We are delighted to announce that we are now able to provide local support for our services in the North of England and Scotland. Being a national consortium with local presence allows our member service delivery team to fully understand our members specific needs based on local demographics. We now have over 100 members managing over 800,000 homes across the UK and hope that expanding our reach will provide more services and support.

So, we welcome the latest edition to the CHIC team, Lesley Dixon. Lesley joins us as Head of Member Services overseeing the expansion of our service delivery in the North of England and Scotland. Previously the Chief Executive of Cumbria Housing Partners, she brings with her a wealth of knowledge in social housing, asset management, procurement, and account management.

If you would like to get in touch, please contact Lesley at ldixon@chicltd.co.uk, Stephen at ssharman@chicltd.co.uk or Victoria at vspeakman@chicltd.co.uk

In Other News

We are delighted to announce Totally Modular as the delivery partner for our BuildSmart Volumetric Housing Pilot Contract, part of our ongoing work to change the face of housing delivery through offsite manufacture.

John Connolly, Managing Director of Totally Modular commented…

‘Having tendered against other suppliers of volumetric residential offering via the framework document, we are pleased to have been chosen as the sole partner for delivery of CHIC’s BuildSmart model aimed at registered providers. This pilot initiative will align the aspirations of clients who are on the start of their journey with modular delivery of new development portfolios, but have chosen to take small steps in order to gain a better understanding of the benefits this model has to offer before they consider greater buy in.’

CHIC are currently evaluating tenders for new longer term contracts for modular delivery, to follow on from the pilot.

If you would like to find out more about Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and how CHIC can help you make your first step, please contact Paul Sutton psutton@arkconsultancy.co.uk

You may have noticed some structural changes to the CHIC team recently. We have reviewed and made some changes to the job titles of some team members to better represent their responsibilities:

• CHIC’s Commercial Director Luke Hurd, has now become our Chief Operating Officer
• Our Account Management Team are now the Member Services Team
• CHIC’s Supply Chain Assistant Manager Joe Scurr, has now progressed a new role to Account Manager

If you would like some more information, please get in touch at enquiries@chicltd.co.uk.

Last month, we launched our new legal services framework, comprising 22 leading law firms who can deliver your organisation expert advice on housing & asset management, governance and finance and property & development. Below we introduce 3 of the organisations who are accessible now through our framework.  We will introduce others in future editions of CHIC CHAT.

Ashfords is a national provider of legal and regulatory services. They combine legal expertise, commercial experience, and a wider network to help their clients achieve their goals, providing value for time and value for money.

They have extensive experience advising Registered Providers and are have been appointed to Lot 1: Corporate, Governance & Finance and Lot 3: Property & Development.

Paul Butterworth, Partner and Head of the Housing Communities & Regeneration team, is the key contact for CHIC Members. Paul has in-house experience at both a Housing Association and Local Authority as well as advising Registered Providers on major housing projects. This deep understanding of the sector means Paul is well placed to help your organisation realise its ambitions.

You can contact Paul directly on p.butterworth@ashfords.co.uk / Tel: 0117 3218052 / Mobile: 07889 168364

Anthony Collins are one of the top UK firms supporting the housing sector. Our commitment to social housing stems from our desire “to improve lives, communities and society”.

They pride themselves on a wide breadth of experience across the social housing field, calling upon a deep team of distinguished sector experts equipped to advise sizeable local and national clients on sophisticated matters.

Their expertise ranges from major projects such as stock transfers, innovative structures and joint ventures, to the day-to-day nuts and bolts of making housing work; their solicitors have the knowledge and expertise to help you further your purpose and are available on all 3 workstream lots.

Key Contact Jon Coane

Partner

T: 0121 214 3680

F: 0121 212 7438

M: 07920 747707

jon.coane@anthonycollins.com

Batchelors is a leading firm of solicitors with offices in London and in Bromley in the South East, specialising in all aspects of housing management litigation. It has one of the largest dedicated teams of solicitors in the country specialising in housing management and is consistently top ranked in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 legal directories for quality of service and expertise.

The team has been acting for social housing providers for over 80 years and has an enviable reputation in the sector. It has a great track record in obtaining injunctions and possession orders, dealing with anti-social behaviour, criminal behaviour and tenancy fraud cases. Always putting client service first, the team also boasts expertise in leasehold matters and dealing with disrepair claims.

Please contact Andrew Harmer in the first instance on 020 8768 7061 or aharmer@batchelors.co.uk.

Each webinar has been developed to suit the needs of our conference delegates and is inspired by your feedback. We welcome all of our usual attendees and any other housing and construction professionals who wish to learn more about the latest developments in the market.

Please click the icon of the webinar you wish to attend.

You can register for more than one event.

The new regime seeks the safety of residents in high rise buildings amidst other fundamental safety issues following the Grenfell tragedy back in 2017.

The Bill will introduce a new era of accountability, making it clear where the responsibility for managing safety risks lies throughout the design, construction and occupation of buildings in scope.

These will be enforced by stricter consequences to encourage that the essential precautionary measures are being made.

Those that build and manage high rise buildings will need to actively demonstrate how they have considered residents safety in their work, and residents will have access to safety information about their building, ensuring that the voice of the residents will be heard.

The report recognises that many in the industry have already been working to improve standards and have shaped and influenced this bill. However, accelerating this work to improve industry wide culture is imminent.

CHIC will be talking through the effects this will have on the housing and construction industries in our upcoming Webinar, alongside a panel of informed speakers.

You can read the full report here

In Other News

Green Homes Grant

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer makes key housing related announcements as a part of the Government’s plan to drive economic recovery following COVID-19. In his speech earlier this month, Sunak confirms a £2bn “green homes grant” and the launch of a £50m fund to pilot approaches to decarbonising social housing.

“We believe that decarbonisation is the next big step in asset management and new build. CHIC welcome the news and are looking forward to helping our members deliver safe, carbon reduced homes” Luke Hurd, Chief Operating Officer.

Build, Build, Build

Boris Johnson has announced the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War, making it easier to build better homes where people want to live.

New regulations will give greater freedom for buildings and land in our town centres to change use without planning permission and create new homes from the regeneration of vacant and redundant buildings.

Under the new rules existing commercial properties, including newly vacant shops, can be converted into residential housing more easily, in a move to kick start the construction industry and speed up rebuilding.

We were delighted that the PM says he wants to “Build, Build, Build” our way to a recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. CHIC and our members stand ready to support the development of “fantastic new homes on brownfield sites” and our off-site manufactured contracts offer the opportunity for both Modular and Timber Frame homes to be built quickly.

Novus Property Solutions

With the complications brought by the coronavirus outbreak, it is reassuring to know that members of our supply chain have been maintaining excellent levels of prompt payments to suppliers. The yearly Government figures recognise Novus Property Solutions amongst the quickest to pay supplier invoices in the industry, in the top 3 organisations of all its major competitors.

“Novus strives to build strong and trustworthy partnerships with their suppliers, maintaining an open dialogue with its supply chain, and of the belief that quick payments are reflective of mutual respect.”

CLC Group

The CLC Group, one of the leading property maintenance companies in the UK, has recently joined forces with The Rainbow Project to provide young people the opportunity to gain some work experience. The partnership seeks to help young people reach their full potential through supported work experience and employment opportunities, helping them to overcome any barriers they have put up, build their self-confidence and help with securing future, meaningful employment. It is great to see CHIC’s vision of providing great social value outcomes shared amongst our partners.

ENGIE

ENGIE joins Mining3, a leading global mining industry research organisation to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, carbon-neutral world through renewable energy, including renewable hydrogen and other environmentally friendly solutions. By co-developing renewable hydrogen-based solutions for the mining industry, they will help the industry to further reach their carbon-neutrality goals, as well as help reduce emissions for countries where mining is a key industry, such as Australia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and South Africa

All of the above organisations are accessible through CHIC’s contracts and frameworks. If you would like to find out more, please get in touch at enquiries@chicltd.co.uk