We are investing £750,000 to fit out a further 250 homes in our Fresh Start Standard

This financial year we are planning to invest £750k into our Fresh Start pilot to ensure 250 homes are re-let at a higher standard, giving our new customers a foundation for life.

Fresh Start is a pioneering project which sees some of our hardest to let properties – one-bedroom bedsits – refurbished to a higher standard.

Over the next year we will be focusing on 250 properties in Birmingham and Coventry.

During the last financial year, we invested £255,000 in 70 properties in Coventry – 35 of the homes were given new flooring and fresh decoration and the other 35 were given new flooring and white goods.

This will continue with our next 250 properties – half will be given new flooring and fresh decoration and the other half will have new flooring and white goods.

Our Director of Housing Peter Gill said: “It’s fantastic that we have moved on to the next stage of our Fresh Start pilot to refurbish a further 250 homes in Birmingham and Coventry.

“We believe that when people move into our homes, they deserve to have a fresh start. Too often customers move into a home with none of the essentials they need to be able to live well in their home.

“We are waiting to see the results of our previous pilots to understand what really helps our customers. We will only really be able understand what is and what isn’t working when we see our customers staying in their homes.

“In our business strategy, one of our objectives is to improve our offer to our customers and we believe that our fresh start pilot helps us to do this.

“Thanks to everyone who has worked on this project so far, to date we have successful refurbished 82 properties to our Fresh Start Standard. It’s brilliant to see our collaborative working throughout the whole project from our Maintenance Operatives through to our Lettings Team.”

Work has already started on our next 250 properties and is due to be completed by the end of this financial year.

For media enquiries contact our Communications Team.