Housing Matters - February 2024
Corporate news
60th Anniversary Celebrations at Shipfield
A memorable occasion in 2023 was our 60th Anniversary Event. Based at our housing development scheme in Shipfield, founded in 1963, tenants joined us in celebration with a barbeque, cake and speech from Michael Newey, Chief Executive. The event took place on the communal green, situated in the heart of the scheme. We brought together the local community, board members both past and present, and our members to celebrate together!
Michael Newey said in his speech:
“It’s completely sensible and right to be here at Shipfield today because this was our very first scheme. I think it was a statement of intent and ambition building the scheme. It was very much about saying – We’re here. We’re going to provide decent homes at low rents to people in this community.
Our 60th Anniversary is a milestone, not a destination. We’re excited about the future and will stay committed to our mission of addressing housing needs.”
Connecting with our communities and celebrating our achievements is incredibly important as we continue to deliver Broadland’s mission.
Welcoming Jenny Watson as New Chair
We were delighted to announce Jenny Watson CBE as our new Chair at Broadland Housing Association. With an impressive track record, Jenny has previous experience in many leadership roles including serving as Chair of The Electoral Commission and The Equal Opportunities Commission, and as a non-executive director of The Financial Ombudsman Service. She also currently chairs the homeless charity, The House of St. Barnabas, and serves as a trustee of the Norfolk Community Foundation. In recognition of her contributions, she was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2017.
Commenting on her appointment, Jenny said:
“I am really pleased to be joining Broadland’s board at such a critical time for the housing sector. I look forward to meeting and learning from our existing tenants to provide the best service that we can to those in our homes, and to working with our partners across Norfolk and North Suffolk, to tackle homelessness and meet the demand for new housing – particularly affordable housing- that we know exists.”
Annual General Meeting 2023
As we celebrate 60 years of service, our Annual General Meeting in October 23 was a great time to discuss our commitment to address housing needs and homelessness. Michael Newey pledged that Broadland would continue to remain its focus, despite the cost-of-living crisis and interest rates.
“More people are unable to find affordable homes in the private sector than when we started, while our tenants are facing unparalleled economic pressures, with food inflation at a 42 year high, and energy costs still at very high levels.”
During the past financial year, when the stats were taken in 2023, Broadland had successfully delivered 131 new homes, compromising 55 for affordable housing and 76 for shared ownership.
Michael spoke on the ongoing struggle of balancing managing existing homes, delivering quality services, and building new homes to meet the growing housing demand, while ensuring sustainability. Despite these challenges, Michael remains positive about the future:
“We are proud of holding true to our purpose across our first 60 years, and the need for Broadland Housing is just as massive today as it ever was. Despite the frustration of facing our toughest financial year yet, we are optimistic for the future, and we will remain resolutely focussed on our purpose of tackling housing need and homelessness.”
5,561
Homes provided
602
Homes allocated, including 108 to homeless households
15,557
Responsive repairs completed
439
Tenants supported in sustaining their tenancies
131
New homes delivered, compromising 55 for affordable rent and 76 for shared ownership
New Developments
Great Hockham
As part of a partnership project with Breckland Council, we celebrated the completion of 18 new family homes at Great Hockham, including 10 affordable homes. Eight of the homes were available for affordable rent, two for shared ownership and the remaining eight were sold on the open market.
Architecturally designed by Ingleton Wood, the housing scheme echoes charm and strong rural character of the village in a community-focused setting. Chris Stammers, Architectural Director, said:
“We’re proud to continue our collaboration with Broadland Housing Association in designing this sensitive rural housing scheme at Great Hockham.”
Michael Newey expressed the positive movement for these schemes.
“This kind of mixed-tenure development, with a blend of affordable homes and open-market homes, is increasingly the way forward, both because it makes such schemes financially viable, but also because it encourages a better integration within the community.”
Councillor Sarah Suggitt, Deputy Leader for Breckland Council added:
“It’s fantastic to see these affordable family homes, especially new rental homes, being brought onto the market for local people. We have been able to deliver this project by working in partnership with Broadland Housing, ensuring our residents can retain local connections and build a future within the district.”
New Tenants
Speaking with the new tenants on the scheme opening day, Lara and her son, Ted, moved into their new affordable rented home in April. They had previously been living in her parents’ home in Watton.
Living next door to Lara, new tenants Bethany and Riley, and their daughter, Sienna, shared their thoughts on the scheme.
“Where I was living was really unsuitable, I was struggling to get the pram down the stairs, and it had no outside space for the children. I am so excited to have more space, and a garden for the kids to play in.”
Net Zero Homes at Northrepps
Broadland has been making continuous progress on building 19 net-zero operational carbon homes at Northrepps. This is the first set of net zero-operational carbon homes that Broadland has built. Construction began in early 2023 and is due to be completed in Spring 2024.
Located off Broadgate Close in Northrepps village, the new homes include a range of features that are designed to maximise energy-efficiency and minimise the demand for energy. Designed by Architects, Ingleton Wood, the properties include enhanced insulated timber frames, triple-glazed windows, air source heat pumps, air tightness with mechanical ventilation, and heat recovery to minimise energy demand. Photovoltaic solar panels on the homes’ roofs are predicted to generate sufficient electricity over the course of the year to off-set the estimated electricity usage for the average occupancy of each property.
Michael Newey, Chief Executive, commented:
“We are delighted to see how these new homes are progressing and to be able to demonstrate the first outlines of this new scheme with its eco technology.”
Wendy Fredericks, North Norfolk District Council, said:
“We have been supporting the scheme through the whole process working with Broadland Housing Association to build these badly needed homes in our District. These new eco homes are incredibly important and will help residents reduce costs in the current climate.”
TPAS National Tenant Conference 2023
This year’s TPAS conference took place in Coventry, and it was dedicated to bringing delegates up to date with the latest housing policies and practical skills. The conference gave tenants and staff the opportunity to discuss challenges and share their ideas.
Jenny Osborne, TPAS Chief Executive, led the opening session which focused on how tenants can effect change, and how to do engagement well. There was a wide variety of workshops on Chairing skills, Anti-social behaviour, Governance, and Tenant and Community engagement. It also raised awareness of the Four Million Homes programme funded by the Government to give guidance and training on tenant rights and how to stand up for them.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, talked through the new plan for the Ombudsman service and the importance of good record keeping and communication. He also invited landlords to share their learnings from complaints.
Kate Dodsworth, Director of Consumer Regulation, Regulator of Social Housing, updated us on the work underway and discussed what tenants can expect from the increased Consumer Regulation.
Broadland’s engaged tenants who attended the conference particularly enjoyed their sessions on Repairs which shared good practise. They also enjoyed the Scrutiny workshop that included top tips and skills to make scrutiny successful. Their key takeaways were around the importance of effective questioning and collaboration. One question that particularly resonated with them was, “What does your home mean to you?” with tenants sharing their own personal experiences.
Eastern Region Homes for Cathy Conference & NSHP Seminar November 2023
Broadland were once again delighted to host the Eastern Region Homes for Cathy and NSHP meeting.
We had some fantastic speakers on the day talk about the work they are doing to help the homeless people of Norfolk.
Jo Stevenson and Helen Gilbert from The Trussell Trust have seen a 37% increase in numbers using their service, which is almost 3 million food parcels between April 2022 and March 2023. In Norfolk, they have seen a 41% increase. They have also seen high numbers from those people with mental health or physical illnesses.
Amy Harrold from the Ministry of Justice talked about the challenges faced by prison leaders and the lack of homes for them to go into. Research has found that many become homeless.
Matthew Reading from Norfolk County Council talked about the #Flourish campaign, helping children who have been homeless.
Paula Hall, from the Purfleet Trust gave an insightful presentation on the work they have been doing in Kings Lynn to help the homeless in North Norfolk with advice and support. Paula talked about the training house set up to support people back into work by learning new skills.
Jane Locke from Adult Social Services spoke about the research she has been carrying out on warm homes and health. Fuel poverty is very high in Norfolk, almost 63,000 homes are currently living in cold homes.
All the presentations from the day can be found here:
Norfolk Strategic Housing Partnership
The Norfolk Strategic Housing Partnership (NSHP) was formed to ensure anyone sleeping rough in Norfolk has access to safe accommodation.
Michael Newey as New Chair!
Michael Newey took over as Chair in 2023. He commented:
“I am delighted to be able to lead the partnership. With the help of my colleagues in the partnership we will make a difference to ending homelessness in Norfolk, ensuring that everyone has a safe place to call home.”
The strategic aim of the group is to bring together the many different disciplines to work to end homelessness. This included leaders from across public and voluntary sectors, such as housing, health, probation adult and children services, Department of Work and Pensions and local authorities.
Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA)
Progress on our DAHA accreditation
Since our last issue, we have been making great progress working towards our DAHA accreditation.
We carried out an all-staff survey and were very happy to see how much our staff already knew and the confidence they felt in helping their colleagues, tenants, or friends. We received a great response to the survey and have been looking at the results to ensure we can fill in any knowledge gaps.
We have also been recruiting new Domestic Abuse Change Champions. These pivotal roles will ensure that support is there for both our staff and tenants, and we keep up to date with the latest developments and training. This is not about being an expert but being able to signpost.
Once recruitment is finished, we will be training with NIDAS.
From the survey, one of the aspects staff felt they needed better understanding of was intersectionality. It is an area of domestic abuse that often gets misunderstood. Two members of the project team did a podcast for staff to explain some of the terminology and what it means for our own tenants and staff.
We have also introduced training through our online Skillsgate courses. This 30-minute course will give staff more knowledge of the legal side and how they can support each other.
#Flourish EDI Campaign Continues
As part of our ongoing partnership with Independent East’s #Flourish campaign, we have continued to hold joint talks for staff hosted on Microsoft teams. As part of our continued work on domestic abuse, and to tie in with Black History Month in October, we had a fascinating talk with Bal Howard.
Whilst domestic violence transcends ethnicity, race and religion, the topic covered by Bal has roots in all parts of society and culture. Bal reflected on the work being done to reduce these kinds of abuse, including forced marriage and honour-based abuse.
Learning from Complaints
We have investigated how we handle complaints, which is a requirement by the Housing Ombudsman’s Handling Code. The assessment showed that we are meeting the requirements in most areas, but we need to continually improve on the following:
- We need to spot when feedback shows there is a complaint.
- We need to be meeting the timescales for responding to complaints.
- We must show how we have made things better because of complaints.
Landlord’s Report
We received our Landlord’s Report 2022/2023 published by the Housing Ombudsman. The report identified that we have a high maladministration rate. We remain diligent in viewing this information to identify the learnings from it and make progresses where needed.
Complaints Manager
Our newly recruited Complaints Manager has recently joined Broadland and will be working to improve the response times of complaints. This is to ensure that we meet the 10 working days as set out in the Complaint Handling Code.We are looking forward to seeing the positive impact of this and will continue to make improvements of our complaints process.
Christmas Charity Fundraiser at Broadland
Before the Christmas break, we held a Christmas raffle and Festive Wreath Workshop as part of a charity fundraiser for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. It was fantastic to come together and raise money for such an important organisation.
We raised £933 and would like thank all of our suppliers and contractors that contributed towards the Christmas raffle. Rexel, Maxmedia, ALD Automotive, CIM Signs & Graphics, Prospect Handling, Resource, Hugh J Boswell, Daniel Connal Partnership, City Plumbing, Barnwell Print, Edmundson Electrical, Hainstone, Eyre Group, Garrett Roofing and Business Equip.