The Housing Platform

At the Housing 2025 conference in Manchester, join members of Platform Housing Group's development team and external partners Lovell Partnerships to discuss the future of affordable housing delivery off the back of the Biggest Builders survey and the government spending review. What issues have we triumphed over in the last 12 months and what is on the horizon? What part will the combined authorities play in affordable housing across the Midlands? What might delay the spending of the £39bn afforded to the sector for the next ten years?

Welcome to the Housing Platform, from Platform Housing Group. We’re a large, registered provider of social housing, and we manage over 50,000 homes across the Midlands. In this episode, you join us in the middle of a very important field...one where we’ll soon start building over 200 affordable homes. The site is called Browns Lane and it’s in Tamworth in Staffordshire. It’s a site that shows that Platform is keen on changing how we approach securing land for affordable housing, in a way that we hope can accelerate what we deliver and exceed our previous standards of the places we create. Hosted by Richard Hurst, communications business partner, we asked members of the land and new business team to join us on a sunny April morning to explain to you just what this new approach means...

In March, we attended the Housing Technology conference in Nottingham, where professionals from across the tech and housing sectors came together for seminars, exhibitions and vital networking to really drill into their problems and solutions. As you can imagine, a hefty section of the conference talked about artificial intelligence, and the possibilities it has in changing our sector for the better. The term is being banded around a lot at the moment...sometimes a bit too hastily to attract attention with then little of what we know as AI at the heart of it. On day 3 of the conference, we took 15 minutes to sit down with Platform’s CIO Jon Cocker and one of our non-exec board members, Heena Prajapat to talk about it and ask, is it time to redefine AI already??? If you’ve got your own questions, send them to podcasts@platfromhg.com and we can put them to Jon and Heena. This Housing Platform podcast is worth subscribing to for our thoughts on many different sector topics as well as sharing practices and experiences to help improve what we do for our customers.

As part of February's National Apprentice Week, hear from apprentices at Platform Housing Group about how they are finding the programme, why they chose it and whether they'd recommend it to others. Hear from apprentices in Grounds Maintenance, Procurement, Gas Engineering, Finance and Customer Experience. There's also advice and thoughts from colleagues who look after our apprentices and leaders about what the future of apprenticeships looks like. Thanks to Linda Gittings and Ellie Steel as well as Ground Maintenance apprentice Tyler Bergin-Ruff for their contributions. You can find out more at Apprenticeships | Platform Housing Group

The latest targets for delivery of affordable housing are high and present a challenge for the sector. Combined with the need to deliver new standards and Platform's desire to provide high quality homes, how can it all be done together. Hear from Platform's Group Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude on the stakeholders that need to stand up and deliver in the face of one of housing's biggest challenges to date. To find out more about Platform Housing, go to our website www.platformhg.com.

Following discussions on Section 106 and Shared Ownership, the next topic we want to tackle is Social Rent. Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude discusses wow social rent contributes to the affordable landscape – compared to other tenures. We'll also ask how important is it to Platform across our geography and look at why people are calling for more to built in particular? Finally, we also cover why is it dangerous to sacrifice other tenures like Shared Ownership for building more social rent.

Here we bring you highlights of Platform's fringe session at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool in September. The aim was to give more exposure to shared ownership as a tenure and reinforce how vital it would be to helping to solve the housing crisis. Chaired by Rhys Moore Executive Director of Impact at the National Housing Federation, Platform’s Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude was joined by Ann Santry, Chair of the Shared Ownership Council, Andrew Taylor, Group Planning Director at developer Vistry Partnerships and Cllr Sarah Williams Deputy Leader at Harringay and member for Housing and Planning. This podcast brings you highlights of the speakers addressing the floor and answering questions the audience put across.

Welcome back to Housing Matters As part of our podcast called The Housing Platform, these special episodes by Group Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude will address some of the issues in the sector from Platform’s perspective. In this episode, we'll discuss section 106 and changing attitudes towards it as a way of delivering high quality housing solutions. We'll look at the current sentiments towards it and what the future holds. Remember you can find us on linkedin or at platformhg.com if you want to engage further. There are a whole host of other topics we’ll be covering including our previous episode which looked at Shared Ownership, and our upcoming discussion about social rent. Make sure you are subscribed to our podcast...and keep an eye out for other Housing Matters editions of ‘the Housing Platform’.

Welcome to Housing Matters As part of our podcast called The Housing Platform, these special episodes by Group Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude will address some of the issues in the sector from Platform’s perspective. In this episode, we'll discuss the tenure of shared ownership, why it's under threat and why the sector needs it to continue to solve the housing crisis. Remember you can find us on linkedin or at platformhg.com if you want to engage further. There are a whole host of other topics we’ll be covering around section 106 agreements and the role of social rent in solving the housing crisis. Make sure you are subscribed to our podcast...and keep an eye out for other Housing Matters editions of ‘the Housing Platform’.

Join Platform Housing as we discuss the results of Inside Housing's Biggest Builder's survey, where the group placed very well following some great work from the teams involved with Growth and Development. Analysing all the results are Group Chief Executive Elizabeth Froude, Executive Director of Growth and Development Gerraint Oakley, Director of Land, Partnerships and New Business Kate Ellison; New Homes Delivery Director Paula Heatley and Director of Programme Helen Newbury. Rich Hurst the communications business partner is your host as the podcast is brought to you from the centre of Manchester during the Housing 2024 conference.

At this year's UKREiiF conference in Leeds, Platform hosted a key note session about how we feel partnerships should change to accelerate delivery of affordable housing. Joining Platform's Executive Director of Growth and Development Gerraint Oakley were: Laura Shoaf CBE - Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority Ann Taylor - Development Director, Savills David Mawson - CEO Placefirst Simon Wingate - Partnerships Director at Lovell Partnerships Kate Ellison - Director of Land, Partnerships and New Business at Platform. They discussed how elements of partnerships they currently have could change, what else might accelerate delivery, their current challenges as well as future challenges they forsee as well as taking questions from the audience about private capital, defining roles within partnerships and one thing they'd change right now.

In this episode we're focusing on governance and the future of housing boards. At Platform, we're extremely proud of our Trainee Board programme and we've just recruited 5 new members to embark on the two-year course to learn everything there is to know about being on a board. Hear from the five new members, Laurens, Mikhelia, Heidi, Parham and Nkechi as well as our Executive Director of Corporate Resources, Clare Durnin. Remember our email to get in touch about anything you've heard - podcasts@platformhg.com

As part of National Stalking Awareness Week 2024, we put a call out to colleagues asking if they had experienced stalking or knew someone who had and Joanna Selby, one of our Customer Engagement Officers, bravely answered this call. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men have been stalked at some point in their lives and 50% of victims have curtailed or stopped work due to stalking , whilst it's scary to think that 75% of domestic violence stalkers will turn up at the workplace Joanna went through all of this. She was stalked for 2 ½ years and wants to share her experience as a way to help others...so in this podcast, you’re going to hear her story. TRIGGER WARNING: THIS STORY IS ABOUT A SURVIOVR OF STALKING, A FORM OF DOMESTIC ABUSE, IT HAS DETAIL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE ENDURED. PLEASE ONLY CONTINUE LISTENING IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THAT.

At the start of 2024, Platform Housing have been talking to the sector about the opportunities of using Artificial Intelligence in Housing. We've also won two awards for our work using AI to improve tenant services. At conferences across the Midlands, the information team have held workshops and discussions at key industry events to offer their thoughts on how AI can shape the way housing associations can best serve their customers. Chief Information Officer Jon Cocker appeared on stage at Housing Digital in Birmingham and Housing Technology in Nottingham. At both events, he discussed the opportunities and risks around AI in Housing, plus at Housing Technology, our Enterprise Architect Rich Hawkes, talked through some case studies of work undertaken so far.

Apprenticeships continue to grow as a career path for young people to take when they leave school. The appeal of being able to ‘earn while you learn’, combined with the increasing costs of higher education have seen more people embark on them as a way to start a career. The housing sector is one place where the scheme really comes into its own, with so many different career paths available. Here at Platform Housing, we have apprentices in many areas of the organisation, from property care & maintenance right through to finance & procurement. It’s also becoming more common that current employees have been doing apprenticeships to improve their development, in what’s known as upskilling. National Apprentices Week takes place in February and this year the theme is skills for life. In this podcast, you’re going to hear from some of the apprentices who joined Platform after leaving school and from people in the business who have taken the opportunity to upskill. In all cases, there are some great stories of people expanding their knowledge and increasing their experience and picking up those skills for life.

Winter has arrived and social housing faces one of its toughest periods for managing repairs and maintenance of their properties in order to ensure customers have a warm, safe home. With the problems presented from the risk of damp and condensation mould and with the backdrop of tightened measures and issues around resources, plus a backlog from the pandemic, what have Platform been doing to prepare for this winter? Thanks to the work that's been done as part of the Property Change programme and projects that have focussed on key priorities, we're in a much better place to face the challenges of this winter. We sat down with Dennis Evans, Executive Director of Property and Linda Colburn, Director of Asset Management to discuss the aims of the change programmes and the results so far.

Welcome to our special podcast supporting the national campaign of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. In this episode, one of our very own domestic abuse survivors, Karen from Platform's Neigbourhoods team, bravely tells her story in the hope it will help others. Host Christine Yates is also joined by Kath Dawson, Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Manager to talk about what the organisation does to help raise awareness and the people we work with.

It’s clear that housing associations need to find new ways to engage with their customers. Recommendations by the Better Social Housing review and the upcoming introduction of Tenant Satifaction Measures are placing more emphasis on the customer’s experience of the service they receive from their landlord. Platform have launched their new Customer Voice Panel. We previously had a customer scrutiny panel and a customer experience panel who reported to the board. This new panel however represents a change in the way we listen to customers, so we wanted to tell you about it and hear from the people involved.

In this episode of The Housing Platform, we’re talking about diversity in the housing sector with Lara Oyedele. Lara paid a visit to the offices of Platform Housing Group to deliver a talk around her campaign as president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, In My Shoes. It was fascinating to have her speak, not only because she makes some interesting points about the lack of diversity in housing boardrooms....but also because she had music and quizzes and prizes as part of her session. Fair to say her style and delivery of what can be a tough message for some to swallow hit all the right notes and left our colleagues and no doubt many others with some food for thought. After the session, we sat down with Lara to talk about her mission and the term she has enjoyed as President of the CIH as well as what else she’ll be working on after her term has ended. Remember there are other podcasts in our Housing Platform series that might interest you – including what it means to produce a zero bills home and how the relationship between government and housing is changing. www.platformhg.com www.cih.org

The UK Housing Sector is exploring all sorts of ways to develop new homes that will be energy-efficient for their customers. As Platform continues it's ambitious build programme with 1,300 homes started between 2023 and 2024, one way some of these units could cost customers less is using Octopus Energy's Zero Bills concept. Join Michael Cottrell, Global Product and Partnerships Director at Octopus Energy and Katie Gilmartin, Head of Business Development and Innovation at Platform to talk through what it all means. We'll discuss the concept of zero bills, how affordable housing could be the gateway to mass rollout and what needs to change for the sector to adopt it.