National award for home improvements

A project to improve homes for tenants of South Staffordshire Housing Association (SSHA) has won a major award at the Housing Excellence Awards showcasing the best in UK housing.

At the Manchester awards ceremony on 25 May, Property Plus won the Repairs & Maintenance prize for a £14m maintenance project to install new bathrooms, kitchens and boilers and upgrade homes for customers.

The project has helped the housing association not just to maintain its investment in home maintenance but to increase spending at a time of rent reduction and welfare reform. Bringing significant cost efficiencies, it has boosted satisfaction for staff as well as customers.

The award-winning home improvement service is now being made available to customers of Severnside Housing, also part of the Housing Plus Group.

Property Plus teams installed 400 kitchens and 500 new bathrooms last year. A total of 700 new boilers cut yearly energy bills for customers by an average of £300 and the popular ‘Home MOT’ service is ensuring that every home receives a maintenance facelift, a neighbourhood at a time.

The prestigious prize in the Housing Excellence Awards is the latest in a string of accolades for Housing Plus Group, whose member companies include Severnside Housing, Care Plus and Severn Homes as well as SSHA and Property Plus.

“We are absolutely delighted to have won such a major award,” said Housing Plus Group chief executive Sarah Boden. “When we created the new Group we said that we wanted to provide the best possible homes and services for local communities. The people who are part of our Group work incredibly hard because they want to make a positive contribution and it is fantastic to see their hard work receiving national recognition.”