Social
This page highlights our social performance, showcasing how we deliver social value, support vulnerable customers, strengthen local communities and create opportunities that help people live independently and sustainably.
Social at a Glance
- 99.91% of homes met the Decent Homes Standard
- 2,387 people supported by the Aster Foundation during 2025/26
- 1,144 people supported with financial wellbeing and inclusion
- 1,135 people supported with mental health and wellbeing initiatives
- 108 people helped into employment and training opportunities
Key social priorities include affordable housing, customer wellbeing, community investment, building safety, employment support and tackling poverty.
T4 – Affordability
Provides affordable and secure housing
C15 - For properties that are subject to the rent regulation regime, report against ONE OR BOTH of the following Affordability metrics:
- Rent compared to average private rental sector (PRS) rent across the relevant Local Authority
- Rent compared to the relevant Local Housing Allowance (LHA)
Rent as % of PRS: 54.3%
Rent as % of LHA: 66.8%
C16 - Share, and number, of existing homes (owned and/or managed) completed before the last financial year by tenure
- General needs (social rent) – 19,986
- Intermediate rent – 0
- Affordable rent – 5,920
- Supported Housing (excluding Housing for Older people) – 1,446
- Housing for older people – 3,998
- Low-cost home ownership – 4,755
- Care homes - 198
- Private Rented Sector - 109
- Private Market Sale - 0
- Other – 1,844
C17 - Share, and number, of new homes (owned and/or managed) that were completed in the last financial year by tenure
- General needs (social rent) – 105
- Intermediate rent – 0
- Affordable rent – 397
- Supported Housing (excluding Housing for Older people) – 0
- Housing for older people - 0
- Low-cost home ownership – 412
- Care homes - 0
- Private Rented Sector - 0
- Private Market Sale - 0
- Other – 0
C18 - How is the housing provider trying to reduce the effect of high energy costs on its residents?
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. 100% of the new homes completed during the last financial year achieved an energy efficiency rating of EPC B or better, with almost half incorporating technologies such as air source heat pumps, solar PV and EV charging. This includes 175 air source heat pumps and 203 solar arrays.
We have set a minimum standard of EPC C by 2030 for our existing homes, and at the end of the financial year, almost 84% have achieved this. Through our 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. By upgrading heating systems and communal boilers we will help to improve energy efficiency, reduce consumption and prevent overheating, reducing heating energy consumption by approximately 20% at five of our sites served by large commercial boilers. Additionally, more than 1,700 of our homes benefit from rooftop solar PV, allowing customers to benefit directly from the electricity generated.
Through our community land trust (CLT) schemes we continue to help communities realise their aspirations for sustainable homes. Our Longhope community-led scheme in the Forest of Dean achieved Passivhaus rating, and we have two more schemes on site set to be delivered to EPC A, with solar PV and air source heat pumps (ASHP), as well as battery storage and solar heated hot water at one scheme.
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 2025-26, our Financial Wellbeing Team assisted 2,387 customers with financial wellbeing and fuel poverty support, and issued £4,567.00 in energy vouchers. 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. A total value of £4.9m million in benefit applications and successful claim appeals were achieved for customers in the year. Through our engagement with Pocket Power, we offer a review of energy tariffs to ensure customers are receiving the best deal.
T5 - Building Safety and Quality
Resident safety and building quality are well managed
C19 - Describe the condition of the housing provider's portfolio, with reference to performance measures
- 99.97% of homes had all required gas safety checks carried out
- 100% of homes had fire risk assessments (FRAs) carried out
- 99.62% of homes had all required electrical safety checks carried out
- 98.49% of homes had in-date asbestos re-inspections
- 99.49% of homes had completed legionella risk assessments
- 98.38% of homes had lifting equipment servicing carried out and 98.00% had an inspection.
C20 - What % of homes meet the national housing quality standard?
Of those which fail, what is the housing provider doing to address these failings?
99.91% of our homes met the Decent Homes standard at 31 March 2026. There were 28 failures out of almost 31,000 properties, due to factors such as no access, planning applications awaiting conclusion and the timing of bat surveys required before works can be completed. Failures have been programmed and we continue to work with customers to allow us access to complete necessary works.
C21 - How do you manage and mitigate the risk of emergency hazards, including damp and mould?
How do you reduce the likelihood of damp and mould hazards occurring?
We take a person-led and risk-based approach to identifying and managing potential Category 1 and Category 2 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Concerns may be identified through reports from customers, repairs and servicing activity, property inspections, planned investment programmes or observations made by colleagues and contractors working in customers’ homes. Reports indicating a potentially serious or immediate risk are prioritised for further assessment, with action taken according to the nature and severity of the hazard and the circumstances of the household.
Our response can include an urgent inspection, immediate make-safe measures, temporary mitigation, remedial work or, where a home cannot be made safe in the required timeframe, consideration of alternative accommodation. Customer vulnerability and the potential impact of the hazard on the individual household are important considerations when determining the appropriate response. Cases may also require coordination across repairs, compliance, housing, safeguarding and specialist teams to ensure that the hazard and any wider support needs are addressed.
This approach applies across the range of housing hazards, including risks associated with excess cold or heat, fire, electrical safety, falls, structural safety, hygiene and pests, as well as damp and mould. We seek to address both the immediate risk and, wherever possible, the underlying property cause, supported by appropriate records, customer communication and operational oversight.
This year, we brought reviews of our Damp, Mould and Condensation (DMC) policy and procedure forward to ensure each is appropriately reflective of Awaab’s Law. These were proactively informed by a DMC-focused Customer Scrutiny ‘Bootcamp’ in February 2026, which explored customers’:
- Understanding of customer experience and information provided through the DMC journey
- Assessment of our performance and risk across DMC
- Views on future service improvements, as set out in within existing policy and procedure guidance.
Recognising the important role that effective ventilation plays in supporting good indoor air quality, reducing the risk of damp, mould and condensation, and promoting customers' health and wellbeing, we have continued to review and strengthen our approach to ventilation considering the entire lifecycle of our homes. This includes design and construction standards, component specifications, servicing arrangements, data collection and replacement cycles to ensure ventilation systems continue to perform effectively over time. This covers both mechanical ventilation systems and natural ventilation measures, including window trickle vents. Alongside this, we continue to review and enhance the advice and guidance provided to customers on the effective use of ventilation within their homes, supporting them to maintain good indoor air quality and reduce the risk of damp, condensation and mould through everyday ventilation practices.
We are continually looking at technical solutions to strengthen our approach to damp, condensation and mould, such as trialling the use of Portable ARC devices, which can eliminate airborne mould spores and reduce the risk to customers while remediation works are being carried out. We are also exploring the implementation of a case management system to better follow the history of damp and mould cases and ensure we do all we can to keep customers safe.
Building on our implementation of Awaab’s Law for damp and mould, we’re preparing for the extension of statutory requirements to wider housing hazards. Through our Healthy Homes Transformation Programme, we are reviewing how hazards are identified, assessed, prioritised, managed and reported across the organisation. The programme is intended to strengthen vulnerability-led case management, coordination between services, customer communication, evidence capture and compliance assurance. It remains in mobilisation and service design, with requirements and priorities being developed to support both current compliance arrangements and the future operating model.
We have strongly embedded governance at all levels to manage health and safety (H&S) issues. Assurance around property safety and performance is provided to our boards and panels through performance reporting - including a DMC dashboard - and operational updates. Board members are supported in their understanding of Awaab's Law to enable effective scrutiny. Our corporate performance framework tracks key property safety metrics and Decent Homes compliance, and our Property Safety Group, part of our Operational Scrutiny and Assurance Panel, helps to provide detailed scrutiny of these issues. As of 31 March 2026, we had 0 Housing Health and Safety Rating System failures.
T6 - Residents and Community
Listens to residents’ voice
C22 - What are the results of the housing provider's most recent tenant satisfaction survey?
How has the housing provider acted on these results?
We undertook our Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) surveys from April 2025 to March 2026, 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 2,918 surveys, broken down as 2,375 LCRA and 543 LCHO.
Overall satisfaction for LCRA was 79.90%, while for LCHO it was 56.0%. This marks an annual improvement in overall satisfaction for the second year in a row.
Below are key measures from April 2025 to March 2026 against a median score published by the Regulator in November 2025 for all landlord satisfaction 2024/25.
- TP01 - Overall satisfaction
- LCRA customers scored 79.9%, in comparison to the Regulator median of 71.8%.
- LCHO customers’ satisfaction was 56.0% in comparison to the Regulator median of 47.9%
- TP02 – Satisfaction with repairs
- LCRA customers scored 83.11%, in comparison to the Regulator median of 73.6%
- TP06 - Satisfaction that the landlord listens to tenant’s views and acts upon them
- LCRA customers scored 72.6%, in comparison to the Regulator median of 61.6%
- LCHO customers scored 44.8% against a Regulator median of 38.4%.
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. Customers have told us they want repairs to be completed more quickly and without delays. In neighbourhoods where we have received customer feedback about the work we do to maintain communal areas, we have developed targeted programmes to enhance the areas. This has been supported by the work of the Designated Complaints Panel (DCP) and Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP), who have carried out reviews of specific services, generating customer-led findings to shape changes.
We also continue to improve how customers contact us and how we respond to their preferences. Digital contact, which is the general preference for many customers, has reached record levels, with 42% of customer contact now coming through digital channels (39% in 2024/25).
C23 - What arrangements are in place to enable residents to hold management to account for the provision of services?
We design services with our customers, not just for them, and ensure their feedback helps shape our priorities and decisions. This year we have strengthened how customers influence decisions at a strategic level. Building on our proud heritage of customer involvement, we introduced a new Customer Engagement Framework and added a customer Chair and customer Member to the Customer Voice Committee (CVC).
The CVC forms part of our governance structure, and is made up of our customers, senior executives and non-executive directors. It reviews performance, challenges our approach, and ensures customer views are reflected in decisions about homes, neighbourhoods and communities.
Alongside this, our Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) and Designated Complaints Panel (DCP) continue to play an important role in improving services. Their work this year has included reviews of damp, mould and condensation (DMC), contractor performance, and how we communicate about repairs, with findings and action plans from these groups directly changing how we deliver services.
C24 - Report ONE OR BOTH of the following quantitative metrics:
- % of Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints responded to within target timeframes (varies by nation).
- Average time in working days to respond to Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints.
How have reported complaints resulted in change of practice within the housing provider?
93.8% of complaints were responded to within the timeframe set by the Housing Ombudsman Service - 95.5% for Stage 1 and 86.9% for Stage 2.
The average time to respond to complaints was eight working days for Stage 1; and 29 working days for Stage 2.
We are building a culture of continuous improvement. We use complaints and performance information to help us improve our services and to check that the changes we make deliver the right outcomes. Every complaint is an opportunity to learn and improve our service, and this year we’ve introduced a learning log, set stronger quality checks on responses, and carried out learning sessions with both customers and colleagues so complaints lead to real service improvements.
Deep dives by our Designated Complaints Panel help us learn from complaints and ensure issues lead to meaningful change. This year, it developed an action plan focused on subcontractor performance, with the aim of improving consistency and quality. As a direct result of their recommendations, we’re investing in improved technology to provide customers with clearer, more timely updates on the progress of their repairs.
We also review complaints and survey feedback quarterly to identify trends and make improvements to services such as grounds maintenance and damp, mould and condensation responses.
C24+ (optional question)
Ombudsman maladministration rate [%]
Maladministration rate: 38%
C25 - In the last 12 months, what additional support have you provided to your tenants?
Please include support across any of the following areas, as well as any other relevant services:
- Employment & training
- Wellbeing & mental health
- Vulnerable tenants
The Aster Foundation, a registered charity, aims to enable better lives through combatting the causes and effects of poverty.
The Foundation works with people in three ways:
- Initiatives in the community which focus on the three biggest causes and effects of poverty: lack of mental wellness and social connections, unemployment, and financial exclusion;
- Supporting a cohort of social entrepreneurs through a social incubator, inc. to tackle the root cause of poverty in creative, proactive and innovative ways; and
- Social research which gives a voice to those experiencing poverty - so the Foundation knows what to do, where and how to do it.
Across 2025/26, the Aster Foundation supported 2,387 people across the three primary causes and consequences of poverty. This included:
1,144 people supported with financial wellbeing and inclusion, through:
- Referrals and support through our financial wellbeing team;
- Universal Credit case support;
- Supermarket vouchers, energy voucher scheme and hardship fund; and
- £4.9m million total value of benefit applications and appeals won for beneficiaries.
1,135 people supported with mental health and wellbeing, through:
- Training, coaching and one-to-one support;
- Developing mental health champions;
- Creating a thriving ADHD network; and
- Developing sensory gardens and wellbeing spaces.
108 people supported into work, by:
- One-to-one support through the Into Work Officer;
- Careers through inc. social businesses; and
- Our Digital College.
Enham Trust is part of the Aster Group, and at the heart of its mission is a commitment to creating meaningful employment opportunities for disabled people. The Trust operates a well-established picking and packing social enterprise and supported employment within the charity’s gardening, domestic, and care services. These work environments are supported by ‘Employment Plus’, Enham’s dedicated Supported Employment service. This helps individuals build the skills, confidence, and resources needed to move into longer-term employment. 52 roles were supported through this programme during the year.
Employment Plus also actively engages with external businesses and organisations to create inclusive employment pathways beyond Enham Trust. During the year it:
- Delivered awareness sessions for supported employees in partnership with Sparsholt College
- Delivered tailored Disability and Neurodiversity Awareness sessions for Test Valley Borough Council and Lionel Hitchen food manufacturers.
C26 - In the last 12 months, what interventions has the housing provider made or enabled to foster stronger communities and places, considering both:
- Physical changes to shared spaces or public realm
- Events, activities, and signposting
We are progressing the refurbishment and redesign of Landale Wilson Hall in Enham Alamein, a key village landmark facility which was originally opened in 1926. We are hoping to complete the project in 2026, which will be the building’s 100-year anniversary.
The Enham 110 Transformation Programme is a master planning project which will focus on our provision of:
- Housing and care
- Commercial assets and activities <
- Employment and contracting activities
- New homes.
The doctors’ surgery will be relocated, with the new surgery providing three doctors’ consulting rooms, a further treatment room for other services such as chiropody, Nurse Practitioner services and an expansion of well-being/social prescribing services.
Our Wild About Enham project will also see us work with residents to build a biodiversity baseline and design improvements to local green spaces for the benefit of wildlife and the community. This is an approach we hope to replicate on other Aster estates.
During Volunteer Week 2025, our colleagues came together to make a positive difference across local communities. Volunteers transformed a courtyard into a welcoming outdoor space for families, with benches and chalkboards; carried out a community tidy-up on one of our Independent Living schemes that improved shared areas for customers; and supported a lantern-making session at Crammer Court Independent Living Scheme with Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts (DOCA), that brought creativity, connection, and companionship to those taking part. A VE Day party at Cranmer Court also inspired customers to join up with the wider community to create a cascade of over 1,000 hand-crafted poppies for Remembrance Day, a project that has sparked a renewed sense of community at Crammer Court, with customers now regularly gathering for quiz afternoons, bingo, and knit and natter sessions.
Our partnerships with community land trusts (CLTs) are a key part of our placemaking and social housing activities, and we remain the UK’s leading housing association provider of CLT partnerships. At the end of March 2026, nine schemes were on site, delivering 182 homes. At our recently completed Longhope CLT scheme, we donated £5,000 towards the creation of an amenity space for villagers on Parish Council owned land behind the village hall. To date 10 fruit trees have been planted reflecting Longhope's past orchards. The CLT intends to install seating, a wooden fencing and gate in the near future, further enhancing the space for local residents to enjoy. Longhope also includes a dedicated bat corridor, with hedge planting and sensitive outdoor lighting to protect the nine species of bat identified on site by ecologists, including greater horseshoe bats.
C27 - How is social value creation considered when procuring goods and services?
What measures are in place to monitor the delivery of this Social Value?
When we procure goods and services, we follow our procurement framework that comprises both internal governance and external regulations. These come together to ensure that social value is created when we procure goods and services, in line with policies, procedures, legislation and regulations including (but not limited to):
- Our Procurement and Contract Standing Orders policy and procedures
- Our Modern Slavery Policy and Statement
- The Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023)
- The Public Contracts Regulations (PCR2015)
- The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.
How we create and monitor delivery of social value:
Social Value must be considered in all over-threshold procurements (in line with The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. We include social value as an evaluation criterion and up to 10% weighting is given. The weighting and the content of the criteria is appropriate and proportionate to the contract subject matter, term, and value. To do this, within our tenders we will request that bidders:
- Provide details of how Modern Slavery and Responsible Procurement is monitored within their organisations and supply chains
- Provide information about activities, the social value created and how this is measured, in line with Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. This includes what benefits will be delivered to the communities that bidders will be working in, what skills and training or employment opportunities will be created, and specific community initiatives that will be delivered during the contract term
- Provide information on how they support social enterprises or SMEs within a supply chain
- Provide information on how they will support social value initiatives specific to Aster and the contract we are procuring.
This approach in practice within the 2025/26 financial year meant that £89,713.64 in social value rebates was accrued across all materials merchants procured via PfH, and an additional £74,713.64 was paid by PfH to the Aster Foundation in social value rebates in 2025/26.
We worked to further develop our approach to increasing our social impact in the year and are establishing social impact priorities aligning with our local communities to maximise social value, which will be used across our procurements to generate social value benefit from our contracts. We are also working to further strengthen our approach to contract management (including social value) to generate more in-contract opportunities.
In financial year 2025/6 we developed a Customer Voice Blueprint to embed our customers’ requirements, feedback and impact areas within our procurements. This has been live across our procurements during the year.
