The Social Housing Green Paper published today aims to rebalance the relationship between landlords and residents, tackle stigma and ensure social housing can act as a stable base and support social mobility says the government. At Aspire Housing we support all of these principles as we strive to deliver more for our customers and our communities.
Aspire Housing’s Chief Executive, Sinead Butters MBE DUniv. BA(Hons) comments, “We can do more and we can do better. That’s what the hundreds of housing associations whom are part of PlaceShapers, including Aspire Housing are aiming for. At Aspire Housing we’re striving to do things in a smarter, simpler, slicker way, to run our business efficiently, to help us make more surplus so we can help support more people who need it; who need affordable homes and help getting into employment and overcome poverty issues.
“Take our build programme, it’s more than tripled; we’ll have built 1700 new affordable homes by 2021. Take our training business PM Training, we help over 2,500 people into training and to start successful careers each year. And even last month, our new customer self-serve centre opened in Newcastle-under-Lyme, a space designed to help our customers get online so they receive a service more convenient to them, and a new modern space where we can host more events with our customers.
“We’ve always talked and listened to our customers, in fact our customers helped designed our new website. But the stigma attached to social housing customers is unfair and unwelcome, and we support those campaigns tackling these issues, like Benefit to Society, to hear the voices of real social housing customers.
And we know we can do more. We must put and keep customers at the heart of everything we do. We’re here to help those who need us. No-one else will. Housing associations, like Aspire Housing, have a social purpose. We do it because we care.”