North East Housing Partnership

With festive celebrations underway this month, we are wishing everyone a restful and enjoyable period over the next few weeks. However, as housing providers, we know that not everyone has loved ones to meet up with or can afford to share presents and enjoy this time of the year as much as they would like to. Many of our partners support people in the run up to Christmas and over this period and here are some of the highlights from this year: Karbon Homes has used its partnerships with contractors and suppliers to get donations of toys, gift sets and vouchers, all of which have been matched to Karbon households across the region. Link: https://lnkd.in/eWfjZCR8. Livin Housing raised hundreds of pounds for Save the Children International by participating in its annual Christmas Jumper Day. Link: https://lnkd.in/eCr-2ixw. Gentoo Group has arranged to put on a free Festival Family Fun day at the Beacon of Light, with all its customers invited. Link: https://lnkd.in/ezUAVZaf. Gateshead Council is supporting children who receive care and support from its Children's Services to ensure that they all get a gift. Link: https://lnkd.in/ebGQn9tk. Our partners are more than just bricks and mortar and, wherever we can, we try to provide additional services and support to our residents. However, with increased support from government and other agencies, we would be able to do more and go further and faster. We remain committed to working with all partners to improve outcomes for all our residents and their communities.

There are a lot of opportunities for social housing tenants in the North East to access support and a good example is the Unlocking Success bursaries from the Northern Housing Consortium. In this year’s round of funding, 35 people living in social housing from across the North were awarded a £500 bursary to access education, training and employment. Link: https://lnkd.in/eRi8n4vH. One of our partners, Livin Housing has shared a few stories about the impact that these grants have had for three of its tenants in Newton Aycliffe: Sarah was able to use the bursary to buy new technology which has enabled her to meet clients requirements: https://lnkd.in/dAmzdTsc. Kimberley used the bursary to buy her own hairdressing equipment and supplies to allow her to restart her business after relocating to the North East: https://lnkd.in/d_BGru6H. Lauren used the bursary to purchase an online booking system for her laundry and ironing business: https://lnkd.in/dmJ9Va9R. This shows that with even a relatively small amount of funding, it is possible to help people access opportunities for training and work, or to start or scale-up their own businesses, and make a big impact to their lives. Our partners remain committed to enhancing opportunities for our customers wherever possible and look forward to working together to kick on with plans to improve this even further.  

It is great to see that our neighbours at the York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership have published their prospectus and set out three new priority areas to tackle the housing crisis. 👏 There is a lot of overlap to our workstreams and we look forward to working with them, and other housing partnerships, to drive forward collaboration in the social housing sector and maximise our impact.

It has been another busy year for the Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE) and the partners involved, many who are also partners of the NEHP, and although HENNE didn't win this time, it was great achievement to be shorted-listed in the first place. The submission for the awards was for the great collaborative work that has been happening over the past few years as part of New Start, as well as the recent extension of this with the Green Start programme, and the work to reach out to the community with the BOOST programme. We believe that social housing providers have a key role to play in delivering employment support and by working together and collaborating with other local organisations, businesses and the VCSE, it is possible to innovate, make best use of resources and ultimately achieve better outcomes. We are looking forward to what comes in 2025, and with employment being a priority for the new government, as well as strong ambitions from The North East Combined Authority, there are lots of opportunities which we remain committed to doing all we can to make a difference.

Congratulations to Thirteen Group, one of our partners, for winning a UK Housing Award for the invention of a bot capable of processing Universal Credit changes. You can find out more about how they did this in their insightful post below, and this is a great case study of how housing providers can come up with innovative solutions to tackle problems. Well done to all involved! #UKHA2024 #ukhousing #UKHousingAwards

Today members of the North East Housing Partnership hosted a visit from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and The North East Combined Authority to development sites and regeneration schemes across the North East. We talked about the benefits regeneration and new affordable homes development can bring and some of the challenges we face in delivering them. We look forward to working with government of all levels, and other partners, to overcome the challenges so that we can build the next generation of affordable homes that the region needs.

It was great to meet with the Mayor of the North East, Kim McGuinness, at the North East Housing Partnership board meeting earlier. We have been able to meet her on several occasions over the past 6 months, but it was fantastic to hear more detail about her ambitions for the region and the work she has been doing to change things on a national level to make it easier for us in the region. With greater devolution of funding to come over the next few years, including a single integrated settlement for the North East in 2026/27, it is an important time for the region to get together and prepare for the future, and this morning the board was able to discuss what collaboration we were already doing and potential further opportunities. We are committed to continuing working closely with Kim, The North East Combined Authority and collaborating with other willing partners and with the right support, we can go further and faster. 

Our partners are committed to more than just providing safe, secure and affordable homes- we are also committed to working in partnership with our communities and supporting local groups to address challenges, overcome barriers and tackle inequalities that exist. Last week, two of our partners, Northumberland County Council and Bernicia Group held a ‘Tackling Inequalities in Northumberland Through Housing’ event, with several other partners attending and contributing. Our Vice-Chair John. Johnston was co-chair of the event and highlighted some of the work that Bernicia are doing, as well as the wider work across the region with the North East Housing Partnership. An important part of many of our partners work is to provide grants to community groups to support them to continue with their vital work and expand where possible. There are many examples of this but here are few news stories on our partner’s websites: Livin Housing provided funding over the summer which allowed over 800 children, young people and families to enjoy fun activities whilst keeping active and healthy. Link: https://lnkd.in/eyyz9q6D. The charitable arm of Bernicia, the The Bernicia Foundation has provided over £1 million in support for the region over the past 4 years, supporting projects that deliver lasting community benefits and help inspirational young people reach their goals. Link: https://lnkd.in/e_ADSJsC. Gentoo Group organised a family fun day at the Beacon of Light in Sunderland to bring people together and provide a range of free activities including outdoor sports games, football, bouncy castles, a dance party, baking and biscuit decorating and arts and crafts. Link: https://lnkd.in/evtgPCa7. Karbon Homes has an Unlocking Social Value programme which matches the social value commitments of its contractors and suppliers with organisations that they work with to support them, and this has recently been used to support the regeneration of a community centre. Link: https://lnkd.in/eriiVjs7. believe housing has provided funding which has enabled St Margaret’s Centre, on Margery Lane, Durham, to open a volunteer-led community hub which offers a wide range of activities to the local community and serves affordable food options. Link: https://lnkd.in/e8UVM64N. It is only through partnership working with other anchor organisations that we will be able to make the systemic changes that are needed and we remain committed to driving forward more collaboration in the region.

We welcome the announcements over the weekend that the chancellor is pledging to support social housing providers in the upcoming budget. The extra £500 million for the current Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) will enable our partners to bring forward stalled schemes, and we look forward to receiving further clarity on the governments long term plans, including details of the next Affordable Housing Programme, at the Spending Review next Spring. We are also glad to see that the government is looking at a 5-year rent settlement at CPI + 1%, but we support calls for a long-term rent settlement to give our partners the certainty they need for the next 10 years. We know the government has difficult decisions to make, but investment in social and affordable housing will support all of the government's missions and be an integral part of fixing the foundations, and we remain committed to working with them to do so. Link: https://lnkd.in/eaBR7CpF.

Green Start builds on our partnership working with Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE) and extends the approach that they have pioneered as part of the New Start programme, and we are proud of our partners work to improve employment opportunities for our customers, with 22 people starting placements earlier this month. Green Start is a training programme, funded by The North East Combined Authority, which is supporting people to learn green energy skills and to ensure that employers have access to the skilled workforce required to achieve net zero and wider environmental ambitions.   Over the last few months, 52 people have completed a pre-employment course to enhance their skills and learn about the green economy and some have already been able to secure employment. One person who completed the course has since enrolled full time on a renewable energy diploma at college. There is more about Green Start from the Inside Housing article earlier this year here: https://lnkd.in/d3rQ7eBF and keep track of this page and Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE) for more information.