Metropolitan Thames Valley

Today we are proud to join over 240 organisations by signing this statement coordinated by Together with Refugees calling for communities & the country to be brought together for a different way forward – one that's compassionate & united. We stand in solidarity with those affected by the recent acts of violence, many of whom have already fled unimaginable horrors to try to find safety. #TogetherWithRefugees

MTVH publishes Annual Residents’ Report. We are committed to listening to our residents and providing meaningful opportunities for them to help shape and improve the way our services are delivered. Today we have published our 2023/24 Residents' Report, highlighting key areas from the past year that MTVH residents care about most. Highlights include: 📣Resident influence: We continue to prioritise listening to residents. Our Customer Voice Framework, designed with residents in 2022, allowed them to influence major decisions, including the recruitment of our new CEO and shaping responses to government consultations on damp and mould. 🔧Repairs Satisfaction: Repairs are one of our top priorities. We streamlined repair reporting via MTVH Online and improved training for repair operatives. Satisfaction with planned works rose to 83%, and repairs satisfaction increased to 72%. 💰Support During Cost-of-Living Crisis: Our Tenant Welfare Fund increased to £729,000, supporting 3,675 residents. We also secured over £3 million in financial aid for essential needs. 🏡Community Projects and Well-Being: Our partnerships delivered initiatives like Good Grub Cafes and youth violence prevention. A partnership with Age UK in Barnet supported older residents at West Hendon. 🏡Over recent years, we’ve been prioritising safer homes and safer buildings, having invested £147m in repairs and safety works in the last year alone. Impressed by the way the food bank was being run and recognising the critical support it was providing, Age UK Barnet has since donated £6,000 of HSF funding to MTVH. We used this to purchase and distribute 50 fuel and 60 food vouchers for older West Hendon residents. 📊Compliance with TSM Regulations: We presented our first Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), with 68.3% overall satisfaction and over 75% of residents feeling fairly treated. We’ve formed a new Service Charge Collaboration Group to continue to improve communication and transparency, bringing together shared owners and leaseholders from all our operating areas to work on homeownership-specific themes, and service charges in particular. Geeta Nanda OBE, MTVH CEO says, "MTVH's vision is that everyone should have a decent home and the chance to live well. Collaborating with our residents helps us direct support where it's needed most. We're committed to delivering consistent customer service and creating wider opportunities for all". Read the full report to learn more:  https://lnkd.in/e845KBVZ

We're delighted to announce that, as of Quarter 1 2024, fifty percent of our senior roles (‘Head of’ and above) at MTVH are now held by women. This is a major milestone which has been reached in a large part thanks to several of our recent Director-level appointments, including Serena Heathcote – Director of Customer Experience, Maxine Gordon – Director of Housing and Kate Gibson MSc Gibson –Director of Projects. This morning, MTVH has also released our annual Pay Gap Report. Gender and Ethnicity pay gap reporting helps hold us to account as we track our progress to being the most inclusive and diverse organisation we can be and helps identify areas for improvement. Our gender pay gap measures the difference between men and women’s average pay within MTVH, regardless of their role or seniority. This year’s results show that our mean gender pay gap is 16.5%, which is the same as last year, and slightly higher than the national average of 14.8%. Our median gender pay gap decreased from last year’s 15% to 13.2%. The driver for our gender pay gap is that a disproportionate number of women work in our care and support operation, an industry which tends to attract more women and where market rates of pay are lower compared to other areas. MTVH also chooses to voluntarily publish an ethnicity pay gap, despite this not currently being a government requirement. Our ethnicity pay gap measures the difference between white and ethnically diverse colleagues’ average pay within the organisation, regardless of their role or seniority. It is based on data from the 88% of colleagues who volunteer their ethnicity data. MTVH’s mean ethnicity pay gap has remained the same as last year at 9.5% while the median ethnicity pay gap has increased from minus 1.3% to 0.2%. Our ambition is to close our gender and ethnicity pay gaps overall, and we have plans in place to achieve this. These include initiatives to attract more women and ethnically diverse colleagues into the organisation, and to support progress into senior roles through ongoing training and mentoring. We are also utilising our apprenticeship levy to open opportunities and routes to qualifications. In terms of hiring, we are broadening recruitment channels across platforms that proactively target diverse audiences to actively attract women and ethnically diverse candidates. We’re also promoting our family friendly policies, mentoring and coaching and flexible and hybrid working arrangements in our job adverts. You can read our report in full here: https://lnkd.in/euGB_gSu

As we launched the Molly Huggins Foundation yesterday, our Chief Executive, Geeta Nanda OBE, spoke to LBC's Martin Stanford about the role the foundation will play in bringing charities and donors together for the initiatives which provide support and empowerment to our communities where the cost of living crisis is most acute. You can listen to Geeta's interview via the link below. You can also read MTVH's inaugural Community Impact Report here: https://lnkd.in/eyZgu8UD

Today we launch MTVH’s charity the Molly Huggins Foundation, named after MTVH’s founder, that will invest £75m in community impact projects over the next decade. The Foundation, working with local partners, will tackle food insecurity, debt issues, skills gaps, educational needs, health and wellbeing to break down barriers that hold communities back. As the cost-of-living crisis risks becoming the ‘new normal’ in many communities if urgent action isn’t taken, the launch of the Molly Huggins Foundation is a timely intervention which will significantly bolster our community impact activities at a time when they are needed the most. With full charitable status, the Foundation will provide access to a wider range of donors and funding sources, enabling MTVH to achieve more positive outcomes for residents and communities. The foundation will house the work of MTVH’s existing community impact teams and its Migration Foundation as they become part of the Molly Huggins Foundation. The launch of the Molly Huggins Foundation coincides with the launch of MTVH’s inaugural Community Impact Report, which outlines the incredible work of our community impact teams in 2023/24 and the positive difference they have made to the lives of residents. The report reveals that in the year to March 2024 MTVH: - Spent £50 on community investment for every MTVH household. - Supported 3,675 residents with money advice resulting in a £3 million total financial gain to residents. - Provided £729,000 to residents in rent adjustments, food, fuel and other essential items via its Tenant Welfare Fund. - Made 618 rent adjustments saving residents £336,000 compared to 571 in 2022/23. - Delivered £96,966 of social value through supply chain partnerships. - Helped 219 Londoners secure work after attending Love London Working programme, with the majority sustaining employment for over 6 months. The full report can be read here: https://lnkd.in/eyZgu8UD MTVH targets its community investment based on detailed socio-economic research that shows not only areas of need, but also the type of project that will have greatest impact. By targeting investment in this way MTVH works to break the cycle of poverty by providing people with the support to develop skills, improve mindset, find employment and live well. Underpinning these projects is MTVH’s core role as a provider of safe, warm and secure homes on which people can build their lives. In 2023/24, MTVH built 892 homes with partners across its areas of operation in London, the East Midlands and South and East of England and is targeting 1000 further homes in 2024/25.

As a provider of some 3,500 older people’s homes, we know the difference which high-quality, purpose built housing for those in later life can make. From improving health and wellbeing outcomes to increasing the variety of options for those looking to downsize, freeing up larger, family sized homes, older people's housing must be at the heart of our efforts to tackle the housing crisis. That's why we're supporting the findings and recommendations put forward by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People on #ShelteredHousing in their report: The Regeneration of Outdated Sheltered Housing. We’re especially proud of the contribution of our Director of Regeneration, Guy Palmer FIoL, through the evidence he gave to the report.   With a growing older population, there is an increasing need to regenerate and refurbish the existing older people's housing to meet the evolving needs and expectations of our ageing population whilst ensuring supply keeps up with growing demand. We join the APPG and the Housing LIN in calling on the government to adopt the recommendations set out in this report and place older people's housing at the centre of a long-term #planforhousing. You can read the APPG's full report here: https://lnkd.in/entaySFi

This week, we’re celebrating #YouthEmploymentWeek, an annual event highlighting the importance of youth employment and showcasing initiatives supporting youth development and career pathways. At MTVH, we are proud to highlight our extensive work through partnerships that actively empower youth voices and create pathways to employment opportunities. Our initiatives, led by young people, are at the forefront of driving meaningful change. For instance, our Flourishing Futures research project, now in its second year, demonstrates the profound impact of youth perspectives on service design. Key findings from this research included: * 70% of young respondents have faced or witnessed discrimination, impacting their mental well-being. * Age and gender discrimination remain significant issues. * Flexibility for mental health and educational needs is crucial. * Schools urgently need accessible, youth-led career support. * 42% of secondary students have never met their careers counsellor. The report can be read in full here: https://lnkd.in/ei4QuxzF Here's how we're making a difference: 🌟Training Young Connectors at Clapham Park: In collaboration with Active Communities Network, we trained young people from Clapham Park in Youth Work. MTVH Young Connectors engaged in a 12-week program to enhance peer engagement, tackle social issues, and promote positive change. They are now employed by ACN for the next 12 months and have designed their own program of work, focusing on: *Raising young people’s voices; influence, professionalism, and purpose *Health, well-being, and equality. *Connecting young people to community resources. *Inclusive regeneration planning: youth-led input. 🏠Amplifying young voices in housing: Recognising the role of youth voice in housing decisions, we partnered with Clarion, Hyde, and the Partnership for Young London to establish a 'Youth Voice in Housing' initiative. Six young people, one from each housing association, were trained as peer researchers. Over the last twelve months, they surveyed over 50 young housing association residents and interviewed housing association CEOs and colleagues to understand how to include youth voices in future housing decisions. Insights from our young peer researchers were shared at our ‘Housing Reimagined’ event in April. 💼Flourishing Futures in Brent: Through the Youth Futures Foundation's Connected Futures Programme, we empower young people in Brent to overcome employment barriers and foster inclusivity. By involving them as peer researchers, we ensure their perspectives drive civic action and continue to shape the project's trajectory. We're committed to listening, understanding, and acting on young residents' needs to ensure their voices shape meaningful service design and housing policy. Stay tuned for updates on our efforts to support and empower young people across the sector. #YouthEmpowerment #HousingFutures #MTVH

Following this morning's King's Speech, our Chief Executive, Geeta Nanda OBE, has given her reaction to the welcome announcements for the housing sector: “Today’s King’s Speech further demonstrates how this government grasps the importance of housing to the UK’s future growth and prosperity.   Planning reform is a key component of a long-term plan for housing, and we are pleased by the government’s clear commitment to this. Today’s Speech also contains a basis for which to ensure this reform can be effective through greater devolution of planning powers to elected Mayors and local authorities, who are well placed to identify suitable land for housing.   The scale of the government’s ambition is extensive and housing associations will be key partners in achieving these. MTVH built 892 new homes last financial year whilst investing £149m to maintain and improve our existing homes. With the right resources and rebuilding our capacity, housing associations like us can play an even greater key role in helping to tackle the housing crisis.   We welcome the early engagement we have had with the government and look forward to continuing to collaborate towards meeting one of the greatest challenges of our time.”

We were delighted to welcome new Environment Minister, Daniel Zeichner MP, to Queensway, Cambridge. Queensway is a mixed tenure MTVH estate of 79 homes, ranging from studio apartments to three-bedroom homes, of which 51 are for social rent and 28 are leasehold. The local housing team at Queensway have known Daniel for many years and have enjoyed a collaborative and supportive relationship with him.    It was clear from our meeting that Daniel understands the housing crisis and its impact across our communities. It was great to hear about the important role that DEFRA will play in planning reform as the department works to remap land use across the country. We were also really encouraged to hear Daniel’s support for building more social housing, which supports the sustainability of communities, and for bringing greater stability and security to the sector.   We’re looking forward to continuing our positive relationship with Daniel as the work continues to address one of the greatest challenges of our time. 

In a blog for the National Housing Federation, our Assistant Director of Care & Support Strategy, Claire Wise, writes of the need to increase the number of social homes to give greater security and stability to those leaving supported housing. You can read Claire's full blog here: https://lnkd.in/evuqCVeb