With co-host Stonewater Director of Development Operations, James Bradbury we discuss the new Labour Government plan for housing with guests Anne Costain, Stonewater Chief Financial Officer, Isabelle Kirk, Stonewater Assistant Director of Treasury and Director of Housing and Development at Lloyds Banking Group.

From funding challenges, development hurdles and everything in between On the Air brings to light how the sector is placed to support the Governments plan for housing and what we need to help deliver much needed housing. 

Join host Paula Palmer joined by co-host, James Bird, Managing Director, Innovation & Insight, Cavendish and guests; Dave Lockerman, Director of Housing Operations, Robert Panou, Director Asset Strategy & Investment, Stonewater, Alistair Smyth, Director of Policy and Research, NHF and Aileen Edmunds, CEO, Longleigh for the Episode 1 of Season 5. 

As we kick off this new season, we're excited to explore some of the most pressing issues facing the housing sector today. We're going to be talking through our central theme, stepping into a new era of social housing.

In the first of what will be six episodes, we'll be exploring the critical steps the new UK government must take to support and transform social housing, setting the stage for a brighter future for communities across the country. 

Guests Abi Deeprose (HR Advisor), Anne-Marie Alexander (Commercial Services Team Leader) share their thoughts on what makes Stonewater a great place to work and the things that matter to them. With internal policies on topics such as the menopause support, networking groups, flexible working and Stonewater’s overall commitment to being there for colleagues in the moments that matter we'll find out how all this affects colleague morale, performance and sentiment within the organisation.  

We are joined by Jill Headford (Partner and Solicitor in employment and dispute resolution at law firm, Tozers) who talks about why these  things matter and are great for social mobility. 

Guests Donna Warr, Head of Organisational Capability and Sair Leahy, Organisational Development and Learning Experience Manager outline the Competency and Conduct proposals, Stonewater's response to the consultation and who and how they might affect in the organisation. 

We also talk about Stonewater's current plans and culture for colleague learning and development, from initiatives like Step up to Manager, apprenticeships and the graduate programme and how these support colleagues to fulfil personal development goals and achieve industry-recognised qualifications.  Sair talks about 'Routes in Stonewater', encouraging diversity and opportunities for all by encouraging people from all walks of life to consider a career in housing with the support and development available to succeed.

With guests; Dave Lockerman, Director of Housing Operations, Dani Bowater, Customer Engagement Co-ordinator, Gareth Morgan, Stonewater scrutiny panel member and Jenny Osbourne, CEO of Tpas. 

The session focuses on internal and external changes, which include forthcoming regulatory changes and the increasing shift within consumer standards for brilliant customer engagement and communication. We discuss the proactive changes we are making to improve how we communicate with our customers and meet their expectations. The discussions will also explore our approach to handling situations when we sometimes don’t get things right.  

We quiz Jenny on her view about the changes, the importance of engaging customers and best practice coming through.

In this episode we invite previous guest Clare Rainsford, Environmental Business Partner back to co- host along side Paula Palmer. 

We met Clare at the launch of the Greenoak Centre of Excellence where she introduced us to the Circular Economy principle, this time Clare is going to talk about what else she is working on with team members Molly Auchterlonie, Environmental Business Partner to Finance and Suzanne Le Sauvage, water and ecology as they discuss how Stonewater is embedding sustainability and social value across the company and reduce our impact on the environment. 

Alongside host, Paula Palmer is guest host Emma Mifflin, Decarbonisation Manager at Stonewater and two of her Team; Helen Dextor and Jerrad Murphy, Retrofit Project Managers, to discuss the measures Stonewater are taking to ensure all existing homes are EPC C by 2030. 

Whilst discussing the retrofit project, they are also joined by Matt Ratcliff, Osmosis as they chat about how we are approaching the challenge, from identifying homes, design, installation, funding and after care. We find out how the measures and retrofitting of upgraded or replacement features  will increase the longevity of our properties and positively impact the energy efficiency and therefore the quality for our customers. 

Guest Host, Adam Master, Assistant Director of Environment and Sustainability is joined by members of his team to give an overview of how sustainability is viewed and actioned at Stonewater. 

Guests Rhys Bevan and Emily Batchford, Environmental Sustainability Partners along with Arthur Gott, Development Manager talk about the technology Stonewater is using in new developments such as heat pumps, Wondrwall and Switchee among other technologies. They talk about the design and build stage, balancing the cost to the business whilst ensuring our customers benefit from energy savings and comfortable homes to meeting net zero targets and future-proofing our new builds.

Emily, as business partner to the Customer Experience team talks about how we're taking our customers on this journey with us and how we're making sure the technology and measures are right for them.

November saw the launch of the Greenoak Centre of Excellence for sustainability in the housing sector, a partnership between Greenoak Housing Association Ltd and Stonewater. This special edition was filmed and can be viewed at https://youtu.be/hMCNgyGreZI - the film comes with  full subtitles .

This bonus episode comes ahead of a trio of podcasts that will dig deeper into sustainability at Stonewater and how we are balancing the needs of customers, climate and cost to the organisation.

With guests Dean Ballard, Head of Data; Isabel Varey, Director of Housing Service Development and Becky Palmer, Neighbourhoods Peer Leader at Stonewater we discuss how Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), are shaping our customer offering and operations. TSMs are designed to improve the sector for customers and we want to understand how Stonewater is using technology to adhere to the new measures and how they are recorded. 

In addition, we hear how Stonewater has developed a digital roadmap within the business, more about the vision for that and developing the customer portal - MyHome - the digital poverty working group and other things our guests would like to see social housing incorporate into their customer offering.