Who are we?

We are an organisation dedicated to making a difference in the communities in which we work: Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge and North Essex by providing safe, comfortable homes with the care and support that our customers may need to be able to live the lives they choose. This commitment sets us apart and has helped establish us as one of the largest providers of housing, care and support in the region.

Over 60 years on from our foundation, we continue to uphold the ethos that drove our creation, while striving to do more. Our goal is to be recognised as a leader in providing housing, care and support that meets the diverse needs of individuals at every stage of their life. This Strategic Plan will guide us in achieving our vision “That everyone has a safe place to call home with the care and support they need to live their best life” Central to this is our mission of “Together we make a difference by providing housing, support and care services with customers at our heart”.

With a dedicated team of over 800 colleagues, we are a major local employer and a recognised great place to work. We currently own and manage 4,213 homes and provide housing management and care services for an additional 160 homes owned by other landlords. We support over 1,500 individuals across Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge and North Essex, ensuring that more than 8,000 people have access to safe, affordable homes and the opportunity to improve their life prospects from a secure foundation.

Our development company Orwell Homes Ltd plays a critical role in supporting the organisation by building open market homes that generate profit. These funds are reinvested into providing more affordable housing and services to our customers. Orwell Homes also contributes to our affordable homes programme and expands our land acquisition capabilities by developing mixed tenure sites that have both private and affordable homes.

We are a part of Independent East, a network of five locally based, community focused landlords committed to collaboration, best practices and shared services. Through our development consortium e², we help East Suffolk District Council and Ipswich Borough Council achieve their housing development goals. We are also active members of the National Housing Federation, BuildEast and Placeshapers.

We are proud to hold a G1 (Governance) and a V2 (Viability) rating and have not yet been assessed under the new C (Consumer) rating by the Regulator for Social Housing. We have a robust governance structure with a diverse Board that included members from the public, private and voluntary sectors as well as customers. The Board delegates some of its work to its committees covering Audit & Risk, Customer Insight and Remuneration and Nomination. Additionally, our Orwell Residents Group (ORG) and Resident Task and Finish groups provide valuable scrutiny of our services. We are committed to continually enhancing our customer insight and engagement to ensure our actions are always informed by the voice of our customers.

 

Our Values

People Focused

People are at the heart of Orwell. By recognising people’s diverse needs and strengths and treating everyone fairly we can improve services to our customers and support our teams to run a brilliant organisation.

Ambitious

We are ambitious to grow and improve, so that we can do more and realise the full potential of Orwell, our teams and our customers.

Collaborative

We will work with others to seek out best practice. We will collaborate with customers, colleagues and values-driven organisations to co-develop solutions.

Effective

We will embed efficiency and effectiveness across Orwell, ensuring we have the resources to support our teams to be fully committed, professional and knowledgeable and provide the highest possible service to our customers.

 

Our Operating Environment

As highlighted by the Regulator for Social Housing’s Global Accounts, Housing Associations are facing significant financial pressure. Expenditure on property improvements and repairs has increased by 55% compared to pre-2020 levels, while rental income over the same period has risen by only 23%. This includes the 2023 rent cap, which was below the Consumer Price index (CPI). Consequently, income has not kept pace with rising costs. The challenge of balancing competing priorities – such as continuing to build much-needed new homes, maintaining, improving and decarbonizing existing properties, and complying with the new Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 – requires difficult decisions about where to prioritise investment. As a result, Orwell, along with other social housing providers, has at times been unable to deliver the level of service we aspire to. This plan outlines clear objectives aimed at improving both service delivery and financial resilience, which enables us to continue developing new homes to meet the growing housing needs in our area.

Our goal is to achieve an Energy performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C for all our homes by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. These targets are integral to our long-term business plan. We are committed to securing Government funding to help with this investment, and grant funding from Homes England to allow us to continue to invest in new homes at a time when demand for affordable housing remains high.

As one of the largest care and support providers in our region, we have observed a steady increase in demand for our services. However, public funding has not kept pace with the rising costs of service provision. The recent increases in the National Living Wage and the Employer National Insurance contributions – particularly during a time when social care is already financially strained – place considerable pressure on our ability to maintain sustainable services. We are committed to ensuring that our care and support services remain financially viable and believe the true cost of care should be adequately funded by those commissioning the services.

Given the ongoing demand for both our housing and care services, it is essential that any growth in these areas remains sustainable. The need for robust governance, effective financial controls and comprehensive risk
management has never been greater. We are well-positioned to navigate both current and future challenges, ensuring continued success and sustainability.

 

Introducing our Plan

While our core vision, mission and values remain unchanged, this plan introduces a renewed focus on placing our customers at the heart of everything we do. Our goal is to enhance the quality of our offerings and deliver sustainable growth. We have always been passionate about supporting the communities in which we operate, providing safe, warm, highquality homes and offering the care and support people need to live their best lives. Although these objectives have become increasingly challenging in recent years, we are more committed than ever to delivering services that are essential to our customers.

At Orwell, we take pride in offering exceptional homes and aspire to remain a key developer in our region, as well as the partner of choice for developers, local authorities and other stakeholders. Our properties are more than just buildings; they are homes where individuals should feel safe. Safety and quality are our top priorities, with a focus on meticulous attention to detail. Whether creating new homes or improving existing ones, we are committed to working sustainably, using energy efficiently, and reducing our carbon footprint. We will actively listen to our customers, continuously improving our repair and maintain services to ensure our homes remain safe, high quality and cost-efficient to operate.

We have closely monitored the development of the new Consumer Standards and are confident that we are well-positioned to achieve full compliance with these standards. We will continue to adapt our strategy as needed, informed by the insights provided by the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) and our Customer Insight team, which help us better understand the needs and preferences of our customers. Our ongoing investment in technology aims to enhance the efficiency, data-driven nature and accessibility of all our services, ensuring that we can meet the diverse needs of our customers.

As a major local employer, we are committed to the professionalisation of housing and care services and promoting these roles as rewarding careers. We will continue advocating for care work to receive the recognition it deserves as a skilled profession and will campaign for increased social care funding from commissioners and the government. We are dedicated to supporting our colleagues in building meaningful careers. We value diversity,
responsibility, and flexibility in our teams, and encourage our colleagues to bring their best selves to work, sharing creative and innovative ideas to best serve our customers.

This plan has been developed using insight and involvement from our customers and outlines our key commitments for the next five years. Our ambition is for Orwell to become one of the leading community focused housing
associations in the sector continuously innovating and refining our systems to bring this vision to life.

 

Our Vision

That everyone has a safe place to call home with the care and support they need to live their best life.

 

Our Mission

Our Mission is that together we make a difference by providing housing, support and care services with customers at our heart.

 

Our key objectives for this plan are:

• Putting People at the heart of what we do.
• Being Ambitious for our homes and our customers.
• To Collaborate with others to achieve more.
• Being an Effective team and organisation.

 

Our 2025 - 30 Objectives

1. Putting people at the heart of what we do

We will...

• Provide great services to our customers and co-create services and systems with them.
• Ensure customers feel listened to and colleagues are empowered to act to resolve customer concerns.
• Support our most vulnerable customers to maintain their independence and tenancy.
• Involve our customers in order that they influence our services.
• Have a strong Board that includes Customer Board members ensuring it hears the voice of the customer in its decision making.

We will achieve this by…

• Being driven and guided by customer insight and engagement and adapting and reviewing our offer to better align with customers’ needs.
• Putting in place a Customer Insight and Resolutions Team who focus on ensuring that any customer concerns are listened to and resolved effectively.
• Having dedicated Tenancy Sustainment Officers who can provide advice and support to general needs customers and specialist care and support colleagues to enable people to live their best life whilst remaining in their home.
• Developing fully inclusive ways people can engage with us either digitally, over social media platforms, or in person led by a Customer Insight and Resolutions Team.
• Having at least 2 customer Board Members, providing engaged customers with access to the Board along with appropriate training and support.

 

2. Being ambitious for our homes and our communities

We will...

• Increase the number of homes we own or manage to help meet the housing need in our communities.
• Invest in our homes to ensure that our housing stock meets the target of net zero carbon by 2050.
• Ensure that all our homes achieve EPC C as a minimum by 2030.
• Invest in the quality of our homes to ensure that they provide safe, warm and efficient homes for our customers.
• Dispose of homes that do not meet our quality standards or net zero ambitions and reinvest the proceeds in either new homes or accelerate the improvement of existing homes.

We will achieve this by…

• Building or acquiring 500 homes for rent and shared ownership by 2030 which address current and future housing needs.
• Utilising available grant funding and external expertise to inform our road to net zero and incorporating appropriate energy improvements in our annual property improvement budget.
• Prioritising those properties that have been identified as being below EPC C for property improvements over the 5 years of this plan.
• Invest £55m over the next 5 years to improving the quality of our homes.
• Using our Stock Condition Surveys to identify appropriate properties for disposal and then working with customers to develop move on plans into better quality housing.

 

3. Collaborating with others to achieve more

We will...

• Continue to seek out areas of joint working and shared services that improve quality and produce efficiencies.
• Co-create care and support services that are sustainable and of good quality.
• Ensure that we help meet housing, care and support needs in our communities.
• Work as one team – TeamOrwell.
• Maximise our social value.

We will achieve this by…

• Taking an active role in Independent East, using benchmarking to share best practice to support value for money.
• Working in partnership with Commissioners in health and social care.
• Working with our local authority partners.
• Developing and creating a high performing, inspirational team across Orwell and improving effective and engaged communication links throughout the organisation.
• Working with our contractors, consultants, suppliers and colleagues to ensure that social value is embedded in everything we do.

 

4. Being an effective team and organisation

We will...

• Be a healthy, happy place to work.
• Harness a culture committed to our values and that supports and encourages innovation.
• Build a diverse TeamOrwell that is committed to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
• Build our financial strength to enable us to invest in new and existing homes.
• Better know our customers to inform delivery and improve performance.

We will achieve this by…

• Assessing wellbeing and supporting wellness at work. Maintaining gold accreditation as a ‘Good Health at Work’ workplace and becoming a Mentor.
• Identify and invest in innovative, ambitious, values led people and continue to promote our ‘Innovate’ reward.
• Achieve Housing Diversity Network DNA accreditation and alongside the NHF, review our EDI profile and ensure diversity of thought.
• Maintaining our focus on improving our operating model to provide efficiencies.
• Triangulate data driven insights to design and improve services.

 

Metrics of success by 2030

• 90% of Colleagues are proud to work for Orwell.
• Customer Satisfaction with our services improves every year of the plan as measured by our TSMs.
• The Association has grown to own and or manage 5200 homes.
• The surplus level delivered by Care consistently achieves 7% each year.
• Operating Margin achieves 17.5% or greater
• 100% of Homes achieving EPC C or above