Former Norwich City goalkeeper Bryan Gunn opened Broadland Housing Association's new mobile housing office. A specially commissioned Ford Transit 350 MWB high roof vehicle has been fitted out to provide a wide range of professional office facilities.
The mobile housing office will operate a regular timetable of visits to enable the Association to engage more effectively with its tenants, many of who live in rural areas and find it inconvenient to visit housing offices. The new mobile office will also allow the Association to offer a wider range of support services to existing and potential new tenants.
Fusion21, a procurement partnership of Merseyside housing associations, received the first-ever Gold Award to be presented by the Housing Corporation. The Gold Award competition is about recognising excellence in housing provision, sharing cutting-edge knowledge with the housing sector. It is intended to raise the quality of housing provision for millions of residents across the country.
The partnership includes Riverside, Arena, Plus Housing, Maritime, KHT, Helena, and SLH. It was set up in 2001 to find ways of improving thousands of Merseyside homes in the face of rising construction prices. It pioneered new technology and its own construction skills programme for local unemployed people, managed by Knowsley MBC, so that it could control the escalating cost of construction labour and materials covering everything from radiators and bathrooms to windows and kitchens units.
Fusion21 is working on new schemes designed to help tenants cut fuel bills and access digital TV.
Glasgow Housing Association's end of year report showed that it has been spending more than £1 million every two working days on a range of improvements to tenants' homes. The Association spent over £131 million in twelve months on installing new central heating systems, kitchens, bathrooms, doors and windows, as well as re-roofing and re-cladding tenants' properties. A further £45.2 million was spent on repairs and planned maintenance over the year.
As part of the commitment made at stock transfer three years ago to be open and transparent in all dealings with its tenants, the Association issues a Report Card at the end of each year along with a Statement of Intent for the coming year.
Achievements recorded by the Association during 2005/06 include:
The Housing Corporation announced it has removed Shaftesbury Housing Association from supervision. The Corporation placed Shaftesbury under supervision in October 2003 and three statutory appointments were then made to its Board. The Association has since responded to shortcomings identified by the Audit Commission and has committed a programme of continuing improvement. It has also agreed to join the Orbit Group. The statutory appointments have been brought to an end.
Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Housing and Planning, was the special guest speaker at the launch of Wakefield and District Housing's Vision 2002. The occasion marked the Association's change from being a social housing provider, to working together with partners to contribute towards improving health, education, employment and the environment. Vision 2002 highlights particular areas for investment priorities to benefit the community, such as introducing green and energy saving initiatives to keep household bills low.
The Housing Corporation approved the merger between William Sutton Housing Group and Affinity Group. Affinity Sutton Group will come into being in October 2006 with 49,000 homes under its umbrella.
Family Housing Group and Mosaic Homes completed their merger. The new organisation, Family Mosaic, starts operations from early June.
Servite Housing signed an agreement with Middlesex University to take over the management of its 2,000 student homes. The contract will last for 35 years and includes provisions for construction of new student accommodation.
North Glasgow Housing Association received a grant of £12,000 from Communities Scotland to install mini wind turbines on some of its homes, with the aim of reducing tenants electricity bills.
Led by London & Quadrant Housing Trust, twelve London-based housing associations set up a scheme to make loans available to tenants with poor credit history. Called Change, the scheme will make loans of up to £2,500 available for essential items.
Coast & Country Housing signed a £630,000 four-year contract with consultants Value Based Solutions, to identify efficiency gains. The Association estimates the contract could lead to savings of around £1 million per year.
In a project being run by Whitefriars Housing Group in partnership with the Coventry Refugee Centre, students at Barrs Hill School and Community College will learn about the problems faced by refugees in Coventry, including racial harassment. During the project the students will be encouraged to collect food to donate to the Coventry Refugee Centre.
Whitefriars Housing Group was established in 2000 and owns approximately 17,000 homes across Coventry. The Association also works in partnership with communities and other agencies to provide training and employment opportunities and support services for local residents.
Moorlands Housing announced its intention to join Harvest Housing Group. The Association, which has 3,000 homes, approved the move at Board level and will now its consult tenants on it.