Housing association to invest more than £200m in North East communities

North East housing association Bernicia says the investment over the next four years is part of ambitious plans to support tenants when they need it most.

The proposals include building at least 600 new homes, delivering major works to improve existing homes and neighbourhoods, and helping people into work.

Tenants have been given a say, helping shape Bernicia’s new corporate strategy and outlining how it will deliver services, focused on customers’ needs when they are facing major financial pressures.

Bernicia owns and manages 14,000 properties, employs more than 550 staff across the North East and has an annual turnover of £90million.

Over the next four years, Bernicia will:

• Invest £85m in new housing, building at least 600 new homes;

• Deliver £63m of major maintenance works to improve existing homes and estates;

• Spend £61m on day-to-day and cyclical repairs programmes;

• Ensure well over 90% of its homes meet energy efficiency rating SAP C or above, five years ahead of government target;

• Pledge an additional £2m to help local people into employment, creating a new employability team to work with regional businesses;

• Generate £15m of added social value for the region;

• Bernicia will commit additional resources to help tackle fuel poverty as households face a cost of living crisis. It will install more efficient heating systems into homes, fit extra insulation, photovoltaic panels and air source heat pumps.

Among its proposals is the Roseborough development in Cramlington, featuring 60 affordable new homes in the heart of the town.

The £9.4m scheme features 48 self-contained apartments for rent, four Tyneside flats and eight bungalows with the first tenants due to move in this month.

Also planned is Castle Square, in Backworth, featuring a mix of 32 new two, three and four-bedroom homes, two-bedroom bungalows and two-bedroom apartments, due for completion August 2022.

And there are proposals for a new £7million, 61 affordable-home community in Berwick on the former Seton Hall site.

John Johnston, Bernicia chief executive, said: “Over the next four years, we will put our human and financial resources to work, using our skills to release more capacity to support our tenants, customers and communities at a time when arguably they need it most.

“The North East is where our tenants and communities live, where our financial strength has been generated, and where the company has always been based, and we want to use our strength to help it grow.

“We are pledging significant extra resources to support financial inclusion, building aspiration and increasing confidence, providing the training, skills and job opportunities people deserve.

“We are more than just a landlord. We are an anchor institution for communities and we will continue to work with partners to help deliver ambitious plans for the North East.”

As well as its £210 million investment plan, Bernicia will continue to collaborate and work with a host of regional partners to help promote the potential of the North East, the place, its people, and its role in the government’s national ‘Levelling Up’ agenda.