Welcome to our September Improving Lives e-zine
Longhurst Group
We provide much-needed homes and support services with a vision to improve the lives of our customers and communities.
Welcome to the latest edition of our Improving Lives e-zine.
Since our last update, we’ve announced that we’re in advanced discussions with Grand Union Housing Group as we explore a potential merger.
Both organisations believe that we’d be much stronger together and able to provide improved services and better value for money for our customers.
We know there are areas that we need to improve and customers have told us what we need to do better, but becoming one organisation would help us to deliver these improvements.
You can find out more about the proposed merger in this update.
Alongside our work to explore bringing the two organisations together, we've maintained our focus on delivering new homes and improved services for our customers and the communities we serve.
You can find out more about this progress in this update and in our new annual report, titled Stronger Foundations, which we launched last week.?
Our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund project continues at pace and is also delivering positive benefits in the community through its social value input, which you can read about below.
There has also been some exciting progress in our development programme, including 18 affordable homes being finished near Lincoln and an MP visit to one of our developments in Cambridgeshire.
I hope you enjoy this edition of the e-zine and we’ll bring you another update, including further progress on the merger,?in the coming weeks and months.?
Julie Doyle, Longhurst Group Chief Executive
An update on our proposed merger
Since we first announced our intention to merge with Grand Union back in July, a lot of work has taken place behind the scenes, including a?thorough process of due diligence.
A six-week consultation with our customers has also concluded. This saw just under 2,000 customers provide feedback either by post, online or over the phone.
We asked customers how they felt about the merger proposals on a sliding scale, ranging from very positive through to very negative.?
We’re really pleased?that 47 percent?of all feedback from customers of both organisations was positive or very positive, with only 20 percent?negative or very negative.
The views of customers, as well as the results of due diligence, will now be reviewed by Boards from both organisations who will decide whether to proceed with the merger.
We'll have news of this decision in early October.?
For more information on our proposed merger with Grand Union, please visit the Stronger2gether section of our website .
Group's annual report published
We're pleased to announce that our 2023/24 annual report and financial statements have been published.
Titled 'Stronger Foundations', the report demonstrates our performance over the last 12 months and how we're committed to further improving services.
It includes customer stories and case studies, as well as video interviews and key statistics in?each of our strategic pillars.
We've once again hosted the report on an interactive online platform to create an engaging experience for readers.
To view the report, click here .
Helping Charlene back into work as a Quality Technician
A young mum has praised our Employment and Skills service for helping her back into work.
Charlene Willson, from Higham Ferrers, worked with our Employment and Skills Advisor Rob Friday and is now working full time in Quality Control.
She said that Rob’s support and guidance was invaluable in helping her achieve her goals.
“I’d done various jobs – working in a warehouse and in retail. I really wanted to get back into a skilled career and thanks to Rob, I was able to,” she added.
“As a single mum, I couldn’t afford to work for minimum wage or early or late hours due to childcare, so I hadn’t been working before speaking to Rob.
“I really wanted to get back into Quality Control, and Rob’s guidance helped me to have the confidence I needed to secure a well-paid and skilled role.”
Charlene is now working full-time as a Quality Technician, having secure the position while working with Rob.
Liberal Democrat MP visits our affordable homes at Waterbeach
We were delighted to welcome a newly-elected MP during a visit to some of our affordable housing in Cambridgeshire.
Charlotte Cane, who was elected as the Liberal Democrat MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire in July, joined our Director of Growth, Development and Sales Nick Worboys and Head of Sales Chris Parkinson at our affordable homes in Waterbeach.
We’re providing affordable homes as part of the wider redevelopment of the former barracks and airfield site, which will see 6,500 homes built as well as five new schools, retail, commercial and green space, as well as new cycle connections and a sustainable travel hub.
Affordable homes completed in village near Lincoln
We've recently taken handover of more than a dozen new affordable homes in a village near Lincoln.
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Vasey Fields has seen 18 new homes built on land on Vasey Close in Bassingham.
We've delivered the homes, which will be made available across several affordable tenures including affordable rent and Shared Ownership, in partnership with Lindum Group.
Marcus Keys, Executive Director of Growth, Development and Assets, said: “We know there’s a demand for high-quality affordable housing in Bassingham, so we’re delighted to have now completed Vasey Fields and to be able to deliver 18 new homes.
“As a Group, one of our key visions is to deliver the homes people want, where they’re needed most, and Vasey Fields is a development that helps us to deliver that vision.
“It also strengthens our portfolio in Lincolnshire and means we’re providing even more opportunities for local people to realise their dream of affordable home ownership.
“This has been a great project to work on, from initial planning to handover, and I’d like to thank our partners at Lindum Group for their hard work in helping us to bring it to fruition.
“I’m now looking forward to welcoming our first customers into their new homes.”
The development has been part-funded through a grant by Homes England as part of our strategic partnership.?
Vasey Fields also includes half an acre dedicated to biodiversity net gain, with trees and hedgerows planted.
Swift and bat roosting boxes have also been built into the homes and hedgehog holes in the garden fences.
Group ranked 31st in annual Biggest Builders survey
We’re proud to have been ranked as the 31st biggest builder in an annual industry survey.
In exceeding our target for the number of new build handovers last year, we completed 611 properties in 2023/2024.
This placed us in 31st position in the Inside Housing Biggest Builders survey.
Of the completed homes, 249 were for Affordable Rent, 215 were Shared Ownership properties, more than 100 were available for social rent, 32 were for Rent to Buy and nine were outright sale.
The Group is also ranked 31st for the number of homes in the pipeline over the next five years.
Providing social value through our SHDF partnership
Pupils at several schools across our region have been learning basic construction skills as part of a social value project.
We’ve teamed up with Morgan Sindall Property Services (MSPS) to deliver energy efficiency improvement works to nearly 600 homes across our portfolio as part of our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) programme.
Within the contract is a requirement for MSPS to deliver social value to local communities, and the organisation has been working with students at schools in Peterborough, Nottingham, Lincoln and Grimsby to deliver the ASDAN Introduction to Construction course.
The course sees pupils learn about different types of wood, what their botanical names are and what they can be used for. They also learn about and use different types of joints as they build items such as bird boxes.
One of the schools that’s taken part in the project is St Francis Special School in Lincoln.
Fallon Warren, our Head of Environment and Sustainability, said: “We believe it’s important to give something back to our communities, so to be able to provide courses like this in partnership with our contractors is brilliant.
“We’ve worked with several schools across our region, but the students at St Francis Special School have really engaged with the project and it’s been great to see the progress they’ve been making.
“I’d like to thank Morgan Sindall Property Services for helping to make this happen and we’ll continue to deliver more social impact as our partnership continues.”
The sessions are being delivered by Donna Shaw, Senior Social Value Officer at MSPS.
We've made further improvements to our anti-social behaviour reporting process
Calls to our recently introduced anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood issue line will now be answered by members of our Tenancy Enforcement Team.
The change has been made following a review of feedback received from our customers.
Laura Waite, Tenancy Enforcement Manager, said: “We’re pleased to have made this change to the process for reporting anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood issues.
“By introducing this new process, customers will be able to speak to a member of the team who’ll be able to carry out a risk assessment and devise an action plan on the first contact.
“This will remove the previous waiting time of up to five working days for a member of the team to get back to them.
“We know customers want to speak to the relevant colleagues as quickly as possible, so I hope they’ll agree that this is a positive change and should result in an improved experience.”
To speak to the Tenancy Enforcement Team to report an anti-social behaviour case or a neighbourhood issue, customers should now call 0800 111 4013 and select option 3. They’ll then need to select option 3 again to be put through to the team.
Latest edition of Our Voice magazine published
The Summer 2024 edition of Our Voice, our customer magazine is out now.
Packed full of useful information, customer stories and news of some exciting competitions, we hope customers will enjoy reading the edition.
The magazine has been made available in printed format for those customers who've requested it,?while the online edition has been sent via email to customers who've asked to receive it?via that method.