NIFHA Study Visit to the North East

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On 29th and 30th March, 31 colleagues from housing associations in Northern Ireland visited the North East to exchange perspectives and best practice around net zero, development, place making and procurement.

Coordinated by the NHC and the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA), delegates visited sites across the region with involvement from Karbon Homes, Your Homes Newcastle and Thirteen.

The visit began with the NHC’s Brian Robson, Executive Director of Policy and Public Affairs, outlining the operating context, challenges and opportunities facing the North of England. Delegates then discussed procurement with Consortium Procurement’s Commercial Director, James Ealey, with discussion focused around the digital switchover, retrofit measures, and skills shortages. Colleagues in Northern Ireland face similar challenges to members here in England in recruiting development professionals, specialist roles like surveyors, and staff in supported housing.

The afternoon of the first day began with a presentation from Paul Fiddaman, Chief Executive and Scott Martin, Director of Finance, from Karbon Homes, outlining their impact in the areas Karbon operates, funding models, and their role as a Homes England strategic partner. Paul and Scott discussed Karbon’s pathway to achieving EPC C in all of their homes by 2030 and the challenges faced around procurement and supply chains, customer experience and data.

Site visits

College Grange, Sunderland

Delegates then visited College Grange, a £20m development from Karbon Homes, delivering 105 new affordable homes to the site at North Hylton, Sunderland. The site was a former secondary school which had been unoccupied for several years and will be completing in July 2023.

Karbon set out to provide a 100% affordable ‘homes for all ages’ development and is categorised by a design concept that creates a sense of community with green corridors and a playpark. Working with main contractor Esh Construction, the site is a mixed tenure development comprising of 10 bungalows for affordable rent and 95 houses for Rent to Buy, a tenure which enables people to rent at less than the market rate so that they can opt to save for a deposit to buy the property outright or through shared ownership.

Karbon has worked with Sunderland City Council and Homes England to bring the site to fruition, aiming to develop homes to meet the housing needs of the local community.

The homes have been built using both traditional construction and modern methods, including light gauge steel on 30 homes which has offered valuable learning on the benefits and challenges that developing homes using modern methods can bring.

Of the 95 rent to buy plots, 68 are occupied or reserved. Feedback has been positive around the house types, plot and garden sizes, property spec and the overall feel of the development. The amount of  open space has been highly welcomed.

 

The Byker Estate

Delegates then moved on to a visit to the Byker Estate, designed and built between 1969 and 1983 to a master-plan by the architect Ralph Erskine. The Estate was one of the most influential and pioneering European social housing schemes of the 20th Century.

The iconic Grade II listed Byker Estate is one of the UK’s most important housing schemes. The Byker Wall, which forms the centrepiece of the Byker Estate, provides a 1.3-mile barrier to North winds, creating a microclimate within the Estate while protecting it from the noise of major roads outside.

In July 2012, Byker Community Trust (BCT) was formed following a stock transfer of 1,800 homes from Newcastle City Council. Between 2012 & 2021, BCT invested over £41m into the estate and was awarded ‘The Great Neighbourhood’ at the Academy of Urbanism Awards in 2018. In April 2021, BCT became part of Karbon Homes through a transfer of engagements to help accelerate investment into the estate, delivering value for money and helping achieve the priorities that customers said were important to them.

When BCT joined Karbon, a Community Pledge was created to deliver the priorities customers asked for. This includes accelerated and new funding of £36m to 2029. The works include:

  • Modernisation works to all homes. Since April 2021, 159 new kitchens have been installed, 645 homes have benefitted from new bathrooms with showers and 707 homes have received new internal doors.
  • Works will commence on an £11m external environmental improvement programme, which looks to redesign the external and public spaces across the estate. Customers told us their priorities for their neighbourhood, this included health & safety works, waste management, tree management, secure car parking, CCTV and lighting, soft and hard landscaping, safe play spaces and garden fencing and gateways were a priority. The first neighbourhood to benefit from these improvements will be Dunn Terrace and consultation with customers begins in March 2023.
  • As part of the Community Pledge, Karbon promised to build 150 new homes on five sites to meet the needs of current and future customers. They have secured Strategic Partnership (SP) Funding from Homes England to deliver 2,200 new homes by March 2028 and all 150 within Byker are included in the SP programme.

The Bolam Street site has been prioritised as the first development. This will deliver 24 affordable homes for social rent including a mix of 1 and 2-bed bungalows, 2-bed houses and 2-bed flats. Work is expected to start on site in Autumn 2023 with target completion in Winter 2024.

Through their Thriving Byker Strategy, Karbon works collaboratively with customers, residents and key stakeholders to make positive changes. To ensure delivery of the objectives and priorities residents asked for, the strategy is underpinned by the following nine key themes:

  • Pride and ownership in the area
  • Health, wellbeing and mindfulness
  • Income maximisation
  • A cleaner and greener Byker
  • A safe place to live
  • Children and young people
  • Hard to reach groups
  • Community training and employment
  • Digital connectivity

As part of their refreshed approach to Placeshaping, outlined in the recently launched Fair Foundations report, Byker will be one of Karbon’s pilot Impact Areas working in partnership with local government, health, education, community organisations and major employers to understand how they can best support and embrace a place-shaped approach to this local community offering long-term growth and prosperity.

Day two began with NHC’s Satty Rai discussing the work and recommendations of the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury.

Satty discussed the Jury’s key recommendations, which can be categorised into four main themes:

  • Retrofit and Renewable heating technology​
  • The cost of retrofit and managing disruption​
  • Education and communication​
  • Tackling climate change at a neighbourhood level

Asked by delegates which of the themes came through as the single most important, Satty said this was undoubtedly communication. Work continues post-Jury: look out for our Self-Assessment checklist, cross-sector communications project, demonstrator tours and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund case studies over the coming months.

We then welcomed Doug Bacon, Director of Asset Management at Thirteen, who outlined Thirteen’s SHDF position and other options for future schemes being considered, including carbon credits and alternative finance. Doug discussed the health impacts of cold homes and what Thirteen are doing to combat retrofit challenges, giving details of a c. £2m pilot in the Hartlepool area, using around £1m in SHDF. The project involves retrofitting 57 homes, including bungalows and flats, and is PAS 2035 compliant.

Delegates discussed the challenges of PAS 2035 compliance – a robust but challenging standard – and how this, combined with how SHDF is delivered, can extend the length of a project from the customer viewpoint. Doug also echoed other presenters, citing scaling as the key strategic challenge around skills, resources, and financing.

Site Visit

Treetop Village, Newcastle

Our final site visit was to Treetop Village in Walker, Newcastle. Treetop Village, developed and managed by Your Homes Newcastle (ALMO), is a Housing Plus scheme providing homes exclusively for people aged over 55 or with a medical need.

YHN’s regeneration team led the tour and explained the features of the building, and how the vision for the scheme was for it to become a hub in the Walker area. The building hosts a restaurant and hairdresser, regular social events, and has more recently been used as a warm hub for anyone in the community struggling to heat their home over the winter months.

The NHC has a diverse membership and we’re committed to building and strengthening relationships between our members – this was an informative, successful study visit with a huge amount of two-way learning.

Seamus Leheny, Chief Executive of NIFHA said: “It was brilliant to work with Consortium Procurement and the NHC to show representatives from the Northern Ireland social and affordable housing sector some of the great work that is taking place in the North East. It has strengthened our close ties and we are looking forward to building on the relationship further moving forward. Our members returned home to Northern Ireland with new knowledge, best practice and newly forged connections so it was very successful.”

Alistair Merchant, Head of Commercial at Consortium Procurement (CP) said: “This was an excellent opportunity for the Consortium to provide a rich policy context to the work we do, share insights gained from our Tenant Climate Jury, alongside having the ability to set-out the real savings and other gains that NHC members can achieve by working with us.

 Visits to members’ sites brought to the forefront how CP’s frameworks are helping to make a positive impact on what needs to be achieved, gain significant cost-savings and the real difference this ultimately brings to social housing residents”.

The future of digital in the housing sector

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Join Mediaworks and NHC for a thought-provoking roundtable discussion on the future of digital in the housing sector. From self-serve and social listening to the rise of AI, we’ll be exploring the latest trends and technologies that can change the face of the housing industry. These regional events are perfect for anyone interested in staying ahead of the curve and learning about the exciting opportunities that digital innovation can offer to the housing sector. Don’t miss out on these insightful and engaging roundtable events coming Summer 2023.

Check out our recent podcasts to gain a deeper understanding of the topics that will be discussed during the roundtable.

Dates will be announced soon – please email kristina.dawson@northern-consortium.org.uk to register your interest now!

Rebalancing: Webinar Series & Resource Page Launched  

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Whether it’s under the banner of regeneration, placemaking, or Levelling Up, there is now political consensus on the ambition to reduce regional disparities and deliver better homes and places.

All political parties are developing their own policies to tackle local inequalities and restore the social fabric of communities. The Spring Budget 2023 confirmed that whilst Levelling Up may no long be a slogan repeated ad infinitum, the agenda was alive and well, retooled in a new Prime Minister’s image; enhanced devolution, place-based regeneration partnerships, and investment zones delivered in the name of spreading opportunity Everywhere.

Similarly, the Labour Party’s announcement that they would scrap the current Government’s 12 Levelling Up Missions upon entering office was an expression for evolution rather than complete abandonment. Instead, the Shadow Secretary for Levelling Up Lisa Nandy has instead put forward an agenda to reduce regional inequality built around resilience, connectivity, sustainability, and wellbeing.

Here at the NHC we are working with members to ensure that, whatever the colour of the rosette, housing’s vital contribution is recognised and valued; and to secure the policy and resources necessary from now and future Government’s to make rebalancing a reality for people and places across the North.

To follow our work, and explain more about how you can get involved, we’ve launched a Rebalancing Webpage collating all of our work dating back to July last year when Lord Kerslake opened our Levelling Up Conference in Leeds. You would have heard about it sooner, but Liz Truss had other ‘ideas’. You’ll find research briefings, consultation responses, key updates relating to the Rebalancing agenda, and information on our upcoming Webinar Series…

 

Rebalancing Webinar Series – Housing at the Heart of a Rebalanced Country

 

 Rebalancing: Better Places – 21st June, 14.00 – 16.00, online via Zoom

Rebalancing: Better Places will highlight NHC members as vital anchor institutions and make the case for the capacity and resources needed to truly make a difference

The agenda will see a mixture of guest speakers and good practice from the NHC membership discuss their positive impact on regeneration and placemaking; whether in improvements to the built and natural environment, or in providing the vital social infrastructure that helps people lead healthy, fulfilling lives.

Confirm your attendance via MyNHC here –

https://www.mynhc.org.uk/event/general?id=Rebalancing_Better_Places2042168245

 

Rebalancing: Better Homes – 13th July, 14.00 – 16.00, online via Zoom

Rebalancing: Better Homes forms one part of our work to place NHC members at the heart of improving housing quality across the social and private rented sectors.

Join us to discuss the ongoing development of an updated Decent Homes Standard, experiences from elsewhere in the UK, the importance of energy efficiency, and explore decency beyond the home in the creation of sustainable neighbourhoods which instil pride and belonging.

Confirm your attendance via MyNHC here –

https://www.mynhc.org.uk/event/general?id=Rebalancing_Better_Homes3178616847

Local Government Reorganisation: Three New Northern Unitary Authorities Launch

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On the 1st April, the new North Yorkshire Council launched as part of the government’s restructuring of local government in England, marking an exciting new chapter in the history of local government in the region. This newly-formed unitary local authority has been created by merging the existing county council of North Yorkshire with the district councils of Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, and Selby. This replaces the two-tier system of county and district councils – excluding City of York – which has been in place since 1974. The merger aims to streamline decision-making processes and reduce administrative costs, as well as provide more effective public services to the c. 615,000 people in the region.

The unitary authority will have a wide range of responsibilities, including the provision of education and social care services, managing waste and recycling, and maintaining local highways and transport networks. It will also have a significant role in promoting economic growth and development in the region, working with local businesses and other stakeholders to create new jobs and support local industries.

Last year, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced that the new North Yorkshire Council and the City of York Council had agreed a proposal for a devolution deal, as part of the government’s commitment to delivering on the levelling up missions set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. Both authorities will come together to form a mayoral combined authority, requiring the election of a directly elected mayor. The anticipation is that the election for the first mayor of the new combined authority will take place in May 2024. These proposals are subject to public consultation.

Meanwhile, on 1st April 2023 two unitary authorities in Cumbria launched and will provide all the services previously provided by district councils and the county council. These unitary authorities are split by East (Westmorland and Furness) and West (Cumberland).

Cumberland Council will replace Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council and Copeland Borough Council.

Westmorland and Furness Council will provide services to those in the current areas of Cumbria County Council, Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council, Eden District Council and South Lakeland District Council.

Westmorland and Furness Council has become England’s third largest unitary authority by area, providing services to approximately 225,000 residents.

 

 

 

Get involved – test our retrofit comms toolkit

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We’re working with Placeshapers and Tpas to produce a range of resources to support you to communicate with customers about retrofit. We’re looking for social landlords to test the campaign materials from mid-June to the end of August.

You might be able to help if:

  • You’ve got live retrofit projects planned over this period.
  • You don’t have live projects but are planning customer comms for future retrofit projects.
  • You’ve previously completed retrofit projects and would be willing to talk to customers who’ve already been through the process about the proposed resources.
  • You’re doing other customer engagement work around retrofit.

If you’d like to get involved in the pilot email Kathy.thomas@northern-consortium.org.uk

Invitation to discuss housing outcomes for refugees

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Refugees and new arrivals often experience the worst housing outcomes in the UK. Over the last two years our team (University of Huddersfield and Migration Yorkshire) has been working to better understand the housing situation faced by refugees. This has included improving the evidence base on how refugees gain access to housing post-decision and post-arrival in the UK and their pathways through in order to understand their experiences.

From this work we have produced a number of reports notably a research digest and a detailed paper which summarises the existing evidence about how housing impacts refugees and a policy briefing based on the findings arising from our research. In an attempt to engage a wider audience in these issues we have also produced a comic based on our research to help document the day-to-day housing and integration struggles refugees often face in their settlement. We now working towards trying to find out what works in terms of housing solutions for refugees and new arrivals both in terms of the current policy framework and possible future contexts.

We are looking to bring together experts who are working in housing at a strategic level, at a service delivery level and those working to support communities from within the voluntary and community sector. We are holding a series of online workshop discussions to hear and share your practices, experiences and learning. We want to draw on these discussions to develop recommendations for policy makers and offer housing organisations, local authorities, and voluntary and community sector partners opportunities to learn from one another. We will be producing briefing notes and policy recommendations throughout the year and drawing on your experience and expertise to engage decision makers.

We have a number of workshops available and this link will allow you to book a date and time that suits you. You will then be sent more information and the link to the meeting. Please do share this invitation with others you feel would offer insights on practice and policy. We are looking to speak to senior policy and practice, frontline workers in public authorities and housing organisations and those who are working in the voluntary and charity sectors on this agenda. More information about the project and your rights as a participant is available here. Please contact the lead researcher directly if you wish to discuss anything – Prof. Phil Brown, p.a.brown@hud.ac.uk

Decent Homes Review – sign up for updates

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The Review of the Decent Homes Standard has been underway since early 2021 – and the Northern Housing Consortium are part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Review Sounding Board.

With a consultation on extending the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector having concluded last year, the NHC are expecting the Review of the Standard itself to pick up pace in coming weeks.  During the passage of the Social Housing Regulation Bill, Ministers also pledged to bring forward a consultation on a regulatory standard for energy efficiency in the social rented sector, within six months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.

The NHC are therefore expecting the next few months to be a critical period to influence the development of both initiatives, and to ensure we have ambitious and deliverable standards to take us into the 2030s.  Commenting, NHC Executive Director (Policy and Public Affairs) Brian Robson said, “We welcome the Government’s commitment to bringing forward a new Decent Homes Standard to replace the current 2006 version. Energy efficiency will form an important part of updates to the Standard, and the NHC is therefore

encouraging the Department to bring these consultations forward in parallel, in order that social landlords can provide holistic and considered feedback.”

 NHC members can sign up for updates direct from the NHC’s policy team, ensuring that you are kept up-to-date on the progress of the review, and get to shape our response. If you’d like to receive our Decent Homes Review update, please email kristina.dawson@northern-consortium.org.uk

 

APPG Hosts Minister for First Session of 23/24

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Monday 13th March saw the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North reconvene for 2023 / 2024. The Group, which brings together Parliamentarians from all parties and both Houses together to discuss and advance northern housing policy, successfully held its AGM and opened the new year hosting a Ministerial dialogue with Lord Callanan, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance).

Chair Ian Mearns MP, Member of Parliament for Gateshead and Chair of the influential Backbench Business Committee, confirmed to the Group of his intention to continue as Chair alongside all other returning officers. It was noted that Kevin Hollinrake MP and Richard Holden MP were to reluctantly withdraw formal involvement in the APPG following their appointments as Parliamentary Under Secretary of States in the Department for Business and Department for Transport respectively.

The APPG meeting was held under the theme of “Delivering Housing Quality in the North”. Chair Ian Mearns MP opened the meeting noting the pollical consensus behind the drive to ensure every single person lives in a home that is decent, safe and secure. Not just a moral right, the Government’s Levelling Up agenda is right to assert that housing sits at the heart of physical and mental wellbeing, contributes greatly to the sense of belonging to a community, and offers a strong foundation from which to participate in the local economy.

Despite these imperatives however, Ian put forward that housing decency remained a persistent challenge citing analysis from the Northern Housing Consortium’s annual Housing Monitor that non-decency in the North of England sat at 17.6%, above the national average of 15%. With that figure in mind, and with progress on a new Decent Homes Standard slowing, it was vital that the APPG bring stakeholders together consider delivering housing quality across all tenures.

Lord Callanan was attending the APPG for the second time, having also spoke to the Group in October 2021. He used his opening remarks to underline the important connection between improving housing quality and energy efficiency. He discussed Government support to date, from households to date and outlining on further programmes to come covering Homes Upgrade Grants / Boiler Upgrades, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Energy Company Obligation, skills and training in the supply chain. In a wide ranging Q&A attendees, including many senior leaders from the NHC membership, Lord Callanan discussed a variety of barriers to upscaling retrofit, including hard to treat properties, challenges in skills and the supply chain, and the specific issues found in the Private Rented Sector.

Following Lord Callanan, a series of stakeholders had been invited to share their thoughts on how to effectively deliver housing quality in the North. Firstly Charlie Norman, Chief Executive, MSV and Vice-Chair of the Northern Housing Consortium discussed the work and recommendations of the Better Social Housing Review. She highlighted both the technical challenge of repairing homes but also the underlying equality issues. It was important for the sector to lean into some uncomfortable truths. Following Charlie, Michael Marshall from the University of Sheffield shared insights from the report Lessons from Last Time: A Review of Evidence on the First Decent Homes Programme in the Social and Private Rented Sectors. Michael advocated for a holistic approach to decency, moving beyond the front door to make homes and neighbourhoods climate-conscious and pleasant places to live. Finally, Steve Coffey, Group CEO of Torus, built on Michael’s remarks by sharing his experiences of the first Decent Homes Programme. He welcomed that the discussion on creating decent homes and neighbourhoods had become a non-party political point but this could go further. Homes are the foundations of people’s lives, and investment whether in decency or energy efficiency should be organised in tandem to bring economic uplift through skills, training, and well paid green jobs.

For more information on the APPG for Housing in the North and to access the post-meeting pack for this and other meetings of the group, please visit the APPG’s dedicated webpage:

https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/services/policy/parliament/appg-for-housing-in-the-north/

Talent for Sustainability – A unique campaign for embedding sustainability in the housing sector

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Meet our Sustainability Leaders

Rhys Bevan, Environmental Sustainability Business Partner (Development) at Stonewater

As the housing sector continues to face major challenges, developing and retaining a talented workforce has never been more important. The Talent for Sustainability campaign is a call to action from an innovative partnership which aims to make a difference by embedding sustainability in the sector’s talent pool in the North.

In partnership with the GEM Programme and Talent in Huis in the Netherlands, this dynamic three-year campaign is ambitious in its quest to discover and develop talented and inquisitive minds who think fast, act quickly and make a difference to sustainability for housing organisations, their tenants and communities, providing them with training, guidance and assigning projects to develop them into future leaders with a solid understanding of sustainability challenges.

Following the launch of the campaign last Summer, our Sustainability Leaders Group, who have been steering the shape of the campaign, have met frequently to identify the problems we want to focus on and to set the GEMs the challenge of tackling them.

 We caught up with Rhys Bevan, Environmental Sustainability Business Partner (Development) at Stonewater, former GEM and part of our Sustainability Leaders Group, to find out more.

 

Rhys, tell us about your role and why sustainability has a high profile at Stonewater?

My title at Stonewater is ‘Environmental Sustainability Business Partner (Development)’. My role is to assist the wider development team in reaching our sustainability objectives, such as to adopt a pathway towards accomplishing the goal that all new starts on sites from April 2025 will be Net Zero Operation Carbon (NZOC) for our land and build schemes. I also help to identify new sustainable build methods and technologies to ensure we are building high quality homes that are cost efficient for our customers.

At Stonewater we believe in a holistic approach to sustainability across all aspects of our business, looking to improve the energy performance of our new and existing homes, but also keeping our customers at the heart of our sustainability efforts; through energy advice, green living and ensuring customers learn alongside us on how to get the most out of their home. To this end, our Sustainability team has now expanded to 6 business partners, sitting under the Assistant Director Environment and Sustainability, covering all areas of the business, and ensuring that all teams keep sustainability at the heart of their thinking and that we don’t implement policies or changes that undermine our sustainability objectives or customer commitments.

 

What would you say are the main benefits of your participation in the GEM Programme, and why, as a former GEM, did you want to become involved in the design of the GEM Sustainability Stream?

Alongside giving me invaluable knowledge around the built environment and housing inequalities within the UK, the GEM programme helped to me to build a network of likeminded peers across social housing in the UK who are as passionate about sustainability and housing as I am. It was for this reason that I was eager to be involved with the GEM Sustainability Stream. I wanted to do my part in order to help young professionals interested in social housing and sustainability to have a graduate programme that gives them both the knowledge they need to succeed in their careers, and to help them build a network of their own peers across the industry to share ideas and insight into the issues we currently face.

Collaboration is essential for tackling the climate crisis, and I think the Sustainability Stream is a good first step for these graduates to have the biggest impact possible throughout their careers. The design for this Stream consists of professionals with knowledge covering all aspects of the built environment, meaning we can all provide greater insights into our individual specialisms for these GEMs.

 

What are your hopes and aspirations for the GEM Sustainability Stream over the three years of the Talent for Sustainability Campaign?

It is my hope that the GEM Sustainability Stream will help inspire the next generation of housing professionals to embed sustainability at the heart of their thinking across all aspects of the industry and push them to pursue greater positive change within their respective companies. Encouraging collaboration and networking are key parts of making meaningful change and in order to properly tackle the climate crisis we need passionate and informed individuals to take the lead, and I believe the Sustainability Stream will help to achieve this.

The GEMs will begin their work in March and conclude in late May. During that time they will have the opportunity to visit sustainability projects in both the UK and Holland to further develop their knowledge and understanding of good practice and key issues. Look out for further updates!

To find out more, or to get involved in future streams, contact Trevor Smith, Director, The GEM Programme: trevor.smith@centreforpartnership.co.uk or Kate Maughan, Director of Member Engagement, Northern Housing Consortium: kate.maughan@northern-consortium.org.uk