Thrive Homes - News

1000th home improvement benefits customers and community

Local Mill End Scouts joined the celebrations for the 1000th home improvement by Thrive Homes and United House in the Three Rivers district.

90 year-old resident Mrs Ford, whose home was the 1000th to be updated, was presented with a bouquet of flowers by boys from 1st Mill End Scout Group. She said "I am really pleased with the final results and the support given by the teams from Thrive Homes and United House was second to none."

To celebrate the milestone, United House and Thrive Homes provided an Archery Canopy for 1st Mill End Scout Group as part of their commitment to supporting community projects. On Saturday 26 September volunteers cleared the outside area behind the Scout HQ, put up a safety barrier and ran a protective screen around the new Archery area. Spurred on with a tasty BBQ, the Scout group were able to enjoy their first archery competition that very afternoon.

Elspeth Mackenzie, Chief Executive of Thrive Homes presented the Scout group with a commemorative plaque and said: "We are committed to providing high quality homes and excellent services to help develop communities where people will enjoy living. Our property improvement programme is an important aspect of our work -and we are thrilled to have improved 1000 properties in just over a year. We are grateful to the support of our partners United House in delivering this for our customers and for the contribution they make to the communities we work in. This archery project exemplifies what Thrive Homes wants to achieve - creating communities where there are life choices and opportunities which is something that the Scout movement has been offering its young people for many years."

District Commissioner Peter Edwards said "We are very grateful for this donation. Our Scout Group is thriving with more than 70 members and a waiting list to join. Many of the skills learnt while in the Scouting movement stay with us for life, which is why it has stood the test of time and continues to be so popular amongst boys and girls. Archery encourages patience, accuracy, practice and teamwork. We are thrilled to be able to offer this sport to our Scout group with guidance from fully trained staff. In the future, we hope to share the facility with other groups in and around the area."

Steve Chamberlain, Regional Director at United House, said: "This improvement programme is a classic example of a good partnership with both teams working very closely together.

The programme itself is quite challenging and involves us starting 30 properties every week and, at any one time we are working on approximately 90 homes. This requires a great deal of liaison with residents to ensure they are impacted by the work as little as possible. Our resident liaison team works closely with Thrive Homes and their residents to keep everybody informed of what is going on, so they can carry on with their normal daily lives."

Thrive Homes and United House are working in partnership to deliver an internal improvement programme, valued at around £18.4 million, for many of the housing association's 3,700 homes. The improvements include upgrading and replacing bathrooms and kitchens, heating and electrical works.