The NHC host the Regulator for a site visit tour across Greater Manchester

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This month the NHC hosted a visit across various member sites in Greater Manchester with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). We welcomed Chair of the Regulator, Bernadette Conroy; and Director of Consumer Regulation, Kate Dodsworth, to visit MSV Housing, Johnnie Johnson Housing (JJHT) and Salix Homes sites across Manchester and Salford. This tour provided the opportunity for our members to highlight the key challenges and opportunities they are facing at present – in particular: new supply, net zero, and building safety.

We began the tour with a visit to the Depot regeneration site in the Moss Side area of Manchester. The Depot is a brownfield site which now contains over 200 homes, many of which are MSV’s. Elmswood Park is an MSV extra care scheme offering an independent living experience exclusively for over 55s whilst providing a consistent care service – thus relieving the pressure on residential care settings. Also in the Depot is Bowes House, a Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) scheme offering 40 shared ownership apartments for over 55s, designed to adapt over time to meet the changing needs of the occupants. The last stop at the Depot was to Manchester City Council’s Neighbourhood Apartments, which are provided to help speed up hospital discharge for older people by providing short-term suitable accommodation. The scheme was a great example of excellent partnership working between local authorities and housing associations – in this case Manchester City Council and MSV.

We then moved on to see Positive Futures, another MSV site in the Moss Side area which was previously MSV’s head office. The building has been repurposed to provide 17 high-quality, affordable apartments for care leavers, with the ground floor being occupied by Positive Futures – a facility which provides training and education for the community.

The last MSV site we visited was Cosy Home, a traditional pre-war terraced house in the heart of Rusholme. This type of house is prolific across Manchester, with MSV alone owning 1,300 similar properties. They are notoriously difficult to retrofit and pose a major problem for providers across the North with these types of homes in their stock. The Cosy Home is a pilot retrofit house which now benefits from an EPC A rating due to internal wall insulation, PV panels, an air source heat pump, and highly efficient new windows and doors.

We then moved on to visit JJHT’s Wellington House site, an independent living housing development for the over 55s. The development has undergone renovation of some of its apartments to convert them from studios to one-bed apartments. JJHT have ambitions to extend this work, and further renovate the scheme to ensure it reaches the high standards set by other JJHT sites. Current approaches to funding the regeneration of existing stock make this more comprehensive regeneration challenging, and we were able to explain to Kate and Bernadette that this is just one example of the constraints net additionality rules place on Northern providers.

To end the tour, we travelled over to Salford to visit two Salix sites. The Regulator had the opportunity to see Canon Hussey Court, a 1960s tower block which was identified as one of eight Salix tower blocks in Salford to have been fitted with cladding that fails fire safety tests. Salix moved promptly to remediate the fire safety failure with a large-scale programme across its tower blocks. However, works on Canon Hussey Court and its sister block, Arthur Millwood Court, were complex. Salix needed to remediate the entire cladding system of the blocks and many challenges arose which were worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme of work was finally completed in spring 2021 and included the removal and replacement of the defective cladding system, the installation of sprinklers, a new state-of-the art fire alarm system, along with the refurbishment of communal areas.

Our final visit was to Salix’s Greenhaus site where we donned our hard hats and boots to see the ground-breaking, eco-friendly apartment block currently under construction in Salford. The nine-storey, 96-apartment building is being built to Passivhaus standards and will be the largest Passivhaus affordable housing scheme in the north west. Construction of Greenhaus – which is being delivered by the English Cities Fund – is progressing well and is due for completion in spring 2024.

The homes at Greenhaus will benefit from triple-glazed windows and the latest in insulation technology, using minimal energy for heating and cooling. Public electric vehicle charging spaces are also being installed at the site, along with a public square and landscaping. Greenhaus represents a new era of high quality, sustainable and affordable housing, delivering desperately needed affordable homes in Salford which are better for the environment, support carbon neutral ambitions, and help reduce fuel poverty for residents.

The close the day, we held a dinner in Manchester city centre with Bernadette and Kate along with NHC members from across the region, providing members the opportunity to speak directly with the Regulator.

We would like to thank Bernadette Conroy and Kate Dodsworth from the RSH, all members and staff involved in the site visits, and all delegates at the evening dinner.

The Social Housing Regulation Bill is close to completing its passage through Parliament, so this was an apt time to host the Regulator and discuss the experiences of our members.

The NHC convenes regular bilateral meetings with the RSH, as well as a member-led Regulation Network. For details, contact Nigel Johnston, Head of Business Improvement: nigel.johnston@northern-consortium.org.uk

Believe Tenant Secures Scholarship For Digital Marketing Career

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A Believe Tenant Secures Scholarship For Digital Marketing Career who has won a scholarship to a digital marketing Master’s degree hopes it will help restart her career after devastatingly being made redundant.

Rachel McCourt has earned herself a £9,000 scholarship with Digital Knowledge Lab, which is a collaboration between York St John University and Gateshead HQ’d digital marketing specialists Mediaworks, that will see her spend 18 months studying for a Masters in Digital Marketing and Data Analytics.

Just days after hearing she’d beaten off more than 50 other eager applicants to secure the fully funded place, the 25-year-old was dealt a bitter blow with the news that her employers, Great Annual Savings, had gone into administration in early May.

Rachel said: “It was such a crushing blow for me personally as well as for all my other colleagues, but the fact that I can now focus on my studies without the financial burden others might face in studying such a prestigious qualification is a huge silver lining.

“While I now need to find a job, there is enormous comfort that my longer-term skills and qualifications are taken care of. I’m enormously grateful to Digital Knowledge Lab, and can’t wait to start on the digital marketing modules.”

Rachel, who lives in Seaham with her partner and two-year-old daughter, won the place as part of a first-time incentive between Digital Knowledge Lab, Mediaworks and their partners Northern Housing Consortium (NHC).

Through Mediaworks’ activity with NHC and its member housing associations, they wanted to offer a fully funded place to someone currently residing under a social housing provider. Rachel says she saw the incentive on social media and believed she might stand a chance through her family’s tenancy with believe housing.

Catherine Wilmot, Executive Director (Operations and Finance) at Northern Housing Consortium said: “We are thrilled that Rachel, as a tenant of believe housing, has been successful in her application for this Masters programme. In her application and interview she clearly demonstrated both her passion and enthusiasm for the opportunity and a track record of commitment and achievement in previous work and training undertaken. Additionally, in the spirit of our own NHC Unlocking Success tenant training bursary scheme, this Mediaworks-funded scholarship offers her a unique opportunity to access training and potential career development opportunities, which might not otherwise have been readily available to her.  We wish Rachel every success in her studies!”

Rei Khan, Course Director at Digital Knowledge Lab added: “I am extremely excited to welcome Rachel onto our industry-leading master’s programme. Rachel stood out throughout the application process and impressed us at the final stages, clearly communicating her passion for marketing and her commitment to ongoing learning. I am confident Rachel will capitalise on this opportunity by applying her learnings into her role as she progresses through the course.”

Rachel spent more than six years with Great Annual Savings, becoming marketing advisor there where she oversaw a range of tasks, including copy writing, social media, design and website management.

She added: “This was my first job out of college, and I have learned lots, but it was a period where I was looking to extend my marketing understanding in a digital environment, so I’m really keen to hear from others who are experts in their field. I know this will stand me in great stead in achieving my long-term career goals.

“The selection process was very nervy as I’d never really been interviewed for more than six years, but I’m so proud of myself to have secured the scholarship.”

More information on Digital Knowledge Lab’s fully remote courses, which include Master’s degrees and short courses, can be found at https://digital.yorksj.ac.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

Ed Miliband sees real homes, real change in Doncaster

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The NHC was pleased to meet with Shadow Climate and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband MP on a recent visit to see green home upgrades carried out on council homes managed by St Leger Homes in Doncaster.

 NHC Executive Director (Policy and Public Affairs), Brian Robson joined Mr Miliband and colleagues from the ALMO and City Council on a visit to homes in the Wheatley and Armthorpe area of the city, which are benefitting from a Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund-backed scheme to install external wall insulation.  The upgrades will make homes warmer, cheaper to heat and green energy ready.

Commenting, Brian said:

“It was good to meet with Ed and to see for ourselves the great work NHC members are doing to deliver real change to real homes. I was keen to stress to him the importance of an ambitious, long-term, devolved energy efficiency programme which would enable our members to keep this great work going and ensure more homes benefit.  In his Shadow Cabinet role, Ed was also keen to understand more about our sector’s plans to roll-out clean heat solutions, and to be briefed on the recommendations of the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury. Huge thanks go to St Leger Homes and City of Doncaster Council for ensuring that this influential local MP saw these works for himself.”

The NHC is keen to share further examples of green home upgrade schemes with local MPs and Peers. If your organisation would like to work with us to organise a visit, please contact Jo Wilson (Head of Policy) at joanne.wilson@northern-consortium.org.uk

Get involved in making the case for Real Homes, Real Change – send us your case studies of completed retrofit projects

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Next month we’ll be launching our Real Homes, Real Change showcase, a document which demonstrates the fantastic work NHC members have been doing to upgrade existing homes to meet the net zero challenge across the North. The publication highlights the difference these upgrades have made, and asks decision-makers to work with us to keep this progress going: delivering more Real Homes, Real Change with an ambitious, long-term, devolved programme of investment.

We’ll be demonstrating what councils and housing associations are already doing to deliver warmer homes, lower bills and make homes green energy ready. This activity has grown massively in recent years, and bringing examples together in one place will be a strong illustration of the high level of ambition and innovation in the region, and will support our calls for further investment.

Alongside the document, we’ll be launching our ‘Real Homes, Real Change’ webpage which brings together even more real life examples of the fantastic projects our members have delivered to create warmer homes, lower bills and to cut carbon. A selection of these examples will be showcased in Parliament with a call to invest in ‘Real Homes, Real Change’, making the case that with over 7million homes across the North, and one-quarter of the North’s emissions coming from domestic sources, we have to upgrade the North’s existing homes in order to meet net zero.

We want to demonstrate to policy makers that the North’s social housing sector is leading the way, and that this great work is beginning to reach scale, however, we need decision-makers to back the North with an ambitious, long-term, devolved programme of investment, so that we can deliver even more real change to real homes. This will be a key NHC ask in the run-up to the General Election and beyond.

How can you get involved?

Please send us your case studies. Help us make this case by sending us a case study of your completed retrofit projects, telling us about the project, the impact and lessons learnt. These will be showcased on our website and shared across social channels throughout the summer.

We want to focus the case studies largely on housing retrofit and the transition to clean home heating technologies but also looking to cover the wider sustainability agenda (in any tenure).

Please email Josef Bews to submit your case study.

 

 

 

Digital tenants academy

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A group of local authorities, ALMOs and Housing Associations are developing a Digital Tenants Academy, to upskill and raise awareness in tenants. The aim is to assist tenants to engage on a more level playing field with landlords either formally through scrutiny or other engagement mechanisms or informally. This will have the potential to enhance effective engagement and influence, but also a range of other personal spin off benefits for some tenants.

The plan is that the Academy will have a range of modules available, and that the content will evolve over time to remain current and to cover the issues that matter.

There are a number of LAs and HAs on board, but we would be interested to hear from any organisation interested in contributing to the Academy, either through contributions to any of the modules, resources or indeed getting involved in any other way.

If you would like to hear more, please contact Nigel Johnston, our Head of Business Improvement -nigel.johnston@northern-consortium.org.uk

NHC and Mayor Brabin discuss housing in the North

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 Northern Housing Consortium Chief Executive, Tracy Harrison, met West Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor, Tracy Brabin, last week to discuss the challenges and opportunities for social housing in the North.

They discussed opportunities around net zero, and the great work members have been doing so far – plus the good green jobs it can bring to our region. They also covered the challenges around the Local Housing Allowance, which are particularly affecting people in parts of West Yorkshire and the work we’ve been doing to get government to look at it again.

Mayor Brabin is already working with social housing providers as part of the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership and is committed to building new social and affordable homes in the area. We are following up on a number of exciting opportunities following the meeting, and we will involve relevant members and update you further as this is brought to life.

We are also delighted to announce that Mayor Brabin will be one of our keynote speakers at this year’s Northern Housing Consortium Summit. The Summit will be held in Leeds on Thursday, 9 November – so save the date in your diary! More details will be out soon.

NHC launches Pride in Place Project in Partnership with Members

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We may not hear about ‘Levelling Up’ as much as we used to, but the underlying principles of the agenda remain. Indeed, ‘Pride in Place’ has proven to be one of the more resilient ideas found in the Levelling Up White Paper published little over a year ago. All political parties are developing their own policies to tackle local inequalities and restore the social fabric of communities. Whilst Party Manifesto’s may be a little while off yet, much will be place-based, and people-centred.

The local dimension of inequality is very much the focus of politicians, policymakers, and academics all looking to improve areas perceived as ‘left behind’, grappling with issues like civic identity and an areas’ ambitions. A welcome legacy of the White Paper is the space that has opened up for community anchors to think differently about their roles in communities, and the intertwining issues of improving housing quality, regenerating town centres, and how all this corresponds to residents’ sense of pride or belonging.

Here at the NHC, we’re working with members to ensure that housing, and housing providers, are valued in this work. After all, housing providers have a central role to play in working collaboratively across areas and sectors to support thriving neighbourhoods, including empowering and working with communities directly.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce the launch of the NHC Pride in Place Project alongside Blackpool Coastal Housing, Karbon Homes, Livv Housing Group, MSV Housing Group, and Yorkshire Housing. Inspired by the innovative work of the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury, we’ll be engaging directly with residents across the North explore with residents the relationship between their home, how they feel about their neighbourhoods, and the potential for collaboration between landlord, tenant, and other stakeholders to make tangible contributions to boost pride in place at the neighbourhood level.

In the coming weeks and months we’ll be sharing more about the project and it’s research. To keep up to date, visit the NHC’s dedicated Rebalancing Webpage:

https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/influencing/rebalancing/

Consultation on the Infrastructure Levy

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Blog by Rob Loughenbury, Director of Strategy Onward Homes

 

Consultation is underway on the details of an Infrastructure Levy that will replace Section 106. How should housing associations respond?

Social housing has greeted plans to introduce a new Infrastructure Levy with a slightly weary ‘if you must’. It will replace Section 106, the imperfect, but workable, way contributions are secured from housebuilders to pay for affordable housing and other infrastructure needs arising from development.

The big idea behind the Levy is to give local planning authorities more freedom around raising and spending money from development. Councils will be able to set different Levy rates for different kinds of development and collect it in a big pot available for infrastructure, as well as potentially for services or even to subsidise tax cuts. Revolutionary stuff.

The Levy will be a new sales tax, applied after a development is delivered, rather than negotiated at the outset. This will remove (some kinds of) negotiation from the planning process, as fixed rates mean the contribution is clear at the beginning and can be factored into land deals and viability planning. Of course, expect levy rates to be a new excuse for blood letting during local plan making.

What’s the catch?

There is real danger here for our sector. Around 78% of S106 is currently spent on new affordable homes. Despite some soggy promises to the contrary from Government, few people expect that a similar proportion of Levy proceeds will be spent in the same way, up against hot competition for funding from new roads, surgeries and schools.

But realistically a number of horses have bolted. Government is committed to introducing the Levy  and is prioritising giving councils freedom on how money is raised and spent. A consultation is underway on the nuts and bolts but will not revisit or unpick the principles. Another consultation will follow but this is the one that matters.

Responding to the consultation

So what is the best thing for housing associations to say in response to the consultation?

If contributions from development are heading into a big pot, it is in our interest first to make that pot as big as possible, and second to get as much from it for affordable housing as we can.

Maximising developer contributions can be done by including as many different kinds of development in the Levy system as possible; small developments, warehouses, commercial, permitted developments. Lots of these don’t contribute, or don’t contribute much, to S106 currently. Money is leaking from the system and this is a good chance to hoover up more. This is precisely what Government is hoping will happen. We should heartily agree.

But maximising the proportion of Levy receipts that councils spend on affordable housing will be tougher. Councils will get more freedom to spend as they wish, come what may. In response, we should argue that Levy proceeds must be used to support capital investment, not to subsidise revenue based decisions (services, tax cuts). Council finance officers will murmur consent.

Chunks of income are earmarked for elsewhere, including a rather nebulous ‘administration fee’ and a ‘neighbourhood share’ for parish councils, or similar. These should be as small as possible. Only parish councils with a Neighbourhood Plan addressing affordable housing need should get anything.

A ‘right to require’ is proposed, where councils will get the freedom to require an in kind provision of affordable homes instead of cash. This should become a ‘requirement to require’ so that a percentage of Levy income is automatically converted into affordable homes where there is evidence of unmet local need, tied into the numbers in the local plan.

The clock is ticking

The punchline is that a series of pilots and a staged implementation stretching over several years is foreseen. We should argue that a full roll out must not happen until the pilots are complete and assessed – even for Councils who just want to get on with it –  so we can see how this all works in practice. Meanwhile, a new government may or may not be elected with ambitions for planning reform. The whole process could be junked and off we go again.

HR Manager Kay Wiseman wins Health Advocate of the Year for Sunderland

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“Kay’s passion for this project has been clear from the beginning showing outstanding commitment and professionalism throughout her leadership ensuring everyone has the right level of information and is able to contribute equally.”

Catherine Wilmot, Executive Director (Operations & Finance)

Congratulations to our HR Manager Kay Wiseman for winning the Health Advocate of the Year for Sunderland as part of the Better Health at Work Award (BHAWA). This award recognises the efforts of employers in the North East and Cumbria in addressing health issues within the workplace, the NHC gained the Bronze award last year and has been working towards the Silver Award this year.

A Health Advocate is a voluntary role within an organisation taken by someone who is passionate about health and wellbeing, wants to help raise awareness of health topics, and contribute to developing a positive wellbeing culture in the workplace – and even beyond. Kay works with three other Health Advocates to provide a supportive wellbeing programme at the NHC. The Better Health at Work Award scheme works with over 400 regional employers so winning this accolade is great testament to the work Kay has delivered on behalf of the NHC staff over the course of 2022.

Having established our staff-lead wellbeing working group over four years ago, wellbeing has long since been a high priority for NHC which we empower our staff to feel invested in, but by working towards BHAWA accreditation we felt we could sustain and improve on the efforts and achievements made to date, offer a broader and more structured range of wellbeing ideas and initiatives, and benefit from being part of the supportive community of organisations participating in and affiliating with the BHAWA program.

Some of the work Kay and her health advocate colleagues coordinated throughout the year included three wellbeing campaigns: ‘Better Sleep Week’, ‘Healthy Eating on a Budget’ and ‘Mental heath campaign’. These campaigns included a number of activities: webinars, competitions, tips and advice, nutrition packs, themed virtual brews, external speakers and getting outdoors schemes.

One example was during the ‘Better sleep week’ in trying to engage staff and encourage an element of fun into the campaign Kay came up with a photo competition for staff to submit photos of what they saw out on their walks. It was simple for all staff to get involved and was accessible to all being at their own pace. The internal Teams channel sparked loads of conversations about local walks between members of staff who may not naturally speak to each other in their work.

Kay thinks outside of the box when it comes to communicating campaign messages and for the ‘healthy eating on a budget’ campaign she asked a nutritionist to do a session at the staff quarterly workshop where staff got to hear from an external professional about a range of topics including the difference between ‘use by’ dates and ‘sell by’ dates, how to ensure a budget-friendly balanced diet and how to do a weekly meal plan. She also worked with colleagues to provide a nutrition pack to give out to each member of staff.

Representatives at the BHAWA were blown away by the Bronze award submission, a representative said: “There is a genuine feeling that the work being done to support health and wellbeing at NHC is welcomed throughout the organisation and being done because they really care about their staff. Wellbeing is built into team objectives which show further commitment from the organisation to look after their staff. Employee wellbeing is seen as essential and not just a ‘nice to have.”

Catherine Wilmot, Executive Director (Operations & Finance) said:

“Kay always has an open door policy and has time for everyone’s input and ideas, and has worked tirelessly well above and beyond her normal working week gathering the relevant evidence and information for this project. Remarkably despite her high workload I know she always finds time to offer support to other key members of the team.”

Kay was presented her award at the NHC’s staff quarterly workshop and suitably embarrassed in front of her colleagues.

Upcoming NHC events

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Our fourth session in Meet the Net Zero Challenge series focussing the Role of Data, which will explore the crucial role of data in achieving carbon neutrality in social housing. Our speakers will discuss how data-driven solutions can help reduce carbon emissions and create sustainable communities. Further details can be found here.

We will also be hosting two further sessions delivered by Dr Victoria Miller, Clinical Psychologist as part of the NHC focus on Workplace Wellbeing.  The sessions will focus on managing stress and building resilience in the social housing sector. Our experts will share strategies for coping with stress and building resilience in a fast-paced and demanding industry. The final session will focus on understanding trauma and its impact, and will cover tools and tips to reduce vicarious trauma and burnout.

Finally, we will be hosting our 14th Annual National Resident Involvement Conference, we will be discussing the importance of resident involvement in shaping housing policies and practices. Our expert panel will provide insights on how resident voices can be heard and integrated into decision-making processes.

Don’t miss out on these valuable opportunities to learn, connect, and collaborate with other professionals in the social housing sector. Register today to secure your spot at these three insightful events.