CHIC CHAT

What’s Happening at CHIC?

Just to let you know, in Partnership with 24 Housing, we are excited to offer our members a 50% discount across all advertising platforms along with 30% off on magazine subscriptions for your first year. Not to forget, our supply chain partners can also benefit from a 25% discount on all advertising rates too! Be sure to quote 'CHIC' when signing up to ensure you receive the discount https://www.24housing.co.uk/my-24.

In Other News:

CHIC is seeking applicants to join its board of directors, as we currently have a vacancy. We’re looking for a member representative with expertise in marketing or with other skills relevant to CHIC’s activities. The commitment is for six meetings a year. If you would like to find our more or register your interest, please contact John Fisher at jfisher@arkconsultancy.co.uk.

CHIC is a member led consortia, so the board is keen to encourage board representatives from across our members. If you want an informal chat about what’s involve, phone John Fisher on 01215153831.

We have also have a few appearances from CHIC members at events in October:

2^nd October – Senior Account Manager Stephen Sharman will be supporting The Nucleus Knowledge Network’s CPD Fire Safety Seminar https://the-nucleus.org.uk
10^th October - Managing Director John Fisher will be speaking about Strategic Asset Management in social housing and what is needed to become carbon neutral at UK Construction Week https://www.ukconstructionweek.com/welcome#/

If you are attending any of these events and would like to have a catch up with John or Stephen, please get in touch.

Member Feedback

CHIC’s board is keen to get regular feedback from members on the services we provide. We will shortly be distributing a survey to all of our members which we will be grateful for you to fill out, so keep your eyes peeled on your inbox in the coming week.

News from the Sector

Is Artificial Intelligence the answer to the Green Papers recommendations? With empowering residents and ensuring their voices are heard being at the top of the list, advances in recent technologies may be a great way to create a better relationship between landlords and tenants.

With tech such as omni-channel communication solutions and tenant portals on the horizon, landlords will be able to send out automated, mass communications to tenants instantly which are personalized to the individual, holding information such as property maintenance and complaint processing. This in turn will increase the speed of delivery and process queries without having to be passed to different departments therefore improving customer satisfaction.

It will be interesting to see what new and innovative ways that technology can be incorporated to improve customer service for social housing in the future.

In Other News:

Although there have been some advances in tackling the housing crisis recently with an 11% increase in Affordable Rent units for private registered providers in England, 8.4 million people in England are still affected.

Amongst these, 1.4 million are still living in in poor quality homes and 2.5 million are unable to afford their rent or mortgage. The number of new homes registered to be built in the UK is also 9% lower than a year ago.

CHIC’s answer to the housing shortage is our BuildSmart model, an all-in-one, collaborative approach to off-site manufacture and development of new homes. If you would like to find out more, please see the link: https://www.chicltd.co.uk/service/buildsmart-new-homes/

Repairs and maintenance work on social housing has reached a 20-year low with a fall of 24% spend since 1997. In the current climate it is ever more important to ensure that social housing is fit for purpose and safe, which is at the top of the agenda for CHIC. If you would like to find out more about our repairs and maintenance frameworks and how these can help you achieve more for your money, please get in touch.

News from the Supply Chain

Magnet Kitchens supplies kitchens to Landlords, Private Developers, and the Public Sector with quality, affordable kitchens.

Working across their portfolio of nearly 200 stores across the UK, they provide stock locally along with a single expert point of contact for all their clients.

Magnet are all about providing best in class service to both Public and Private sector kitchen markets. They embrace ‘a right first time’ ethos, together with single plot deliveries at highly competitive and consistent price points.

As part of Nobia, Europe’s largest kitchen group, they are supported by a wide-reaching network. This means they are able to deliver a supply promise that meets the modern day needs of today’s market.

Their team of over 120 employees and designers is structured across six regions nationally. Each region is led by a Regional Contract Manager with support from Sales Managers and project design teams.

A dedicated Project Design Manager will be appointed to oversee each project from start to finish, acting as liaison between contractors, DLO, tenants and the local Magnet branch to ensure project's run as smoothly as possible;

Surveys are free of charge, carried out by your Project Design Manager
Designs are provided in a colour floor plan and 3D perspective using bespoke software
Samples boards are provided free of charge
Marketing support provides specific literature to communicate the choices available to your tenants

If you’d like to find out more, please select the link below:

https://www.magnettrade.co.uk/contract-kitchen-solutions/

Nationwide Seminar Summary

The Nationwide CPD Future of Fire Doors Seminar on 19th September was very well received and proved to be valuable for our members. Footfall saw over 150 representatives from 70 organisations throughout the day.

It was kicked off by Presenter Michelle Orpe, followed by a range of expert speakers including Chief Executive Officer Russell Day from the Association of Composite Door Manufacturers (ACDM), Fire Door Solutions (FDS) Managing Director Dave Gomersall, Technical Manager Peter Barker from Warringtonfire and more. They shared their expertise on specification and commissioning of fire doors and all of the latest facts including the new CE legislation.

A variety of presentations were shown by industry leading organisations with topics such as the sectors response post Grenfell, the latest digital solutions for recording and tracking fire rated doorsets, and what the fire door of the future is going to look like being explored.

The event also reviewed many interesting discussion points with the Q&A sessions at the end of the day, challenging current practices and collaborating to answer some of the more difficult questions surrounding compliance and legislation.

CHIC’s Supply Chain Manager Marius Marisca had the following to say about the day: “It was great to see that many people there, it just showed how started the sector was in terms of assurance around fire door compliance following the Grenfell tragedy. Even as a procurement consortia supply manager, dealing with multiple service providers the message was inconsistent over the time since the tragedy – and having not only manufacturers but the certifying bodies in one room to provide clarity was exactly what registered providers needed."

If you missed out or want to revisit the content, please contact Curtis Coulson at ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk for the full presentation.

We have many more technical and compliance workshops in the pipeline, so be sure to be on the look out if you wold like to come along.

CHIC CHAT

What’s Happening at CHIC?

News from the Sector

News from the Supply Chain

Nationwide Seminar Summary

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