Partnership working is at the heart of our business; it’s in our DNA. We are all about working with others to maximise the benefits for our customers – delivering more homes, improved services and better outcomes in the process.
Whether it’s with developers, community agencies, support services or healthcare providers, at Great Places we work with others to share our knowledge and skills and ultimately produce great results for our customers and neighbourhoods.
This collaborative approach spans our geography and directorates; below are a just few of the pivotal partnerships that have resulted in success stories from April 2021 to March 2022.
In September 2021 Great Places Housing Group was successful in its bid to become a new Homes England strategic partner.
This crucial funding – totalling £240.8m – will allow us to develop nearly 5,000 new homes by 2028. This is the largest number of homes to be built by any partner in England.
The impact of this vital partnership is evidenced in this video filmed at The Poplars in Heaton Mersey, our first new development in Stockport since the merger. It’s also something neither Great Places nor Equity would have been able to achieve independently, proving that we really are greater together.
Forge New Homes is an innovative joint venture that works collaboratively with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and in nine local authority areas to deliver homes to meet the needs of local communities.
Key success stories for Forge during the past year have included the completion of first homes on the first site in Pilsley and submission of planning for the second site in Bolsover.
Click the links below to read the news stories on these key Forge developments.
Our Innovation Chain North (ICN) framework has had a busy second year, welcoming seven new housing provider clients (Southway Housing Trust, Salix Homes, Incommunities, Together Housing Group, ForHousing, Livv Housing and Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council) with a total of 28 clients calling off the framework.
To date the framework has:
The increasing number of clients generates more call-offs and work for the consultants and contractors. Another huge benefit is their contribution to our six-monthly client sessions where we share experiences, discuss current hot topics and work collaboratively to look at how we can all achieve our objectives.
Social value is one of the cornerstones of ICN. As well as building much-needed affordable homes, every call-off from the framework looks to provide additional social value that positively impacts the wider economy.
In the first two years of the latest framework our clients have delivered social value outcomes in excess of £520k including work experience placements, donations to Age UK/ National Energy Action, apprenticeships and supported several local initiatives including the Oldham Christmas Food Drive, Northmoor Community Centre and Moss Side Millennium Powerhouse.
Great Places plays a prominent role as an active member of Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP), which consists of 25 housing providers who use their combined strength to ensure everyone in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority can live in a quality home that they can afford.
In January 2022 it was announced that all members will jointly invest around £2.5bn in developing 18,000 new homes in the area over the next five years, more than half of which will be for social or affordable rent.
The providers will also develop supported housing, shared ownership and market sale properties, with the proceeds from the latter being used to pay for new homes and local services.
Great Places also leads the GMHP Change Champions group, which is implementing cultural change across the housing sector in GM. Specifically, through a ground-breaking reciprocal mentoring scheme, we have worked with Manchester Metropolitan University to identify and remove the barriers into senior leadership for Black, Asian and minority ethic colleagues.
Hive Homes is a joint venture with nine other housing associations and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). Since its inception, Hive has quickly established itself as a reputable and trusted development partner providing much-needed accessible private housing across Greater Manchester.
Its first site in Middleton is nearing completion and has attracted strong interest from homebuyers, with 96% of the homes sold within a month of the show home being launched (pictured, right).
Hive is aiming to start on site at two further developments in Castleton and Bolton later this year and is on the cusp of submitting planning for four major developments that will deliver more than 400 new homes.
Hive has continued to grow in strength over the last year, and further new colleague appointments are planned over the coming months.
With a healthy pipeline of development sites, Hive has agreed deals with several Greater Manchester local authorities, and has sufficient capacity to deliver just over the 700 homes identified in its Business Plan.
Great Places has committed to building at least a quarter of our new homes using modern methods of construction. We will use our vast experience of developing homes to develop volumetric and panellised technologies, through Great Places’ commissioned schemes and partnerships with developers.
Great Places leads on the Off-Site Homes Alliance (OSHA,) a partnership of 23 Housing Associations, exploring the opportunities of off-site manufacture. OSHA continues to make strong progress in working to provide an infrastructure for the housing association partners to develop relationships with the manufacturing supply chain and facilitate procurement at scale.
The current focus is to establish an OSHA Manufacturers’ Framework to be hosted by Great Places and the aim is to launch this in autumn 2022.
The Achieve Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service has provided support to adults and young people experiencing substance misuse issues in Bolton, Salford and Trafford since 2018 and Bury since 2019. The Partnership is lead by the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust and comprises organisations with expertise directly and indirectly related to substance misuse and recovery, with Great Places one of the delivery partners. Amongst a number of key findings a recent independent evaluation found that:
We continue to be an active member of Homes for the North (H4N), an alliance of the largest 17 developing housing associations in the North. The ethos of Homes for the North is to improve the supply and quality of new homes, create economic growth, improve living standards and create strong communities where people can achieve their aspirations.
On 31 March 2022, the Greater Manchester Housing First pilot reached the end of its initial three-year contract – and it also hit its target of helping 330 people into a home of their own, with an 82 per cent tenancy sustainment rate.
The initiative is all about working together to provide safe, secure homes for people who are homeless (or at risk of being homeless) across the region. Throughout the pilot, Housing First has successfully supported 444 people, with 454 property offers being made to people on the programme during this time.
It’s been a hugely collaborative effort, with Great Places leading 11 cross-sectoral organisations – including fellow housing associations Riverside, Jigsaw, Stockport Homes and Regenda – along with charity and health providers, to work together to tackle homelessness across our GM region.
In Year three alone, the GMHF partnership rehoused 113 people and this outstanding work was recognised at the Northern Housing Awards (Best Initiative for Tackling Homelessness) and CIH North Awards (Team of the Year).
In June 2022 it was announced that an additional two years’ funding, totalling £6.31M, will be awarded to Housing First. This will allow the partnership, which will continue to be led by Great Places, to build on the great work that’s been done since the pilot launched in 2019.
This amazing work would not have been possible without the fantastic delivery team; 65 posts have been recruited to across the partnership. To find out more about the great work that they are continuing to carry out, visit the Housing First website.
In July 2022 Great Places joined 10 other housing associations in launching the new South Yorkshire Housing Partnership (SYHP), aiming to raise the profile and combined contribution of housing associations across South Yorkshire. The partnership, chaired by our Great Places CEO, Matt Harrison, aims to deliver on five key priorities. These are:
The partnership is also working with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) and the four local authorities to support the delivery of their housing priorities.
The other members of the partnership are: Acis Group; Arches Housing; Johnnie Johnson Housing; Ongo; Places for People; Rynkeld Homes; Sanctuary; South Yorkshire Housing Association; The Guinness Partnership; Together Housing and Yorkshire Housing.
Commenting on the launch, our CEO Matt said: “Devolution offers a great opportunity to work together with SYMCA and the four local authorities on their housing priorities to deliver the affordable and sustainable homes people in South Yorkshire want and need.
“The housing associations in the partnership have a long-term commitment to investing in homes and communities in South Yorkshire. We want to collaborate and look at how we can tackle the housing issues faced by the region, such as the supply of new homes and the need to decarbonise existing housing stock to help tackle the climate emergency.
“By working together, we can achieve a greater impact and bring our housing expertise together to benefit local people and communities in South Yorkshire.”
