Reflecting on Broadland’s ‘finest hour’
AGM 2020
Broadland held its first virtual AGM in September. Board members and association members came together in a socially-distanced meeting, with an exclusive video link. Michael Newey, our Chief Executive, described how the previous 6 months had been Broadland’s ‘finest hour’. He outlined how we have supported vulnerable tenants during the Coronavirus pandemic, implemented a huge sanitisation programme, and worked closely with local partners to provide safe places for homeless people during the lockdown.
Despite the pandemic, Broadland also delivered 288 new homes during 2019-20 including 171 for rental and a further 38 for shared ownership. We allocated 527 new homes during the year, of which 82 were let to homeless people, and a further 122 to older people.
Michael praised Broadland employees for quickly adapting to a new way of working to ensure that tenants were kept safe.
“Our staff had to adapt quickly to a new way of working, and responded magnificently,” he said. “Because of this, we were able to put in place support for our tenants really quickly.
“As lockdown started, we phone more than 1,000 of our most vulnerable tenants, to make sure they were alright, and to offer any assistance they might need. As a result, 450 of those received ongoing help, from deliveries of food and prescriptions, to regular telephone calls to provide a friendly voice to those facing lockdown on their own.
“The way we responded to lockdown and Covid has been our finest hour as an organisation. But we are still working through how we deal with the new normal.”
Broadland also played a key part in the ‘Everybody In’ campaign to ensure all homeless people had a safe place to stay during lockdown. We are working in partnership to provide permanent accommodation for homeless people. The scheme has already secured permission for 23 new homes in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and 13 in Norwich, and is well on the way to securing 36 more in Great Yarmouth.
Reflecting on the year which ended with the lockdown, Michael was upbeat about Broadland’s performance before to the emergency.
“On pretty much every metric, we have had a strong year. We have accelerated our development programme; we carried out over 20,000 repairs including new bathrooms, kitchens, windows and heating systems; We installed solar pv panels on 55 of our homes; and we carried out adaptations in 38 properties to enable residents to stay living in their own homes.
“In addition, our Tenancy Support team worked with nearly 350 tenants, underlining our commitment not just to provide quality affordable homes, but to help people access the support they may need to maintain their tenancy.”
Michael said that it was difficult to predict what the immediate future would bring – but that Broadland Housing would remain committed to its core aims.
“For the last 25 years, everybody has been talking about having a ‘2020 Vision’ – and yet none of us could have foreseen what this year would bring.
“We have proven that we are equal to the challenges which have been thrown at us, and we will stay focused on our core aims of providing quality affordable homes, supporting our tenants to live in those homes, tackling homelessness, and building as many new homes as possible.”
The AGM also thanked Jon Barber, Kate Slack and Andy Hill, who have stepped down from the Board, for their service and welcomed four new Board members:
- Richard Alexander (tenant)
- Judith Elliott
- Mike Finister-Smith
- Martin Keats (tenant)
Meet our new Board members
We are pleased to have elected four new Board members at this year’s AGM. Following a successful recruitment drive, we saw our highest ever number of tenants apply to be on our Board, which is excellent news.
Judith Elliott
Tell us a little about yourself
I grew up in west London (I used to go to school on the Tube!). I moved to Cambridgeshire over 30 years ago and I now live near Newmarket. It’s pretty easy to get to Norwich along the Newmarket Road, so it feels close by.
Can you briefly describe your career?
I first started work as a management trainee at John Lewis and stayed there for 15 years. John Lewis has integrity as an organisation, and it was a good place to learn how to lead people. You get a mix of people from all walks of life, all pulling together to give a good experience to the customer. I became a senior manager, focusing on learning and development. It was my route into HR and I found I really liked it.
I decided to set up my own learning and management development company, elconsulting, where we do coaching, training, e-learning, facilitation and mediation. We work with small start-up companies needing people management expertise right through to big organisations, such as Bosch, Booking.com and the University of Cambridge.
What attracted you to apply to become a board member at Broadland?
I was a non-executive director of an arts charity (a voluntary role) for 4-5 years. I learned a lot on that board, and I had my eye out for an equally interesting role in an organisation with similar values to me. Broadland ticked all the right boxes, because it is an organisation that is making a difference. At this stage, I have done a lot of work with private sector companies, and I want to work with an organisation that is doing things that matter to people’s lives.
What skills do you bring to the Board?
I have worked with lots of different organisations across lots of sectors, and I’m active on an HR Managers’ forum. I can bring my experience of people management and development to Board level and share this wider HR knowledge. So I bring a broad as well as a specialist perspective.
In your working life, have you worked within the housing sector?
I have worked with the construction sector, but not housing. However, this gives me a fresh perspective. I can ask the question, “Why are you doing it like that…?” Challenging leadership doesn’t have to be a conflict. It works when both sides listen to each other and you can have a proper debate.
Have you ever lived in social housing? What is your perspective of social housing?
I haven’t lived in social housing myself, but my mother in law helped to set up Cambridge housing association many years ago, so I have always been aware of the importance of making housing available for everybody. I have also lived in some pretty crummy private-rent flats in London in my time!
What are you most looking forward to learning about?
I am looking forward to understanding the whole business model of the association. And from an HR point of view, I am getting really good vibes about the organisational culture of Broadland. As part of my induction I will be ‘buddied up’ with James Godfrey [Broadland’s Director of People and Culture]. I want to get to know the plans and the problems, to see if I can be of practical help.
What are you most looking forward to addressing or being involved in as a board member?
I currently volunteer as a mentor in a pilot scheme for young people leaving care in Cambridgeshire. I am supporting my young mentee (who has refugee status) to get into employment, and I can see the huge difference that having this support makes. I am keen to get out and about, meet tenants and see the work that Broadland does in the community.
Martin Keats
Martin Keats is one of our two new tenant Board members. Martin started his career in the Royal Navy as a radio operator, where he became fluent in Morse Code. He specialised in tactical communications and coded signals for manoeuvring ships in company at sea.
Martin’s communications and IT background gave him a head start when computers were introduced into the workplace in the 1980s. He became a lead IT officer in local government, first at the Inner London Education Authority, and later Camden Council.
Now retired, Martin moved into one of our shared ownership properties in Carbrooke, Watton last summer. “My wife and were both unfortunate to lose our jobs through ill-health. We owned our home in Thetford but couldn’t afford to live on ESA [Employment and Support Allowance]. The bills and debts were mounting up. We had the option to sell our home and use the equity to pay off our debts and buy a percentage of a shared ownership property. It’s great here. Carbrooke is a really nice mixed group of shared ownership, social rent and market sale properties (by another developer) on a former airfield, so all the streets are named after old World War 2 aircraft – Fortress, Hurricane, Spitfire, Mosquito and so on.”
Why did Martin decide to join the Board? “With the furlough scheme coming to an end soon, a lot more people are likely to find themselves in the desperate situation my wife and I were in. I thought it would be good to give a voice to that experience. I am also retired now, and I have the time to take on a new challenge.”
Martin has a particular interest in tackling homelessness, especially among armed forces veterans, and he volunteers for the Royal British Legion and supports Soldiers Off The Street. “Homelessness is a huge issue that needs addressing in as many ways as possible. During my Board induction I’ve been really interested to see how Broadland don’t just put a homeless person in a property, they work with them and support them in a rounded way. I have briefly experienced the anxiety of being ‘stuck’ and not know where I was going to live. In the six weeks gap between selling our house and moving into our Broadland home, we were fortunate to have friends who let us stay in their caravan at Hemsby. But it brought home to me how easy it is for people to become homeless.”
Martin believes it’s important that the tenant’s voice is heard at Board level to keep Broadland on track and provide fresh ideas. “It would be very easy for Broadland to continue doing a very professional job but not see things from a personalised point of view. Tenants can tell Broadland why they need to keep doing what they’re doing to provide decent homes.”
Mike Finister-Smith
Mike is the new chair of Broadland’s Audit and Risk Committee. He comes to Broadland with 25 years’ experience of the housing sector. After retiring, he was keen to continue using his skills and experience in a part-time role.
“I am already the Chair of Audit at Ongo [a social housing provider in Lincolnshire] and Broadland fitted the bill as a medium-size housing association, which was community-based and well run. I have picked well! Broadland has a fabulous staff and board and a warm and friendly culture.”
Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, today Mike lives in the West Midlands with his wife, Sam. Between them they have 4 children and 7 grandchildren. His also has two labradoodles, Dudley and Alice, who are trained as Pets as Therapy dogs and have previously worked in local schools encouraging children to read to them.
Mike’s career started when aged 16 he joined Calderdale Council straight from school. “As a housing benefit officer, I was dealing with people applying for benefits on the phone or over the counter. It was some of the best training I ever had in learning how to deal with people who needed advice or sometimes calm them down when they were frustrated or angry!”
He qualified as an accountant aged 33 and became the Finance Manager in the Housing Department of Leeds City Council. “It was a baptism of fire! There were 83,000 council houses that I was managing the finances for, which was a huge responsibility now I look back on it.”
At 40 Mike left and worked as a housing consultant, managing a large-scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) of former council houses. After that he was became the director of a housing association near Manchester Airport, before working in the Midlands until he retired.
This varied experience serves Mike well for his new role at Broadland. “As Chair of Audit of course you need the technical skills (the financial accounting elements), but you also need a common-sense approach to risk and to understand the practicalities of running a large business.”
As a Board member, Mike is particularly interested in developing tenant participation in Broadland. Mike has lived in social housing himself. As the youngest of 6 children, he lived in his family’s 3-bedroom council house in Halifax until he left home aged 23, to get married. “Social housing will always fulfil a need, not everyone is in a position to buy their own home.”
“Some organisations do tenant participation as a tick-box exercise, to satisfy the regulators. Other times a narrow bunch of people get involved, which distorts the views of the rest of the tenants. What I’m interested in exploring is, how do we engage as many tenants as we can in a constructive and meaningful way?”
Richard Alexander
Richard began his career in the engineering office at Associated British Ports, Lowestoft, where he prepared drawings, engineering documents, tenders and contracts for various works within the port estate.
In 1989 he joined Norfolk County Council and spent 18 years there, working as a Highways Development Control Officer and later with the Waste Management Team, looking after the county’s recycling centres.
Richard retired from his role as a Service Manager at Suffolk Coastal and Waveney District Councils in 2017. He had represented the respective authorities on joint venture and partnership boards for services including waste and recycling collections, the management and operation of leisure centres, and asset management of council properties.
More recently Richard has completed a short term with Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s Planning and Growth Team. They were looking at vacant commercial and domestic properties in the borough and how best to encourage the owners to start using/occupying them again.
He says: “I believe that a society should provide some form of social housing and that it fulfils a vitally important sector of the housing provision. The opportunity for people to rent good quality properties coupled with a regulated and fair system of rent increase is essential.”
Canary Quay Phase 2 completed
August saw the completion of Richard Hawthorn House, the second phase of Broadland’s development at Canary Quay in Norwich. Patricia Hollis House was Phase 1.
Residents are now moving into the block, which consists of 89 flats, a mixture of intermediate rent and open market sales.
Sales for our open market properties are going well, and we have just a small handful of intermediate rent flats still available. These are offered to tenants at 80% of the current market value.
Rural schemes win Planning Excellence award
Broadland’s affordable housing strategy in north Norfolk has won a coveted Planning Excellence Award from the RTPI (Royal Town Planning Institute).
Broadland’s North Norfolk District Wide Affordable Housing Strategy was the regional winner in the RTPI’s virtual awards ceremony in November.
Taking advantage of changes to national policy, Broadland’s North Norfolk District Wide Affordable Housing Strategy has developed mixed-tenure sites across rural north Norfolk. Broadland’s strategy is to use the sale of market homes to subsidise the delivery of affordable housing.
North Norfolk has one of the most acute needs for affordable housing outside London. Working closely with partners at North Norfolk District Council and local parish councils, Broadland has developed schemes in five locations (Binham, Trunch, Erpingham, Edgefield and Great Ryburgh), linked by one Section 106 Agreement.
The house designs are of a high quality that complements their rural village setting. The homes are traditionally constructed, an approach that supports a long life cycle and also uses the skills of specialist local craftsmen – such as flint wall construction.
The RTPI award shortlisting recognises that Broadland’s rural housing schemes are helping to create thriving, sustainable communities in north Norfolk.
Planning consultations go online
Due to the Coronavirus restrictions, on 24 June Broadland launched its first-ever virtual planning consultation, on our proposed new development at Northrepps.
We sent all local residents a personal invitation containing a QR code that they could scan, giving them instant access to our plans for the 19 new homes. There was also a direct link to the live consultation from our website.
The proposed scheme will comprise of:
- 9 open market properties
- 2 shared ownership properties
- 8 affordable rented properties
There is a desperate shortage of affordable housing in north Norfolk, with young families in particular struggling to stay living in the area.
Our online consultation replicated our regular face-to-face consultations, with topic boards that residents could click on to view the house designs, watch a ‘fly-through’ video of the scheme, and learn more about local housing need and how we provide affordable housing. Visitors could ask us questions via a live chat function during the 4-hour event. They could also give their feedback on our plans in an online questionnaire.
Thanks to our partners Aecom and North Norfolk District Council for their support with this event. The response was encouraging, with 42 views of the plans on the day. More virtual consultations are in the pipeline for our new developments.
Get on Board – tenant recruitment drive
During the summer Broadland launched a new course to encourage tenants to become a Board member or join one of the growing number of tenant panels.
The Get on Board course provided useful background about Broadland - its history, vision and how it delivers services – and about how housing associations are regulated and funded. The course also aimed to help tenants develop confidence and skills for taking part in committees, formal meetings etc.
Due to the Coronavirus restrictions, the training was held online via video conferencing (Zoom). It ran over four evenings in July, with members of our Executive team, chair and 9 tenants taking part.
We received some really positive feedback from tenants about the course, such as:
“A huge thank you for the informative and thoughtful sessions on the structure and governance of Broadland. I now have a far better understanding of Broadland and its inner workings.”
We plan to run more tenant courses in 2021.