to support with tenancy sustainment, such as the costs of moving to more suitable accommodation, ensuring that tenancies are sustained in the long term.
T5: Building Safety and Quality
Resident safety and building quality are well managed
SDG Goal - 11
Gas: 99.89%
Electric safety checks: 99.64
Fire Risk Assessments completed: 98.87%
% Water risk assessments completed: 100%
Blocks with an in-date asbestos reinspection (TSM): 99.5%
99.88% of our homes were considered to be decent at the end of 2024/25.
There were 37 decent homes failures at the end of the year, some of which have now been completed. Those still to be addressed are down to access issues and delays such as awaiting planning, contractor issues or awaiting specialist materials.
We have further developed our Damp and Mould Strategy and delivery to provide a proactive analysis of the homes we believe are more susceptible to damp and mould by installing environmental monitoring using the Aico ‘Homelink’ system which allows us and our customers to see live data of the environmental conditions in that property, at any time.
We take a person-led, risk-averse, approach to reports of damp and mould cases. For this we employ a property-based survey to make sure the property structure and fundamentals of the building are ‘sound’, prior to exploring the wider issues of possible cause. No remedial jobs are closed until we are satisfied that the job has been completed and the cause of damp and mould has been rectified. We have a specialist damp and mould team, and a damp and mould workstream, who monitor and manage our open jobs, including the removal of mould (mould wash) during our initial visit to the property. We assess the impact that any hazard may have on anyone living in any affected home, taking account of any vulnerability factors that may be present (such as age and health), and we implement practical steps to minimise the risk present; for example, carrying out mould washes while the root-cause of any damp and mould is being investigated or until remedial actions have been completed, often involving specialist contractors.
Some of our customers have continued to experience cases of condensation and mould in their homes over the period. We look into every case of condensation and mould to determine the best course of action to rectify it. We carry out any work that needs to be done and recommend the necessary steps to prevent issues returning.
In response to our customers’ needs and to enhance our capacity for prioritising these repairs, we have employed additional skilled surveyors to join our specialist team. We assess every home where this problem is identified. We maintain ongoing communication with each customer affected by condensation and mould to ensure the issue is fully resolved. If the problem persists despite our initial efforts, we take additional measures to address and repair it until it is completely cleared. We are in the development stages of a dynamic case management system that will not only provide the golden thread but also enable triggers for aftercare follow up calls with customers to establish if the works and guidance provided has rectified the issue.
We have specific policies and procedures in place to address damp, mould, and condensation issues. When/if such issues are identified our policies and procedures are designed to comply with the timescales and obligations of Awaab's Law.
Through a variety of customer communications, including a series of ‘how-to’ videos and social media content, we’ve provided advice on how to stop mould occurring.
Hygrometers are provided to customers upon our damp and mould survey being carried out. A hygrometer is a simple, small device that lives in the home and tells customers how much humidity is in the air. It will show when air moisture levels are high so they can take practical, simple steps to reduce it. These are freely available to all customers and we also put these in all new builds.
T6: Resident Voice
Listens to residents’ voice
SDG Goal - 11
We undertook our Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) surveys from April 2024 to March 2025, covering both low-cost rental accommodation (LCRA) and low-cost home ownership (LCHO) satisfaction performance.
We continue to use an external independent organisation to carry out telephone surveys on our behalf.
Overall, we carried out 2,925 surveys, broken down as 2,374 LCRA and 551 LCHO.
Below are key measures for Aster from April 2024 to March 2025 against a median score published by the Regulator in November 2024 for all landlord satisfaction 2023/24.
Across the board, our satisfaction scores have improved from 2023/24.
- TP01 - Taking everything into account, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the service provided by your landlord - LCRA customers scored 79.1%, in comparison to the Regulator median of 71.3%. For LCHO customers satisfaction was 54.7% in comparison to the Regulator median of 49.5%.
- TP02 – How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the overall repairs service from [your landlord] over the last 12 months? - LCRA customers scored 84.8%, in comparison to the Regulator median of 72.3%.
- TP08 - To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following “[my landlord] treats me fairly and with respect”? - LCRA customers scored 87.4%, in comparison to the Regulator median of 76.8% and for LCHO customers 68.7% against a Regulator median of 59.1%.
We use Tenant Satisfaction Measures to understand how we’re doing and where we can do better. They are regularly monitored and as part of our customer feedback we look at actions we can put in place. These are delivered either by our teams or fed into our wider Customer Service Modernisation programme.
We have been delivering more accessible services this year, along with improving our digital platform and contact centre.
We launched new repairs options in MyAster, allowing for customers to book appointments online and track progress.
For lettings and new customers, we have simplified our forms and documents, making it easier for customers to update and find the information they need, and creating a personal service based on our customers' individual needs.
We are improving our data and systems internally to support the contact centre in answering customer questions at the first point of contact, and provide greater tracking of the processes to keep customers up to date.
Customer feedback helps us to continually improve and shape the way we work in the future.
As part of our approach to customer voice we have several methods and channels for customers to engage with us, get involved in designing our services and to communicate our performance.
Our customer groups are at the heart of our oversight and decision-making at Aster. The newly launched Customer Voice Committee is made up of customers, senior leaders and board members. This drives customer influence through our decisions, how our services are run and holds us to account on our performance for our customers, through our Executive Team and Board.
The Customer Voice Committee is supported by a Customer Scrutiny Panel and a Designated Complaints Panel which are made up of and chaired by customers. Both groups deep dive into areas of our performance and ensure that value for money and service standards are being met.
Over 2024/25 we received feedback from over 17,000 customer interactions including surveys, consultations or co-design sessions. We are continuing to build on our customer engagement offer as part of our Customer Voice Strategy.
We know that we don’t always get our services right, and our complaints process is easier to use and more accessible for customers. We have made it quicker and easier to raise complaints online, improved how we track and monitor complaints, kept customers updated and created a clearer complaints webpage to help support the process.
We regularly publish information on our performance for our customers and continue to develop this. We currently share performance through our Customer Annual Report, our Tenant Satisfaction Measures. These can be found on our website, and our regular customer e-shots contain up to date performance of our services that quarter.
In 2024/25, a total of 41 investigations were completed by the Housing Ombudsman. This is 10 more than in 2023/24. Only 34 of the investigations resulted in determinations, as two were withdrawn and five were assessed as being outside the jurisdiction of the service.
We had a 50% Maladministration Rate - details of which can be found in the Annual Complaints Report - from 39 adverse findings and 39 with no adverse findings:
- 24 No Maladministration
- 14 Reasonable Redress
- 20 Service Failures
- 17 Maladministrations
- 2 Severe Maladministrations
- 8 Outside of jurisdiction
- 1 Mediation
- 4 Withdrawn
The Housing Ombudsman issued 83 orders and made 32 recommendations, all of which we have complied with, and we have no Complaint Handling Failure Orders issued.
We continue to use learning from our complaints to drive service improvements and inform our modernisation programme. More details can be found in our Customer Annual Report and the Annual Complaints Report, but some of the learning identified includes:
- Customers get frustrated if they are waiting for responses to carry out simple transactions, and we are using that feedback to go further and understand how customers would prefer to use our different methods of communication, in particular our digital channels.
- Service failures often happen when our Customer Service Hub are unable to provide a resolution and we are therefore evolving the skillset within our Customer Service Hub and enhancing our systems and processes to enable access to information to resolve issues quickly.
- We have reviewed contractual arrangements with key contractors involved in damp and mould work
- We have refreshed the way we respond to reports of anti-social behaviour, with clear and transparent escalation processes in place.
- Reviewed and amended communications used.
- Amended policies such as anti-social behaviour (ASB), Insurance and Liability, Pest Infestations and Repairs.
T7: Resident Support
SDG Goal - 11
Supports residents, and the local community
C23 - What are the key support services that the housing provider offers to its residents? How successful are these services in improving outcomes?
The mission of our Aster Foundation is to enable better lives through combatting the causes and effects of poverty. The full detail can be found within the Aster Foundation Impact Report.
In 2024/25, 3,979 people were positively impacted by Aster Foundation programmes.
Of those, 2,205 were supported by the Foundation's mental health and social connectivity work, which includes training; coaching and one-to-one support; developing mental health champions; creating a thriving ADHD network; developing sensory gardens and wellbeing spaces; mental health support; and initiatives to improve wellbeing.
1,565 customers received help from our Financial Wellbeing Team. £15,744 in supermarket vouchers and £5,820 in energy vouchers were given out and there were 315 successful hardship fund applications.
209 people had support with improving their chances of employment or were supported to move into meaningful employment. This included one-to-one support through the Foundation's Into Work Officer, careers through inc. social businesses and access to the Digital College.
During the year, Enham Trust reached 5,500 individuals through services which promote equality, dignity and choice, supporting disabled people to live, work and enjoy life as independently as possible.
- 62 individuals were supported to access the Choices Programme, offering a wide range of activities and sports helping to improve physical and mental wellbeing.
- 1,530 hours live broadcast by disabled people for Radio Enham, the radio station helping individuals develop confidence and skills.
- 650 hours of sports and physical activities including archery, keep-fit, dance fit, Boccia, Yoga and New Age Kurling, supporting disabled people to improve their physical and mental wellbeing.
- 191 hours of wellbeing support through activities including meditation, wellbeing groups and Qigong sessions.
- 315 hours of Arts and Crafts activity including Upcycling, Textiles and Art Workshops.
- 225 hours of Performing Arts with activities including Choir, Drama and Band practice.
- 98 hours of Gardening ('Soil to Plate') promoting community engagement and providing meaningful goals for participants.
- 42,000 hours of supported employment delivered through Enham's our social enterprise E3PL — a 21% increase from the previous year.
- 38 people in supported employment opportunities including two roles within the Strive team, 24 individuals in picking and packing roles in our social enterprise E3PL, seven roles in Enham's Gardening and Domestic services and five individuals receiving direct support, ADHD coaching, or workplace assistance via phone, which enables disabled people to secure and retain paid employment.
- 4,400 customers accessing Direct Payment Support Services, increasing choice and control with their care and support needs.
- 344 corporate volunteers gave 1,881 hours of their time through Enham's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Volunteering Programme. Time was given across multiple projects and services, including supporting our horticulture projects, maintaining the christmas tree field, and packing tea in our E3PL Social Enterprise at peak times.
- Five Corporate Partners gave financial donations including two that chose Enham Trust as a ‘chosen charity’ for the year.
In our residential services, 38 individuals received person-centred care and support through Enham Trust’s residential care services in Enham Alamein. Most residents were funded by Hampshire County Council or the local Integrated Care Board, but 13 other Local Authorities also had placements with Enham Trust.
In our last report we were proud that following CQC’s inspection of Enham's homes in March 2023 we achieved a rating of 'Good’ across all five assessed areas: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led. There have been no further inspections since this time.
Enham's hybrid delivery model - combining digital innovation with a person-centred approach - remains valued by both commissioners and service users. The increased use of digital tools, including interactive webinars, led to a rise in individuals choosing remote support over face-to-face interactions, offering greater flexibility and accessibility. We continued to invest in customer involvement across service design, development, and delivery. This included enhancements to webinars and the ongoing development of a Personal Assistant (PA) Register.
In collaboration with Project Alix, the Enham team and service users explored the use of AI to enhance Direct Payment services. This included the development of an interactive advice and guidance platform and PA-matching technology to streamline recruitment and support. These innovations aim to deliver high-quality, cost-effective services while preserving the personalised support that is central to our their approach.
E3PL (Enham 3rd Party Logistics) is Enham Trust’s thriving social enterprise, providing paid employment opportunities for disabled people through labour intensive packaging and distribution work. Supporting a wide range of household brands, E3PL offers a structured, supportive environment where individuals can build skills, confidence, and independence through meaningful work. Managed by a dedicated core team of five colleagues, E3PL supported 24 individuals in paid employment. In 2024–25, E3PL achieved significant growth and operational success: 42,000 hours of supported employment delivered — a 21% increase from the previous year, more than 18,200 orders picked and packed and 497 pallets stored and managed in our warehouse.
What working at Enham means to our Supported Employees:
Jenny is one of our Supported Employees in 3PL and has support worker allocation of 10 hours per week, to support with confidence building, communication, mandatory training, reaching KPI targets, accessibility, and general issues that arise that may cause Jenny to become anxious. When asked what her job at Enham meant to her, Jenny’s reply was “everything”. She reported that she feels more settled, has the right support and is growing in confidence. She can still be a bit shy when meeting new people, but has opened up to more people, has more confidence, and is happier to have conversations with different people. Jenny is now a regular on the production belt and is enjoying the variety that this brings.
T8: Placemaking
SDG Goal - 11
Supports residents and the wider local community through placemaking
C24 - Describe the housing provider's community investment activities, and how the housing provider is contributing to positive neighbourhood outcomes for the communities in which its homes are located.
Provide examples or case studies of where the housing provider has been engaged in placemaking or placeshaping activities.
We donated a total of £6,000 to eight food banks across the south of England and London. As a result of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, more people have reportedly been seeking support from food banks for the first time, putting additional pressure on an already stretched service. The food banks, which received £750 each, include Devizes and District food bank, Andover food bank, Romsey food bank, Ringwood food bank, Frome food bank, Glastonbury food bank, Weymouth food bank and Portland food bank. We have supported community food banks across the areas we work with donations totalling more than £19,000 in recent years.
We've joined forces with Thakeham for a £58m joint venture to deliver 120 homes in Burgess Hill, Sussex, built to net zero carbon standards. The sustainability-focused development is expected to be the largest of its kind in Mid Sussex.
Work has started on 39 new energy-efficient (EPC A) homes in Dartington, Devon, in partnership with Transition Homes CLT. The CLT, working with residents, also intends to deliver additional facilities for the community including allotments, an orchard, and a community building.
East Boro partnered with Portland CLT to deliver the first ever CLT on the island. Nine affordable homes, with energy-efficient design and technologies, will enable customers to live more comfortably in thermally efficient homes.
