Heartwarming Homes shortlisted at UK Housing Awards
Heartwarming Homes, a joint NHC, Placeshapers and Tpas project, has been shortlisted for Campaign of the Year at the UK Housing Awards.
Developed in partnership with residents and representatives from the housing sector Heartwarming Homes supports housing providers to engage and communicate with residents about energy efficiency improvements. It includes advice about how to make energy efficiency an easy choice for residents, a step-by-step communication guide, template letters, a video tour of a retrofitted home, and much more.
The website had over 10,000 visits in the first year and has received excellent feedback from the sector and residents. 94 per cent of housing providers surveyed said the recommendations were practical to implement and residents felt it offered something genuinely different.
A resident said:
“It makes you feel as though you and your home and health matter to your landlord, and they are trying to help you reduce your bills to give you more money in your pocket.”
NHC Chief Executive Tracy Harrison said:
“I’m very proud that this piece of work has been shortlisted for Campaign of the Year. Resident engagement about retrofit consistently comes up as a challenge for members, and this toolkit offers practical advice about how you can improve communication and make sure resident engagement is embedded in your energy efficiency planning. This toolkit is a fantastic example of collaboration, it shows what can be achieved when we work together to address a common problem.”
Placeshapers Chief Executive Catherine Ryder said:
“The Heartwarming Homes toolkit is a great example of co-creation between residents and social housing landlords. When landlords use this toolkit, they can be confident it has been robustly shaped by residents and builds on best practice from across the sector.
“We are delighted it has been shortlisted for this award, but more importantly that the practical advice in the toolkit is being put into practice by landlords across the country, improving the experience of residents when they have retrofit work done on their homes.”
The project was born out of recommendations from the NHC’s Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury and Placeshaper’s and Tpas research Residents’ Voices in the Net Zero Journey about improving communication with residents about retrofit.
The results of the UK Housing Awards will be announced on 26th November.
