Eden Project Communities Looks to Spread Festive Cheer with the Big Lunch At Christmas!

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Every June, Eden Project Communities brings Neighbourhoods together for The Big Lunch. The event has brought millions of people together to share friendship, food and fun as part of this annual celebration in the UK. It’s a simple idea that has a lasting positive impact on those who participate.

This year, Eden Project Communities are encouraging everyone to join in with The Big Lunch at Christmas, to give us another opportunity to get together and celebrate our communities.

The Big Lunch at Christmas is about sharing food and friendship with people in your community over the festive season. It’s a busy time of year, but for some it can feel quite lonely, so taking the time to say hello to a neighbour over mince pies or a shared meal is a great way to keep connected over Christmas.

Your Big Lunch at Christmas could be as simple as enjoying tea with the neighbours or setting an extra place at your table for someone that lives alone. Or you could go bigger and host something in a local community venue.  Use the free handy guide, and winter warmer activity ideas and set a date to enjoy some festive cheer this year!

Join The Big Lunch at Christmas

NHC statement on the death of Awaab Ishak

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“The thoughts of everyone at the Northern Housing Consortium are with the family of Awaab Ishak. The NHC and our members were deeply shocked and saddened by his death, and the circumstances in which it occurred.

We are clear. What happened in Awaab’s case was unacceptable. Our sector has fallen badly short of what tenants should expect from us, and what our sector expects of ourselves. Awaab’s death is a wake-up call and housing in the North wants to learn lessons.

For our part, the NHC intends to redouble support for council and housing association members, helping our members share lessons learned to ensure this never happens again. We will also use every opportunity to push for higher minimum standards in all forms of rented housing. We had already called for the new Decent Homes Standard to set out higher expectations in relation to ventilation in homes, and will continue to push for an ambitious and deliverable new Standard.”

Help us to help you with retrofit!

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We need your input to shape of a range of resources which will support you to communicate with tenants about Net Zero and retrofit.

We’ve put together a survey to find out more about your retrofit plans and communication with customers, to help map out where the sector is now and how we can best support.

A link to the survey is here. This survey is targeted at colleagues working in sustainability or asset management.

Northern Housing Consortium, Placeshapers and TPAS are working together to develop key messages and create a suite of communications materials which social landlords will be able to access free of charge to communicate with tenants about net zero.

Decarbonisation of homes is a big priority for the sector. This project is an opportunity for us to work together to overcome challenges with communication and avoid duplication.

We’ll work with a tenants’ panel – putting them in the driving seat and making sure the resources we create meet their needs

The NHC Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury recommended improving communication about climate change and retrofit. Research from TPAS and Placeshapers has also shown the importance of good communication if the sector is to successfully decarbonise thousands of homes.

Rebalancing Northern Places

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The Levelling Up White Paper set out twelve missions in support of key levelling up objectives. These outline the medium-term ambition for the Government. For the housing sector the role that housing plays in contributing positively to Levelling Up has been recognised, not just in new supply linked to job creation and growth, but also as a key part of regeneration and targeted levels of decency in rented housing.

Beyond the missions around home ownership, and decent standards, the housing sector connects to important economic and social impacts for its residents, communities. These impacts are multi-dimensional, measurable and can contribute to the wider Levelling Up ambitions.

A ‘left-behind’ area, in need of ‘levelling up’, is characterised by broad economic underperformance, which manifests itself in low pay and employment, leading to lower living standards in that area. The health of the local residents may also be relatively poor.  These characteristics are frequently the places that social housing providers are working in with over half of the most deprived 10% of local authorities located in the North.

Social housing providers are already providing services which rebalance communities in these key areas of inequity.  We have mapped member organisation activity against the levelling-up missions ensuring our member contributions are recognised, particularly in the area of employment and health.

Our report sets out detail on each levelling up mission explaining current activity in support of levelling up. Case studies offer an important insight into the activities of housing providers and demonstrate the variety of activities and the added value this provides for local communities.

Our aim is to build an understanding of the contribution social housing providers can make to the rebalancing agenda and making sure that the great work of our members is recognised.

We also discussed the relevance of the levelling up missions at our Levelling Up Conference: Housing at the Heart of a Rebalanced Country which took place on 14th July in Leeds where we brought together key stakeholders to define the debate on how best to achieve place-based regeneration.

Housing associations work across communities, including the most deprived neighbourhoods.  As organisations with a strong social purpose they do this because it is the right thing to do as well as making solid business sense to do it. As our report and the case studies show, the housing sector is already delivering positive work. By progressing this work across the Levelling Up missions social housing providers can maximise their impact in places.

Read the full policy brief here.

A new report demands urgent action on homes hit hardest by fuel poverty during the worsening cost of living crisis.

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The North has a home energy efficiency mountain to climb, with poorly insulated homes costing tenants at least £680 more this year than they would if properly insulated. That’s the finding from The Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) annual Northern Housing Monitor report, which reveals that 3.8m homes across the North fall beneath the key energy efficiency standard of EPC C.

The NHC is calling on the Government to use next week’s Autumn Statement to boost investment in existing homes. The organisation is urging Jeremy Hunt to commit the balance of energy efficiency investment pledged in the Conservative Manifesto, investing a further £4bn to create a long-term programme of investment for homes across the North of England that are hit hardest by fuel poverty. This investment amounts to less than 5% of the estimated cost of the Energy Price Guarantee this year[1].

The NHC report indicates a continued need to prioritise retrofitting existing homes with effective insulation measures so that they use less energy: controlling bills for the long term and contributing to the UK’s energy security.

According to the findings of the report, achieving energy efficiency now presents a critical Northern housing challenge, with the NHC report revealing:

  • One in six Northern households were in fuel poverty before the latest energy price rises, with the region home to a third of England’s fuel-poor households.
  • Reaching Band C by 2035 requires retrofitting one home every 2 minutes.
  • Going into this winter the average Band D household will pay £680 more for energy, compared to an EPC Band C home, this cost rises to £1,249 for Band E and a staggering £1,765 for Band F.

Fuel poverty is an extensive problem across the North, especially in rural areas. The government’s statutory fuel poverty target for England is to ensure that as many fuel-poor households as reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of Band C by 2030, with a D target by 2025.

The statistic of one in six  Northern households estimated to be in fuel poverty in 2020 is likely to have increased sharply in the past 12 months, with the Committee for Climate Change suggesting that an additional 2 to 4 million households may be pushed into fuel poverty.

The NHC report found a high level of variation in the rates of fuel poverty between regions. By government calculations, the percentage of households in the North experiencing fuel poverty in each local authority ranges between 10% to 20%. This is higher than most local authorities in southern England.

One of the highest regional rates is in Yorkshire and the Humber (17.5 per cent), a region with a median income under £23,500. It also has the lowest share of overall homes reaching fuel energy efficiency bands A-C, supporting the suggestion that fuel poverty may have increased across the region.

Even before recent price rises, all three regions of Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the North East, had an incidence of fuel poverty above the England average, with Yorkshire and the Humber having the second highest proportion of fuel poverty after the West Midlands.

The NHC’s chief executive, Tracy Harrison, said: “It’s very clear that energy efficiency is now as much a social challenge as a climate challenge. Whilst the introduction of the Energy Price Guarantee offers some relief and short-term support, it is also expensive for Government and will now be reduced in April. A long-term solution is required, not a temporary sticking plaster  – ramping up existing programmes will build on the North’s emerging retrofit success stories, cutting energy use and waste for good.”

Bringing homes in the North up to Band C energy efficiency standard requires retrofitting at least 270,000 homes annually to 2035. This is over 700 homes a day or one home every 2 minutes. According to the NHC, achieving the target of decarbonising the North’s homes by 2035 could generate 77,000 direct jobs in the North and 111,000 indirect jobs across the UK.

Tracy Harrison added: “The only way to get to the root of the problem is to tackle it head-on, and our recommendation is that at next week’s Autumn Statement, the Government should accelerate the remaining £4.3bn of manifesto energy efficiency commitments to create a long-term programme of investment in the North’s homes. The cost of the energy price guarantee this year is estimated at £100bn. So, if firming up a commitment of £4.3bn towards maximising energy efficiency in homes that need it the most represents less than 5% of that, it has to make sound economic and environmental sense to do so?”

[1] Source: IFS: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/response-energy-price-guarantee

To download a copy of the NHC’s Northern Housing Monitor click here.

For more information, contact Nathan Lane on 07447 921654 or nathan@campfirepr.com

 

Wave 2 of Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund opened

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On 29th September, Wave 2.1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (£800m) was launched by BEIS to support energy efficiency improvements in the social rented sector. Phase 2 of Home Upgrade Grants (£700m) was also launched, aiming to support low-income households off the gas grid. 

This funding comes at a critical time as we face a cost-of-living, energy, and climate crisis. We know that upgrading our homes by reducing the amount of energy they use and how they are heated is central to addressing these crises in the long-term. Warm, insulated homes heated with low carbon technologies have significantly fewer emissions, reduced energy bills, and lead to better health and wellbeing outcomes.  

On the launch of the funding, the NHC’s Tracy Harrison said:  

“We welcome the opening of this important funding, which gives the North the opportunity to scale-up social housing retrofit programmes, creating good, skilled, green jobs and helping to tackle fuel poverty in our communities. 

The North is ambitious for this Wave – some significant collaborations are under way and councils and housing associations are looking forward to working with BEIS to build on the momentum we’ve already established together.” 

The Conservative Party manifesto committed to delivering a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a ten-year period to upgrade the energy performance of social rented homes below EPC C. The aims of the Fund are to “deliver warm, energy-efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions and fuel bills, tackle fuel poverty, and support green jobs”. 

 An SHDF Demonstrator was launched in August 2021 with an initial investment of £62m from the overall fund. The NHC’s analysis showed that successful bids in the North represented only 14% of the funding allocated in England through the Demonstrator round: Sunderland City Council, Manchester City Council, and Leeds City Council were the successful Northern local authorities. 

Wave 1 of SHDF funding totalled nearly £179m granted to 69 lead local authorities across England. Our analysis of the allocation shows that 19 of these 69 local authorities are in the North with funding totalling around £63m coming to the region. This represents 35% of total funding allocated through Wave 1 which is a significant improvement on the 14% the North received through the Demonstrator round. 

Wave 2.1 will see up to £800m of grant funding allocated. We hope our ambitious members in the North will engage fully with the Fund to continue to create and regenerate sustainable homes, and build resilient, thriving communities in the region. 

NHC members discussed this new round of funding at a roundtable with Selvin Brown, Director of Net Zero Buildings at BEIS, this month. Selvin will be addressing the NHC’s flagship event, the Northern Housing Summit, in Manchester on 9th November – make sure your place is secured here. 

See SHDF Wave 2.1 guidance here and HUG Phase 2 guidance here. 

 

Introducing the Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG 2)

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The Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG 2) is a £700m grant funding scheme that has been set up by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to help Local Authorities (LAs) provide energy efficiency upgrades and clean heating systems to low-income households. The scheme targets the worst performing (EPC band D-G), off-gas grid homes in England.

A key focus of the scheme is to phase out the use of fossil fuel heating and make progress towards the UK’s 2050 Net Zero commitment. It will also support improved household health and wellbeing by reducing the number of cold homes and play a key role in the government’s wider programme of green retrofit.  Additional guidance for HUG 2 is available at gov.uk.

What support is available?

The Home Upgrade Hub is a support service that provides a range of resources developed by housing retrofit and grant application experts to help LAs in England apply to HUG 2.

This technical support is being made available to LAs at key stages during the development of their applications. The Home Upgrade Hub website will continue to be populated with various resources and materials to provide relevant support to LAs. A series of webinars, masterclasses and podcasts have already gone live and more will be uploaded over the coming months.

What should I do next?

The first step for any LA interested in applying is to submit a self-assessment form. This is a quick tool to help LAs understand how prepared they are to engage in the HUG 2 application process, as well as help gain access to the free one-to one support offered from the Home Upgrade Hub. You can submit your form here.

To receive the latest news, top tips and invitations to events straight to your inbox, sign up to the Home Upgrade Hub newsletter for free here.

If you have any questions, please email info@homeupgradehub.org.uk

Making Every Contact Count (MECC)

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Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is an approach to behaviour change that utilises the day to day interactions that people, organisations and communities have with others to encourage positive choices to improve our overall health. Many long-term diseases are closely linked to known behavioural risk factors that are attributable to tobacco, alcohol, being overweight or physical inactive that can ultimately lead to poor mental health.

MECC is a whole person approach considering an individual’s circumstances such as their finances, employment status, social support and housing. The smallest of changes can make the biggest difference when it comes to positive physical and mental wellbeing. MECC can take a matter of minutes, help people respond to opportunities to discuss health and relay brief messages.

It follows a simple process revolving around the 3A model including:

  • Ask – taking notice of others, listening and engaging during opportunistic chats
  • Assist – providing useful and motivational health information
  • Act – signposting to local support services

Across the country there are opportunities for organisations to get involved with MECC and more specifically in the North the following contacts can support you to implement MECC. If you are interested in MECC please visit each regional signposting website or contact the MECC lead for that region to support your next steps:

North East and North Cumbria

There will be some slight differences across the country, but for those within the North East and North Cumbria there is a free Train the Trainer model that exists that organisations can access to upskill their staff to deliver the Core MECC training in house providing their frontline staff with the knowledge, confidence and skills to support tenants, colleagues and other services with wider health issues.

“I was apprehensive before the training, but I feel I know more now as it links into other areas with my work. The link to people’s everyday life is brilliant!”

“The message is so consistent, and that even though the interventions are brief, they are meaningful”

“It was very thought provoking as it made me think about how often I actually have MECC conversations with tenants, colleagues, friends, family and even my neighbours”

MECC Gateway website: www.meccgateway.co.uk/nenc

Contact: craig.robson@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk

Lancashire and South Cumbria

MECC Link website: www.mecclink.co.uk/lancashire-and-south-cumbria/

Contact: athompson-spears@activelancashire.org.uk

Yorkshire and Humber

MECC Link website: www.mecclink.co.uk/yorkshire-humber/

Contact: Chris.Sharp@dhsc.gov.uk

Cheshire and Merseyside

MECC Link website: https://mecc-moments.co.uk/

Contact: stephenpeters@wirral.gov.uk

NHC Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme awards 15 tenants

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The Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme, funded through the Northern Housing Consortium Charitable Trust, awards bursaries of £500 to help tenants develop learning and skills to support future employment. Since its launch in 2019, the scheme has awarded 73 bursaries to 43 member organisations. To hear some of the success stories from past successful applications, see here. The 2022 edition of the scheme launched in April with the application deadline in July, and we received 24 strong applications for this round. From these submissions, a further 15 tenants, from 6 of our members, have been awarded the bursary after successful applications.

We received a range of great applications, with various support requests to help tenants with future employment by increasing their access to learning and skills development. Below are some examples of the support the bursary fund will provide to successful tenants.

Dean is a tenant from Gateshead Council and will be using the bursary to support his travel costs to University and placements while he completes a course in PGCE Secondary Computer Science, to help work with children with special educational needs. Another tenant from Gateshead Council, Holly, will use to the bursary to pay for books, stationary and travel costs as she embarks on an A-Level Law course at Gateshead College.

Katy, a tenant from Livin, will be using the money to fund a NCFE CACHE Diploma/Certificate Level 3 in Supporting Teaching and Learning. Katy wants to get this qualification in order to become a teaching assistant, something she wants to do after being made redundant. Other successful applicants with Livin include Deanne, who wanted the money to fund the purchase of a laptop which will in turn help her with online training to gain her Maths GCSE and start an IT course. This will hopefully allow her to get a part-time job as she is a single parent bringing up three children of school age. Karl will use the money to buy his own tools so he can become self-employed within the welding industry, as companies he has worked for in the past cannot guarantee full time work.

Daniel, another Livin tenant, said “the grant will help me as I have always had an interest in photography and I have never had the confidence to pursue my dreams until now with the support of Livin. I would complete a course through Bishop Auckland College and purchase a camera for this course”.

Habinteg tenant Francesca intends to use funds received from the bursary to pay toward costs related to her degree including books, stationery, travel and course fees. As a dedicated student nurse, she is unable to work in the holidays to subsidise herself as she will be on unpaid placements doing twelve hour shifts.

Ella, an Eden Housing Association tenant, applied for the bursary to part-fund the next part of their counselling course which they have already saved some of the fees for. Ella detailed why the fund is so important, having found herself unable to return to her previous career due to ill-health, “I struggled with grieving for my former life and accepting my new circumstances. Counselling was a transformative process for me in helping me to overcome these difficulties and I am now passionate about wanting to help others who have found themselves in similar situations. I desperately wish to return to work but it is incredibly difficult for me to find a workplace which offers me the flexibility that I need due to my health. A career in counselling permits me to control my own workload and to work in a way which fits my needs, whilst also allowing me to fulfil my dream of supporting others… It would not only transform my life but also allow me to have a similar impact on others through my work.”

Finally, South Lakes Housing tenant Jennifer explained, “I wish to do a course in British sign language as at present there is no one with this qualification in my workplace. I pride myself in making sure that education is accessible to everyone and commination is vital for this to happen, not only with the children but also any parents of carers as well. In addition I would like to take minibus lessons in order to be able to drive a minibus. My work place is very small and our trips can cost quite a lot per child as the transport is the biggest cost factor. If I had my minibus licence, then we would be able to cut down the cost of education trips and offer more trips at a lower cost.”

Congratulations to this year’s 15 successful applicants! Look out for updates on the next round of the bursary in 2023, further information on the scheme is available on our website.

NHC will be hosting a celebratory and fundraising lunch on Friday 2nd December at Ramside Hall where we will be recognising this year’s successful applicants and looking forward to supporting future tenant applicants.  Please contact Lynda.Redshaw@northern-consortium.org.uk for further information or to book a table. Alternatively you could donate directly via our JustGiving site to support a future tenant.

 

Common Purpose – leadership development

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Common Purpose is a global leadership organisation devoted to developing leaders who can cross boundaries, both at work and in society. A not-for-profit organisation founded in the North of England over years ago, we deliver face-to-face and online leadership programmes for multiple generations of leaders: from young leaders to senior leaders in organisations and society, in over 200 cities across the world.

Our programmes equip leaders at all levels to be more inclusive and to create impact beyond their leadership mandate – we focus leadership of not just team, but system and place. We run a range of open programmes and organisational solutions.

Our USP is our convening power – whether that be the diverse groups on our open programmes or the range of external speakers we use to present diverse perspectives on the big leadership challenges facing organisations and places.

 Recent examples of our work include:

Blended open programmes for emerging and senior leaders from across a diverse range of organisations in the North – running over 2-3 months and bringing together circa 50 leaders in each group with over 60 external contributors in spring this year

  • Organisational solutions for teams or whole organisations – helping to develop leadership capabilities or nudge culture change. Our recent programme for emerging leaders from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in Newcastle University won the CIPD regional diversity award.

We are proud to work with a number of NHC members across the North already including: Southway Homes, Gentoo Group, Leeds City Council, Blackpool Coastal Housing and Jigsaw Homes.

For more information on our range of programmes please visit our website www.commonpurpose.org

 

What’s coming up?

We’ll be starting our open programmes for both senior and emerging leaders in the next few weeks. There is still time to apply. For more information please see The Common Purpose Programme

  • We are bringing our next FREE leadership programme for younger leaders (aged 18-25) to Leeds in November. For more information please see our Leeds150 Legacy Programme

If you’d like to talk to someone in the team please email claire.bennett@commonpurpose.org