Activities
All our business activities serve and support our residents, their homes and their communities, and they will continue to do so in the future.
Under our four business objectives, we have included some of our recent activities and achievements. To see more, please visit our news pages:
Accent Group business news.
Accent Foundation news.
Accent Nene news.
Accent Peerless news.
You can also download a copy of our Group strategic plan 2009 - 2012.
Deliver excellent, locally agreed services
Accent Foundation extended its repairs service centre open hours to 7pm on Monday to Friday (with a 7.30am start) and from 8am to 12pm on Saturday. The service also targets improvements in more remote areas. A new and improved out-of-hours service is also operating, which is offering residents better call handling and diagnosis of problems.
Residents across the group are continung to benefit from an improved repairs service with better target ratings, responses, completion times and quality.
To improve residents’ satisfaction in this service area, we introduced several new measures including in-depth training for staff, hotspot action plans, and an ASB forum involving residents to review cases. Our computer systems enable us to log cases and track them at every stage.
Following a customer survey and a complaints conference involving residents, staff and board members, Accent Foundation made improvements to its complaints process and established a residents' complaints forum. A dedicated computer system helps staff report, track and resolve complaints more effectively across the group.
Provide high quality homes to live in
Hempsted, Peterborough
Accent Nene’s affordable housing development was part financed by the Homes and Communities Agency. To help local people in housing need, it was awarded additional agency funding to switch a number of the shared ownership properties to intermediate rent. The development will deliver 202 affordable units with a range of tenures.
Fulbourn, Peterborough
Accent Nene is developing a development of 79, two, three and four bed affordable houses and flats in Peterborough's Fulbourn estate.
Aldershot
Accent Peerless’ 32 affordable homes in Aldershot were first intended for sale through shared ownership. Recognising the mortgage difficulties first time buyers were facing, Accent Peerless offered the homes to residents at an intermediate subsidised market rent to give them a 20% discount against similar rents in the area.
Franklands Drive, Surrey
This is a three phase, joint development with Elmbridge Homes in Surrey. Accent Peerless is currently developing the remaining 128 new affordable homes in phases two and three.
Bradford
Accent Foundation is the first housing association in Bradford to build nine new homes which meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, and use cutting edge features that are easy to use and simple to maintain.
Accent Foundation is also investing £7m into its homes in the Manningham area of Bradford to improve and adapt them to meet local needs and demands.
Co Durham
Accent Foundation is currently investing £15m to improve its homes In Horden, Easington Colliery and Blackhall. The work involves fitting new bathrooms, kitchens, windows and doors and, in some areas, home extensions. Residents have been consulted about the improvements and have helped to prioritise some of the work that will be done. They will also be able to choose the colours and styles of some of their new fixtures and fittings.
Leeds
Accent Foundation's new affordable homes in Leeds have been developed in close partnership with Leeds City Council, as part of the council’s Affordable Strategic Housing Partnership, and with funding from the Homes and Communities Agency. The partnership, worth around £29,000,000, is the biggest of its kind in Leeds in recent years and has resulted in 325 new homes in total being developed across eight sites in the city.
Support our residents to sustain their homes and communities
Accent Peerless Allpay service
Accent Peerless has a secure Allpay pay station in the main Camberley office. It offers a secure and simple service which accepts debit cards and cash, and uses voice prompting, video and touch screen technology to guide customers through the payment process. A number of different languages are available.
PACT
Kick-started by Accent Nene over six years ago, this highly successful local neighbourhood initiative is now largely managed by the local community, and provides training and evening class facilities for residents in the Paston area of Peterborough.
Be an ambitious and successful business
New human resources system
Our human resources system enabled us to rethink the way we provide the HR service to the group, by giving staff and managers responsibility for administering the most common tasks.
Services across the group are reviewed regularly to ensure they continue to provide the best value for money service.
Simplifying our business
To simplify our structure and the way we run our business, we have signifcantly reduced the number of Accent Group companies.
Coming soon - one system, one approach, one goal
A brand new, fully integrated housing management system, ActiveH, which will provide improved services to our residents wherever they live, whatever their needs and whenever they contact us.