Housing has always been about people, and that’s what makes it such a fascinating sector to work in.

Whoever we work with - whether customers, our colleagues or our partners – we recognise everyone’s unique, which is why I was incredibly proud to see us rank in the top 10 across two categories in the national Ethnicity Awards. Indeed, it’s the third year in a row that we’ve featured in these Awards, with much credit to our fantastic Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team who work hard to ensure that Stonewater reflects our wider society and is a place where colleagues and customers, across all our communities, can truly shine.

We’ve also been named as finalists in two categories in the Affordable Housing Awards, which recognise social landlords, charities and partners who work with communities to deliver great outcomes for customers. This includes the award for Financial Inclusion initiative of the year, where we’ve been shortlisted for our work in providing financial support for customers during the cost-of-living crisis. We’ll hear later in the year if we make the winner’s list!

As well as this, I’ve enjoyed hearing the positive stories from our presence at Birmingham Pride, organised by our LGBTQ+ networking group, and have been heartened to see the first - of what I hope will be many - ‘Happy to Chat’ benches appearing in communities, to help tackle loneliness and social isolation. With thanks to our partners Platform, Bell Group and Wates.

So while we’ve had lots of reasons to celebrate this summer, we’re now turning our thoughts to the coming winter. The warm weather has provided some respite from worrying about heating bills, but we know many customers are still struggling with other rising costs. We have a core commitment to provide secure, warm and affordable homes for people that need them most and we’re looking at a whole range of ways we can support customers through the on-ongoing challenges – whether that’s by improving our repairs performance, piloting new technology to make homes more energy efficient or working with our independent charity arm, the Longleigh Foundation, to help those in financial crisis.

Finally, I’d like to welcome any new readers who have recently become customers of the Stonewater Group. In response the national housing crisis, we’re always looking to grow, either by building more new homes or expanding through partnerships. We’ve recently joined forces with Greenoak and Mount Green housing associations and completed a transfer of 370 homes from Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing. We also celebrated the completion of our 5,000th new build (since Stonewater was formed in 2015) as part of a development in Safford Park, East Sussex, which provides 145 flats and houses for affordable rent, shared ownership, and Rent to Buy.

I hope you enjoy reading more about our work and what’s going on across lots of our communities in this issue. Take a look through and please remember, we’re always Here to Help.