A supportive and encouraging culture at the NHC

| |by

NHC Procurement Senior Procurement & Contracts Officer Rachel Merch shares her experience of working at the NHC. She’s been with us for 17 years, working initially in events and finance before transitioning over to our procurement team 9 years ago.

Rachel is responsible for all aspects of running tenders from document checking to contract drafting. She prides herself on the support she provides to members from the start of the process right through to completion.

 

How would you describe the culture at the NHC?

It’s very supportive and encouraging, and is so flexible, offering a fantastic work life balance and providing opportunities for people in their professional development. Having such an approachable and friendly culture means the organisation gets the best out of everyone and allows us to support our members.

 

What do you like to do outside of work?

I enjoy walking my dog, running, and spending quality time with my husband and two children. My favourite spots to walk are along the North East Coastline and in the county Durham countryside.

 

Where would you like to see the NHC in 50 years’ time?

I envision the NHC going from strength to strength and maintaining its commitment to supporting and empowering our members and their communities.

Enhancing Marketing Processes with Digital Tools

| |by

Dan Ellwood, Senior Communications & Marketing Officer

 

What has been a highlight from your time at the NHC? 

The NHC’s 50th celebrations has been a highlight for me, I have been with the NHC for over 6 years now and it’s great when you get the opportunity to spend time with the staff, celebrating the NHC’s great work over the past 50 years.

 

What have you learnt while working at the NHC?

I have learned a lot while working for the NHC, technology is my passion, and I have introduced many new programmes to the NHC during my time here. From design app Canva which reduces design time and allows for team flexibility, to Dynamics 365 for marketing (our email marketing system) and Flipsnack, the interactive way to present plain old PDFs! I’m constantly looking for new ways to improve our marketing processes and now the age of AI is here, there are a lot of possibilities.

 

What do you like to do outside of work? 

Outside of work, I like to keep myself busy. The garden is my focus, I host during the summer for friends and family, which means a lot of BBQ and cocktail prep!  In a recent comms catch-up the question ‘What is the best advice you have been given’ came up, and my answer was ‘Give anything a try, if you fail all you’ve lost is a bit of time’. I live by that daily, from laying flooring to failing to fix the shower 8 times, the 9th did it.

 

How would you describe the culture at the NHC? 

The culture at the NHC is great, and I’m not saying that with a gun against my head either, it really is! Often, I chat to family and friends about their working arrangement in comparison to the NHC’s and more often than not its greeted with disbelief. They genuinely care about their staff, you have the time for personal development and the door is always open from management all the way up to our CEO, that’s rare…

Understanding the need for regeneration in the North – member research

|, |by

To better understand the issues related to the North’s ageing homes and the need for future regeneration funding streams, we surveyed a group of housing association members. The findings have been shared directly with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and they also formed part of our Spending Review submission to the HM Treasury.

Responses to the survey came from housing associations that collectively own and manage approximately 340,000 Low-Cost Rental Accommodation homes with representation from each of the three northern regions. The size of landlord respondents ranged from 9,000 to 49,000 homes, with the largest provider having some operations outside of the North.

Executive Director of Policy and Public Affairs Patrick Murray said: “We know regeneration is a real need for communities across the North and that members face some big challenges around homes coming to the end of their life and places in need of renewal. It’s vital we understand the scale of this so we can put forward a strong case to Government for housing-led neighbourhood regeneration.

“We have met with MHCLG officials several times to discuss the survey results and are providing further information to support their Spending Review work. The Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook raised these issues at a recent event, so we know it’s gaining prominence with Government.”

Key findings are below, or you can read a summary report here.

Key takeaways:

  • Of the c.340,000 homes owned and managed by respondents, it is believed that around 6,450 (1.9%) will be unable to remain compliant with emerging regulatory requirements between now and 2030 due to physical or structural constraints, so will need to be replaced. Applied to the North of England more widely, an estimated 25,500 social homes would fall into this category.
  • Certain property archetypes are more likely to fall into this category. This includes pre-1919 housing, listed buildings, non-traditionally built stock and twentieth century high-rise blocks of flats, including those built using Large Panel System (LPS) construction, that will struggle to achieve EPC Band C.
  • Of the c.340,000 homes owned and managed by respondents, around 11,900 (3.5%) will meet one or more of three ‘end of life categories’ in the next five years. Applied to the North of England more widely, this would be 46,952 social homes in total. This rises to 7.6% or 101,757 homes when the timeframe is extended to the next 10 years. End of life categories include homes that would not meet regulatory requirements, are not finically viable or homes located in an area in need of regeneration.
  • Of the 11,900 homes identified as approaching ‘end of life’ in the next five years, 4,507 (38%) were identified as being in sites where densification would be possible. However, densification was not always a desirable outcome, for example, where providers wish to replace low-demand, outdated bedsits or other small properties with family homes in an area with high demand for larger homes. To address this there will need to be flexibility with net additionality requirements of grant programmes to enable housing providers to meet the needs of the community in their area.
  • A relatively small number of homes, especially twentieth century high rise blocks of flats, are causing significant financial issues for housing providers due to exceptionally high repairs and maintenance costs. It is likely that these homes will be impossible for the landlord to maintain into the future.
  • Of the c.340,000 homes owned and managed by respondents, 9.4% were deemed to be in an area in need of physical regeneration. Applied across the North of England, this would be 126,012 homes in total.
  • The social housing sector needs long term certainty about future funding and policy to plan. As part of our Spending Review response the NHC called for a £1.37 billion fund over 5 years for housing-led neighbourhood regeneration in the North. For the sector to be able to deliver good quality homes and be financially stable this must sit alongside, flexibility in the Affordable Homes Programme to support regeneration, confirmation of the new Decent Homes Standard and the right financial support to improve quality and energy efficiency of homes.

NHC welcomes new funding for energy efficiency improvements

| |by

The government has announced funding allocations for Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (previously known as the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund or SHDF) and for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, which are set to improve the energy efficiency of up to 170,000 homes.

Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive of the Northern Housing Consortium said:

“The North has lots of older, colder homes – with 1 in 5 built before 1919 and almost a million households currently in fuel poverty – so this Warm Homes investment will make a big difference to people’s lives. NHC members, including housing associations, local authorities and combined authorities across the North, are working to tackle this by installing tens of thousands of energy efficiency measures from heat pumps to home insulation. 

This extra funding from government is very welcome and will boost these efforts, helping to cut carbon emissions, support jobs, cut fuel bills and tackle fuel poverty. We also welcome the move to devolve retrofit funding in the North through the allocation of funding to Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Integrated Settlement.  

This will allow funding to better align with locally led plans for economic growth, training and skills provision, as well as support greater collaboration between housing providers in Greater Manchester. We know there is continuing appetite from our members to continue to make our homes more energy efficient.”

In total, the third wave of the Social Housing Fund will see £1.29bn allocated across 144 individual projects. Funding will be distributed through one of two distinct funding routes. These are the Challenge Fund, which will work in a similar fashion to current funding programmes, and Strategic Partnerships which aim to provide a greater level of flexibility, and reduced up-front administrative requirements, for more experienced providers, or consortia of providers, in delivering their energy efficiency upgrades.

Just less than half of the total £1.29 billion of funding will be delivered through Strategic Partnerships, including a significant proportion of funding allocated to the North. For the North, these strategic partnerships will take the form of large partnerships of housing providers, led by a Mayoral Combined Authority. Major strategic partnerships for the North include:

  • Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – £48,090,405
  • Tees Valley Combined Authority (this consortium includes housing associations and local authorities in the North East and Yorkshire) – £43,910,533
  • West Yorkshire Combined Authority – £25,682,461

Major allocations through the Challenge Fund include North Yorkshire Council, whose £21 million allocation, was the single largest allocation through this route.

In addition, government announced a further £600 million for the Warm Homes: Local Grant. This funding is to be allocated to local authorities to improve the energy efficiency of homes of low-income households living in owner occupied or privately rented homes. In total, almost £150 million was allocated to 46 local authorities in the North across 23 bids. Allocations to councils in the North are in the table below:

Local authority Funding allocation (Local Grant)
Barnsley £1,538,552
Blackpool (as part of a consortium of 13 councils) £30,039,099
Bradford £7,106823
Calderdale £3,206,150
Cheshire East (as part of a consortium of 3 councils) £7,782,725
County Durham £2,055,853
Darlington (as part of a consortium of 4 councils) £13,953,865
Doncaster £1,604,111
East Riding of Yorkshire £1,500,000
Gateshead £1,500,000
Hartlepool £2,391,408
Kingston upon Hull £3,402,806
Leeds £5,963,439
Liverpool City Region (as part of a consortium of 6 councils) £31,805,813
Newcastle upon Tyne £2,294,325
North Tyneside £4,281,163
North Yorkshire £5,974,078
Northumberland £2,530,853
Sheffield £3,406,008
Sunderland £1,500,000
Wakefield £1,500,000
Westmorland & Furness (as part of a consortium of 2 councils) £11,828,581
York £2,037,677
   
North £149,203,329

 

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) will receive an allocation of this funding as part of the Warm Homes and Public Sector Decarbonisation Devolution Programme, as part of their integrated settlement.   Details of this will be  announced as part of the Spending Review.

Full lists of funding, for both the Challenge Fund and Strategic Partnerships of the Social Housing Fund, can be found here. The full list of funding allocations for the Local Grant can be found here.

 

NHC welcomes Government announcement about new ‘Plan for Neighbourhoods’

| |by

The government has recently announced a new ‘Plan for Neighbourhoods’, including a total of £1.5 billion of funding to support the delivery of a wide range of potential interventions in 75 selected neighbourhoods. The interventions cut across several key themes such as housing, employment, transport, health and wellbeing, and education.

Across the North of England, 29 neighbourhoods will be allocated funding worth a total of up to £580 million or 38.9% of the total funding allocation. The funding will be split 75% for capital spend and 25% revenue, with the first project spending released to local authorities from April 2026.

Each neighbourhood will be allocated up to £20 million over ten years and be required to establish a Neighbourhood Board to direct how funding is spent. Neighbourhood Boards will also be required to develop new ‘Regeneration Plans’ for their areas, to be submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This builds on the Long-term Plan for Towns announced by the previous government, with some additional funding. Selected neighbourhoods have until the 22nd April 2025 to finalise the membership of their Board, nominate a Chair and propose any changes to the boundaries of their ‘neighbourhood’.

The largest change, however, is that this new Plan does give a greater focus to the role of housing within regeneration.

Alongside the Plan, a list of pre-approved interventions was also published. These include:

  • Town centre or high street regeneration and public realm improvements
  • Resident engagement and consultation on estate regeneration schemes
  • Modernisation of social housing stock, including improving home energy efficiency
  • Improvements to green spaces and the wider physical environment
  • Commissioning and funding homelessness support
  • Improvements to make existing homes more resilient to overheating, flooding and other risks
  • Supporting the establishment of Community Land Trusts (CLT) to begin delivery of community-led housing initiatives
  • Funding for local museums and other cultural or heritage activities or ventures

The Plan hopes to champion local control of funding, with the Neighbourhood Boards being given increased freedom as to how funding is used to ensure it can align with the needs of the specific area. Mayoral Combined Authorities, where they exist, are also expected to play a role in the development of Regeneration Plans.

The prospectus for the Plan also directly references the last Labour government’s ‘New Deal for Communities’ as an influence behind the Plan for Neighbourhoods. The New Deal for Communities previously demonstrated significant success in improving 32 of 36 key headline indicators in the areas where it was present.

At the Northern Housing Consortium, we strongly support this development and the focus government is placing on regeneration.

Our Chief Executive Tracy  Harrison said: “We are pleased to see Government prioritise regeneration in the North, with increased investment through the new long-term Plan for Neighbourhoods.

 “Building on the previous Long Term Plan for Towns, it goes further by recognising housing as an integral part of regeneration. This is backed up with additional funding and acknowledgement of the importance of addressing homelessness, improving the quality of existing social housing, and referencing estate regeneration.

“We have consistently put forward the case to Government that regeneration must sit alongside investment in new homes to meet the needs of communities – so this is a positive step for the North.

“We are calling on the Government, through the Spending Review, to go further and establish a new funding stream for place-based, housing-led regeneration, which sits alongside a new Affordable Homes Programme with the flexibilities required to support regeneration.”

Alongside making a case for regeneration funding we have advocated more local control of such funding and the end to the ‘competitive funding pot’ model, including through our Pride in Place work.

The full list of Northern areas that will recieve funding is below:

Neighbourhood Local authority Region
Blyth Northumberland North East
Darlington Darlington North East
Eston Redcar & Cleveland North East
Hartlepool Hartlepool North East
Jarrow South Tyneside North East
Spennymoor County Durham North East
Washington Sunderland North East
Accrington Hyndburn North West
Ashton-under-Lyme Tameside North West
Burnley Burnley North West
Chadderton Oldham North West
Darwen Blackburn & Darwen North West
Farnworth Bolton North West
Heywood Rochdale North West
Kirkby Knowsley North West
Leigh Wigan North West
Nelson Pendle North West
Newton-le-Willows St Helens North West
Rawtenstall Rossendale North West
Runcorn Halton North West
Barnsley Barnsley Yorkshire & Humber
Castleford Wakefield Yorkshire & Humber
Dewsbury Kirklees Yorkshire & Humber
Doncaster Doncaster Yorkshire & Humber
Grimsby North East Lincolnshire Yorkshire & Humber
Keighley Bradford Yorkshire & Humber
Rotherham Rotherham Yorkshire & Humber
Scarborough North Yorkshire Yorkshire & Humber
Scunthorpe North Lincolnshire Yorkshire & Humber

Almost 20 years in finance at the NHC

|, |by

We spoke to Yvonne Surtees from our Finance Team about her time at the NHC and how the culture and focus on wellbeing makes it a great place to work.

 

What is your job title and how long have you worked at the NHC? 

I started working for the NHC over 19 years ago as a Finance Assistant. In my early career the NHC supported me with my studies and helped me achieve an AAT Accounts and Payroll qualification. With experience and knowledge gained at the NHC I progressed my career to Finance Officer, and then on to Finance & Payroll Manager.

 

How would you describe the culture at the NHC and what has changed in the time you’ve worked here?

The flexibility the NHC offered when I first applied for the position was a big draw as I had a young family. As the years have gone by the NHC has become more flexible with agile working and has implemented the wellbeing programme promoting work/homelife balance – as well as mental and physical wellbeing. The wellbeing group arrange regular walks and other various activities during works time, this helps provide a good balance.

Our executive leadership team are approachable and supportive to all staff members and for me personally this is a high priority from my employer. Promoting positive and safe environment and allowing staff to be part of the corporate plan and core values really helps bring the workforce together.

Leading the NHC’s HR and wellbeing work for almost 20 years

|, |by

We spoke to our HR and Wellbeing Manager, Kay Wiseman, about how she has developed her career at the NHC and some of her highlights.

 

What is your job title and how long have you worked at the NHC?

I have been with the NHC for over 19 years and started my career as an Administrative Assistant. As the NHC expanded, an opportunity arose for me to pursue a career in human resources and with the support of the NHC I gained a master’s in human resource management, and I am now HR and Wellbeing Manager.

 

What has been a highlight from your time at the NHC? 

I have had many highlights throughout my time with the NHC, the most recent was with the help of our staff led wellbeing group we achieved the Gold Better Health at Work award which recognised the NHC’s commitment to promoting health and wellbeing to colleagues and our members.

 

How would you describe the culture at the NHC? 

The NHC has a positive, flexible, and supportive culture with employee health and wellbeing at its core. The agile approach to work really helps me and my family’s needs.

 

What do you like to do outside of work? 

Outside of work I like to spend time with family and friends, I also enjoy walking and going to the gym.

 

NHC responds to £300m Affordable Homes Programme top up announcement

|, |by

The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) has welcomed the £300m Affordable Homes Programme top announcement but flagged the urgent need for a new longer-term fund.

Chief Executive of the Northern Housing Consortium Tracy Harrison said:

“Many of our members have reported that the £500m top up announced in the Autumn Budget was running out, so this extra £300m of funding is welcome news. With housing waiting lists growing fast in the North and over 12,000 households living in temporary accommodation we desperately need more social housing.

“However, we need a longer-term affordable homes programme to be announced as soon as possible, ideally as part of Chancellor’s statement on 26th March. The affordable housing development process is complex, and our members say it normally takes two to three years from obtaining a grant agreement from Homes England to completing a development. The lack funding certainty over the next few months risks identified sites not being progressed and puts government housebuilding targets at risk.”

The government announcement also features plans to:

  • £50 million increase to the Local Authority Housing Fund to provide homes for those in need of better-quality temporary accommodation.
  • Crack down on exploitative behaviour by rogue and criminal supported housing landlords – further details are expected shortly.

 

NHC joins Housing Minister and Business Secretary for discussion on planning reform

|, |by

Our Chief Executive Tracy joined a roundtable discussion on reforms to the planning system with Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds MP and the Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook.

Tracy emphasised that the North is open for business, highly collaborative, and ready to help the government achieve its growth missions – including building 1.5 million homes. She also stressed the importance of a new Affordable Homes Programme being bigger to deliver on the government’s new homes target and structured in a way that delivers maximum benefits to northern communities. This includes provision for regeneration to tackle housing quality alongside homelessness, and devolution of funding so it can be targeted where it’s needed most.

In December, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) having consulted on reforms to the planning system earlier in the year. You can read our response to the consultation here.

The government ministers also confirmed that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would be introduced in the coming weeks.

Long Term Plan for Housing Roundtable

Our Executive Director of Policy and Public Affairs Patrick Murray attended a roundtable hosted by the National Housing Federation and Chaired by senior MHCLG civil servants, to discuss the Long Term Plan for Housing.

Patrick highlighted that devolution is a real opportunity to deliver on housing ambitions and that the North is ready to work collaboratively to ramp up delivery. He also said that housing-led regeneration should be central to the Long Term Plan for Housing, and that funding should be made available to support this.