Welcome to our?Development Update
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 latest newsletter, bringing you all the latest on the work currently being undertaken across the Development and Asset Investment Teams.
It’s fair to say that 2023/2024 was a challenging but ultimately rewarding year for Longhurst Group. We took handover of 611 new homes and completed nearly 200 sales.
Asset Investment also saw a record ￡20m spent on planned works and more than ￡5m on decarbonisation works. You’ll read more about this later on in the update.
This year is set to continue in the same vein – new home completions will be close to 600 and the spend on our assets will increase to around ￡28m. Our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund programme will also mean that nearly 600 homes will have been improved by March 2025.
A key driver of our development strategy is to deliver 5,000 homes by March 2030, and I’m pleased to say that we’re well on our way to achieving that target. To date, we’ve completed 2,386 homes, have nearly 1,200 on-site or approved and a further 350 currently in the pipeline.
We cannot achieve this alone and rely on the strong stakeholder relationships we have in place across the development spectrum to ensure this ambitious programme is delivered.
Finally, the Development and New Business Team will be at Housing 2024 in Manchester between 25 and 27 June, so please get in contact to discuss how we can work together and bring forward much-needed new housing across our region.
Marcus?Keys, Executive Director of Growth,?Development and Assets?
More than 600 new build homes completed
We’ve exceeded our target for the number of completed new build homes in the last year.
We took handover of 611 new homes during the 2023/2024 financial year and, of these, 249 of the homes were for Affordable Rent, 215 were Shared Ownership properties, 106 homes were available for social rent, 32 were for Rent to Buy and nine were outright sale.
This was against a business plan target of 587 completed homes.
Marcus Keys, Executive Director of Growth, Development and Assets, said: “We’re committed to providing the homes people want where they’re needed most and to be able to do that on this scale and across such a varied tenure type is something we’re incredibly proud of.
“Our strong relationships with local authorities and developers across our operating region have meant that we’ve been able to identify areas of great housing need and address this by delivering high-quality affordable developments.”
We also had a very strong year for sales, completing 193 shared ownership sales during the financial year, with the surplus generated being reinvested to support us in achieving our wider objectives.
Improving the energy efficiency of our homes
Our work to improve the energy efficiency of nearly 600 of our homes is continuing at pace as part of our Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund programme.
We’ve carried out assessments on more than 500 of these homes and installed nearly 800 energy saving measures.
This has totalled an investment of around ￡5.7 million to date.
There are currently 251 homes having work carried out, with 135 having had all their required works completed.
Members of our Development and?Asset?Investment?Committee recently toured one of the homes having work completed.
Fallon Warren, Head of Environment and Sustainability, said: “It’s great to see the progress being made on our SHDF programme and customers are telling us they’re delighted with the work being done.
“It was very interesting to tour one of our homes in Rushden to see some of the work being done in the flesh and members of the committee also found it useful.
“We’ll continue working hard with our contractor, Morgan Sindall Property Services, to deliver more energy efficiency works to even more homes and improve the lives of our customers.”
Record year for major planned works
The last financial year saw the Group’s largest major works programme since consolidation in 2019.
In total, around 98 percent of planned works were completed and customer satisfaction results remained high.
Following this, the budget for Major Works for this year has been increased to just under ￡30 million, demonstrating our commitment to improving our existing stock.
Paul Veni, Head of Planned Works, said: “While delivering our largest programme to date during the last year, customers recorded a satisfaction rating of 94 percent, which I’m delighted with.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to excellence we've identified specific areas such as bathroom and heating replacements where we can enhance our services and are working alongside our contractors to improve these areas.
“This year, we're excited to be planning to deliver increased investment and larger programmes, which is great news for our customers.
“We have good partners delivering our programmes, and with rigorous quality control measures in place alongside an unwavering focus on customer satisfaction, we're well-positioned to ensure ongoing programme success.”
Some of our headline figures from 2023/24 include:
Work hits halfway mark at Vasey Close in Bassingham
Our new affordable housing development in a village near Lincoln has hit the halfway point in construction.
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Vasey Fields – an 18-home fully affordable development in Bassingham – is being delivered in partnership with Lindum Group.
Roofing works have now been completed on the homes, with decorators and joiners now on site working on the interior of the properties.
Nick Worboys, Director of Growth, Development and Sales, said: “Our Vasey Fields development will play its part in addressing the need for high-quality affordable homes in Bassingham.
“Vasey Fields also strengthens our portfolio in Lincolnshire to ensure more people can realise their dream of home ownership in an affordable way.
"I'm really pleased to see the progress being made at Vasey Fields and we're working closely with our partners at Lindum Group to ensure the homes are available as soon as possible."
Work is due to finish on the homes in August and, once completed, the 18 homes will be available on a mix of tenures, including Shared Ownership.
The development also includes half an acre dedicated to biodiversity net gain, with trees and hedgerows planted.
MMC development completed in Huntingdon
We’ve completed more than 50 new affordable homes having used an innovative modern method of construction.
We delivered California Meadows, on California Road in Huntingdon. It’s made up of one, two and three-bedroom properties.
The completion of the 56-home development marks the end of the redevelopment of part of the Regional College’s Huntingdon campus and has transformed a brownfield site into affordable housing.
California Meadows was built using an innovative construction method with panels constructed in factory conditions using sustainably sourced timber and delivered to the site as complete wall panels with insulation and external cladding.
It’s also utilising Ground Source Heat Pump technology to provide heating and hot water to the homes.
Tracey Pearson, Project Manager, said: “It was really interesting working on a development that uses both these innovative modern technologies. There were lots of new things to learn, but the end result is a development everyone can be proud of.
“The combination of using closed panel timber frame and heat pumps make this scheme unique and I was delighted to be the project manager for what’s turned out to be a striking development which has proven popular with our customers.”
How our Aftercare Team is playing a key role in our success
Our Aftercare Team has also had a strong year, contributing heavily to the success of the wider Growth and Development Team.
The team, which excels in relationship management with our new customers and our development partners, has played a key role as we completed more than 600 homes.
In the last year, Aftercare colleagues processed more than 4,500 certificates, ensuring the properties we took handover of were complaint, while processing 2,281 defect repairs and 1,535 end of defect items.
Currently, the team is managing 49 new build sites across 26 different developers. With some easier to manage than others, the team’s expertise really benefits the organisation.
Leonie Janzen, Aftercare Manager, said: “I’m immensely proud of the work and effort the team is doing, especially knowing the impact they’re having on people's lives as well as the impact it has for the Group.
“The team is?tracking trends and patterns across the schemes and work is ongoing on how we can effectively share and utilise the information we collect with our colleagues in our Asset Teams and Property Services.”
Marcus Keys
Executive Director of Growth and Development
D:?01205 204 280
M: 07973 495 354
Nick Worboys
Director of Growth, Development and Sales
D:?01205 204 257
M: 07771 917 270
Divisional Director at A&B Glass Co Ltd t/as Asset Fineline
5 个月We thoroughly enjoyed our relationship with Longhurst last year replacing the windows and doors at Castle Mews which now all look incredible. Looking forward to a continued partnership.
Executive Director of Growth, Development & Assets. Helping Longhurst Group grow, manage its assets and meet corporate ambitions
5 个月2023/24 saw the completion of over 600 new homes, and a significant increase in planned investment. Our latest newsletter provides an update on this and other projects underway across Development and Asset Investment. The teams are also at Housing 24 in Manchester at the end of June.