Improving Lives October 2023: An update from Longhurst Group
Longhurst Group
We provide much-needed homes and support services with a vision to improve the lives of our customers and communities.
Welcome to our Improving Lives e-zine
Welcome to the autumn edition of our stakeholder newsletter.
It remains a challenging time for the Group and for the wider housing sector as we do everything we can to improve the services our customers receive. As part of our response to this, we've introduced additional support to strengthen our workforce and enhance our repairs service.?
With the support of our contractors and the recent introduction of Plentific, we're?continuing to reduce the backlog?of outstanding work. Our Complaints Team is better resourced to resolve complaints more quickly and our contact centres are working closely with our contractors to monitor work and update our customers.
All of these challenges, as well as how we're responding to them, are laid out in our recently published annual report, which you'll find out?more about in this update.
Last month we welcomed our new?Chief Information Officer,?Guv Dhaliwal, to the Group. In this new role, which is part of our Executive Leadership Team, Guv will lead our digital, data and technology IT capability.?Guv has held various leadership positions at Walgreens Boots Alliance Group, with his most recent role being CIO of their internal brands organisation, and I'm sure he's going to be a fantastic asset for the Group.?
In this update, we bring news of our latest development activity and?the roll-out of our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund project, which will improve energy efficiency in over 580 homes.? You'll also find out about the positive difference being made by our floating support service and an exciting six-year project we're working on?with a primary school.?
Julie Doyle, Longhurst Group Chief Executive
Resetting our focus for future success
We've recently published our Annual Report and Financial Statements for?2022/2023.
Titled 'Resetting our focus for future success' the report outlines our priorities and highlights our key financial statistics and performance data while acknowledging where we need to improve, and more importantly how we’re going to do that.
Created to be accessible, engaging and interactive, this year's report is full of stories from our customers and communities that highlight how we've?continued to support them and realise our vision to improve lives.? Resetting our focus features a series of video case studies, including the one below which showcases our Group Board and committee members touring some?of our development sites earlier this year and illustrates our ongoing commitment?to?tackling the housing crisis.?
Group?Board member?Parmjit Dhanda?talking about our house building aims on site at one of our developments in Lincolnshire.?
My reflection on the last 12 months - Jenny Brown
In the last 12 months, the Group has retained a laser-like focus on improving our performance, scrutinising what we’re getting right and where we need to focus our resources to improve. At the same time, we remain mindful of the enhanced attention and scrutiny on the wider housing sector and the role we need to play to transform public and political opinion.
As challenging as the last year has been for the Group and the sector,?I’m privileged to see examples of the services we provide continuing to make a positive difference for so many people. The passion and commitment of our people, united as one team to get things back on track is what's driving the whole Group to?turn things around, and we’ve supplemented these efforts by investing further in our recovery. We’ve worked hard to learn lessons from the things we haven’t got right and are refocusing our efforts to make clear improvements. We've?changed the way we work?and stepped up our response as we continue to tackle the challenges we face.
Everyone at the Group is driven by an acute sense of purpose to ensure that the people who rely on us are able to live safely, healthily and happily in the homes we provide and have access to excellent support services. Quite simply, that’s what we’re here for.
Jenny Brown, Longhurst Group Chair
A fond farewell
We'd like to congratulate our former Director of Customer Experience and Communities, Charmaine Simei (Cham), on her appointment as?Chief Executive of Tuntum Housing Association. Throughout her career, Cham has led?activity?in many areas, including community investment, customer engagement and?equality, diversity and inclusion.
We wish Cham well in her new role and would like to thank her and Bernadette Farrell, our former Director of Care and Support, who also recently left the Group, for their fantastic service. Bernadette had been with the organisation for 29 years and provided heartfelt dedication to our Care and Support colleagues and customers throughout that time.?
Improved energy efficiency for customers
In our Summer newsletter, we shared the news of our successful bid for ￡6.3 million from the Government?as part of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF). Hundreds of our customers are now set to benefit from improved energy efficiency in their homes.
We’ll be carrying out energy efficiency improvement work?in partnership with our contractors Morgan Sindall Property Services (MSPS) in 581 of our homes to bring them up to Energy Performance Certificate rating C.?
These initial improvements have started in 70 homes?in King’s Lynn which will see new storage heaters, loft insulation, new water immersion tanks and new or enhanced windows or doors installed.
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Affordable homes coming to an area of high demand
Work is progressing well on 16 new affordable homes in a Lincolnshire village.
We’ve partnered with Lindum Group to build the two and three-bedroom homes on Doddington Lane in Claypole.
After work started earlier this year, the homes are now taking shape with roofing work?to be completed imminently.
The homes, which are currently scheduled to be completed in the new year, will be made available for Shared Ownership and affordable rent.
Over 100 new homes coming to Bourne
Work is progressing well on our new affordable housing development in Bourne.
We’ve joined forces with Allison Partnerships to deliver the 121-home Mays Place in the town.
Since work began on Manning Road earlier this year, progress has been impressive, with many of the homes now taking shape.
The development will provide a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes across a variety of tenures, including Shared Ownership, Rent to Buy and affordable rent.
Time capsule buried by pupils at local?development?
Pupils from a primary school in Boston have buried a time capsule on the site of our new housing development in the town. The children, who are in their reception year at Hawthorn Tree Primary School, filled the capsule with various items, including pictures, lengths of string to show how tall they are now, and “all about me” information pages.
It has now been buried at our 135-home The Leas development on Toot Lane, which is located close to the school.
New partnership with Plentific
As part of our efforts to improve our repairs service and tackle the backlog of jobs we need to complete, we’ve partnered with Plentific –?a market-leading online platform that connects housing associations with local contractors.?This enables us to link-up with local tradespeople that are able to complete less complex repairs jobs more quickly – helping us to tackle overdue repairs and improve the service we deliver to our customers.
Floating Support service helps Ukrainian refugee
A Ukrainian refugee who fled his war-torn homeland is about to sign a tenancy for his own home thanks to the support of our colleagues.
Grigoriy Thkachov, 72, arrived in the UK as part of the Homes For Ukraine programme in August last year with one bag of belongings, 90 euros and his Ukrainian ID after his home and village had been hit by Russian bombing.
He found a placement with an elderly couple in Ruskington and was assigned to our Sleaford Floating Support service in April.