All members of the Adactus Group Structure work to help deliver a group business plan.  The business plan translates the Group's shared corporate mission into a long-term vision, measurable objectives and medium term goals.  Projects are proposed each year to deliver short-term action to work towards achieving our goals.

Business plan progress is reported to the board quarterly and its content is formally reviewed at board strategy events every six months.  A revised plan is agreed at the start of each financial year.

The rest of this article summarises the current business plan's content:

The members of the Adactus Group Structure share common Objects within their Company Rules which state that the Group’s members will:

“Carry on for the benefit of the community the business of providing housing, accommodation, and assistance to help house people and associated facilities and amenities”

This is the basis for the Group’s Mission shown below:

Corporate Mission

The Group’s Vision is framed by efforts to achieve Quality, Expansion and Diversity (QED) through its activities.  The diagram highlights how each of these aspects of the Group’s Vision are interlinked.  For example, Quality is raised through an appreciation of the Diversity of customer needs and effective investment of the efficiency savings afforded through Expansion.

Quality

The number one priority for customers is the quality of the homes we provide. In the years to 2033, the Group's members will seek to maintain a high quality portfolio of properties by both building and acquiring new homes and disposing of lower-quality properties as necessary.

Experience has proven the importance of having enough financial resources to deal with political and economic change. To 2033, the Group’s focus will therefore remain on the tight control of its principal costs (staffing, maintenance and borrowings) and making the best of the savings afforded through group services and partnership working.

The development of group services has now matured and so the strategic aim in the coming years will be to add new members to the Group to make the most of economies of scale in the provision of group services. The Group will focus its resources on providing effective maintenance services and will retain much of these services in-house providing that Value for Money can be demonstrated.

Whilst the Group will aim to meet customer wants in other areas, it will not do this at any cost and the emphasis will be on the provision of tight, focused and effective services.

The Group will look to procure the provision of some non-core services through partnerships and consortia. Developments in handling customer contact elsewhere will be keenly monitored, with the banking and utilities sectors of particular interest to the Group given their similarly diverse customer base.

Relatively few customers now contact the Group’s members face-to-face and so the medium term focus will be to increase the resolution of queries over the telephone and through customer self-service alongside a rationalisation of the Group’s office structure. This will enable staff in the field to focus on priority customers and provide services in their homes.

The Group will take a cautious approach to implementing new technologies and will invest in reliable and relatively mature technologies that meet the requirements of, or add to, the business.

Expansion

Over recent years, growth has acted as a catalyst to achieve savings, improve services and to retain and develop quality staff. The Group therefore intends to achieve further growth in the years to 2033.

There is likely to remain a keen demand for affordable housing in the North West region and the Group will build on its reputation as a first- class developer to help address this demand. The Group will focus its development activities in the North West of England in existing areas of its operation or in areas where the Group has a clear strategy to achieve a critical mass of units.  In the medium term, the Group aims to support a development programme of c 300 units per annum.

The Group anticipates that growth targets over the next twenty years will be largely met via merger, the formal addition of new members to the group structure and through the provision of central or shared services to other organisations through partnership arrangements. The Group will also seek to utilise its experience of stock transfer and private finance initiative projects although these opportunities are likely to be limited in the medium term.

The Group will seek to rationalise its more scattered stock holdings in areas where there is evidence of high operating costs and limited potential for further consolidation.

In the years to 2033, the Group will take a cautious approach to undertaking new commercial activities and will remain focused on the core activities of managing its tenancies, development and maintenance.

Diversity

In the years to 2033, the Group’s customer base will become increasingly older on average. The Group will therefore seek to review and develop its property and services to ensure that these remain relevant and in demand to both able and disabled older people.

The Group works in some areas which have historically housed first generation immigrants and this pattern is likely to continue into the future. The Group will therefore place an emphasis on understanding cultural sensitivities and providing services that can be tailored to these needs.

Neighbourhood investment will be focused on key priority communities where the Group can make a real difference with its resources. The Group’s customers face particular neighbourhood-wide inequalities relating to safety, community facilities, education, and health in different areas. The Group will aim to become a key partner with other agencies that have local strategic responsibility to help address such inequalities through targeted investment and activity.

Climate change is a major issue and the Group will aim to help reduce carbon emissions generated through its housing and activities.

The Group's shared Vision of QED provides the framework for its medium term Objectives and Goals as follows:

The diagram below identifies the greatest areas of inherent risk affecting the delivery of the Group’s medium term Goals as:

• Exposure to interest rate rises
• Increases in bad debts
• Financial impact of changes in legislation
• Impact of International Financial Reporting Standards
• Tenant injury/death due to fire, gas leak or explosion
• Failure of the public data network
• Reduction in Supporting People funding

Inherent risks to the business

Larger boxes and deeper colours indicate greater risks. 

The board and senior management team will focus on delivering the following projects in 2013/14:

• Governance project
• VfM project 1 - Resident Involvement
• Increase DLO productivity
• Reduce unnecessary repairs
• VfM project 2 - Lettings
• Re-tender material procurement
• Purchase order processing
• HouseMark benchamarking
• Pensions review
• Treasury review action plan
• Customer self-service
• Mobile devices upgrade
• Data backup improvements
• Minimise Miles Platting penalties
• Deliver planned maintenance improvement programmes
• Sheltered housing review
• Estate improvements
• Graduate trainee programme
• Staff performance matrix
• Head office extension
• Deliver HCA development contract
• Secure CCH development funding
• Property disposals
• Welfare reform action plan
• Neighbourhood Fund
• Target low SAP properties through ECO
• Deliver year 4 of carbon management action plan