Posted on February 9th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
This week is National Apprenticeship Week which celebrates the impact apprenticeships make to individuals, organisations and the wider economy.
At Citizen we have an apprenticeship scheme which aims to encourage progression and support talent development. As part of this we have 19 apprentices working across our organisation.
Our Electrician Apprentice Siobhan Myrie started her apprenticeship after completing her Women into Construction placement with us. Women into Construction is a scheme which encourages women to pursue roles in the construction industry.
She said: “I have been wanting to take part in an apprenticeship for at least five years now, but I was unable to find one. However, through Women into Construction I was able to do a programme with Citizen and I loved it, then I got my apprenticeship offer.
“I love my role and I enjoy learning everything about it. My buddy Neeraj is a very good teacher, he has great knowledge plus he’s a nice guy.”
Siobhan added that she has learnt so much already in her apprenticeship and the skills will stay with her for life as they are very important.
She said: “After I have completed my apprenticeship, I think it would be nice to be able to stay with Citizen.
“I would recommend an apprenticeship to anyone who wants to change their career and is interested in an apprenticeship role, or to school leavers who are interested in apprenticeships. Anyone who is committed would suit an apprenticeship.”
You can find out more about National Apprenticeship week here.
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Posted on February 6th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
This week is National Apprenticeship Week!
The week, which runs from 6 February to 13 February, celebrates the positive impact apprenticeships make to individuals, organisations and the wider economy.
At Citizen there are several people who started their career as an apprentice with us and we’re highlighting their experience as part of the week.
Maintenance Support Administrator Antonia Bailey completed a Business NVQ 1-3 and she also won Apprenticeship of the Year.
She said: “I left school after completing my GCSEs and two weeks later I was sat at a desk asking myself ‘how have I got here, I am so out of my depth’.
“Never would I have imagined then that two years later I’d be leaving with a Level 3 in Business, had just won an Apprenticeship of the Year award and I was about to start a permanent position.
“Going straight from school into working life was an eye opener. I was 16, nervous and didn’t know what I had let myself in for. Fortunately, I was placed with a team who were very welcoming, supportive, and patient and I am so grateful for that. During my apprenticeship I was based in the Property Lettings Unit, and I loved it all, from the application entries to the site visits.”
Antonia said during her apprenticeship she learnt skills that could be used daily from communications skills to problem solving and organisation.
She added: “I believe apprenticeships are very good, particularly for those straight from school. It’s a way to get young people straight onto a career path. Personally, attending college and being sat in a room all week being ‘told’ how to complete a business qualification would not have given me the experience I have now and 21 years employment.
“For anyone thinking about an apprenticeship, do it, find the programme that interests you and earn while you learn.”
Income Officer Salima Motarwala also completed an NVQ Level 3 in Customer Service.
She said: “Being in an apprentice role helped me gain skills and knowledge within Customer Services. At the age of 18 I was earning a full-time wage and continuing with my studies, which was great. More than 20 years later I’m still here!
“I have worked in various roles, and they have all been customer facing. My current role is as an Income Officer. This is a customer focused role, and it is crucial to have the knowledge and people skills to support customers and help them to sustain their tenancy.
“I would definitely recommend an apprenticeship to others. It gives you an opportunity to start building your career at a young age. Not only does it enable you to continue with your studies, but you are gaining valuable skills and experience at the same time.
“If you’re considering an apprenticeship, you will be given the right training, support and encouragement from your colleagues and manager. Apprenticeships give you the opportunity to study and earn but more importantly to gain experience.”
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Posted on February 3rd, 2023 by Elaine Davies
Colleagues from the Citizen Board and Development Board visited the ModPods International factory along with our Development Team to see the progress of our extended modular pilot.
Our scheme will see 24 homes installed on eight former garage sites across Coventry.
Work is progressing well at the ModPods International factory in Stoneleigh and those who visited were able to see our homes in the factory and an example of what they will look like when they’re finished.
The homes already have steel frames in place and some of the interior components, such as kitchen cupboards and workspaces, have been fitted.
Our Executive Director of Development Nick Byrne said: “It’s brilliant to visit the ModPods factory and see how our modular homes are progressing.
“These homes are part of our extended modular pilot which will see 24 homes built on disused garage sites across Coventry – these will help provide more homes for people who need them.
“There are many benefits to modular homes including high energy efficiency and, as they are built in a factory, they can be constructed in all weathers. When they are craned on to the site they are hooked up to the services and the house is ready to use.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the homes completed and craned into place over the coming months.”
The homes that ModPods International are building will be a mix of bungalows and family houses. They will be installed at: Wedon Close, Bradney Green, Coleman Street, Fletchamstead Highway, Attoxhall Road, Capmartin Road, Shepherd Close and Thimbler Road.
Some of the homes have already been craned into these locations including Capmartin Road and Attoxhall Road.
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Posted on January 24th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
Bridget Guilfoyle joined our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as our new Director of Asset Management earlier this month.
Bridget has held Director and Non-Executive Director positions for the last 15 years and joins us from Plus Dane Housing – a northwest based housing association with 13,000 homes – where she was Director of Assets, Compliance and Health & Safety.
She started her career working for the Direct Labour Organisation for Manchester City Council. She then moved onto delivering stock transfers and working on housing and regeneration projects for organisations such as Harvest Housing Group, Your Housing, Eric Wright Group and Housing 21.
Bridget said: “I was first attracted to Citizen as the organisation’s values align with my own. I’m passionate about doing the right thing and making a difference and I enjoy taking ownership and responsibility in delivering the wider objectives of a business.
“I’ve enjoyed my first couple of weeks here. It’s been great getting to know everyone and seeing how the business functions. I’m also getting an insight into the challenges we face when investing in our homes. My priority now is working on our new Asset Management and Sustainability Strategies that are due for review by the Board in March.
“In my personal life I spend a lot of time with my family and friends, and I love to travel, seeing new places both at home and abroad. My latest trip was revisiting the city frozen in time at Pompeii, which is just fascinating.”
Our Chief Operating Officer Mads Nelson said: “We’re delighted to welcome Bridget to the business and our Director of Asset Management is an exciting and challenging role. Bridget’s experience will now be crucial in ensuring that we provide the right level of focus on existing homes, creating a plan that will improve the quality of homes and the environment so that our customers have a home that is a foundation for life.
“It’s great to have Bridget on board, particularly at this moment in time when we’re developing our new strategies for this part of the business. I’m really looking forward to seeing her playing a central role in driving forward our objectives and shaping our future.”
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Posted on January 23rd, 2023 by Elaine Davies
Scott Worth will be joining our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as Director of Customer Experience on Monday 30 January.
He will join us from Central Co-operative where he held a number of roles over the past ten years.
In his current role, Scott leads the Digital Enablement function which includes driving digital innovation, particularly in the customer and membership space.
Prior to this, Scott headed up the Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence providing strategic leadership for the creation and development of the centre. He also developed their strategy and vision for robotic process and intelligent automation and operational excellence activity.
Scott said: “I am very excited to be joining Citizen. I wanted to work for an organisation that really lives up to its social purpose and I see this in the great work that Citizen is doing across the region.
“I see a shared set of values and principles across the Central Co-op and Citizen – all with one common purpose – supporting the communities in which they are based. I also love the values of the organisation – being brave, honest, and ambitious and committed to our citizens”.
Scott added he is most looking forward to making a difference to the communities we serve and supporting colleagues, enabling them to be at their best.
He is also looking forward to investing time to understand what we do brilliantly across the customer experience directorate, what could be even better, and how Citizen’s purpose and values are brought to life by colleagues.
Scott added: “I’ll initially be working on understanding our strategic priorities to enhance the customer journey (driven by customer insight!) and begin to build the road map of deliverable actions to continually improve our engagement experience.
“I am really excited to be leading further innovations, ensuring we provide the most appropriate customer experience – one that is memorable and efficient. I plan to do this by establishing strong relationships to support collaborative innovation and our approach to the upcoming consumer regulation standards.”
Our Chief Operating Officer Mads Nelson said: “Our Director of Customer Experience is an exciting and challenging role – and will play a vital part in leading our customer service and engagement teams through the development of our customer service transformation by embedding customer engagement in everything we do.
“This role supports our crucial mission to making sure our customers receive high-quality, tailored communication as part of our commitment to achieve customer service excellence.
“I’m really looking forward to Scott joining our Senior Leadership Team and to him playing a central role in shaping our future.”
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Posted on January 19th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
We’re planning to regenerate Ferrers Close in Coventry and we’re working with customers to gather their feedback on plans to improve the area by providing more modern homes.
There are three blocks at Ferrers Close which need improving and the preferred option is to demolish the towers and replace them with housing that is better insulated, modern and more energy efficient.
The feedback we receive from customers will be presented to our Board in March ahead of a decision being made.
Our Director of Regeneration Kevin Roach said: “We are committed to investing and improving our homes to a good quality and that they are safe, warm and energy efficient for our customers to live in.
“We know that homes in these blocks can be difficult to heat and the insulation to the properties needs to be improved. We are also aware some rooms are too small and can’t accommodate modern facilities. The environment, car parking and roads around the blocks are also in a poor condition and in need of investment.
“We’ve estimated the cost to carry out the improvements, and we believe that the significant level of investment required is not value for money or best use of resources. Therefore, after much consideration, our preferred option is to rehouse customers and demolish all three blocks. While this is our preferred option, it is important that we take customers’ views into account when we report our recommendations to Citizen’s Board.”
If the Board approves the demolition, a planning application would be submitted. A phased rehousing programme for our customers will then start in summer 2023 and take up to two years to complete.
We are committed to supporting our customers through this scheme and we will be visiting every customer living in the blocks over the coming weeks to hear their feedback on the proposals.
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Posted on January 18th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
Work has already started to build more than 100 homes across the West Midlands.
We’re working with Village Partnerships to deliver the 104 homes, which will all be affordable homes.
The developments include:
- Priory Road, Dudley – 31 new homes are being built on the site including a mix of houses and flats on the site of the former Duncan Edwards pub. The site is due to be completed in early 2024.
- Dudley Road, Rowley Regis – we are building 26 homes at this site which was a former community centre. Work started in spring this year and the site is due to be complete by March 2023.
- Whitehall Road, Tipton – we will build 20 homes at this site which is currently an empty piece of land. These will be made up of 16 two- and three-bedroom homes and four two-bedroom apartments.
- Simpson Street, Oldbury – we will build 10 homes at the site which was a former day centre that hasn’t been used for some time.
- Meadow Gardens, Baddersley Ensor in North Warwickshire – 17 homes will be built on the site. These will be made up of six shared ownership homes and 11 affordable rent homes.
Work has recently started on the Priory Road site in Dudley, which used to be the Duncan Edwards pub.
The pub was named after the former Manchester United player who grew up in nearby Elm Road. The pub closed down in 2005 and was destroyed by a fire in 2006.
Our development will see 12 three-bed houses built alongside a three-storey block made up of 19 flats. These will be a mix of one and two bedrooms.
Our Executive Director of Development Nick Byrne said: “At Citizen we want to provide homes that are a foundation for life and working with Village Partnerships will assist us to do this.
“There is a real need for affordable housing in the area and building more than 100 homes will help with this.
“We are pleased that work is well under way at Priory Road, and we’re looking forward to providing homes on a site that has been unused for well over a decade.”
Director of Village Partnerships Tom Ayers added: “We are pleased to be working with Citizen in this partnership and to be providing more affordable homes across the West Midlands.
“We are looking forward to seeing Priory Road progress and for work to start on our other developments.”
Priory road is due to be completed in early 2024.
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Posted on January 13th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
Our Sales Team is thrilled to have sold more than 100 shared ownership homes between April and December 2022 – which is a record figure for a single calendar year.
In total the team sold 103 shared ownership properties, 30 resales of shared ownership properties and 30 staircasing sales – where owners purchase more shares in their home – along with 25 Signature New Homes sales.
During 2021 the team achieved 91 shared ownership sales by the end of December, compared to 74 in December 2020.
The sales in 2022 are our highest figures yet and amount to £20,033,451 in total income. This is 76 percent of our target achieved for the financial year so far.
Our Head of Sales Annette Baskett said: “I’m extremely pleased to see the sales figures for this year are our highest yet and I’d like to thank everyone for all their hard work in making this such a success.
“It’s a fantastic achievement and I’m so proud! Everyone has been fantastic and really focused on working together to improve the customer service we deliver as a team, which has helped our customers feel valued and positively impacted our sales as a result.”
The 100th shared ownership sale completed at the end of November at our St Mary’s development in Kidderminster.
Annette added: “Although new build shared ownership is a huge part of what we do, we also need to celebrate our resales and staircasing figures along with our outright sales through Signature New Homes, they are just as important and contribute to the overall targets of the team.
“Our target for the financial year is to achieve £26,313,995 in total income by the end of March, so there’s still a lot more work to be done, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.
“Well done everyone and let’s keep up the good work.”
For more information about Signature New Homes, visit our website here.
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Posted on January 11th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
The third round of our Citizen Local Fund is open and gives people in our communities the chance to apply for grants of up to £5,000.
The fund helps a variety of projects and initiatives which promote and support wellbeing and our wider work at Citizen. It is a key part of our strategic objective to improve support services and tackle homelessness.
Customers and people in our communities can apply for a slice of money between £50 and £5,000.
The deadline to apply is 5pm on Monday 6 February.
The money can help with projects big or small and we have previously helped several projects during the first two rounds of funding.
Some of the projects we have helped include:
- Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre who used the funding to host a Survivor Voices Art Exhibition which highlighted survivor recovery journeys through art
- Stoke Aldermoor Community Association put the funding towards a project called Lift Me Up by tackling fly tipping and turning disused places into space that can be used
- BME Mental Health Association which put money towards the Single Parent Package – a project providing essential items and counselling to single parents who need it
Customer Engagement Partner Verity Darbyshire said: “The Citizen Local Fund has been a great way for us to invest in our communities and we funded a number of important projects in our first and second round.
“The fund is there for any project, big or small. We’re keen to back anyone or any group that needs some support to help others.
“We’d like everyone to help us spread the word to customers and people in our communities who may be interested so they can apply through our website.”
You can apply to the Citizen Local Fund by visiting our webpage here and filling in the form.
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Posted on January 10th, 2023 by Elaine Davies
Our Asset Management Team took part in a session at the National Housing Federation Conference and shared details of our energy efficiency project plans.
People who attended the session were shown our social housing decarbonisation works on properties in Lawrence Sanders Road, Coventry, so they could see the progress that is being made on the homes.
We are currently working to improve energy efficiency of homes in Coventry thanks to funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
This is a pot of money that has been made available by the Government to improve the energy performance of social housing. The works will improve the energy efficiency of our homes in Coventry that have an energy performance certificate (ECP) rating below C.
As part of the £2.4m project we will receive £1.1m in Government funding to fit external wall insulation to 95 homes as well as installing energy efficient doors and windows, increased loft insulation and improving ventilation to reduce the potential for mould growth as part of wave one funding.
Our Asset Manager Adam Denny said: “We were delighted to be asked to share our energy efficiency plans with other housing associations at the NHF Conference. It was also an opportunity to give some insight into how we successfully bid for, and secured, the funding.
“The panel session included delegates from housing associations and social housing residents too. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our plans with peers and to receive such positive feedback on the work we are doing to improve the energy efficiency of our homes. Being an example of best practice was brilliant!”
Adam added that the team worked very closely with Coventry City Council to prepare and submit the bid which was granted earlier this year.
Adam said: “As a housing association we could not apply directly for funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. We could only access funding if a joint bid was submitted with the local authority.
“We are looking forward to working with Coventry City Council, other housing associations and local authorities from areas we have homes, in bidding for further funding in the future and delivering schemes to help towards improving the energy efficiency of homes and tackling climate change in the region.”
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