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Tenants can now get training in independent living skills

Independent East / Your Own Place / Broadland Housing logos

Broadland Housing tenants can benefit from tenancy and independent living skills training – thanks to our membership of Independent East.

Your Own Place CIC successfully delivered its Tenancy and Independent Living Skills (TILS+) workshops to Saffron Housing Trust tenants last year. These engaging, practical workshops are now being offered to tenants of Broadland, Freebridge and Orwell housing associations, through their membership of Independent East.

From January 2022, Your Own Place, a social enterprise based in East Anglia, will deliver the workshops to tenants at locations across Norfolk and Suffolk. The workshops, a mix of digital and face-to-face sessions, provide opportunities for people of all ages to develop and build on existing skills. A wide range of topics is covered, including saving and budgeting, self-care and wellbeing, and digital skills. The aim is to make a positive difference to tenants’ lives through developing their confidence and resilience.

Helping more people into employment

The partnership with Your Own Place is an exciting collaboration for Independent East. The new initiative aims to help more people into employment, reducing rent arrears and potential future evictions.

Helping people to sustain their tenancies is a central part of what Broadland do. We are thrilled to be part of this partnership with Independent East and Your Own Place to invest in more support and training for many more people.

Catherine Little, Executive Housing Director, Broadland Housing Association

We’re absolutely delighted to be working not just with the residents of 4 regional housing associations, but with 4 housing associations that want to collaborate, support residents from across East Anglia and recognise that our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills Plus (TILS+) are beneficial for any person in any situation. Their compassion and understanding that having an impact on lives goes way beyond just being their landlord is why we want to work with them and be a part of building on the skills that tenants already have. We know that the residents we work with are experts in their own lives, we respect their experiences and contributions and love the two-way learning. Fun, participative and engaging workshops will be delivered with 400 tenants during 2022 across 8 different locations – with the aim of building the skills to be happy in their homes and ultimately prevent homelessness.

Rebecca White, CEO, Your Own Place

We have been really pleased with how well the workshops have been received by Saffron’s tenants and it’s fantastic that it’s now going to be delivered by Independent East to help even more tenants across the region. Not only is it a great opportunity for them to learn new skills, but it provides scope for tenants to meet those from other housing associations, share their experiences, support one another and help create cohesive communities.

Paula Tuck, Assistant Director of Customer Services at Saffron and member of the Independent East Residents Group

Watch a video of Chantay, one of Saffron’s tenants, talking about her experience of the TILS+ workshops (credit: Your Own Place).

Supporting #Flourish for inclusivity

Supporting #Flourish for inclusivity

Broadland is supporting #Flourish, a new campaign by Independent East to promote equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplaces and communities. Independent East is an informal alliance of 5 community-focused housing associations in the East of England.

#Flourish logo - the Independent East campaign to promote equality, diversity and inclusivity

#Flourish is designed to raise awareness of inclusivity and create an environment where everyone can be themselves, grow and flourish. The campaign is based on the idea that just as every plant needs a different environment, treatment and conditions to thrive, so do we as individuals.

Over the coming months, Independent East members will work collaboratively to raise awareness about the importance of inclusion through surveys, training and events. Each organisation will also commit to scrutinise their internal processes to see how they could be improved.

We are very excited to be part of this initiative with Independent East, growing our already strong programme of EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] activities. Our strong commitment reflects that of the other members of Independent East and we look forward to working together to bring even more opportunities to our staff team.

Michael Newey, Chief Executive, Broadland Housing Association

We are all really passionate about this work. We want our workplaces and our communities to be totally inclusive places, that accept everyone for who they are with no judgement and provide an environment where they can be free to be who they want to. We know that there are so many benefits to having a happy workforce, so why wouldn’t you put in place the things needed to enable that to happen?”

Catherine Hodds, Director of People & Culture at Saffron

We spend so much of our adult lives at work; it seems contradictory that many people are worried about being themselves when they are there. While it’s important to remain professional, employees that feel comfortable being themselves are likely to be happier and more productive. This, in turn, influences the service that we can provide to our customers and the experience they will have when they interact with us.

By working in partnership with our Independent East partners, we hope this campaign will have a positive effect on all our customers across the East of England.

Wendy Evans-Hendrick, Chief Executive, Orwell Housing Association

4 new affordable homes at Clenchwarton, near King’s Lynn

We are pleased to announce 4 new affordable homes at Clenchwarton, near King’s Lynn in west Norfolk, acquired from Trundley Properties.

The 2 x 2-bedroom and 2 x 3-bedroom semi-detached houses are a mix of shared ownership and affordable rent. They are part of a new development of 18 homes at Laurel Farm Meadow by Trundley Properties and Buildwise.

Andrew Savage (Executive Development Director, Broadland Housing Association) with Ben Trundley (Construction Manager, Trundley Properties Ltd) at Clenchwarton, west Norfolk
Andrew Savage with Ben Trundley (right)

We are delighted with the progress made on this development, despite the challenges of the restrictions we have been subject to over the past 2 years. The development includes a social housing element and we are pleased to have identified Broadland Housing as the social housing provider on this scheme. We very much hope we can work with them again in the future.

Ben Trundley, Construction Manager, Trundley Properties Ltd

This is the first time we have worked with Trundley Properties and we are very pleased with the outcome. We have been able to acquire some very well built, energy-efficient homes to increase the choice of affordable housing in this area of the county.

Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director, Broadland Housing Association

Webster Court flats ‘built’ in 3 days!

  • Webster Court apartment being craned into position in Norwich
  • Webster Court, Norwich, on Day 3 of construction
  • Webster Court, Norwich, on Day 3 of construction

New apartments for people experiencing homelessness in Norwich have been ‘built’ in 3 days at Webster Court.

The modular apartments were craned into place on site in November, with each storey being ‘built’ in just one day! Watch the timelapse video. The flats were lowered into position with windows, heating systems, kitchens and bathrooms already fitted.

The new apartment block, on a disused car park next to a housing with care scheme run by St Martin’s Housing Trust, will provide desperately-needed homes for people who are homeless in Norwich.

Tenancies of 6-24 months will be available, and tenants will be supported to find a long-term solution to their homelessness. The first residents are due to move in before Christmas.

It’s identified in our Rough Sleeping Strategy that we are in desperate need of homes for people who might be homeless, or who are on the verge of being homeless. It’s so wonderful to see these homes that have grown almost overnight.  What a start for someone who could have their lives changed, and with the proper support, will be able to progress through life in a far better place.

Councillor Gail Harris, Cabinet Member for Social Housing, Norwich City Council

We chose a modular construction route because of speed.  We are looking at a very tight site here, so we needed a solution that would minimise disruption and have just three days of actual construction. The fundamental issue we have in the UK, and in Norwich, is that we do not have enough housing.  That is why we have a problem, that is why we have street homelessness, that is why so many vulnerable groups are struggling to find the right accommodation.  That is why it’s so important to be delivering housing.

Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director, Broadland Housing Association

The new block has been delivered in partnership with Norwich City Council, who gifted the land. The Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities and Homes England supported the construction with funding. Other partners in the project include tenancy support providers St Martin’s Housing Trust and The Magdalene Group; modular supplier modular supplier Modpods International; technical consultants Ingleton Wood, Aecom and Rossi Long; and Munnings Construction.

We are also grateful to Moving Forward-Norfolk (MF-N). Rob Begley, Founder Member, cleaned the 6 flats ready for the tenants to move in, free of charge. MF-N is a not-for-profit organisation set up in April 2021 to tackle the problems caused by hoarding and self-neglect.

New alliance aims to improve services for tenants

CEOs of Norfolk and Suffolk social housing providers in Independent East
Top row: Michael Newey (Broadland), Andrew Smith (Havebury)
Front row: Anita Jones (Freebridge), James Francis (Saffron), Wendy Evans-Hendrick (Orwell)
Logos of 5 local housing associations in Independent East

Broadland Housing has joined 4 other social housing providers in Norfolk and Suffolk to form a new informal alliance, Independent East.

Broadland has agreed to share knowledge, experience and good practice with partners Freebridge Community Housing, Havebury Housing Partnership, Orwell Housing and Saffron Housing Trust.

The aim is to support each other in delivering better services to our tenants and local communities. The new alliance will also create a collective lobbying voice for social housing in the region.

Independent East describes itself as:

…made up of independently minded, and individually sustainable, housing associations with similar and complementary values and business objectives based in Norfolk and Suffolk, which are willing to share knowledge and experience; to support each other in the delivery of our individual corporate strategies; and to explore opportunities to work better together.

Independent East manifesto

The 5 organisations will create senior management forums to explore the potential for common approaches. However, each housing association will continue to operate independently of the others.

We are very much looking forward to collaborating with our Independent East Partners over the coming months and years.

We will be working together on new projects, sharing ideas and best practices, and supporting each other to have the biggest possible impact on the communities we serve while driving innovation and change within the housing industry.

This ambitious partnership fits well with our long-term customer-focused objectives, and we are proud to be a part of it.”

Wendy Evans-Hendrick, CEO, Orwell Housing Association

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