Welcome to our November Improving Lives e-zine

Welcome to the latest edition of our Improving Lives e-zine.

Well, where has this year gone? Can you believe that we’re rapidly approaching the festive season?

In what is our last edition before the Christmas break, and as Longhurst Group, there are lots of important updates, customer case studies and news from across the Group.

Perhaps the biggest update of all is what our new name and brand will be when we complete our merger?with Grand Union Housing Group. Since we announced in October that the two organisations would be coming together, lots of work has been taking place to create a new name and visual identity for our new organisation.

We’re really pleased to be able to reveal the results of that hard work, and you can find out more about what we’ll be called and how we’ve come up with our new brand in this update.

Despite all the work that’s been taking place around the merger, our colleagues have continued to work hard to deliver our Improving Lives vision and making sure we continue to provide excellent services to our customers.

In this edition, you’ll read Ganiu’s story, who’s been helped back into work by our Employment and Skills service following nearly a decade of unemployment following the passing of his wife.

We also have updates on our ongoing political engagement, progress updates from some of our big development projects, and news of an open day at our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund demo home.

I hope you enjoy this edition of the e-zine and, on behalf of everyone at Longhurst Group, I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Julie Doyle, Longhurst Group Chief Executive

Announcing our new brand

As you may already know, Longhurst Group and Grand Union Housing Group will merge and become a single organisation in the next few weeks. Since both Boards approved the proposed merger, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to create a new name and brand for our new organisation. Once our merger is completed on Monday, 16 December, we’ll have a new name and a new visual identity! That new name will be Amplius.

Amplius means ‘more’ or ‘further’ in Latin and we're determined to do more and go further for our customers.

We want to be better and provide more?quality affordable homes and improved services to?ensure?we have more of a positive impact on people’s lives.

Our Chief Executive, Julie Doyle talks more about our new name in the video below…

Open day held at Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund demo home in Rushden

Customers and stakeholders took the opportunity to view our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) demo home in Rushden.

The property, which has had external wall insulation, new doors and windows and improved heating installed, is one of nearly 600 homes having work done to improve the energy efficiency rating.

We welcomed nearly 20 people to the property to have a look around, ask questions of the project team and also see work being done on neighbouring homes.

Having secured more than ￡6 million of government funding as part of the SHDF project, we’re working closely with our contractor Morgan Sindall Property Services to enhance the energy efficiency of 581 homes across our portfolio.

Click here to find out more about the day and to read the thoughts of Marcus Keys, our Executive Director of Growth, Development and Assets, as well as those of the Chair of our Customer Forum and the Head of Decarbonisation at Morgan Sindall Property Services.

Work continues to appoint new communal cleaning contractor

We’re working hard to appoint new contractors to deliver our communal cleaning services across the Group.

So far, 17 contractors have shown interest in the communal cleaning contract, and they’re currently being carefully reviewed by our Estates, Procurement, Homeownership and Housing Teams.

We know that having reliable, high-quality cleaning is important to our customers, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure we secure the best outcome.

Each contractor is being assessed on essential criteria like health and safety, insurance coverage, experience, and customer service.

Our Customer Evaluation Panel will also be scoring the responses to one of the questions in the procurement process to ensure customers are involved in the selection of our new contractor.

We’re hoping to be in a position to appoint a new communal cleaning contractor in the next few months and will provide more information when we’re able to.

Mays Place development in Bourne progressing well

Our affordable housing development in Bourne has reached a landmark stage in construction.?

We're delivering the 121-home Mays Place development on Manning Road in the town in partnership with Allison Homes.?

Work started on the site last year and now, three-quarters of the homes have been completed and residents have started to move in.?

The development is made up of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes across a variety of tenures, including Shared Ownership, Rent to Buy and Affordable Rent.

To read more, including the thoughts of Marcus Keys, our Executive Director of Growth, Development and Sales, click here.

Richard Tice MP visits The Leas as part of our ongoing political engagement

As part of our ongoing political engagement work, we were pleased to host an MP visit to our The Leas development in Boston.

Richard Tice, MP for Boston and Skegness, was shown around the development by our Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer Rob Griffiths, Director of Growth, Development and Sales Nick Worboys, and Head of Construction Services Andy Barradell.

As well as showcasing the 135 affordable homes we’re providing at The Leas on various tenures including Shared Ownership and affordable rent, discussions were had around the need for a long-term plan for affordable housing.

This visit was the latest in a series of political engagements, following on from the visit of Charlotte Cane MP to our affordable homes at Waterbeach and a meeting with Gen Kitchen MP at our Rushden office.

Good progress being made at The Leas in Boston

Good progress is being made at The Leas - our affordable housing development in Boston.

We’re delivering 135 one, two, three and four-bedroom homes across various tenures including Shared Ownership, Rent to Buy and social rent.

Almost half of the properties have now been completed, with work on the remaining homes continuing at pace.

Rob Griffiths, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, said: “It’s wonderful to see more than 60 of the homes at The Leas having already been completed, with many of the remaining properties starting to take shape too.

“The Leas is a very important development for the Group, with it being one of the largest we’ve ever delivered.

“We know that there’s a need for affordable housing of this type in the Boston area so we’re really happy to be able to bring so many new homes to reality to help address that need and provide affordable, quality housing for lots of local people.

“By delivering such a large development, it’s also emphasising our commitment to this area of Lincolnshire and strengthening our property portfolio as we do our bit to help address the housing crisis we face in this country.

“I hope that those customers who’ve already secured their home at The Leas are happy, and we’re also looking forward to welcoming even more new customers in the new future.

“I’m excited to now watch on as the rest of the development takes shape.”

The Leas is being part-funded through a grant from Homes England as part of our strategic partnership.

Helping Ganiu back into work after a decade

When Ganiu Ishola’s wife died nearly a decade ago, his life turned upside down.

Forced to give up work to care for his young children, he didn’t know where to turn.

Now, nine years on and with his children at college, support from our Employment and Skills service has helped him get back on his own two feet and into work.

Ganiu, now aged 60 and living in Lincoln, has a long and proud track record of working. But despite this experience, he was finding it hard to get a break and find work.

He says the intervention of Rob Friday, our Employment and Training Advisor, in July was the turning point and he’s now delighted to be working full-time for Lincolnshire Co-op.

Read more of Ganiu's story here.

Supporting customers with devices and data

Alarmingly, one in seven adults and one in five children in the UK are digitally excluded. Digital access is crucial for education, job opportunities, and affordable utilities.

That’s why we’re committed to doing our bit to help end digital poverty.

Our Employment and Skills Team operates a device and data gifting scheme, which sees us donate laptops, mobile phones and pre-loaded SIM cards to customers who are most in-need and could use these items to find work or develop their skills.

If you know one of our customers and think that they’d benefit from a device or data gift, please encourage them to email [email protected] to see if they’re eligible.

Introducing our new customer e-newsletter

We’re delighted to have launched our new-look bi-monthly Our Voice customer e-newsletter.

We’ve decided to stop publishing our printed customer magazine for various reasons, including its environmental impact and cost.

Instead, we’re committing to providing important need-to-know information straight to our customers' inbox every other month so they're kept up-to-date.

Sam Morris, Communications and Content Officer, edits the newsletter. He said: “While our new product is primarily digital, a printed version has been designed and will be made available to those customers who need it in that format.

“We’ve now published two editions of the new style newsletter and it appears to be well received by our customers.

“It’s sent digitally to nearly 20,000 of our customers, and we’re sending printed versions to those customers who’ve requested one.

“I hope customers enjoy reading the important updates within each edition. If anyone has any feedback about the product, I’d be pleased to hear from them.”

To provide feedback about Our Voice, customers can email [email protected]