A sparkling good year for ANCHO

One of the blocks to be refurbished

2013 has proven to be one of ANCHO’s most successful years in its 13 years as a community housing association:

• Funding was secured to refurbish two blocks of rundown maisonette properties in Irvine – these will now be re-roofed, reclad with insulated render and upgraded with new heating, kitchens and bathrooms;
  
• The final owned property in another maisonette block has now been sold to us, meaning that this long-standing eyesore will finally be demolished in early 2014;
  
• We were able to offset the worst impacts of the Bedroom Tax for the vast majority of affected tenants, through early rehousing into the right size of house and help for tenants to access Discretionary Housing Payment.

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Our Financial Capability Advisors

• In July 2013, we were awarded almost £250,000 from the Big Lottery Fund to expand its Financial Inclusion Service and provide Smart Budgeting Workshops for people struggling to manage their finances. 
  
• In the same month, the Scottish Government provided ongoing funding of £40,000 to our Employability Service because of its excellent track record of assisting local people into employment through Job Clubs, CV preparation and other support;
  
• We continues to provide Youth Services, with the help of funding from The Scottish Government's People and Communities Fund, focusing on mentoring support for older teenagers, and running school holiday clubs for younger children;
  
• Our Community Link Project continues to provide a wide range of advice and free internet access to local residents – enabling them to develop IT communication skills and access cheap on-line purchases;

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One of the houses built in Malawi

• Director, Elaine Gibson, was elected for a second term to top housing role as Chair of the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland; Following a long period of fundraising, Elaine also headed off for Malawi in April 2013 where she helped build two new houses with charity Habitat for Humanity;
  
• Almost 200 owners in flatted accommodation chose to formally appoint ANCHO as their factor;
  
• We expanded the range of local initiatives it is involved in by becoming a distribution centre for food parcels, issuing starter packs to needy new tenants, providing sponsorship for the Kilwinning Fireworks Night, and Kilwinning and Irvine Christmas Lights Switch-on events, issuing annual Christmas Hampers to older tenants, providing a Service Plus scheme for the benefit of tenants who pay their rent on time and helping to establish Eydent, a collective of a number of Ayrshire housing associations. 
  

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Elaine Gibson, Director and Chair of CIH Scotland

Director, Elaine Gibson, said, ‘I can’t believe what a good year this has been for us here at ANCHO, and our customers seem to like what we’re doing too!  90% of our customers say their happy with the service we provide, 98% say we keep them well informed, 89% of them are happy with the quality of their ANCHO home and 97% are happy with the neighbourhood they live in.  Our performance levels remain high across the board and our finances are more secure than they have ever been.  We are looking forward to seeing more successes going forward into 2014, with the development of a new Good Neighbour Service for older and vulnerable residents, and a positive outcome to our discussions with North Ayrshire Council about the possibility of our expanding our community work into the Redburn Centre in Irvine.’.

Chair, Jackie Browne, said, ‘ANCHO’s Management Board is extremely pleased at the continued success of the organisation. We have always seen ourselves as positive contributors to the communities we work in – and a year like this one shows us we are on the right lines ’