A LIVERPOOL housing charity has just won its fourth national award in less than 12 months and been named as a finalist in a fifth UK scheme.
Pictured at the National Housing Awards, l-r, Patrick Kielty, Mark Birkin, of Sanctuary Group, HPBC trustee Jim Gill, Linda Storey of category sponsor Penningtons Manches, and Sanctuary’s Andrew White.
The latest accolade to find its way into the trophy cabinet at Housing People, Building Communities, is a National Housing Award for Most Innovative or Specialist Scheme.
The unique project, which combines an element of self-build with volunteering and corporate philanthropy to deliver low-cost homes off Kingsley Road, Toxteth, has also been shortlisted in the Affordable Housing Scheme category of the 24 Housing Awards.
The National Housing Awards are supported by the National Housing Federation and the Homes & Communities Agency. HPBC trustee Jim Gill and representatives of the charity’s delivery partner Sanctuary Group attended the ceremony in London, which was hosted by comedian and TV personality Patrick Kielty.
On winning the award, Jim Gill said: “The national recognition for our houses over the last 12 months has been unbelievable and is testimony to the hard work of our staff, home partners, volunteers and corporate supporters.
“We work in a very unique way – our home partners spend 500 hours helping to build their own homes in return for a £10,000 discount – and the work we are doing has attracted the attention of a lot of influential people, including the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Self-Build, Custom-Build and Independent Housebuilding.
“We’ve had wonderful help along the way from very many organisations, among them Sanctuary Group, Liverpool City Council, major construction companies including ISG, building products manufacturer Wienerberger and even the 75 Engineer regiment of the Territorial Army, who helped build our road. We’ve also hosted thousands of volunteers on site who’ve learned new skills and gained valuable experience while helping to build our homes.”
The National Housing Awards submission was made jointly with Sanctuary Group, which is investing almost £2m in the 23 remaining homes at Kingsley Road and providing additional hands-on support.
The Liverpool charity is now looking ahead to the 24 Housing awards – organised by social housing sector magazine 24 Housing – which will be presented in Birmingham on November 6. But before then its next major achievement will be welcoming the latest set of home partners to their completed properties at the Kingsley Road site.