Newsletter - July 2008
Great fun for all at our Neighbours day!
We recently held two Neighbours Days in May. One in Cheetham Hill and one in Hulme. Both events were well attended and everyone involved commented on what a great day they had.
Our Housing Officer Maynette Francis rounded up some great support from Manchester City Council, Places for People, People first, Tung Sing, Johnnie Johnson and ASDA Hulme.
Activities included music, bouncy castles, a coconut shy, face painting, henna, a magician, games, plenty of food and fun and much, much more.
Over at Hulme the All FM radio station came along to broadcast live, interviewing tenants and playing music. We also invited the Hulme residents to take part in making their own hanging baskets to brighten up the street.
A big Thank You to the Police Community Support Officers who came along to Hulme to support the event. They were even good enough to volunteer for the stocks, getting soaked in the process.
Over in Cheetham Hill the possibility of a residents committee was discussed and future events are a big possibility.
The association would like to give special thanks to two of our tenants, Maggie Stone and Diane Higgins. Both helped to organise the events and worked tirelessly to make them a success.
Scheme Development news
During 2007/8 the association completed two stock transfer arrangements with Mosscare HG and Arcon HA to provide us with twenty one additional homes in Moss Side. The on street properties are mainly two and three beds homes. However, we have plans in place to remodel a number of the two bed properties to provide larger family homes using Arawak Walton’s free equity. It’s an exciting time for the association given the level of in-house development we are undertaking this year.
Work will start on site in September 2008 and is due to complete in March 2009. Handover of another six properties on Alderford Parade took place at the end of June 08. This development of six 4 bed 8 person houses was initially let via 100% local authority nominations. It brings our homes in Cheetham Hill to 59.
The completion of these schemes means that at the end of June 2008 we had 851 homes with a further 22 homes in our development pipeline.
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"Sustainable ways to work"
Following on from the success of Business Plus a great new project has been set up by Places for People, Mosscare Housing Ltd, Tung Sing and ourselves.
The new project is called “Sustainable Ways to Work” and is for residents seeking training, employment and business support. The purpose of the project is to help tenants locate courses and training to help them into work. Assistance will be there to help them find job opportunities and fill in application forms as well as back-to-work benefits advice and give them help once you have started your job. Essentially we will be there to help them with whatever they need to move into employment and beyond.
For more details on “Sustainable Ways to Work” contact James Gilbert at Places for People on 0161 875 1450.
Housing Corporation Gold Award Winner 2008 Tackling Worklessness
Regular readers will be aware that we were involved for a number of years in a project working with the Places for People group. The scheme called Business Plus, was a partnership that included two other housing associations (Tung Sing & Moss Care). It delivered “pre-Start” & “post Start” business support and training. We are proud to announce that the Places for People scheme has just won the Housing Corporation’s Gold Award 2008.
Arawak Walton Performance
As always we like to keep our residents informed about how we are Performing. See for yourself below.
| Jun 08 | May 08 | Apr 08 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voids % (no. of properties) |
0.83% (7) |
0.83% (7) |
1.06% (9) |
| Rent arrears (as a % of weekly rent receivable) |
7.08% |
7.26% |
7.40% |
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