Braintree Housing Partnership:
December 1998 to December 2010
The Braintree Housing Partnership was formed in December 1998 by
public and private sectors coming together in agreement over the
same aims for providing affordable housing across the
district. The five partner organisations were:
-Braintree District Council;
-Flagship Suffolk Heritage Housing;
Association(a key member of Flagship Housing Group);
-Home Housing Association;
-Swan Housing Association (central to the Swan
Housing Group); and
-Baily Garner (consultants)
The partnership was committed to providing homes that were truly
affordable, of high specification and well managed. To help
facilitate this the BHP employed a Community Development Officer
who was based at the council offices.
The Community Development Officer played a key role in involving
local people in new development and provided a key contact for new
residents moving into properties developed through the BHP.
The officer facilitated regular consultation with residents through
surveys and homes visits gathering their comments and opinions
about their new homes.
The partner organisations agreed to build each new home to
Lifetime Homes Standard where possible. Partner organisations
supported the establishment of a wheelchair user audit group to
inspect new homes reporting on the accessibility of the
property.
New homes provided by the BHP were also inspected and assessed
for security in accordance with the Secured by Design standard.
Feedback and comments gathered through consultation with
residents and property inspections were used by the BHP to help
improve the standard of new homes throughout their development
programme.
The partnership provided a total of 599 affordable homes between
1998 and 2010 across the Braintree District exceeding the initial
target of 350.
BHP - dissolved 2010
Following the
economic downturn in 2007/2008, the BHP struggled to enable new
schemes of affordable housing. Changes in general working
arrangements of the partner organisations also meant the
partnership was operating under different circumstances than when
it had originally begun.
As a result of the limited capacity for the partnership to
provide new homes, it was agreed by partner organisations to
dissolve the partnership in December 2010. However the
achievements of the partnership demonstrate how public and private
sector organisations can work effectively together and provide high
quality and well maintained affordable homes that meet the needs of
local people.