Great Places voted social landlord of the year

Great Places Housing Group has retained its prestigious title of national social landlord of the year at the Housing Excellence Awards.

The group, which owns and manages many homes in Rochdale, and runs all sorts of community development initiatives in the town, first scooped the accolade last year – and won it again at a ceremony at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Ground.

Award judges learned about all sorts of areas of work at Great Places including innovative ways the group invests in stock – including a pilot project to install electricity-generating solar panels at 100 homes – and its commitment to community safety and tackling anti-social behaviour.

They were also briefed on wide-ranging resident involvement activities, support for social enterprise, commitment to equality and diversity and green credentials from impressive recycling and energy conservation to environmentally-friendly development.

Great Places was also short listed in three other categories - best regeneration scheme for Wybourn and Richmond Park in Sheffield, best affordable development for Old School Lane in Stoke-on-Trent and best tenant care programme for the group’s Extra Care developments for older people in Blackpool and north Manchester.

Great Places chief executive Stephen Porter said: “I am absolutely delighted. This award shows that we are right up there among the very best housing providers in our sector.

“Our talented and committed staff work tirelessly to meet residents’ needs and make our neighbourhoods truly great places to live in. Our success is all down to them.”