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.

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/