annual report 2025/26

I am pleased to present our Annual Report for 2025/26, highlighting the positive difference we have made for you and the communities you live in over the past year.

Guided by our purpose of improving lives through healthy, affordable homes and thriving communities, we have continued to invest in our homes, support you through challenging economic times and deliver services that matter most to the people we serve.

Listening to you remains central to everything we do. This year, customer insight showed that your top priorities are being able to contact us easily, feeling secure in your home and receiving a quality repairs service. These priorities have helped shape our decisions, investment and improvement plans, ensuring we focus on the services that have the greatest impact on your everyday lives.

Throughout the year, we have continued to invest in improving existing homes, delivering repairs, maintaining building safety and providing support to help you maximise your income, access employment and training opportunities, and overcome barriers created by the rising cost of living. We have also continued to strengthen the ways you can engage with us and influence the services you receive.

This report has been shaped by your feedback. You told us you wanted to hear more about repairs, complaints, building safety, communication and satisfaction with our services. In response, we have included information on these areas, alongside updates on our performance against the standards that are set by the Regulator of Social Housing, community investment and how we are delivering value for money.

While providing safe, affordable homes remains at the heart of what we do, our role extends far beyond bricks and mortar. We are proud of the support we provide to help you and your communities thrive, and we remain committed to listening, learning and improving so that we continue to deliver services you can trust and rely on.

Alan Smith
Chief Executive

Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard

This standard is about being open, honest and accountable to our customers. It ensures that customers are treated fairly and with respect, can easily access our services, raise complaints when things go wrong, influence decisions that affect them, and hold us to account for the services we provide.

Listening to our customers and acting on their feedback

We regularly ask for your feedback through surveys, complaints and engagement activities. You told us that we needed to improve communication, complaint handling, support for people with additional needs, and the way we manage more complex repairs.

We listened and acted. We reviewed our repairs service, improved the way we handle complaints, strengthened support for customers experiencing vulnerability, and invested in new technology to improve your experience.

These changes are already making a difference. Satisfaction with the time taken to complete repairs increased by 7%, while complaints about delays reduced by 11%. Satisfaction with communication increased by 2%, and complaints about communication reduced by 7%. Satisfaction with complaint handling also increased by 2%.

We also continued to deliver strong services, with 94.6% of repairs completed within target timescales, 94.6% completed right first time, 99.38% of Stage 1 complaints and 100% of Stage 2 complaints responded to within Housing Ombudsman timescales. 85% of customers tell us we are easy to deal with and 86% of customers say they are treated fairly and respectfully.

You can find out more about how we listen to your feedback and use it to improve our services here: our customers.

Engaging with customers

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individual engagement projects

6,000

responses to transactional surveys

1,162

responses to the Tenant Satisfaction Measures

1,576

responses to our annual 'who are our customers and what's important to them' survey

1/4

More information about our understanding of who are customers are and what’s important to them can be found on this page.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) help us understand what you think about the services we provide and where we can do better.

This year, our results showed strong performance in areas that matter most to you, including the quality and safety of your home, our repairs service, and the way our colleagues treat you.

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

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81.8%

Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied with the overall service from their landlord

84.9%

Proportion of respondents who have received a repair in the last 12 months who report that they are satisfied with the overall repairs service

81.2%

Proportion of respondents who have received a repair in the last 12 months who report that they are satisfied with the time taken to complete their most recent repair

80.4%

Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied that their home is well maintained

84.9%

Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied that their home is safe

74.2%

Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied that their landlord listens to tenant views and acts upon them

78.0%

Satisfaction that believe housing keeps tenants informed about things that matter to them

86.2%

Proportion of respondents who report that they agree their landlord treats them fairly and with respect

36.5%

Proportion of respondents who report making a complaint in the last 12 months who are satisfied with their landlord’s approach to complaints handling

79.4%

Proportion of respondents with communal areas who report that they are satisfied that their landlord keeps communal areas clean and well maintained

1/10

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

71.9%

Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied that their landlord makes a positive contribution to the neighbourhood

65.0%

Proportion of respondents who report that they are satisfied with their landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour

44.2

Number of stage one complaints received per 1,000 homes

10.3

Number of stage two complaints received per 1,000 homes

99.3%

Proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales

97.9%

Proportion of stage two complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales

0.7%

Number of antisocial behaviour cases that involve hate incidents opened per 1,000 homes

0.0%

Proportion of homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard

93.3%

Proportion of non-emergency responsive repairs completed within the landlord’s target timescale (next convenient appointment, up to 28 days [20 days prior to 8 December 2025]; planned repairs, up to 60 days [40 days prior to 8 December 2025])

99.3%

Proportion of emergency responsive repairs completed within the landlord’s target timescale (up to 24 hours)

1/10

Tenant Satisfaction Measures

100%

Proportion of homes for which all required gas safety checks have been carried out

100%

Proportion of homes for which all required fire risk assessments have been carried out

100%

Proportion of homes for which all required asbestos management surveys or re-inspections have been carried out

100%

Proportion of homes for which all required legionella risk assessments have been carried out

100%

Proportion of homes for which all required communal passenger lift safety checks have been carried out

1/5

More information can be found on our tenant satisfaction measures page.

Complaints

You can find our Annual Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment, Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report and further information around how we have listened to our customers and improved our services as a result of complaints on our complaints page.

Complaints

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812

Stage one complaints closed

186

Stage two complaints closed

99.38%

of stage one complaints responded to within Housing Ombudsman timescales

100%

of stage two complaints responded to within Housing Ombudsman timescales

Housing Ombudsman determinations

36.5%

satisfaction with how complaints were handled (according to Tenant Satisfaction Measures)

Housing Ombudsman determinations

1/7

Customer contact

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192,804

calls answered by the customer hub

19,637

e-mails received by the customer hub

62.5%

of calls resolved at first point of contact

85%

of customers say we are easy to deal with

1/4

Tenancy Standard

This standard sets requirement for the fair allocation and letting of homes, as well as requirements for how tenancies are managed and how customers are supported to maintain their tenancy

Lettings

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8,013

applications received for housing through Durham Key Options with believe housing;

3,284

of applications were eligible and qualified to join the register

67,364

bids placed on believe housing homes

1,384

new tenancies

1,191

re-lets to existing customers

123

lets to customers new to believe housing

Rent to Buy tenancies

1/7

Safety and Quality Standard

This standard is about providing safe, good-quality homes and services that meet customers’ needs. It focuses on maintaining homes to a high standard, delivering an effective and value-for-money repairs service, keeping customers safe, and providing adaptations that help customers live independently and comfortably in their homes.

Repairing and maintaining homes

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68,661

day to day repairs completed across customers' homes

87.06%

satisfaction with repairs or 4.4 out of 5

12.7

days on average to complete a repair

94.6%

of repairs completed within timescales

99.3%

of emergency repairs completed within timescale

94.2%

of significant hazards investigated in 10 working days

94.6%

of repairs completed first time

99.98%

of gas servicing completed on customers’ homes

99.99%

of electrical compliance checks completed

3,191

works connected to damp and mould completed in customers' homes - 31 decants

1/10

Development

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194

new homes built

96%

of customers were satisfied with the overall experience of a new believe housing home.

98.6%

of customers are likely to recommend us to a friend

1/3

Assets and investments

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1,212

fire-stopping actions

2,779

stock condition surveys completed

1,027

properties retrofitted through environmental works

487

boiler and heating upgrades

532

external and environmental improvements

165

new kitchens fitted

new bathrooms fitted and wet rooms

rewires

2,180

external painting jobs

1/9

Neighbourhood and Community Standard

This standard is about creating safe, clean and welcoming neighbourhoods where customers can thrive. It focuses on maintaining communal areas, supporting the social, environmental and economic wellbeing of our communities, and preventing and tackling anti-social behaviour to help people feel safe in and around their homes.

Antisocial behaviour

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430

(low level) antisocial behaviour cases closed

504

safer neighbourhoods' cases closed

1/2

Neighbourhoods

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2,298

tenancy audits completed

235

estate inspections conducted

evictions (including rent arrears, antisocial behaviour and other tenancy breaches)

1/3

Supporting our customers and communities

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Over £273,000

of direct funding awarded in grant funding

£13,153,699

in social value created across the business through community investment projects and employability support

£500 grants awarded

£1000 grants awarded

£10,000 grants awarded

£2,290,388.75

received in welfare benefits by customers through our support

£20,386

worth of heat and eat vouchers issued

£23,160

worth of vouchers issued to customers in energy hardship (via HACT)

1/8

You can find out more about how we embed social value in everything we do in our social value report.

You can find out more about our commitment and focus on Environmental, Social and Governance priorities in our environmental, social and governance report.

How we spend our money

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£29.5m

spent on improving existing homes

£30.1m

spent on repairs and maintenance of customers’ homes

£45.2m

spent acquiring and developing new homes

£26.2m

spent on wages and salary employing over 600 people across the North East

£7.2m

spent on decarbonisation and environmental improvements to make homes warmer and more energy efficient

£772k

spent on adapting homes to meet the needs of our customers

1/6

Our focus for next year

We will continue to use your feedback to improve our services. Next year, we will continue to focus on improving the experience of those of you who need complex repairs, keeping you better informed, delivering excellent complaint handling, and providing tailored support for people with additional needs. We will also work to make sure you have a clear understanding of the services we provide, what you can expect from us, and how we will keep you updated throughout your journey with believe housing.

Alongside this, we will continue to invest in safe, high-quality homes and make it easier for you to contact us and access our services. Finally, we will continue to improve our digital services and continue to show you how your feedback has helped shape our decisions and led to service improvements.