Working with Thirteen brochure

Working

with Thirteen

About us

At Thirteen, we’re all about providing homes, support and opportunities to grow. With a vision to provide safe, quality homes and services to the environmental standards that matter to our customers, we understand that everyone is an individual.

We offer a home for their life. Whether that’s a space to enjoy with family, a haven to return to every night or somewhere to put down roots, we’re there to provide what customers need.

We exist for our customers and that’s why our ultimate commitment is being a great housing association and landlord – but we’re about more than just rented homes. We also build new properties for outright sale including affordable options to help people get a foot onto the housing ladder.

However, providing homes is only part of the Thirteen story. We want to help people live independently and be the best they can be, creating resilient communities that know how to help themselves.

Our operating area

We work with customers in lots of settings including extra care for older people, homes for people with learning disabilities, children leaving care, schemes to prevent homelessness and helping those leaving prison to find accommodation. Some of these include commissioned services from local authorities, health trusts and other government bodies, bringing additional income into Thirteen.

We’re committed to becoming a much greener organisation, reducing our environmental impact with a clear set of targets, and empowering our customers, colleagues and partners to take control of their impacts.

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Northumberland

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Gateshead Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside South Tyneside Sunderland Hartlepool Stockton-on-Tees Middlesbrough City of Kingston upon Hull Thirteen Operational Area

Whilst we’re financially strong and resilient to deal with challenges that constantly face us, we know we need to remain flexible, with a clear focus on our role in helping address housing needs and improving what we do for those people in our areas.

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Redcar and Cleveland Scarborough

If you’d like to work with us, we would love a discussion with you on how we can help you deliver your housing and place ambitions.

Richmondshire Hambleton Ryedale

Harrogate

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York East Riding of Yorkshire Bradford

Leeds

Calderdale Wakefield Kirklees

Selby

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Partnerships

Our approach to partnerships We’re ambitious and committed to making a difference, and there are lots of reasons why we make a great partner, including that we:

Partnership is our history. A succession of unions between social housing over 20 years has led to Thirteen becoming one the largest social housing providers in the North East and nationally.

Partnership is also our future. Links between Thirteen and private companies, social enterprises, health trusts, local and national government open opportunities for special projects delivering mutual benefit for all, particularly our customers.

We already work with some high-profile partners, including Homes England, Tees Valley Combined Authority, Tees Valley Council’s, the Ministry of Justice, Teesside University, Kirklees Metropolitan Council in West Yorkshire, Hull City Council in East Yorkshire and we have an outstanding track record.

We’d be interested in any discussions on mergers, stock transfers and acquisitions which could deliver joint ambitions.

We can work with you to deliver those key regeneration projects that will provide you with economic growth and thriving communities.

• Have expertise delivering traditional regeneration projects • Have expertise around development and construction • Deliver commissioned service contracts for a range of support needs by understanding what services are required and being innovative in our delivery models • Focus on delivering mutual goals and interests, being flexible and transparent and agreeing solutions together • Share skills and expertise increasing outputs and efficiencies as a result

What we can offer • A progressive partner who is actively seeking new partnerships • Experience in delivering commissioned supported services • All the benefits of being a Homes England Strategic Partner, allowing us to build on our ambitious development programme • Provide homes for every stage of life as part of our ‘Living Well’ approach. This means we can evolve our offer to our customers, so it helps them to live well, independently and change with their needs • A dedicated team committed to working with like-minded partners to create place-based regeneration and vibrant communities • A partner who is at the forefront of the need for carbon reduction delivering innovative solutions • A commitment to creating great partnerships that deliver for our communities and meet our collective ambitions • A team of experienced professionals who can deliver high quality mixed-tenure homes • Expertise in support services providing excellent outcomes and cost savings to the public purse • A vast knowledge of providing homes and wrap-around services to create great communities • A commitment to social value and making a difference to people’s lives • A customer-focused approach to housing. Whatever someone’s stage in life, we provide the homes and support they need

Thirteen at a glance

35,000 homes across the North East, Yorkshire and Humber

18,530 emergency repairs through the pandemic

G1/V1 regulatory rating

£181m turnover: 2020/21

1,545

£62m spent on maintaining and improving existing homes: 2020/21

553

customers helped through care and support services: 2020/21

customers supported into jobs and training: 2020/21

A Homes England Strategic Partner

Delivering large scale flagship regeneration down to small grass roots schemes

355 new homes built: 2020/21

£2m additional benefits gained for customers: 2020/21

Customers at our heart Great customer service We own and manage almost 35,000 homes and we’re proud that we put our customers at the heart of everything we do, and almost 90% tell us they’re happy with our overall services.

We have developed our current service offer by listening to customers and stakeholders about what matters to them to create great experiences and turn our customers into fans. As a result, we are transforming the way we work with customers through our new digital platform, My Thirteen and our touchpoint programme, including a high street customer hub in Stockton and another in Hull.

Our approach allows us to deliver a more consistent, responsive and quality service, while giving us the platform to understand changing customer behaviours and attitudes in a dynamic market.

This means that we continue to put customers at the heart of everything we do.

We welcome discussions about how we might be able to work together on any future opportunities for housing management agreements. So please get in touch with one of the team.

Case study: Thirteen welcomes new customers We welcomed new customers in Middlesbrough and Hull after completing an acquisition agreement with Clarion Housing Group.

The deal with Clarion, which was formally completed following a six-week customer consultation period, saw us take over the ownership and management of more than 1,000 homes as well as sheltered housing schemes and other community buildings.

As an ambitious organisation, we are always looking to strengthen our customer offer, add value and as a result improve customer experience.

Supporting people is our passion

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make the most of themselves, given extra help at the right point in life’s journey.

Our support services are on hand for those who might be struggling with life’s challenges.

We’re continuing to grow our commissioned service contracts for a range of support needs by understanding what services are required and being innovative in our delivery models.

Our support services Our specialist teams provide responsive, customerfocused services across the areas below.

Our services can be tailored to your organisation’s needs and requirements, just get in touch if you’d like to have a chat.

Homelessness support - Our specialist teams work with the homeless or at risk of becoming homeless to improve their lives by offering advice and practical support. This includes help with finding a home or a job, building resilience or working towards personal independence.

Domestic abuse support – We support people in their homes or our specialist accommodation, offering tailor-made programmes that recognise and respond to the unique needs of people who have experienced domestic violence.

Support for offenders – We work closely with a range of partners within the criminal justice system, including the police, prisons, the National Probation Service, community rehabilitation organisations and offender management services. We work with ex-offenders to offer a range of support that includes accommodation and help for people in a time of crisis, ensuring that people have somewhere to turn when they need it most.

Children and young people – Because housing is our business, we are ideally placed to use our skills and resources to construct or convert buildings tailored to particular groups of young people who would welcome a protective roof over their heads.

Employability - Our employability service provides intensive support to customers, helping them find jobs or get into training or education. Around 740 customers receive our help each month.

Resettlement schemes - We know that we are part of a wider global community, so we work to resettle people who have left difficult situations in their own countries to build new lives in the UK. We’ve helped people from many countries including war-torn Syria to find a home in the region, access jobs and education, apply for benefits and register with health services, and make the most of the opportunities that our area can offer.

Net zero & reducing environmental impacts

We recognise that as a large business, employer and landlord, we have a responsibility to do what we can to protect the local environment, improve our performance and reduce carbon emissions.

Improving our environmental sustainability cuts across everything we do. We’re taking action to reduce our carbon footprint and deliver on our commitments to be net zero on our direct carbon emissions by 2035 and all emissions by 2050.

Our Take Control campaign is seeing us achieve our goal of becoming much greener. To reduce our environmental impacts, we are looking at the bigger picture and developing our approach to understand the effects on our customers, homes and business. We’re working across our business to understand what action needs to be taken to reduce emissions and improve environmental impacts.

We’re looking at what needs to be done to deliver sustainable homes that are fit for the future and right for our customers. We’re also discovering how to add value through initiatives to tackle fuel poverty while continually supporting and empowering our customers.

Decarbonisation and green agenda Case study: Eco-friendly homes set to welcome new customers We have some great examples of projects that are supporting our decarbonisation journey. In Stockton we’ve reconfigured a former housing office into two unique ecofriendly homes to test out new and innovative systems to see how homes could be made greener and smarter in the future.

• Infra-red heating panels are installed on ceilings to remove the need for gas, providing a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to heat the home.

• Solar PV panels linked to a thermal store provide a simple electric hot water solution with minimal maintenance requirements.

• A mechanical ventilation heat recovery system (MVHR) provides fresh filtered air while retaining most of the energy which has already been used in heating the home, keeping it at a comfortable temperature.

It’s a great opportunity to breathe new life into what was previously an empty building. We’ve looked at the fabric of the building, low carbon building services, and we’ve integrated renewable technology.

Data from the homes will be picked up remotely, to measure the effectiveness of the technology we’re using. This full house retrofit project will give us essential insight into how we ensure Thirteen’s properties move towards our goal of being carbon neutral in the future.

Case study: University partners for green projects We have also partnered with Teesside University on a successful government bid to deliver projects focusing on the zero-carbon agenda.

The bid – named Towards a Greener Tees Valley – was made by the partners to bring £700,000 of funding into the region to help develop green projects and better understand some of the green agenda challenges, especially for social housing. The project is funded through the UK Community Renewal Fund. The funding will be used for a number of projects, including supporting Thirteen’s retrofit ambitions in Hartlepool, which is looking at how current homes in the area can become zero-carbon ready.

We’ll also be gathering insight to understand what’s needed to de-carbonise older homes in Middlesbrough.

Another project will investigate the skills gaps around new green technologies in the Tees Valley, understanding what this means for housing providers and builders and finding practical solutions to bridge the gaps.

The projects form part of Teesside University’s SocioEconomic Impact Campus (SEIC) initiative.

Innovation at Thirteen

Some of our key areas of focus are: • Helping our customers to live well, for longer • Decarbonisation and the zero-carbon agenda • How we design and build new homes • Using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to solve customer and business challenges.

The innovation team is also responsible for Thirteen’s housing innovation lab, or HiLab, which brings Thirteen’s colleagues, partners and external organisations together to share design thinking practices and develop new ideas and solutions for the future of social housing.

All are underpinned by data and genuine co-design with customers and colleagues at the heart of our innovation processes.

The aim is to showcase and strengthen Thirteen’s contribution to housing innovation and encourage collaboration across the sector.

If you think we might have some joint priorities, we’re always interested in collaborating with partners, whether to co-design solutions, help to understand the problem, or just chat about what we do and share learning, then please get in touch.

Our innovation and marketing team works closely with other business areas and external partners to use new and creative ways to solve problems.

We use service design and design-thinking approaches to support customers, stakeholders and colleagues to get to the crux of the problem and ideate and design solutions together.

Shaping places and spaces

We have experience delivering a wide range of tenures from affordable rent to shared ownership through to homes for market sale. We consistently deliver our grant funded affordable housing programme alongside Homes England, as well as delivering section 106 homes with local developers.

Building new homes Last year we spent £54m developing new homes, and we plan to build 7,000 homes by 2029. We understand the rapidly changing housing market which ensures we bring maximum benefits to both partners and communities.

We have a dedicated land team actively sourcing land, so we have a secure pipeline and supply of sites.

As a Homes England strategic partner, we have an ambitious development programme. We plan to build over 1,000 new affordable homes per annum with a minimum of 25% built using modern methods of construction (MMC).

Thirteen has been a significant pioneer in MMC, as you’ll see from the modular homes case study, and it saved us both time, especially at the height of the pandemic, while delivering exceptional quality.

Case study: Partnership plans to bring new homes to Kirklees We are delivering more than 200 affordable new homes for Kirklees Metropolitan Council in West Yorkshire, alongside fellow housing association Incommunities.

The partnership between Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Thirteen and Incommunities will create vibrant new homes and places for the people of Kirklees.

The local authority has identified five proposed sites in its ownership to be developed as part of its housing development programme, and the partnership will provide a range of house types and tenures to meet the needs of the whole community.

We’re committed to making sure the homes we deliver meet the aspiration of residents. Our homes will be zero carbon ready, plus we will create spaces with great accessibility that people can enjoy and feel safe in, and we will respond to the housing needs of the diverse community. In a nutshell, it will mean we’ll deliver high quality, green homes and much more for the people of Kirklees.

The partnership will also help create new jobs and some fantastic apprentice opportunities and we will be working closely with communities to ensure they benefit from the schemes.

Case study: Innovative modular homes in Hartlepool Thirty-one new innovative modular homes in Hartlepool.

Working in partnership with Homes England and Hartlepool Council, these ground-breaking new homes were built using pioneering modern methods of construction (MMC), for affordable rent.

The homes were built off-site in a controlled factory environment by ilke Homes in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, before being driven to Hartlepool. Once onsite, each module was split into the ground and first floor and craned into place. The homes, which were already finished internally, were assembled and connected to the groundwork and services by delivery partner ENGIE. Early feedback from customers is positive.

We’ll continue to work closely with them to gather qualitative feedback to monitor how the homes and tech perform for them.

Regeneration and placemaking

Thirteen works with local authorities and partners to identify, access and deliver regeneration projects that enhance places and spaces for communities and build homes on challenging brownfield sites. Together, we’re creating high quality, sustainable communities that have the needs of residents at the heart.

We have a great deal of experience around master planning and community resilience, which ensures residents, businesses and stakeholders are involved throughout the lifetime of projects.

Town centre regeneration is a priority for us, and we are well aware of the challenges local authorities face. With that in mind, we have the expertise to work with partners to develop sustainable solutions, and we are keen to work with partners to help shape transformational regeneration and change.

Case study: Union Village, Middlesbrough

Placemaking through housing led regeneration Shortlisted in the project category at the Housing Design Awards, the 220 new, affordable, and much-needed homes form ambitious and transformational plans to regenerate part of central Middlesbrough by bringing derelict land back to life.

A close working relationship with Middlesbrough Council is key and we’re investing over £30m, with funding also coming from Homes England and the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

As part of the scheme, we’ve also entered into an innovative co-operation agreement with Middlesbrough Council to improve community safety and environmental standards as part of the area’s wider regeneration.

To ensure regeneration goes beyond bricks and mortar, Thirteen and Middlesbrough Council will jointly fund a dedicated neighbourhood manager for Gresham.

Case study: Bohouse North – supporting the local economy and jobs Forty modern, flexible apartments where people can work or study from home.

Situated in a vibrant location - the Middlehaven regeneration area of the town is in the heart of the Boho Zone - Middlesbrough’s digital, creative and business hub.

It is a contemporary development where residents will keep their bills and carbon footprint low while benefiting from living in an exciting and central location close to everything the town centre offers.

Since day one, it’s been great working with Middlesbrough Council and the Middlesbrough mayor as well as Homes England, Esh Group and other partners to deliver these fantastic new homes, which are contributing to the Boho Zone’s growing national reputation.

Community resilience

Building the resilience of our communities is key to helping them be successful today while preparing for tomorrow.

To help build stronger communities, we put our customers and neighbourhoods at the heart of our decisions and promote a culture of working with and not doing to our communities.

Our communities are growing in confidence, and we’re building great relationships with the people who live, work and care about our communities.

Thirteen has an important presence in our communities. We’ll make the most of our presence by making the best use of our resources and targeting those who need us the most.

As part of our community resilience work, we also add social value and maximise our investments to benefit local communities.

More importantly, we’re giving communities the opportunities to help themselves.

Chris is currently Thirteen’s Interim Chief Executive.

Chris Smith

Get in touch Our dedicated business growth team will work with you to help create the best possible outcomes for your communities. They are an experienced and enthusiastic team ready to help deliver your ambitions.

Interim Chief Executive & Executive Director of Business Growth chris.smith@thirteengroup.co.uk

Chris leads on business growth for Thirteen, which includes identifying and developing bids and securing new business ventures, contracts, partnerships and commissioned/contracted services, and working with partners to create housing and service solutions for their housing, support and care needs.

Chris also focuses on strategic partnerships with Homes England, local authorities, health organisations, universities, and the community and voluntary sector.

Joy leads on development for Thirteen which includes affordable home delivery and Thirteen Homes.

Joy Whinnerah Executive Director of Development joy.whinnerah@thirteengroup.co.uk

She has experience leading on a wide range of projects including, large scale regeneration, joint ventures with private and public sector partners, developing specialist and supported accommodation and delivering a number of modern methods of construction build types.

Joy is also managing Thirteen’s business growth directorate while Chris Smith is Interim Chief Executive.

Sharon’s role is key to identifying opportunities, delivering regeneration schemes and building community resilience and new affordable housing, across the North East and Yorkshire.

Sharon Thomas Director of Strategic Partnerships sharon.thomas@thirteengroup.co.uk

As a previous Director of Economic Development & infrastructure at Middlesbrough Council she draws on her expertise to create and nurture relationships that promote our ambitions for growing our market, increasing our presence in existing and new areas and meeting our regeneration aspirations.

Chris leads on horizon scanning and identifying opportunities. He’s responsible for developing relationships as well as strengthening existing connections with external partners.

Chris Joynes Director of Thirteen Plus chris.joynes@thirteengroup.co.uk

His team manage the bid and tender process and submit proposals, tenders and expressions of interest across a wide range of support services.

Contact us 0300 111 1000 www.thirteengroup.co.uk @Thirteen_Group ThirteenGroup