The commitment of our staff and board, the support of our partners and stakeholders and the feedback from residents has helped Origin remain strong, resilient and adaptable in the face of significant challenges and uncertainty - in the economy, politics and wider society.

We have continued to make good progress with our ambition to build more homes and provide high quality landlord and support services that make a positive difference to people’s lives. 

The housing sector was overshadowed this year by tragedy at Grenfell Tower. This unprecedented event has brought into sharp focus the importance of ensuring safe homes for our residents. Even before this, Origin had already been investing heavily in health and safety. Since then we have continued to assess what further work may be needed and spend what is required to meet best practice standards. 

 

We have taken big steps this year to focus most of our efforts on improving landlord services and we now have the building blocks in place – including introducing new ways of working, deciding how to invest in new technology and developing and supporting our staff team to provide more consistent, customer focused services. The next two years will see us start to deliver on the changes to services that residents tell us they want to see.

 

We have continued to build new homes, finding creative ways to spread risk and increase production – and we are ramping up delivery with a commitment to a total of 1,000 new homes – at least 75% of which will be affordable – by 2021/22.

 

Origin also remains committed to being a significant provider of support services for those who are vulnerable, offering services for over 4,000 people with a wide range of needs. This is complemented by our work with local partners and residents to improve quality of life in local neighbourhoods and to residents.

 

I hope this report provides a flavour of what we are achieving at Origin and how we are continuing to work hard to respond to our residents’ priorities and add value to communities. If you would like to share your views, please contact us at enquiries@originhousing.org.uk 

 

Thank you,

 

 

Carol Carter, Chief Executive