The Housing Platform

At this year's UKREiiF conference in Leeds, Platform hosted a key note session about how we feel partnerships should change to accelerate delivery of affordable housing.

Joining Platform's Executive Director of Growth and Development Gerraint Oakley were:

Laura Shoaf CBE - Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority

Ann Taylor - Development Director, Savills

David Mawson - CEO Placefirst

Simon Wingate - Partnerships Director at Lovell Partnerships

Kate Ellison - Director of Land, Partnerships and New Business at Platform.

They discussed how elements of partnerships they currently have could change, what else might accelerate delivery, their current challenges as well as future challenges they forsee as well as taking questions from the audience about private capital, defining roles within partnerships and one thing they'd change right now.

In this episode we're focusing on governance and the future of housing boards.

At Platform, we're extremely proud of our Trainee Board programme and we've just recruited 5 new members to embark on the two-year course to learn everything there is to know about being on a board.

Hear from the five new members, Laurens, Mikhelia, Heidi, Parham and Nkechi as well as our Executive Director of Corporate Resources, Clare Durnin.

Remember our email to get in touch about anything you've heard - [email protected]

As part of National Stalking Awareness Week 2024, we put a call out to colleagues asking if they had experienced stalking or knew someone who had and Joanna Selby, one of our Customer Engagement Officers, bravely answered this call. 

1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men have been stalked at some point in their lives and 50% of victims have curtailed or stopped work due to stalking , whilst it's scary to think that 75% of domestic violence stalkers will turn up at the workplace 

Joanna went through all of this. She was stalked for 2 ½ years and wants to share her experience as a way to help others...so in this podcast, you’re going to hear her story. 

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS STORY IS ABOUT A SURVIOVR OF STALKING, A FORM OF DOMESTIC ABUSE, IT HAS DETAIL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE ENDURED. PLEASE ONLY CONTINUE LISTENING IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THAT. 

At the start of 2024, Platform Housing have been talking to the sector about the opportunities of using Artificial Intelligence in Housing. We've also won two awards for our work using AI to improve tenant services.

At conferences across the Midlands, the information team have held workshops and discussions at key industry events to offer their thoughts on how AI can shape the way housing associations can best serve their customers. 

Chief Information Officer Jon Cocker appeared on stage at Housing Digital in Birmingham and Housing Technology in Nottingham. 

At both events, he discussed the opportunities and risks around AI in Housing, plus at Housing Technology, our Enterprise Architect Rich Hawkes, talked through some case studies of work undertaken so far. 

Apprenticeships continue to grow as a career path for young people to take when they leave school. The appeal of being able to ‘earn while you learn’, combined with the increasing costs of higher education have seen more people embark on them as a way to start a career. 

The housing sector is one place where the scheme really comes into its own, with so many different career paths available. Here at Platform Housing, we have apprentices in many areas of the organisation, from property care & maintenance right through to finance & procurement. 

It’s also becoming more common that current employees have been doing apprenticeships to improve their development, in what’s known as upskilling. 

National Apprentices Week takes place in February and this year the theme is skills for life. 

In this podcast, you’re going to hear from some of the apprentices who joined Platform after leaving school and from people in the business who have taken the opportunity to upskill. In all cases, there are some great stories of people expanding their knowledge and increasing their experience and picking up those skills for life. 

Winter has arrived and social housing faces one of its toughest periods for managing repairs and maintenance of their properties in order to ensure customers have a warm, safe home. 

With the problems presented from the risk of damp and condensation mould and with the backdrop of tightened measures and issues around resources, plus a backlog from the pandemic, what have Platform been doing to prepare for this winter? 

Thanks to the work that's been done as part of the Property Change programme and projects that have focussed on key priorities, we're in a much better place to face the challenges of this winter. 

We sat down with Dennis Evans, Executive Director of Property and Linda Colburn, Director of Asset Management to discuss the aims of the change programmes and the results so far. 

Welcome to our special podcast supporting the national campaign of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

In this episode, one of our very own domestic abuse survivors, Karen from Platform's Neigbourhoods team, bravely tells her story in the hope it will help others.

Host Christine Yates is also joined by Kath Dawson, Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Manager to talk about what the organisation does to help raise awareness and the people we work with.

It’s clear that housing associations need to find new ways to engage with their customers. Recommendations by the Better Social Housing review and the upcoming introduction of Tenant Satifaction Measures are placing more emphasis on the customer’s experience of the service they receive from their landlord. 

Platform have launched their new Customer Voice Panel. We previously had a customer scrutiny panel and a customer experience panel who reported to the board. This new panel however represents a change in the way we listen to customers, so we wanted to tell you about it and hear from the people involved. 

In this episode of The Housing Platform, we’re talking about diversity in the housing sector with Lara Oyedele. 

Lara paid a visit to the offices of Platform Housing Group to deliver a talk around her campaign as president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, In My Shoes. 

It was fascinating to have her speak, not only because she makes some interesting points about the lack of diversity in housing boardrooms....but also because she had music and quizzes and prizes as part of her session.  

Fair to say her style and delivery of what can be a tough message for some to swallow hit all the right notes and left our colleagues and no doubt many others with some food for thought.

After the session, we sat down with Lara to talk about her mission and the term she has enjoyed as President of the CIH as well as what else she’ll be working on after her term has ended. 

Remember there are other podcasts in our Housing Platform series that might interest you – including what it means to produce a zero bills home and how the relationship between government and housing is changing. 

www.platformhg.com

www.cih.org

The UK Housing Sector is exploring all sorts of ways to develop new homes that will be energy-efficient for their customers.

As Platform continues it's ambitious build programme with 1,300 homes started between 2023 and 2024, one way some of these units could cost customers less is using Octopus Energy's Zero Bills concept.

Join Michael Cottrell, Global Product and Partnerships Director at Octopus Energy and Katie Gilmartin, Head of Business Development and Innovation at Platform to talk through what it all means.

We'll discuss the concept of zero bills, how affordable housing could be the gateway to mass rollout and what needs to change for the sector to adopt it.