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Gracie, award-winning apprentice!

June 9, 2022

Our apprentice Gracie Symon has won 2 awards in quick succession. In March she won Lewisham College’s plumbing competition for women training in construction, held to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Then in June she was named Construction Apprentice of the Year by City College Norwich.

Gracie SYmon, plumbing apprentice, with her Apprentice of the Year award from City College Norwich
Gracie (2nd right) at the Lewisham College awards (picture: Lewisham College) and at the City College Norwich awards, with Ian Willis, gas engineer, and Liam Cook, Local Delivery Team Leader (picture: City College Norwich)

City College Norwich selected 12 of its 1,650 apprentices for the Apprentice of the Year awards, celebrating those who had excelled and acted as a role model to their peers throughout the year.

Gracie was awarded Apprentice of the Year in the construction category (electrical installations, plumbing and gas).

I feel really happy and honoured to win this award. With my achievements this year, I’m pleased to say my confidence has grown. Ian [my supervisor] has really helped me to get where I need to be in my apprenticeship and has pushed me along with my social skills when talking to new people, such as tenants. The award has highlighted to me how far I have come since I first started with Broadland!

Gracie Symon, plumbing apprentice

Learning on the job

Gracie first joined Broadland as a plumbing apprentice in 2020. She chose Broadland because it offered a wide range of work and opportunities to learn on the job. She also enjoys meeting tenants from a range of different backgrounds.

Gracie first went into plumbing after leaving school, working with her Dad, who is also a plumber, before looking for an apprenticeship in her area. She is due to qualify in 2024.

Gas engineer Ian Willis, Gracie’s supervisor, said:

It’s a pleasure to train Gracie. She is enthusiastic and excited about learning new things, and always willing to give things a go. I am very proud of her. Gracie’s positive can-do attitude shines through – she is a credit to Broadland. Hopefully we can produce more apprentices like her in the future! Well done, Gracie!

New affordable homes at Castle Acre, Norfolk

June 9, 2022

New affordable homes at Castle Acre Norfolk

New affordable homes at Castle Acre, Norfolk

From l to r: Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director; Rik Potter, Project Manager, Holkham Estate Company Ltd; The Earl of Leicester (Chairman, Holkham Estate Company Ltd); Michael Newey, Chief Executive Officer, in front of the new social rent properties at Bricknel Close

Broadland is delighted to have acquired 3 beautiful new affordable homes at Bricknel Close, Castle Acre, from the Holkham Estate.

Two of the 2-bedroom properties are for social rent and another 2-bedroom house will be available for shared ownership.

Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director, said:

We’ve been working closely with the Holkham Estate on this project and it is great to see these high-quality homes come to fruition. There is a chronic shortage of affordable rural housing, so this is a timely development.

The new development is called Bricknel Close, after the original name of the field where the houses are built. In old English, ‘brik’ means bright and ‘halh’ means place – suggesting a bright place open to the skies, rather than in woodland.

Work begins on new council flats in Great Yarmouth

June 1, 2022

Work begins on new council flats in Great Yarmouth

A ground breaking ceremony marked the start of work on 18 new council flats in Great Yarmouth. Broadland is working in partnership with Great Yarmouth Borough Council on the £3 million development.

Architect drawing, Jubilee Court, Great Yarmouth (picture courtesy of GYBC)

Jubilee Court is named in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. It will comprise 3 blocks of 3-storey buildings containing one-bedroom flats for council tenants.

Each 50sqm flat is designed to be suitable for two people and will be built to high energy-efficiency standards. There will be a communal garden and parking area.

Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director, joined members of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, One Public Estate and H. Smith and Sons the ceremony by the Beach Coach Station in May.

The need is outstripping supply. It’s the first time in a long time social and affordable housing has been developed here by the council. It’s good to be able to help the council piece this together. The council are really trying to meet that demand and I think this is fantastic for Great Yarmouth.

Andrew Savage, Executive Development Director

At the event, Great Yarmouth Borough Council Leader Carl Smith said the new development was the “biggest expansion” of the council’s housing stock in almost 20 years. Speaking to the Great Yarmouth Mercury, he said:

The 18 new flats will offer valuable new housing, particularly for single people and young families.

Carl Smith, Leader, Great Yarmouth Borough Council

The homes are due to be completed in around 12 months.

Main picture credit: James Weeds

PCC visits Foundations project for prison leavers

May 12, 2022

PCC visits Foundations project for prison leavers

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PPC) for Norfolk, Giles Orpen-Smellie, recently visited St Martins’ Foundations project. As a project partner, Broadland provides high-quality properties and the Probation Service makes the referrals.

Foundations helps prison leavers to reintegrate back into Norfolk’s communities, reducing the likelihood they will reoffend or become homeless.

Supported housing for prison leavers

Foundation project workers make sure that everything is ready as soon as clients move in, including all white goods and furnishings. The properties are finished to a high standard, with crockery, bedding and other items purchased to make the house a home. It is a new experience for the clients to take pride in their home. This is the first time they have been valued enough to be trusted with a property and this empowers them to take control of their lives.

Built into the project is support from a health navigator who works alongside the clients to help them to attend appointments. Often long-term health conditions are masked by a chaotic lifestyle. Once a person becomes settled in their accommodation, it is not uncommon for health problems come to the fore so it is crucial that people are supported into getting the treatment they need.

Set up at the start of the pandemic, is part Foundations is part of wider project with Norwich City council to provide decent homes for people so they are no longer on the street.

Offending has reduced

Foundation statistics show that offending has reduced. The project has attracted national recognition and was highly commended in the Homeless Link ‘prevention into action’ awards 2021.

Data identified a ‘revolving door’ cohort of clients who bounced between prison, the streets, hostel accommodation and back to prison. These are people at a high risk of reoffending and becoming trapped in a cycle of homelessness. Complex issues might include past trauma, addiction and abuse. Their histories make them too risky and services are reluctant to engage with them.

Case study – Justin

Foundations client Justin is 37 and has been a prolific offender throughout his life. The St Martins team first met Justin when he was homeless in 2014, following the breakdown of an 18-year relationship with his partner. He left his family home and reverted back to offending behaviour that was instilled during his childhood, resulting in numerous small offences, usually to fund his drug use.  For years, Justin bounced between hostels and short prison stays, with increasing paranoia and mental distress. This cycle was broken when Justin moved into a one-bedroom flat within the Foundations project. His illicit drug use appears to have stopped now he is on a maintenance prescription, and he is engaging positively with services. He budgets well, shops independently and his flat is clean and tidy. Whereas previously Justin lived from day to day – sometimes hour by hour – he now cares for his son, and has a long-term intention to get custody of him.

The Police and Crime Commissioner commended the Foundations project as:

a prime example of intuitive and formative thinking’

Foundations give people the potential to achieve a place in the community, whereas they were perceived as a burden to society before in terms of court costs, policing and community safety.

Broadland celebrates Sustainable Housing Label success

March 14, 2022

Broadland Housing has received a Sustainable Housing Label from international consultants Ritterwald. We are the first medium-sized housing association to receive the award, which recognises our strong ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance.

The Sustainable Housing Label looks at more than 40 ESG criteria that are aligned to the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing, and scrutinises sustainability across the operations of an organisation.

Broadland scored highly on tenant engagement, “ethical” considerations, and “high-quality sustainable housing, staff and tenant wellbeing and tenant representation”.

  • Broadland Housing Association Chief Executive Michael Newey receiving the SUstainable Housing Label award from Austen Reid of Ritterwald
    Michael Newey, Chief Executive (right) receiving the award from Austen Reid, UK Director, Ritterwald
  • Ritterwald Sustainable Housing Label, achieved by Broadland Housing Group in December 2021

High score for tenant engagement

Iain Grieve, Executive Finance Director, said:

There were some really positive things from the label application process around how we engage with our tenants, and around the communities and the surroundings of our development schemes, how we obtain feedback from our staff, and how we focus on staff wellbeing.

There’s a lot of focus on the environmental side and net zero decarbonisation, but actually it’s the wider view of ESG and sustainability that funders are interested in.

Ritterwald said that Broadland can “lead the way for other medium-sized social landlords looking to obtain an externally verified ESG accreditation”:

…A sustainability strategy has to have a strong element of engagement with residents, and Broadland was able to demonstrate it.

Austen Reid, UK director, Ritterwald

Benefits for the whole housing sector

Iain said the Sustainable Housing Label has knock-on effects for the whole sector if more housing associations apply:

There’s no need to be intimidated by something like an ESG accreditation, despite the fact that most of the holders are larger housing associations with more resources.

What we found is that, going through the process, it looks at our operation and the things we would do on a day-to-day basis anyway. It’s allowed us to benchmark our performance against other housing associations, which has been another benefit.

Ultimately, we’re all trying to achieve the same thing. It’s a really good thing to do, I think, to help us move forward together as a sector.

Read the full article in Social Housing magazine

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