News

Broadland has signed a two-year contract with award-winning waste management company Viridor. The new contract, starting today [26 March 2018] will encourage staff to segregate and recycle as much material as possible. Non-recyclable (residual) waste will go to Viridor’s energy recovery facilities at Ardley in Oxfordshire and Peterborough to create renewable energy.

Previously Broadland had multiple waste management contracts. The decision to move to a single contract with Viridor was based on Viridor’s holistic zero-to-landfill approach. Viridor will help us work more efficiently in our waste management, ensure we are fully compliant with waste regulations, including reporting of our waste statistics, and support our SHIFT goals.

Barry Ashby, Group Procurement Manager, said:

“We’re keen to raise awareness within our own organisation about maximising our recycling opportunities, and take the waste that remains and give it a green purpose – low-carbon electricity.

“The tender process incorporated the requirements of Broadland’s Environmental Strategy. Our operatives were consulted and our Digital Team created a questionnaire on Text Local so staff could comment via their mobile phones. This information helped to shape the tender specification. The tender was carried out on our E-Tendering System Delta E-Sourcing. Bids were evaluated on cost and quality criteria, and the three highest-scoring tenderers were invited to make presentations. The decision to accept Viridor’s tender was unanimous.”

Victoria Waterhouse, Viridor’s Commercial Manager (East and Central), said:

“It’s inspiring to work with a customer who is so driven to make sustainable changes. The key to these changes is education and Viridor will fully support this requirement by hosting educational visits to our state-of-the-art facilities and waste awareness days. By providing a dedicated and experienced account manager the group will truly become a waste partner.”

Viridor sent enough energy to the national grid last year to power 380,000 homes – the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds.

Viridor has won a series of national and international awards, including the National Recycling Award for Local Authority Innovation; Best Private Sector Initiative at the Scottish Resources Awards; CIWM Award for the Best Run UK Waste Management Facility; the Industry Award for Excellence for Design of a Recycling or Waste Management Facility and the CIWM Resource Learning & Development Award for Education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Broadland has completed a £50m new long-term debt facility with BAE Systems Pension Funds. This exciting development with a forward-thinking fund will support our plans to build more than 600 new affordable homes for rent and low-cost ownership over the next 4 years.

The debt financing facility will run for 35 years at a 3.64% interest rate.

Initially, Broadland will draw down £20m, with a further £30m to be drawn in 2019.

Julian Foster, Executive Finance Director at Broadland, explains:

“BAE understood our business needs and the deferred element of the deal gives us welcome certainty on future interest costs and future funding. We’re looking forward to delivering much-needed new affordable housing across a range of developments in Norfolk over the next few years.”

Jon-Paul Phillips, Portfolio Manager at BAE Systems Pension Funds, added:

“We’re delighted to be entering into a long-term relationship with Broadland through this funding transaction. On visiting the organisation, when completing our due diligence, we were very impressed with the work the association is doing. It’s an excellent organisation and we expect Broadland to play an ongoing important role in housing provision in the region.”

The funding transaction represents Broadland’s first venture to the capital markets. It complements Broadland’s existing long-term financing of £138m with various banking institutions.

Broadland currently owns and manages 5,000 affordable homes in 12 local authority areas in Norfolk and Suffolk.

For more details about the transaction, please Paula Strachan, Corporate Communications Manager, tel: 01603 750283

Winston the British bulldog sprinkled a little stardust when he visited tenants at our Harriet Court care scheme in Lakenham, Norwich, today [15 March 2018].

The aspiring doggy actor will shortly take up the role of Rufus in Legally Blonde: The Musical at Norwich Theatre Royal.

After the auditions held at Castle Mall last month, Winston won the chance to star alongside the show’s human cast – Rita Simons (Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders), Lucie Jones (the UK’s 2017 Eurovision Song Contest entrant) and Bill Ward (Coronation Street and Emmerdale). He will join the musical’s resident canine actor, Bruiser the Chihuahua, on stage when the show arrives in Norwich later this month.

Winston’s owner Rhonda Dunthorne (pictured right with her partner James Madden) is deputy manager at Harriet Court. The housing with care scheme home has 40 flats, which tenants rent from us while NorseCare provides on-site care to them. Rhonda said:

“I work at Harriet Court so some days Winston comes to work with me. There are tenants here who have had dogs all their lives but can’t have dogs now so they love to see him. It brightens their day and makes them smile. They make a fuss of him. He probably comes in once a month. He would come more if he could, but I obviously have to get my work done!”

Rhonda thinks Winston will be fine on stage:

“He’s good on the lead, good off the lead, so hopefully fingers crossed all will be well.”

Winston’s joint owner James added:

“It’s going to be a massive experience. We’ve never done anything like this before. Winston will just want to go and meet everybody. He’s very calm, obedient and well-socialised and just loves people.”

Winston has been preparing to tread the boards with lots of socialising – and the tenants appreciated his efforts.

Betty Griffin, aged 88 (pictured), has lived at Harriet Court for two years but sometimes feels lonely having lost her husband just before Christmas. She said:

“Winston comes into my room and jumps on my bed. He likes having his back tickled. I used to have little black poodles and bred them with my husband, so it’s nice when Winston comes in.”

Molly Gunton, 89, has been at Harriet Court for eight years. She said:

“I just love it and living here is the best thing that has happened to me. My dad was a gamekeeper and I grew up with black labradors, so it’s nice to see dogs here.”

Peter Cawdron, 77, who has been at Harriet Court eight months, said:

“Winston’s gorgeous, so friendly. I love all animals but I like them more when they are friendly!”

Pauline Scott, 86, has been at Harriett Court for a year.

“I think Winston is lovely. I’ve seen the Legally Blonde film and I think it’s wonderful he is going to be in the theatre show.”

Some of the tenants are looking forward to seeing Rufus in action at the show, which runs at Norwich Theatre Royal from 26-31 March 2018.

Photo of Betty Griffin by Anthony Kelly

 

 

Last week [28 February 2018], social housing tenants from across the UK* travelled to the House of Commons to meet their MPs for the launch of Benefit to Society.

A new survey** shows that more than 90% of tenants feel the media portrays them in a negative way.

High-profile ministers from the main political parties pledged their support for the tenant-led campaign to challenge media stereotypes and public perceptions, and urged others to do the same.

The Housing Minister Dominic Raab (right) said that stigma was the number one issue raised at the tenant consultation roadshows last year.

He said that “the stigma is very ugly indeed and we have to do something about it. It’s time for positive stories to dispel those myths.” 

Shadow Housing Minister Melanie Onn commended the work of housing associations on the Benefit to Society campaign, and in ensuring that tenants’ voices are heard.

She said: “We’ve seen serious issues arise in the last few years; we see poor doors being used in new developments to segregate social tenants and mean they enter by the bins, we’ve seen the children of social renters having less rights to communal areas than other tenants’ pets and we’ve seen tenants complain about having Grenfell survivors being rehoused in their housing block.

“This segregation and mistrust prevents cohesive neighbourhoods from developing. Stable, cohesive and happy neighbourhoods are vital to stopping this stigma, but understanding neighbourhoods is complex. Tenants’ voices are vital in this, they are the people who understand the complex relationships that form and know how to improve cohesion. 

“I am pleased that tenants will lead this campaign, and pleased to pledge my support for this campaign.”

Professor Anne Power from the London School of Economics presented her team’s research (pictured) on overcoming stigma in social housing. It seems Britons on average estimate that around 1 in 4 (24%) of people living in social housing are unemployed, when in fact the true figure is only 1 in 14 (7%). Now tenants say they want to “set the record straight”.  

There was lots of coverage of the event in the media, including an interview with Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio London, and news items on BBC local radio in Jersey, Wales, Cornwall, Oxford and Nottingham.

The principles underpinning the Benefit to Society campaign will inform the Social Housing Green Paper.

Broadland sponsors the campaign and is shaping the debate nearer home too (see panel), with a series of events highlighting the rich variety of people who live in our homes.

*due to poor weather, our tenants Richard and Mo, who contributed to Fair Press for Tenants, were unable to travel down to London from Norfolk for the event.

**YouGov survey commissioned by Soha Housing, February 2018.

 

 

 

Broadland is proud to be the first housing association in Norfolk to achieve an ‘In Good Company Quality Mark Plus’ award.

Norfolk County Council’s top quality mark was awarded for Better Together – our campaign to combat loneliness in local communities.

Better Together is a programme of neighbourhood events and activities that bring together Broadland tenants and staff. People who are lonely are more likely to suffer ill health, rely on public services and lose their independence. Recent research by the Campaign To End Loneliness and London School of Economics also suggests that loneliness is a particular challenge in Norfolk.

“We are absolutely thrilled to receive this award,” says Kevin Gee, Tenancy Support Manager (pictured receiving the award on behalf of the team). “It’s been a real team effort and reflects the hard work that everyone has put in. The idea for Better Together came out of a team discussion 12 months ago about mental health and the impact of loneliness. We were inspired by Norfolk County Council’s In Good Company initiative and the work of the Jo Cox Foundation. What started as a week of activities snowballed – we soon realised it was a much bigger thing, not just among the elderly but young people, new mums and other groups too. We’ve had such an overwhelming positive response from tenants and staff that we decided to expand it into a rolling programme.”

Alison Thomas, Deputy Leader of Norfolk County Council, said:

“Loneliness has become an epidemic across the whole country and here in Norfolk. We know that the problem can only be solved by the support of others and is not a job that just the County Council can do. That’s why organisations applying for our quality mark is so important to us, and why we are so thrilled to give our seal of approval to the amazing work that organisations like Broadland Housing are doing at grass roots level. It’s only by working together that we can truly make a difference to the people of Norfolk.”

Scope of campaign

Broadland’s Better Together campaign started in November 2017. The launch week included talks from experts about the impact of loneliness, personal pledges from staff to take action in their neighbourhoods, pop-up digital learning events (to help tenants stay in touch with friends and family online), and ‘out and about’ visits targeting Broadland’s more remote housing schemes and one-off properties across the county. 

In 2018, Broadland staff will again be reaching out and visiting tenants in isolated communities. There will also be opportunities to get involved in community walks, beach clean-ups and sociable intergenerational events. This follows a popular Christmas craft-making session in King’s Lynn, when local Brownies joined residents at one of Broadland’s sheltered housing schemes. Broadland is encouraging staff to get actively involved in planning future events to tackle loneliness.

Norfolk loneliness summit 2018

The In Good Company Quality Mark award ceremony took place at the Theatre Royal on Friday 23 February 2018. (Watch video) It was part of Norfolk’s first ever summit dedicated to tackling loneliness in the county, attended by over 80 ‘action-takers’ from across the county, including representatives from Broadland Housing. The summit concluded with promises to initiate 15 additional schemes in local communities across the county to help reduce loneliness.

Norfolk County Council’s In Good Company campaign is being run with more than 20 partners from the public and private sector. It is designed to combat loneliness by galvanising individuals and organisations to do as much as they can in local communities to ensure no one spends a lonely day in Norfolk if they don’t want to.