2024 was a big one as we moved into the second year of the Bromford Strategy and progressed from thinking to doing.
The First Big Shift Was In Place
In Staple Hill (South Gloucestershire) and Lichfield (Staffordshire), we are exporing an agile approach to place-based working. Each has a mix of colleagues from different teams, working together to serve our customers and build partnerships with customers, community groups, local authority services and other to remove barriers, improve our service and strengthen community connections. Colleagues and customers are finding this new way of working liberating and more impactful. We're really listening to customers and acting on their priorities; beginning to build meaningful and trusting relationships; and starting to overcome issues that have hung around for years. As well as two more Bromford prototypes in the Cotswolds and South Staffordshire, we are meeting with colleagues from Flagship to explore where and when we can launch some pilots in Norfolk or Suffolk. This will be a long-term period of innovation in which we will remodel how housing services are delivered in the sector and beyond.
From February this year we’ll be running monthly place webinars on the second Friday of each month open to colleagues and external partners. You can find the webinars we’ve done so far on our Youtube Channel, see below for our most recent looking at how we defined place-based communities:
Our Move To Scale
Bromford is now playing a leading role in a number of large scale new communities or regenerated communities along the M5 corridor - where we would like to be seen as a regional powerhouse. Tewkesbury Garden Communities could eventually see 10,000 new homes and supporting infrastructure. Our land holding is helping us play a lead role in the consortium of developers as we will play a long term stewardship role as the communities start to form. At Matson in Gloucester we are building support for our vision that will enable the regeneration of existing homes, hundreds of new homes and a new school, a library, community hub and shops. It's a once in a generation opportunity to knit the existing community into a rejuvenated and aspirational new place.
Other Areas Of Progress
· Our customer engagement approach is now sector leading – with our Customer Networks, our annual conversations with every customer, and now a new digital platform (Bromford Voice) launching in February
· Work on home pathways – reimagining how customers can access and move between different homes and products - is starting, and we are designing the first pilot with Lichfield District Council.
· The end to end review of the repairs journey has concluded and an action plan is launched.
· We have new sensor pilots and an ambitious Connected Homes project in partnership with the Disruptive Innovators Network attracting massive interest.
· Our agile capability is growing all the time with product teams up and running, our first scrum masters in post and our data science team all helping us answer questions, run fast tests and trials to continually improve how we do things.
· We are starting to build a place-based pipeline of talent through our workforce planning, emerging relationships with local skills providers and employers, and a review of how we describe what we do, to attract potential employees.
· Our influence is growing at a local, regional and national level. We have established Partnership Boards with Cotswold and South Gloucestershire local authorities. We have influenced the emerging growth plan with the West of England Combined Authority, and are meeting regularly with Homes England and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government to attract more investment in infrastructure projects and new homes in our heartland.
Let’s Talk Ideas
This is our podcast where we look outside the world of Bromford and speak with fascinating people with big ideas.
Last year we published 16 episodes speaking with guests on an eclectic range of subjects from health innovation to tech disruption. Extending our network beyond the UK we featured guests from Australia and the Netherlands.
Some Of Our Highlights Include:
Lizzie Spring, a writer and commentator, on how social housing providers can unwittingly stigmatise tenants by focusing on need.
Jack Shaw, a local government expert discussing their financial peril. Which factors put a council more at risk from financial pressures? How can a council even go bankrupt?
Our very own Jennie Watkins, who reflects on her journey from community activist, to city councillor, to senior case worker for an MP.
Our new season begins in February, but you watch our most recent episode below:
Make sure you follow us here.