Ongo sets out strategic direction for next three years

Three new strategies have been launched by Ongo, which set out their goals and ambitions for the next three years.

Be a great landlord, Offer quality homes and Create opportunities are themes to the three new strategies with each one detailing how they will achieve key targets. These strategies are the golden thread for Ongo achieving the aims of their Corporate Plan, which was launched in 2019 focusing around the three strategy themes.

Each strategy has been created in collaboration with Ongo staff and tenants, to really identify what the most important areas are for the business to focus on.

You can check out a simple one page guide for each strategy on the Ongo website and you can also read the full documents too.

In their Be a Great Landlord Strategy, Ongo aims to move from being a good landlord to a great one. They are committed to involving even more of their tenants and customers in decision making, providing excellent services and running as efficiently as possible.

John Lawrence, Head of Customer Experience, said: “We’ve set out some ambitious goals to achieve over the next few years, all with our tenants and customers in mind. We want them to have the best experience with us and we believe the targets set in this new strategy will help us to get to this point.

“Our customer service track record is already really positive, but we believe there are ways we can get better, and involving more of our tenants and customers in our decision making and shaping our services will help us achieve this. No one knows better than our tenants how we perform as a landlord, so by listening more and involving them more we can learn and improve.”

Offer quality homes is the second strategy, which sets out Ongo’s vision to offer quality homes to all their tenants and customers. It details future ambitions to make sure everyone living in an Ongo Home, neighbourhood and community are proud to live there.

Already high performing areas for Ongo such as the health & safety of their tenants is something they will continue to prioritise, along with enhancing their environments making them places people want to live, investing further in their existing homes and continuing to build new homes each year.

Neil Keay, Head of Property, said: “We’ve been building new homes since 2014 and we’re promising to continue to build 2,250 more in the next 10 years. We know there is a huge demand for affordable, safe and secure homes and we want to do our bit to build homes suitable for all. This will include affordable rented homes, shared ownership and rent to buy – to help people get on the property ladder.

“Our Neighbourhood Services team has expanded and will continue to deliver service to enhance our communities to make them places people are proud to live in. We’re also aiming for 97% satisfaction with the maintenance service to our tenants.”

The third strategy which is focused around really making a difference to local people is Ongo’s Create opportunities strategy. It sets out a clear customer journey, and all the ways in which Ongo can support tenants and customers to fulfil their ambitions and have opportunities to thrive.

A huge amount of work already happens in this area, with over 2,000 customers receiving employment related support over the last 12 months, and over £1.5million secured in external funding to provide services such as Ongo Talk, Ongo’s counselling and mental health support service.

Jan Williams, Head of Opportunities, said: “We want to take a coaching approach to supporting our tenants to sustain their tenancy whilst increasing employment prospects and raising aspirations and ambitions of our tenants.

“We want to hold regular activities and events to help reduce social isolation, which is something more important now than ever before. We will be adapting the way we hold these activities, and always following the relevant safety guidance, but it is so important to us that our tenants are not lonely at home and they have opportunities.

“We’ll also be continuing to work with young people, on a variety of mentoring programmes to support and guide them to get off to the best start in life and be able to achieve their ambitions.”

Tenants were heavily involved in the creation of these strategies, which included online surveys to identify what key themes and areas were important to them, how they believed Ongo could improve and what they would like to see the landlord focusing on in the future.

Tim Mills, a tenant Board member for Ongo, said: “All these strategies put the tenants at the heart of Ongo. They are a great example of tenant and landlord working together to ensure the best possible future. Not only for Ongo, but for its tenants as well.”

The strategies will be reviewed each year from now until 2023, with an annual report made available for tenants and customers to highlight progress made each year towards achieving each strategy.

Find out more about Ongo and the work they do by visiting their website.