3. Using our position to find housing solutions

Salford remains one of the most deprived cities in the country and experiences acutely the impact of a lack of available affordable housing.

This year we continued to provide a managed service for Derive Salford, a development company wholly owned by Salford City Council to increase the number of affordable homes, and continued to work with Let Us, a Greater Manchester ethical lettings agency to improve the quality and access to affordable homes.

We also deliver annually on our responsibilities to address homelessness, working closely with local authority services to provide temporary accommodation through schemes such as Housing First, SIB, A Bed Every Night, Rough Sleeper Accommodation Programme, and our Direct Lets initiative (to applicants in temporary accommodation).

In terms of developments, we have a number of exciting projects in progress which will increase the number of affordable homes we are able to provide and through our Willo Homes division we have offered high quality, beautiful and sustainable homes for affordable homeownership to not only help people on the property ladder, but also to give them a sense of belonging.

In our inclusion strategy we referred to reviewing the impact of the now, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities framework for raising accessibility standards and policy on means of escape from buildings. Unfortunately, this information has yet to be produced for consideration.

In the strategy reference was made to the development of a Carbon Neutral Strategy, noting the relationship between energy bills and our green agenda. This was renamed our Sustainability Strategy and was launched in March 23. This year we have also partnered with a third party to introduce a product called ‘Switchee’ which delivers real-time data insights and tools needed to support residents and proactively manage homes. These actionable insights enable our customers to optimise energy efficiency, reduce costs, and improve resident satisfaction.

4. Composition of our colleagues and customers >