CHIC CHAT May Edition

The Disrepair Challenge

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ROUND TABLE

DATE: Wednesday 11th May 2022 @ 10:00am – 14:00pm

LOCATION: Sixways Stadium, Worcester, WR3 8ZE

There are still a few places left if you like to be part of the conversation. Please RSVP to Curtis Coulson ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk if you would like to attend or if you have any questions.

THE ISSUES

Operational challenges of managing disrepair have progressively increased in recent years for many social housing landlords.

For tenants, where there is a disrepair, this is obviously of real concern and one that needs urgent resolution. Policies, procedures and organisational culture need to ensure the response is rapid and the repair completed.

Many landlords are also now having to manage a response to what some see as a fee chasing activity for some legal firms. They may identify unknown or impractical disrepair cases, get issues resolved for residents, who are also compensated, but in the process cost the landlord significant fees.

So, is this any issue for your organisation? Are you sufficiently focussed to avoid disrepair claims, or has your workload increased to manage the claims as well as the repairs?

CHIC has arranged a ‘round table’ think tank session for our members and some supply chain partners to meet, share their experiences and consider together how this might be done differently.

We hope you will want to be part of this conversation. Attendance is free for all.

THE OUTCOME

CHIC will produce an article following the meeting, to be shared with the housing press, with our membership through a future edition of CHIC CHAT and to be showcased at our conference on 16th June. We do hope you can join us.

FORMAT OF THE DAY

09:30 – 10:00: Arrivals & Coffee

10:00 – 10:15: Chairs Introduction

10:15 – 10:25: Sponsor Presentation

10:25 – 10:30: Roundtable Question 1

10:30 – 11:00: Group Discussions - Question 1

11:00 – 11:30: Group Feedback / Question 2

11:30 – 11:45: Coffee

11:45 – 12:15: Roundtable Question 2

12:15 – 12:45: Group Feedback - Question 2

12:45 – 13:00: Open Forum – Conclusions

13:00 – 13:45: Lunch & Networking

13:45: Close

CHIC Conference

CHIC Conference & Exhibition 2022

Thursday 16^th June

This will be CHIC’s 11^th year of hosting its annual conference and exhibition. Once again, we will be at Sixways Stadium in Worcester, with a busy and fully subscribed exhibition and a topical workshop programme!

Mark Easton returns to chair the event and we will be joined by an interesting range of speakers.

The housing sector faces many challenges. Not least are the constant reminders about the shortage of new supply and the need to find new investment and decarbonise the housing asset base.

Some of the themes our speakers will provide their perspective on include:

Disrepair
Levelling Up
Wave 2 SHDF Funding
Economic impact on developing new homes
Decarbonisation

More opportunities to network

Despite the covid restrictions still being in place, our conference in 2021 was a great success and busier than ever.

As well as a full exhibition, this year we have introduced some private boxes where you can network with exhibitors. Amongst these are Worcester Bosch, CEF and Vantage UAV, who will be showcasing their latest products and developments. Be sure to pay them a visit.

The full exhibitor list is available on our website at https://www.chicltd.co.uk/event/chic-conference-exhibition-22

Attendance is free – click here to register.

Recruitment

Are you seeking a new opportunity? CHIC has three positions open for applications to join our team:

Procurement Officer (Wales)

Apply on Indeed (Wales)

This is a key role within the CHIC Business Support Team, supporting the delivery of our procurement activities.

The post-holder will support the Procurement Manager (Wales) to plan, manage, administer and deliver the compliant procurement of new framework agreements, long term contracts and a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), with support from CHIC team colleagues and member representatives.

The post-holder will provide support to CHIC’s Procurement & Commercial team to:

Administer procurement activity through the Delta E-Portal, including management of day-to-day framework and DPS mini-competition activities
Maintain call-off contract and DPS records and updates as required
Provide general administrative support and document management for all of CHIC’s procurement activities

Head of Member Services (Midlands)

Are you an experienced business development professional with a successful track record of building relationships and selling services? Or are you an experienced Social Housing professional with subject matter expertise in Assets & Property Services with a consultative approach and the ability to cultivate business relationships? If either description fits, or you can bring both to the table, then you can achieve your potential with an exciting opportunity as a Head of Service for the Midlands.

The objective of the role will be to secure new customers to CHIC, offering procurement solutions & services that offers our customers access to group procurement, economies of scale and scope, preferential offers and rapid access to a range of vetted services within Asset Management, Property Services, Compliance & Development. You will be responsible for marketing the service, and the products and solutions that it contains to prospective and existing customers across the Midlands to generate growth.

Social Value Manager

Part of CHIC’s business strategy is to make our Social Value contributions clearer. So, this summer, we are establishing a new charity – CHIP – to manage these activities.

CHIP will work proactively with contractors and suppliers to ensure that all contractual obligations are achieved and it will commission and monitor Local Employment Groups and other voluntary sector organisations to create and support employment opportunities for people who are disadvantaged and distant from the workplace.

CHIP will also manage a rolling programme of small Community Chest grants for members, by inviting, evaluating and monitoring outcomes for projects where grant funding will enable local groups of residents and community stakeholders to secure meaningful improvements to community wellbeing and social value.

The social value manager will manage the day to day operations of CHIP.

If you have any questions about these roles or want to apply, please send an email to enquiries@chicltd.co.uk.

Keep up to date with the latest recruitment opportunities at https://www.chicltd.co.uk/recruitment.

Membership Agreement

CHIC’s Board decided to update the CHIC Members Agreement this year, to make it more straightforward and reflective of the needs of a larger consortium.

The existing Members Agreement was originally developed and structured for the seven Founding Members, who assumed there would be some progressive but modest growth in membership.

The current Members Agreement is cumbersome and the process by which new members join is more complex than need be for both the CHIC team and our members. Our aim is therefore to simplify the Agreement itself and to make the process by which new members are admitted as efficient as possible.

Proposed changes involve making the Members Agreement much clearer, updating CHIC’s Articles of Association and limiting the need to consult members on some business decisions that the Board can take.

The current Articles require members to agree the proposed changes – firstly at a general meeting and then if agreed, to sign the new, revised documents.

Victoria Speakman, CHIC’s Head of Member Services said “Having been an account manager for CHIC for over 7 years, I have had many projects delayed due to the need for members to review the lengthy documentation. Simplifying the process will be beneficial to all members.”

All members have been contacted electronically with an explanation of the request for the approval to change, with the option to attend a General Meeting on Friday 27^th May 2022 or to provide a Proxy Vote. If you have received this email and want to know more OR this request would have been better distributed to someone else within your organisation, please get in touch with CHIC’s Chief Executive, jfisher@chicltd.co.uk.

Supplier Day

CHIC and Bristan Group invite you to a networking and product event

When: Wednesday 6th July 2022

Where: Bristan Group, Birch Coppice Business Park, Dordon, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B78 1SG

If you would like to attend or if you have any questions, please contact Curtis Coulson at ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk.

Why should I attend?

Expand your network and meet the Bristan Team
At Bristan, quality counts - get hands on with their taps & showers and feel the quality
Realise what sets Bristan apart. Understand how their products work and get top tips on installation and maintenance
Enjoy a tour around their on-site UKAS accredited test lab and learn more about how they ensure their products are compliant to the UK water regulations and how their thermostatic products meet the safety requirements of Part G of the Building Regulations, TMV2 and TMV3
Take part in a time challenge and even win a prize

Agenda

9.30am – 10.00am Registration and tea/coffee

10.00am – 10.10am CHIC Welcome

10.10am – 10.20am Welcome to Bristan Group

10.20am – 10.30am How Bristan products comply with regulations

10.30am – 12.00pm Breakout Sessions (Facility Tour and Product Information)

12.00pm – 12.30pm Coffee break and networking

12.30pm – 1.15pm Time challenge competition

1.15pm – 2.pm Lunch

2pm Close

There are a limited number of places available, and reservations will be on a first come basis.

Wave 2 Funding

According to the government, the first wave of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund will upgrade the energy efficiency of roughly 20,000 social homes that are currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C rating.

The funding will also support around 9,000 jobs in the green energy sector and deliver carbon emissions savings equivalent to taking up to 6,000 cars off the road in any given year.

The SHDF Wave 1 competition is closed, and the successful projects are expected to complete by the end of March 2023.

A second wave of the fund, which housing associations will be able to bid for directly, is due to be launched this financial year and the government has committed a further £800 million across 3 years for the SHDF.

Decarbonising the 4.4 million social housing homes across England is going to be no easy feat and there are many barriers to overcome such as fuel poverty, rising energy prices and a lack of knowledge in the sector.

So, now social landlords will have further support from the Government to support their decarbonisation programmes, where should the monies be spent and how do we ensure the necessary skillsets are in place to deliver on these targets?

John Fisher, CHIC’s Chief Executive said

“CHIC is committed to working with our members and to collaborate with other consortia, to support the decarbonisation of social housing in England and Wales, and to make homes more affordable for residents. We are proud to be a founding sponsor of Unlock Net Zero.”

As a consortium, we can not only provide the procurement solutions to enable our members to carry out their retrofitting requirements, but we have a knowledgeable team with asset management expertise to help support throughout the entire process.

Unlock Net Zero Webinar

Funding guidance workshop for Wave 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund

12.05.22 | 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM GMT

As founding partner of the Unlock Net Zero Hub, to get a deeper understanding on what the Wave 2 funding means, we would like to invite you to attend this webinar.

This workshop will equip you to understand the steps to make your retrofit project SHDF wave 2 ready and successful. Understand how to access the BEIS funded programme of support available to all Registered Providers of Social Housing, the Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator (SHRA) to be ‘bid-ready’.

CHIC’s Chief Operating Officer Luke Hurd will be chairing the event, facilitating the debate, with an informed conversation from a group of experienced speakers from every corner of the UK.

News From the Sector

A survey has been launched by The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee directly towards the people who live in social housing. This survey is to recognise the condition and quality of homes in social housing.

The head of policy and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing, Rachael Williamson, voices the £1bn increase in the Household Support Fund from next month is not a solution to support low-income citizens as the cost of living crisis and essentials continue to rise.

As the reformation of innovation and sustainability in procurement is expected in 2023, social landlords are encouraged to be aware of the hurdles within traditional procurement routes before establishing routes to procure an emerging green technology.

The government published changes in the Social Housing White Paper with the aim to have a renewed focus on improving the quality of housing.

Recruitment

Are you seeking a new opportunity?

CHIC has three exciting new job opportunities to join our growing procurement team:

Procurement Manager (Wales)
Procurement Officer (Wales)
Procurement Officer (Midlands)

We are also looking for a Social Value Manager to manage our new charity, delivering CHIC’s social value programme, employment and training.

And due to the expansion of our programme, we are now recruiting a new Head of Member Services to our growing team – ideally Midlands based.

For more information, please drop Allison Price an email at aprice@chicltd.co.uk to find out more.

Unlock Net Zero

CHIC delivers a wide range of PCR 2015 compliant procurement solutions, through frameworks, contracts and a dynamic purchasing system. But we also provide on-going support to members and the supply chain, to ensure that all work together to drive efficiencies from aggregation of demand and through effective collaboration.

Never has it been more important to get the housing sector to work together through effective collaboration. The ‘net zero’ target for 2050 might still seem quite distant, but is this now within the normal 30-year investment planning cycle for a social housing landlord.

What we know is that more investment is needed and each landlord needs to do to their homes will only emerge over the next few years, as their own investment plus net zero asset management strategies are developed and refined. But we already know they will all include:

Improvements to the insulation of their homes (FABRIC FIRST)
Investment in new heating systems and renewable technologies (M&E work)
Significant regeneration – for those homes that are unpopular and that cannot be cost effectively improved.

CHIC sees its role as a Founding Partner of UNZ remaining an important focus for members. Although the sector has come a long way, there is still a long way to go. Decarbonisation was not on the agenda until a couple of years ago, and now it is the ‘buzz word’ for many. Suddenly there seem to be lots of experts in the field but who do not necessarily have the experiences to demonstrate such claims.

By collaborating with like-minded organisations across the housing and construction sectors, we can together unlock what ‘Net Zero’ really means. In turn, CHIC can engage its wide cohort of members and contractor, consultant, supplier and manufacturer partners in the efficient delivery of a whole new chapter of investment in members’ homes, making warmth more affordable for residents and reducing carbon.

We look forward to our continued support to this important agenda and using the wealth of knowledge in the CHIC team, and our position amongst between sector experts to publish useful content for all to benefit.

USEFUL LINKS

PARTNER DIRECTORY: https://www.unlocknetzero.co.uk/partner-directory/chic-ltd

Our partner directory is where all our decarbonisation related content will be posted onto the hub. Keep an eye out for further reports, case studies and updates from CHIC.

EVENTS: https://www.unlocknetzero.co.uk/events

Here you can find some useful links to upcoming webinars, seminars and conferences where you can learn about the latest developments, including our vey own annual CHIC Conference & Exhibition

If you would like to partner with CHIC in a joint press release on decarbonisation, please send an email to ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk