Housing Matters - May 2023
Corporate news
Celebrating 60 years
Celebrating 60 years
We are celebrating our 60th anniversary this year.
Broadland Housing Association was formed in 1963 and we built our first scheme, at Shipfield in Norwich, in 1967. Today we provide more than 5,000 family homes, modern apartments, sheltered and housing with care schemes across Norfolk and north Suffolk.
As part of the celebrations, we commissioned local artist Owen Mathers to design a special 60th anniversary souvenir tote bag. We’ll be giving the bags to tenants as prizes in competitions and at events throughout the year.
We will also be talking to Broadland’s longest tenant – look out for more information in the next issue.
St Benedicts 1986
The Orchards, Aylsham 2002 (built 1848)
Shipfield 1967
Caro Court, Norwich 2011
Canary Quay 2019
Great Ryburgh 2018
Binham 2020
Helping to end homelessness
Council partnerships
Among our newly completed developments in March were 5 homes at Ketts Hill, Norwich, and 7 at Elm Road,Thetford, built with our partners Norwich City Council and Breckland Council respectively.
Using funds from the Government’s Rough Sleepers Accommodation Programme, the new 1-bedroom homes will house people who were formerly sleeping rough on the streets. In both locations, residents will be supported to take on their tenancies, with the ultimate aim of moving into long-term rental tenancies.
HRH The Princess Royal visited the Elm Road site in March, when she met Breckland councillors and members of our leadership team.
In December we celebrated the completion of 5 eco-friendly new homes built in partnership with Norwich City Council, on a formerly derelict pub site in Mile Cross, Norwich.
HRH Princess Anne talking to Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director (centre) and Michael Newey, Chief Executive (right) at Elm Road, Thetford
HRH Princess Anne meeting Michael Newey, Chief Executive
Elm Road, Thetford
Elm Road, Thetford (kitchen)
Elm Road handover, March 2023: Michael Newey flanked by Breckland Council Chief Executive Maxine O'Mahony and Chairman of Breckland Council, Councillor Mike Nairn, with Broadland Board members Steve Dickinson and Judith Elliot at far right.
Key handover, Ketts Hill: Michael Newey, Chief Executive, with Gail Harris, Deputy Leader (front row, 3rd from left) and Catherine Oliver (back row, 2nd from left) of Norwich City Council
Ketts Hill, Norwich
Ketts Hill, Norwich (lounge)
National homelessness strategy day – Homes for Cathy
In January we joined 30 other Homes for Cathy members and housing sector partners for a national strategy day to tackle homelessness.
Speaking at the event, hosted by Hightown Housing Association, our Chief Executive Michael Newey (pictured, below right – third from left) shared Broadland’s journey towards delivering the 9 Homes for Cathy commitments.
He said: “Homelessness prevention is not all about care and supported housing. It should permeate into every area of a housing association’s policy and operations.”
To put the strategy in context, Chris Hancock from Crisis explained why homelessness is a housing problem and not about ‘fixing the individual’. He reported that bed and breakfast usage has tripled in the last 10 years. Also, that around 300,000 UK households could be forced into homelessness in 2023, driven by the cost of living and impacts of the pandemic.
Key themes and insights
- Housing associations ARE homelessness organisations – if not us, who?
- Board and executive team buy-in for adopting the Homes for Cathy commitments is crucial; an organisation’s work around homelessness should filter down from a strategic level.
- Embedding the commitments is a continuous process, particularly with staff changes – it’s about a culture shift within your organisation.
- Operational outcomes in housing are equally as important as homelessness services (although they are vital too!)
- Data is king – knowing and sharing your data around homelessness metrics/KPIs such as evictions, abandonments and lettings to homeless households helps track the progress your organisation is making and motivates and empowers colleagues to do more.
- Sharing stories is key – every organisation approaches the commitments in their own way and the good practice shared through the Homes for Cathy network is invaluable.
Homes for Cathy Eastern Region meeting
At the latest Homes for Cathy regional event, more than 40 people attended from local councils, housing charities and partner organisations. Guest speaker Boris Worrell from Rooftop Housing discussed the issue of homelessness among Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities.
If you would like an invitation to the next regional event, please email paula.strachan@broadlandgroup.org
No Homelessness in Norfolk campaign
This winter, as a member of the Norfolk Strategic Housing Partnership, we supported the No Homelessness in Norfolk seasonal campaign. Typically there is an increase in homelessness in January and February, but this year the cost of living crisis made the situation more acute than in previous years.
Our ‘Support is out there’ social media campaign encouraged people to contact us as soon as possible if they were worried about paying their rent. We also signposted tenants to our dedicated cost of living help webpage.
Award for Canary Quay
Our Canary Quay scheme in Norwich has been named Residential Project of the Year in the Constructing Excellence Norfolk 2023 awards.
The fourth and final phase of Canary Quay was completed earlier this year. The riverside site in Norwich now provides 323 apartments for social rent, shared ownership and open market sales.
The Constructing Excellence Norfolk awards recognise innovation and best practice through collaborative working and supply chain integration. Thanks to our partners on this project RG Carter, Ingleton Wood architects and Rossi Long Consulting for their support.
Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director (pictured bottom right, front row, 3rd from left), said:
“We are over the moon that Canary Quay has been recognised in this way, especially as RG Carter built through some unprecedented times. This project has taken 13 years from buying the land from Norwich City Football Club to completing earlier this year. It’s all down to the people we want to work with and we have had a great team.”
Championing the Living Wage
We are delighted to have been shortlisted for a Living Wage Champion Award by the Living Wage Foundation, especially when there were a record number of submissions this year.
Broadland is a finalist in the Third Sector Champion category. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday 6th July at The National Football Museum in Manchester.
We first became a Living Wage Employer in 2016, and since then we have consistently championed the real Living Wage within the social housing sector. We ensure that our staff pay and pensions remain in line with the real Living Wage and require all our suppliers to pay it.
As an organisation, we actively support Living Wage Week and we are a member of the Norwich Living Wage Action Group, a coalition of local businesses, charities and public sector organisations who are already accredited real Living Wage employers. The Action Group aims to triple the number of employers paying the real Living Wage in the city to 150 by 2025.
Independent East
Our alliance with local housing associations Freebridge Community Housing, Havebury Housing Partnership, Orwell Housing and Saffron Housing Trust in Independent East goes from strength to strength!
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund success
Independent East has successfully secured almost £9 million in funding to boost energy efficiency in hundreds of social housing homes.
The funding from Wave 2 of the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF Wave 2.1) will mean energy-saving measures, such as loft insulation and new windows, can be put in place in 800 homes. The upgrades ensure that properties currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C will be brought up to that standard.
The Government funding is designed to:
- deliver warm, energy-efficient homes
- reduce carbon emissions
- tackle fuel poverty
- support green jobs
- develop the retrofit sector
- improve the comfort, health, and wellbeing of tenants
Broadland’s share is £815,913 and, as the consortium lead, we will be administering the funding to our Independent East partners.
Justin O’Connor, Assistant Asset Director, said:
“This funding shows what our effective partnership with Independent East can achieve. It will help to improve the energy efficiency of our tenants’ homes when fuel bills are at a historic high. We will be focusing on improvements to five of our schemes, upgrading them to carbon-friendly heating systems and electricity-generating solar panels, ensuring that the energy performance increases to a minimum ‘C’ rating.”
New: Residents Voice
With our Independent East partners, we set up Residents Voice to bring tenants together to share ideas and experiences with a view to creating better services.
In April we held the first Residents Voice seminar, facilitated by Creative Bridge, with representatives from all 5 housing associations. The feedback was fantastic and we are really excited to take this project forward.
The next steps will be to receive the final report and recommendations from the event. The project team next meet in June to review this report.
#flourish EDI campaign
The Independent East #flourish campaign is offering Independent East staff a series of thought-provoking talks to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace and in our communities. The talks, hosted on Microsoft Teams, cover:
- Asperger’s in the workplace
- Living with Alzheimer’s
- The power of stories and how to have difficult conversations
- LGBTIQA+ allyship and inclusive language, practical tips for supporting super diverse people.
Alex Manners (26), an autism and neurodiversity speaker, Asperger's champion, presenter and author, delivered the first session. Alex has talked about his Asperger's many times on radio and television. He has published a book called That’s Not Right! My Life Living with Asperger’s and featured on series 10 and 11 of The Undateables on Channel 4.
Other speakers will include Peter Berry and Deb Bunt, Elma Glasgow and Franstine Jones BEM from Aspire Black History, and Laila El-Metoui.
Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation
Last year we started working toward Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation.
DAHA accreditation is recognised in the Government's Ending Violence against Women and Girls Strategy: 2016 to 2020, and it is the UK benchmark for how housing providers should respond to domestic abuse.
We already work closely with local councils, charities and other organisations as part of our response to domestic abuse. By becoming DAHA accredited, we are continuing to ensure we deliver safe and effective responses to domestic abuse.
The DAHA accreditation framework includes 8 priority areas that consider an organisation's operations and interventions in domestic abuse. It builds in processes that help guide staff to adequately address the needs of survivors and hold abusers to account.
Domestic abuse: how we respond
- Policies and procedures in place to support tenants/staff who are affected by domestic abuse (DA)
- Information on our website/social media/offices about DA support services
- 4 x Domestic Abuse Champions, including senior managers, who actively promote DA resources and support
- Regular and targeted staff training to raise awareness of domestic abuse
Tenant Perception Survey
The Regulator of Social Housing’s new standards for social housing providers came into effect on 1 April 2023.
The new standards include the Tenant Satisfaction Measures, and the Regulator requires us to survey all our tenants, using a standard set of questions. The Regulator will use this information to look at how we are providing services and what tenants think about these services.
We are carrying out two surveys, one in May and another in October (the results of which we will submit to the Regulator). We need to give the Regulator an overview of how many people answered within a range of categories (for example, age, ethnicity, geographical location, type of housing), to make sure that everyone is represented fairly.
We are required to submit the overview to the Regulator in April 2024.
As well as sharing the overall survey results with the Regulator, we will also share these with:
- our Board
- Broadland staff
- our tenant panel - the Tenant Assurance Panel
- on our website
- in our tenant magazine, Door to Door.
Sample printed form