Broadland Housing Group

Homes, community & support since 1963

social housing

Broadland celebrates Sustainable Housing Label success

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

Elm Road, Thetford

With our partners Breckland Council, we are building 5 new homes that will offer dedicated support to rough sleepers from across the Breckland district.

The development includes 4 x 2-storey, 1-bedroom terraced homes and an adjoining bungalow, with a shared garden space.

The new homes will be completed later this year in Thetford. Former rough sleepers will be supported to transition into longer-term accommodation. Individuals will also get help to access education, employment opportunities and healthcare. 

The homes are being developed in the grounds of Elm House, formerly called Elm Road Community Centre. Breckland Council is currently converting the centre itself into emergency accommodation units. 

Broadland secures £15 million for new affordable homes through sustainable bonds

Working with MORhomes, Broadland has raised funding for new development through the issuance of £15 million of sustainable bonds.

A sustainable business

To be eligible for this funding, we had to demonstrate that we are a sustainable business and fulfil certain environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

We will use the proceeds generated from the bond issuance to fund new affordable homes.

Competitively priced, long-term funding

MORhomes is 100% owned and controlled by housing associations. It is constituted as a PLC and applies the highest standards of corporate governance. MORhomes is a unique and innovative borrowing vehicle for the UK social housing sector, raising finance on the bond markets and lending it on to housing associations, who must be shareholders.

At Broadland we are focused on sustainability across all parts of our organisation. Our involvement with MORhomes and their Sustainability Bond has provided us with an opportunity to demonstrate our ESG credentials and obtain competitively priced, long-term funding that will allow us to develop new affordable homes.

Iain Grieve, Executive Finance Director, Broadland Housing

We are proud to have developed a genuinely unique approach to assessing the sustainability impact of our housing association borrowers. Borrowers like Broadland Housing who meet our standards are going above and beyond current requirements and helping meet the Government’s zero carbon target and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are pleased to be able to demonstrate to investors the excellent sustainability work which they are doing.

Patrick Symington, Chief Executive, MORhomes

It was a pleasure to work with Broadland and MORhomes to deliver this successful and competitively priced long-term funding. This financing will enable Broadland to continue to deliver its development programme and meet the needs of its customers.

Lawrence Gill, Director Corporate Finance, Centrus – advisors to Broadland

For more details about the sustainable bonds issuance, please see the MORhomes’ announcement.

MORhomes plc logo

Webster Court, Norwich

  • kitchen at Webster Court, Norwich
    Kitchen of Lakenfields apartment
  • Living room, Webster Court, Norwich
    Living area of Lakenfields apartment

We worked in partnership with Norwich City Council to provide 6 new affordable homes at Lakenfields, Webster Court for people experiencing homelessness. A modular system was used to deliver high-quality homes, with minimal impact and disruption to the local community.

A former car parking area north of Webster Court now accommodates 6 x 1-bedroom, 2-person flats. The single block of 6 flats over 3 storeys has a communal garden area and vehicle parking accessed off the existing access. The first tenants moved in during December 2021.

Lakenfields (Webster Court), Norwich, on Day 3 of construction
Modular construction of Lakenfields apartments was completed in 3 days in December 2021
Manufacturer Mod Pod International’s video, including pod interiors (1.30)

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).

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