News

‘Getting started with digital skills’ is a FREE 2-hour taster session for Broadland tenants, part of our programme of activities to celebrate Get Online week 2017 (2-8 October).

The session will be held at our King’s Lynn office, from 1.30-3.30pm.

‘Getting started with digital skills’ will support tenants to develop their digital literacy, whether they want to set up an email account, manage their money online or be able to log onto government websites.

The aim is to give tenants the confidence and knowledge to explore and benefit from digital technology in everyday life. Participants will also find out where to access and use digital equipment for free and what support services are available.

To book, telephone 0303 303 0003

Broadland is running a week-long programme of free digital taster events, 2-8 October 2017, for tenants across the region.

On Saturday 30 September prospective buyers can reserve a home off-plan on our new development ‘The Hoppings’ in Bodham. Estate agents William H Brown in Holt are holding an open day, 10am–3pm, when prospective buyers have the chance to reserve one of these beautiful new homes, discuss buying options and choose from a range of kitchen finishes.

The Hoppings is being built by Broadland St Benedicts – part of Broadland Housing. The mixed tenure scheme consists of 16 open market, shared ownership and affordable rental homes. A selection of 2- and 3-bedroom open market and shared ownership, semi-detached and detached homes are available to purchase.

The first release includes 3 open market and 1 shared ownership 3-bedroom detached new homes that are both high quality and affordable. 

Traditional design

All homes are traditionally designed with brick and flint to blend sympathetically with the surrounding village and in keeping with north Norfolk style. The contemporary interiors include high-quality kitchens with integrated appliances, flooring throughout the bathroom, kitchen and WC, landscaped front and rear gardens, a garage or private off road parking space and a 10-year NHBC warranty for each home.   

Open market homes offer bathrooms with Twyford’s sanitary ware, heated towel rails and some come with en-suites.  For early reservations there is also a choice of kitchen finishes from Symphony, with fully integrated Bosch appliances.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to release our first market sales properties in the village of Bodham. These new homes are high-quality, especially designed to complement the community of Bodham,” said Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director.

“The Hoppings is set in a wonderful location and offers a choice of properties to suit all needs and budgets. It’s particularly well suited to first-time buyers and families, coming with all fixtures and fittings as standard – which is a rarity for new build homes – and also offering Help to Buy. We’re urging prospective customers to get in touch now and register their interest in attending our open day, as we expect this to be a very busy day,” said Natasha Baring, Field Sales Manager at William H Brown. 

Bodham’s historic links

The Hoppings is set in Bodham village, north Norfolk, 26 miles from Norwich, 4 miles from Holt and just 2 miles from the coastal village of Weybourne. The area has a wealth of amenities, including good schools, shops, restaurants and leisure facilities. It also has its own village hall, public house and playing field.

The village has a rich historical background, with links to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, who were stationed at neighbouring West Beckham airbase, and B Site ‘Mal Pit WAAF camp’, located in nearby Lower Bodham. The 1950s weekly dance event known as the ‘Bodham Hop’ was held in Bodham village hall, giving the development and the homes within it their dance-themed names.

Prices are available on request and buyers can choose from a range of options, including the Government-backed Help to Buy scheme with the option to purchase one of these properties with as little as a 5% deposit.

For further information and to make an appointment to attend the open day on Saturday 30 September, 10am -3pm, please contact William H Brown Holt on 01263 713343 or email holt@williamhbrown.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Broadland Housing tenants Richard and Mo have inspired a unique guide for media workers.

Fair Press for Tenants seeks to challenge media bias. It describes the impact of poor reporting and provides an alternative way to cover stories about social housing.

To compile the guide, journalists from the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) surveyed and interviewed people who live in social housing across the UK, including two of our tenants.

The Fair Press for Tenants guide is aimed at journalists, PR professionals, documentary makers and any media workers keen to hear the views of their readers, viewers and listeners on media representation of life in social housing. It is informed entirely by the ideas and words of people living in social housing.

Richard Peacock, Chief Executive of Soha Housing said: “The kind of stigma we commonly see attached to living in social housing is more than unfair. It’s damaging. Many tenants have told me of their frustration at the lazy stereotypes shown in newspaper images, stories and on TV reporting. My concern is that this negativity only leads to sidelining of tenants’ views and I think that this is ultimately dangerous for the balanced society we surely all want. Respect for people in our diverse society seems more crucial now than ever. A failure to have this can lead to unfair and unjust policy making and allocation of resources.”

Benefit to society

The guide is part of a wider Benefit to Society initiative. This acknowledges common misrepresentations of social housing tenants in the local and national media, such as tenants being associated with exploiting the benefit system and living in run down estates. These misrepresentations reinforce negative stereotypical views of social housing tenants among the public.

Benefit to Society also hopes to challenge those responsible for pushing the negative stereotypes, including government, the public and housing organisations themselves. See www.benefittosociety.co.uk for more information.

Leslie Channon, a tenant representative on the project steering group and a Director of Tpas said, “I’m proud to be part of something that is challenging the negative way we tenants are viewed all too often in the media. We’re just normal people, living our lives and we deserve the same respect as everyone else”.

‘Lazy stereotypes’

NUJ activist Rachel Broady, Equality Officer at Manchester and Salford Branch, worked with a group of social housing tenants to decide the content and wording of the guide. Rachel, who is a social housing tenant herself, said: “The tenants I worked with agreed that lazy stereotypes of nuisance neighbours need to be confronted and the clichéd photos of grim streets need to be reconsidered.

“Stereotyping social housing tenants has real consequences; it denies us a voice and allows our concerns to be dismissed because it too often portrays us as nuisances, as demanding something we’re not entitled to. I think this is particularly apparent after the Grenfell Tower atrocity where, combined with a lack of local reporting, the legitimate concerns of tenants were too easily ignored.”

The guide was launched on 14 September 2017 at the University of Salford, Media City UK. Watch the launch video.

Broadland support

Broadland is one of 17 housing organisations who sponsor Benefit to Society:

• Aspire Housing
• Bolton at Home
• Broadland Housing Association
• Homes in Sedgemoor
• Optivo
• Progress Housing Group
• Red Kite Community Housing
• The Riverside Group
• Rochdale Boroughwide Housing
• Soha Housing
• South Yorkshire Housing Association
• Town & Country Housing Group
• Wythenshawe Community Housing Group
• Tpas
• ARCH
• NFA
• NFTMO

For more information and photographs contact: Catherine Little, Soha Housing, 01235 515900 clittle@soha.co.uk

 

We’re delighted to have reached the finals of the SHIFT Awards 2017.

The annual SHIFT awards, organised by Sustainable Homes, recognise outstanding sustainability projects and achievements in the housing sector.

In 2016 Broadland was accredited with the SHIFT Gold Standard, after progressing from highly commended in the first year of taking part, through Bronze and Silver SHIFT awards.

This year, we are finalists in three award categories: Best sustainability team, Sustainable housing provider of the year and Most improved ever SHIFT landlord.

“This is excellent news and reflects the hard work we’ve put into improving our sustainability performance over the past 12 months. We’re hopeful of reaching Platinum Standard in due course, but we know how difficult this is, with no housing associations achieving it last year,” said Louise Archer, Executive Property Director.

Bevan Jones, Managing Director of Sustainable Homes, said of this year’s SHIFT Awards finalists: “We are extremely pleased with the calibre and range of the entries this year. The judges have an incredibly tough job to select the winners. It’s great to see that sustainability still has a central place in the sector and beyond, and all the finalists should be proud of their achievements.”

All category winners will be announced on 30 November* at the SHIFT Awards 2017 ceremony at Plaisterers’ Hall, London, attended by over 250 leading sustainability and housing professionals and key decision makers.

Achieving SHIFT accreditation is evidence that an organisation is not only committed to improving sustainability but is backing its words with action. SHIFT drives change by providing organisations with recommendations for improvement and comparing their performance against their peers. SHIFT helps organisations improve the quality of life for their residents and staff through higher quality homes and offices.

 

*UPDATE: Broadland Housing was awarded joint ‘Highly Commended’ for most improved ever SHIFT landlord category 2017. Read the full results here

 

Tenants and friends enjoyed a sunny day of eco-fun at our Sorrel and Campion House scheme in Norwich this weekend. Even the youngest visitors had a go at building a birdfeeder from recycled plastic bottles or exploring nature on the crafts table. And with tombola, facepainting, composting workshops, energy-saving tips and freebies, nature photography, yoga, picnic lunch and garden games, there was something for everyone!

Many thanks to our tenant Mark Leggett for his photographs.