Housing Summit 2025

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 11:19:55 Z

Bath & North East Somerset councillors pledge to work across party lines in UK first

The region’s housing crisis was under the spotlight, as more than 150 policymakers, activists and industry figures came together at the second annual Bath and North East Somerset Housing Summit.

The summit saw leaders from across the political spectrum commit to improve the supply of affordable homes in the area. Their signing of a first-of-its-kind housing accord establishes a commitment to work together, across party lines and beyond individual council terms, to create long-term change.

The commitment was signed against the backdrop of unprecedented housing costs and levels of homelessness in our region. Attendees heard that in some parts of Bath, average house prices stand at 18 times average salary. Renters on the open market can expect to spend about 40% of gross average earnings on housing.

The human cost of the housing crisis was a central theme of the event. Wayne Hemingway MBE, a passionate campaigner for affordable housing and founder of advocacy group, Housing Assembly, led a panel discussion of local young people priced out of housing in Bath.

He also read entries from the new Housing Assembly website, which was officially launched at the summit. The site, thehousingassembly.co.uk, offers a platform for people locked out of the housing system and collects evidence of its dysfunction to build the case for urgent change.

He shared Bethany’s story who, though she works, is forced to sleep in her car. She describes herself as a mentally vulnerable woman and says, despite her dire situation, has no hope of accessing social housing.

On signing the landmark housing accord, Councillor Kevin Guy, Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council, said:

“Only by working together and putting politics aside can we truly start to address a broken housing system. This accord is a turning point. It shows that no matter our political differences, the signatories are united in our commitment to deliver the right homes in the right places, for our communities across Bath & North East Somerset.

“We believe that through co-operation and innovation we can do our bit to urgently address the broken market and deliver more, truly affordable homes in our area. The housing crisis demands bold, long-term thinking—and today we’ve taken a major step forward together.”

The West of England Mayor, Helen Godwin, who also addressed the conference said:

“Tackling the housing crisis is not something any single organisation or political leader can achieve alone. By working together across authorities, and with government, we will build the right homes in the right places, with the services and infrastructure that local people need and deserve.

“We are already working with Homes England and Bath & North East Somerset Council to support work to deliver new homes at Bath Quays and along the Bristol to Bath strategic growth corridor. This new Housing Accord commits us all to further strengthen those partnerships, working together to solve this housing crisis.”

Reflecting on the success of the event, Victor da Cunha, CEO of Curo and Chair of the local Housing Mission Delivery Board, said:

"Bath & North East Somerset has become the first council in the country to sign a cross-party housing accord - we shouldn't underestimate the significance of that. The shared vision of eradicating the housing crisis and providing people with quality homes they can afford will also help to release the economic potential of our region."

Better Social Housing Review – our progress

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 14:46:33 Z

In 2022, while the finishing touches were being put to a raft of new regulations in the housing sector, the National Housing Federation (which represents housing associations) and the Chartered Institute of Housing (which provides training and standards for the sector), came together to create the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR). In consultation with housing associations the Review was launched in June that year, and the whole sector has signed up to its seven core elements.

At Curo we spend a lot of our time ensuring we are compliant with all types of regulation – from health & safety, building safety, gas, electrical, water, asbestos and fire compliance, through to consumer standards which set out the minimum our customers should expect. And it is very much our ambition to exceed these minimum standards wherever we can. The BSHR is not a regulatory requirement, but focuses on a series of areas which we are all focusing on to create a better sector. Here’s our progress so far – we know we have more to do but we are confident we are moving in the right direction.

Expectation

1. Every housing association should refocus on their core purpose and deliver against it.

Progress

We created our purpose – ‘Homes for Good’ – in 2019, and this is embedded into our new strategy and vision.

Further information

Customers have been at the centre of creating our 10-year Vision: Everyone feels proud about the quality of our homes. Our Strategy is called: What Good Looks Like in 2034. Find out more here.

Expectation

2. Housing associations should work together to conduct and publish a thorough audit of all social housing in England.

Progress

We assess the condition of all our homes against the Government’s Decent Homes Standard, to ensure that our homes are safe and comfortable for our customers. By the end of this financial year we will have in-date surveys completed for all our 14,000 homes. We currently have up-to-date stock condition surveys for 89.5% of our properties. We have no access rate of around 8%.

Further information

From April we will be surveying homes every three, four or five years, based on certain criteria. If it’s been more than two years since your last Home Condition Survey, and you feel that the condition has changed, you can complete a Home Condition Survey on MyCuro.

Expectation

3. Housing associations should partner with tenants, contractors and frontline staff to develop and apply new standards defining what an excellent maintenance and repairs process looks like.

Progress

We started collaborating with customers and colleagues in July this year, and have agreed with our Board a framework for reviewing our entire maintenance and repairs process, which is due to complete by the end of March.

The customer scrutiny review into Repairs yielded 40 recommendations, most of which have been implemented. Workshops with customers took place in December to help develop the final proposals for the Repairs Review.

Further information

Find out more about the Repairs customer scrutiny review.

Expectation

4. The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) should promote the traditional housing officer role as a supported and valued employment opportunity with a CIH recognised programme of training and continuing development.

Progress

We await further info from the Charted Institute of Housing, but we have recruited a new senior team in HR who are developing a new approach to training and a plan to evolve our culture in line with the BSHR. We have also adopted the Social Housing Anti-Racism Pledge (SHARP) and have been benchmarking with other housing associations to modernise our service model, and get closer to our customers. We expect to complete this work next year.

Further information

Find out more about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Curo, including the SHARP Pledge.

Expectation

5. Housing associations should work with all tenants to ensure that they have a voice and influence at every level of decision making across the organisation, through both voluntary and paid roles.

Progress

We are proud of our resident engagement framework which now provides 30 different ways for customers to make their voice heard on a huge range of issues. We have also created a new Board committee – the Customer Experience Committee – which includes three customers who are paid for their time. We are finalising a full remuneration policy for all types of customer engagement in January.

Further information

Find out how to get involved with Curo.

Expectation

6. Housing associations should develop a proactive local community presence through community hubs which foster greater multi-agency working.

Progress

Last year we started running ‘community catch-ups’ across our entire operating region, where colleagues meet with customers in local community buildings or their homes to discuss any help they may need. We carried out 63 last year and will be doing more in 2025. We have also rolled out our caretaker service across the region and started a review of our community buildings, to see if any of these could be used for additional engagement with residents.

Our new housing management strategy will clarify exactly how we propose to further improve our local presence, this will be reviewed by customers before the end of the financial year.

Further information

Find out more about Community Catch-ups.

Expectation

7. Housing associations should support tenants and frontline staff to undertake an annual review of the progress each organisation is making in implementing this review’s recommendations.

Progress

Last year we reviewed progress against this plan with our customer Oversight Group, and we are planning to do this again in the New year. Curo colleagues will be invited to contribute to the review through our monthly cascade process.

Further information

Find out more about the customer Oversight Group.

Curo News

Housing Summit 2025

Better Social Housing Review – our progress

Expectation

Progress

Further information

Expectation

Progress

Further information

Expectation

Progress

Further information

Expectation

Progress

Further information

Expectation

Progress

Further information

Expectation

Progress

Further information

Expectation

Progress

Further information