Welcome to Housing Matters

As a housing association, our social purpose is as strong as ever: to provide good quality, affordable homes to people in our communities who can't afford to compete in the open market.

There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing in the UK. As a Homes for Cathy founder-member, reducing homelessness in our region is one of our top priorities. In this issue you can read about one of our latest projects in Norwich – where a new block of 6 flats at Webster Court was built in just 3 days! Whole apartments were lowered into place by crane, virtually ready to live in.

Our huge Canary Quay development, now nearing completion, is already fulfilling its promise to provide more affordable homes in Norwich city centre. In Great Hockham we have recently started work with parish council partners on a new 18-home development to help tackle the shortage of affordable housing in rural areas.

As an organisation, we care about our people. We are an accredited Real Living Wage employer, which ensures our staff are paid properly for the valuable work they do. Employees who receive the Real Living Wage are less likely to need to turn to benefits to look after their families, and struggle to make ends meet. This ethos is reflected in our strong employee engagement results. You can read about our support for Living Wage Week 2021 in this issue.

You can also find out more about our new tenant engagement policy. This ambitious policy builds on work we have been doing with a group of tenants as part of the National Housing Federation’s Together with Tenants initiative, launched in response to the Government’s White Paper on social housing.

Our new policy creates 5 new tenant groups which will extend the reach and depth of our neighbourhood engagement. We also hosted the Social Housing Regulator this autumn, inviting tenants from housing associations across the east to give the Regulator direct feedback on their issues and concerns.

Meanwhile, our Board members are reviewing feedback from a whole series of staff, tenant and stakeholder consultations carried out earlier this year on our proposed priorities and future direction. We hope to announce a new 4-year Corporate Strategy early in 2022.

Last but not least, in this issue we celebrate some inspiring people. You can read about the lasting legacy of our former Board members Baroness Patricia Hollis and Richard Hawthorn, a couple of Local Care Hero award winners, and the kindness and talents of some of our amazing tenants.