Hartlepool and Redcar housing associations win at North East awards

Two housing associations have scooped awards for projects which have revitalised a key gateway into Hartlepool town centre and helped hundreds of jobseekers find employment in Redcar and Cleveland.

Coast & Country Housing’s Journey into Work project and Housing Hartlepool’s Easington Road scheme received North East SHINE awards. The awards ceremony was held at the Vermont Hotel in Newcastle on Thursday 13 October 2011.

The North East SHINE awards celebrate the exceptional work of housing associations across the region and are judged and presented by David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation. This year the two award categories were ‘Transforming Lives’ and ‘Transforming Places’.

Monica Burns, lead manager North East for the National Housing Federation, said: “Both Journey into Work and the Easington Road scheme are fantastic projects which show how housing associations can make a real difference. Coast & Country Housing has helped unemployed people find work in a challenging economic climate, while Housing Hartlepool has worked with local residents to transform one of the main roads into the town centre.

“All of the entries this year were exceptional and show how housing associations are transforming places and people’s lives for the better.”

Journey into Work, run by Coast & Country Housing, won the ‘Transforming Lives’ SHINE award. The scheme works with partner organisations Jobcentre Plus and Routes to Employment and aims to give tenants and other residents who are looking for work intense one-to-one support. In Redcar and Cleveland 28.4% of working age people are economically inactive. There are 17.4 Jobseekers Allowance claimants for every job vacancy in the area, nearly six times the national average.

A team of six advisors is based within community venues in the most deprived areas of Redcar and Cleveland to provide help to those who need it most. So far the team has helped over 700 customers to search for jobs, apply for more than 2,300 positions and secure over 200 training and educational places. They have assisted with curriculum vitae, interview techniques, securing funding for training and clothing and have carried out benefit checks to ensure customers are better off in work. As a result 314 people have found jobs.

Jobcentre Plus is now extending the project until March 2012, with the team of Journey to Work advisors set to increase to nine. The extended project will be available to everyone within the Redcar and Cleveland area.

Meanwhile, Housing Hartlepool was the joint winner of the ‘Transforming Places’ SHINE award for its Easington Road scheme. Easington Road – a main arterial route into Hartlepool’s Marina and town centre – has been transformed into an attractive housing development which has helped to contribute to the wider regeneration of the local area.

The development, which created a mixture of rented housing with homes for outright sale, shared ownership and rent to buy options, was created using the innovative modular construction method Evolve. The cost of producing Evolve homes is 25 per cent lower than traditional methods and homes can be delivered almost twice as fast in a construction schedule of 12 weeks rather than a typical 22 weeks for traditional builds. Homes are constructed off site using 43 per cent less carbon, while being at the cutting edge of sustainable design. Because of the prominence of the site, a design competition was held to choose a transformational masterplan for the scheme. The winning architect was Arcus Consulting.

A key funder of the project was the Homes and Communities Agency, which allocated almost £2 million to the scheme. Residents helped to select the winning architectural submission for the homes and an emphasis was placed on safeguarding and creating jobs for local people.