Adactus Housing Group has been awarded star status accreditation for its outstanding workplace and investment in people. It was one of only two housing groups in Greater Manchester to receive a ‘one star’ from Best Companies, the elite national accreditation body that scrutinises workplace engagement and sets a benchmark for other companies.

Following an awards ceremony at The Cumberland Hotel in London the Adactus Housing Group, whose member companies manage approximately 11,000 affordable homes across 19 local authorities in the North West and employ in excess of 500 members of staff, was awarded one star for a its first-class workplace and investment in people.

This follows Best Companies’ ‘Michelin star’ system, with companies awarded one star for first class, two for outstanding and three for extraordinary performance. The benchmark was set using a survey designed to measure employee engagement and used 66 questions to gain a comprehensive view of workplace engagement across eight factors including, leadership, well-being, views on management, team and company and personal growth.

Chief Executive of Adactus Housing Group, Paul Lees said: “The whole group is delighted with this accreditation. We work extremely hard to uphold our reputation as an excellent employer, with emphasis on encouraging staff support from the management, through to team spirit and well-being, including providing an on-site gym for staff members and flexible working hours. “I think our staff are proud to work for Adactus and this shines through. We are now working on moving up from first-class to outstanding!”

Jonathan Austin, Chief Executive, Best Companies, said: “I would like to congratulate the companies on their outstanding achievement. Our role at Best Companies is to set a rigorous benchmark so that organisations can become even better employers.

08 January 2008

The Renaissance Consortium has recently launchedits new website. The website will allow residents in Miles Platting to find out information about the Private Finance Initiative(PFI), information about the works programme in the area, pay rentas wellasreport repairs and neighbour nuisance online. The website also includes information on how residents can get involved and is regularly updatedwith local news.

Please click on the link below to visit the website. www.milesplatting.co.uk

19 December 2007

Please note that the Adactus Housing Group Head Office and Adactus Housing Association Area Offices will be closed from Tuesday 25 December 2007, reopening on Wednesday 2 January 2008. If you need someone to attend an EMERGENCY repair or an Emergency Anti-Social Behaviour incident during this time, please contact our emergency service, Orbis Monitoring Services Ltd on: 0845 345 7808.

Please note that the Renaissance Consortium Office at Varley Street in Miles Platting will be open on 27, 28 and 31 December 2007 .

The Chorley Community Housing office in Chorley will close at 1 pm on Christmas Eve and re-open on Wednesday 2 January at 9am. During the closure the Chorley Emergency out of hours service operates on 01257 414970 .

20 November 2007

A BIG THANK YOU!

This year we send our annual Tenant Satisfaction Survey to a third of our Adactus Housing Association tenants and all of our tenants in Miles Platting and of Beech Housing Association.

We had an overwhelming response and we would like to say a HUGE thank you to each and every person who returned their completed survey.

As promised, lucky winners were drawn out of the hat from the returned responses after the competition deadline. There were three winners for Adactus, three for Miles Platting and one for Beech, all of whom will have received a letter to inform them of their £50 shopping vouchers prize:

Adactus Housing Association tenants:

Mrs E Tukala Mr D Rennie Mrs E Gardner

Miles Platting tenants:

Ms Marie Rosan Mrs Florence Murray Mr Paul Gaskell

Beech Housing Association tenants:

Mr Samuel Totty and Mrs Fiona Totty

Well done to everyone who was ‘picked’ and again thankyou to everyone who responded. Look out for the overall summary results to be published in the new year in the ‘Inhouse’ magazine.

09 October 2007

Have you received a copy of the tenant satisfaction survey? As a tenant you have first hand experience of our service and we need your views and feedback in order to maintain standards and make improvements for both you and future tenants.

The Annual Satisfaction Survey gives tenants the opportunity to comment on every aspect of our service, from the quality of the homes we provide to the opportunities available for resident involvement. This year we are surveying all of our Beech tenants, all of those in our Miles Platting properties and a third of our Adactus tenants.

The survey should only take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete and, once completed, can be sent back to us either in the pre-paid envelope provided or hand delivered to your local office. All responses will be kept completely confidential and a summary of the results will be printed in our tenant magazine ‘inhouse’ and on the website in the New Year.

Due to the recent postal strike the deadline for completed questionnaires has been moved to 9 November 2007 .

As a thank you we will enter all those who return their completed survey into a free prize draw where they could win £50 worth of shopping vouchers (from a choice of Asda, Halfords, Toys R Us, Boots or Marks and Spencer).

Good luck!

01 August 2008

On 6 ^th August 2007 Adactus will be going live with Select Move a new choice based lettings system for the Preston and South Ribble areas.

Select Move is a new partnership lettings service provided by Adactus Housing Association, Community Gateway, New Progress Housing Association, Eaves Brook Homes, Preston City Council and South Ribble Borough Council.

Adactus properties in Preston and South Ribble will be advertised on the Select Move website on a fornightly basis and all applicants registered with Select Move will be eligible to bid for a property they are interested in. The offer will be made directly from the landlord of that property and will be managed only by that landlord. All current waiting list applicants who have an expressed and interest in either of these areas may bid from 6 ^th August 2007.

09 July 2007

Adactus Housing Group celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of its Welfare Rights Service – the longest running welfare rights service of its kind in the UK. The service was the first ever welfare rights service provided by a housing association, when it was set up by Adactus (called Family Housing Association at the time) in 1977.

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary and give the service a new look, the facility is to be renamed the ‘ Financial Inclusion Service’ . Tenants will continue to receive the same range of services they have enjoyed from the service over the years with the addition of new services aimed at tackling issues of multiple debt and lack of access to mainstream financial services, which have become increasing issues for Adactus tenants.

The service helps Adactus Housing Association tenants, or prospective tenants, with benefit problems. Typically the service provides advice on what benefits tenants are entitled to and assists them with claiming benefits. Based at Adactus’ South area office in Moss Side, Manchester the Financial Inclusion Service assists around four hundred Adactus tenants from across the North West every year. In 2006, the service helped to secure £247,310 for tenants in need.

27 June 2007The board of Adactus HA approved revisions to the Association's Complaints & Appeals Policy and Procedure on 25 June. You can download a copy of the new document under the 'key policies' section of this website.

07 June 2007

This year the Group's members will hold their annual general meetings on the following dates:

Beech Housing Association - 17 JulyAdactus Housing Association Ltd - 6 AugustAdactus Housing Group Ltd - 13 August

One of the purposes of the AGMs each year is for shareholders to elect some of the Association's board members. If you are interested in standing for election at an AGM to become a board member of one of the Group's members please apply in writing to Brian Moran, Deputy Company Secretary at Adactus Housing Group Ltd, 56 King Street, LEIGH, WN7 4LJ.

Applications should be received no later than:Beech Housing Association - 3 JulyAdactus Housing Association Ltd - 23 JulyAdactus Housing Group Ltd - 30 July

Board members should collectively (and individually) possess the qualities and skills to take decisions and monitor performance. In order to further the business and management of Group Members, they will need experience and understanding of, amongst other things, the following if they are to discharge their responsibilities effectively: · the housing needs to be met by the Group Member they serve; · general business skills, including the management of staff and property; · finance and risk management; · residents’ issues and concerns; · community relations and needs, including equal opportunities; · working with local authorities and other public sector agencies; · public relations; · development and building; · legal matters; · information technology; · strategic management and planning in a public or private body; and · marketing and communications.

Please ensure that your application sets out your name, address, a brief summary of your qualities and experiences and your reasons for wishing to be considered as an elected board member.

01 May 2007

Adactus’s latest development in Klondyke, Sefton has won the “Excellence in Design and Quality” award at the STRICTLY REGENERATION AWARDS 2007. The Award signifies our development’s long term sustainability and the difference it makes to enhance the appearance of the Klondyke area.

As part of the BReathe+ Consortium, Adactus worked in partnership with Bellway Homes to develop 52 new apartments to house residents from the Klondyke area. Allinsons Court is a landmark development located at the St Philip’s Place and marks the beginning of the regeneration of the Hawthorn Road Canal Corridor in Sefton.

Allinsons Court offers a mix of affordable quality homes for rent and sale featuring contemporary design throughout. The development has already proved very popular amongst local residents.

The development rose above strong competition from other projects that have received Housing Market Renewal (HMR) / Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) funding in Merseyside. The annual Strictly Regeneration Awards celebrate the excellence and diversity of regeneration projects and their contribution to the renaissance of the Merseyside region.

18 April 2007

With the Miles Platting PFI given the green light following the signing of the contract between Manchester City Council and the Renaissance Consortium end of March 2007, Adactus’s housing management service in the area is well underway.

Since Monday 26 March 2007 as part of the Renaissance Consortium, Adactus Housing Association has assumed all housing management and maintenance services for all 1,500 Manchester City Council homes in the Miles Platting area.

The service from Adactus caters for all day-to-day management and maintenance services of local residents’ homes including; customer service; rent collection; re-housing; dealing with anti-social behaviour; environmental issues; regeneration and a full repairs service.

Maintaining a local presence, Adactus is operating from the existing office on Varley Street, Miles Platting and has made considerable progress with the refurbishment and modernisation of the premises.

Since the start of the service Adactus has successfully hosted a weeklong resident drop-in sessions at the local office in order to answer questions and provide information on the service delivery and the Renaissance Consortium, as well as a resident’s fun day at St Mark's Junior School with over 400 people attending. The fun day included sports, badge making, bouncy castle, face painting, hanging basket workshops, healthy living promotion and Indian head massage.

27 March 2007

The Miles Platting PFI project was signed off on Thursday, with management by Adactus Housing Association beginning yesterday (Monday 26 March 2007).

The transfer of Chorley Borough Council's housing to Chorley Community Housing also completed yesterday evening and CCH is now officially part of the Adactus Housing Group.

These two events have increased the size of the Group from 6,200 to 11,000 properties in management and from 350 to 500 staff in employment.

22 February 2007

The Adactus Housing Group has unveiled the transformation of an entire row of derelict terraced houses in the Lancashire town of Nelson on Thursday 15 ^th February. Adactus’s renovation of the terraced homes in Every Street marked the beginning of a transformation for the Whitefield ‘Phase 1’ area in Nelson, Lancashire.

Working in partnership with Pendle Council and English Partnerships, Adactus has used its successful ‘Tardis Terrace’ idea of turning redundant terraced houses into new homes. Adactus has converted seven derelict properties in Every Street, Nelson, into two four-bedroom family homes – the first of their kind - and three one-bedroom homes.

The project is the first housing scheme to be completed as part of the Housing Market Renewal work taking place in the Phase 1 area. The properties are available for outright sale, with priority given to local Whitefield residents who are at the centre of the Housing Market Renewal scheme.

The scheme is already proving a success; the two larger properties have been sold to two families living in the Phase 1 area, and there have been more than 60 enquiries to date.

Both ‘end’ properties on the street have been combined to create four bedroom homes suitable for families, while the remaining three will be aimed at singles and couples looking for their first home.

Pendle Council agreed to convert the homes in this way following the success of similar projects by Adactus in Preston, Lancashire and Moss Side, Manchester, using the same architects, Architects Britch.

06 February 2007

Young people aged 16-25 who live in supported accommodation or receive tenancy support from Adactus in the Wigan Area have come together to form the first Young Resident Forum. The Forum originally met back in July 2006 to discuss issues affecting them and any interests they had that they could pursue as a group in the future.

05 February 2007

Since March 2003 the Equal project in Wigan has delivered basic computer tuition. After receiving funding in 2004 from The National Institute for Adults Continuing in Education and Wireless Outreach Network, Equal spread out to bring computer facilities to sheltered schemes. Equal now delivers similar training in the wider community and has formed partnerships with Wigan and Leigh College and other Housing Associations in the area.

Equal also provides training courses in Creative Enrichments, which provides people with the skill to design greeting cards, flower arranging, interior design, jewellery making and painting and drawing. This widening of the projects’ scope now means that the Equal projects has tutored one thousand learners since its inception in 2003. The one thousandth learner Kevin Hill says, “It is a good feeling being the 1000th learner at the Equal. I would like to stay with the project and be given a chance to be its 2000 ^th learner. I hope the 999 learners before me enjoyed the course as much as I did”.

23 January 2007

The Association, having been approached by Manchester City Council’s Supporting People Team is now providing a Home Move Service to residents of Miles Platting, as part of the Private Finance Initiative in that area.

Following the Housing Needs Survey, a number of households within Miles Platting have been identified as requiring additional support to ensure that their rehousing takes place with the minimum of disruption.

The Home Move Team provide assistance with all aspects of housing related support including facilitating packing and removal; disconnection and reconnection of utilities and other services; aids and adaptations to the new property; forwarding of post; altering of soft furnishings etc.

The team of two Housing Support Workers and one Senior Housing Support Worker are based at Varley St, where they work closely with the Rehousing Team.

Funding for the service is fixed until the end of March 2008, with Manchester Supporting People having the option of extending it for a further 12 months.

For further information please contact Steve Donoghue. steve.donoghue@adactushousing.co.uk

18 January 2007

The Adactus Housing Group has been selected as the Development Agent for Preston Community Gateway Association. During the selection process The Group faced strong competition from both Great Places and The Regenda Group.

Adactus will now carry out all development work for Preston Community Gateway Association. The Group has a dedicated Development Team, which consists of 14 staff that focus on the delivery of the development programme.

Preston Community Gateway Association was the first organisation in the country to assume ownership of Council housing stock using the Community Gateway method. Preston City Council’s transferred 6,700 homes to Preston Community Gateway Association back in November 2005.

The association, using Adactus as its development agent will now be able to access Housing Corporation funding through Adactus’s partnership status with the Corporation.

For further information on Preston Community Gateway Association click the link below:

06 December 2006

Please note that our offices will be closed during the Christmas break, week commencing Monday 25 December 2006. Our offices will re-open on Tuesday 2 January 2007. If you need someone to attend an EMERGENCY repair during this time, please contact our emergency service, Orbis Monitoring Services Ltd on: 0845 345 7808 .

08 November 2006

We are pleased to announce that the transfer of engagements of Quest HA into Beech took effect from Wednesday 25 October 2006. The merger adds 365 properties into Beech HA, which are located in Formby, Southport, Crosby & Bootle. This housing stock is mostly made up of rented sheltered housing and call alarm flats for older persons. It also includes some general needs housing and leaseholders. To celebrate, the Beech Housing Association logo has had a facelift. The new logo brings Beech in line with the Adactus Group identity, and by keeping the Beech leaf, it maintains and builds on the key attributes of the original logo.The Transfer of Engagements formally merged the two Associations and we would like to welcome the staff currently employed by Quest to the Group. All of the sheltered accommodation and call alarm flats for older persons will be managed by our Xtracare team whilst the general needs stock will be managed by Adactus Housing Association staff although they are owned by Beech. The Quest offices at Formby closed on 1 November 2006 and all services have been re-directed toour Head Office(Turner House)and West Area Office at Railway Road, Leigh.

02 November 2006Following the introduction of a ‘Quality In Care‘ initiative to assess the service provided by residential and nursing home providers in Wigan, Brideoake House had its annual assessment in September 2006. The accreditation processtook two days to complete and covered areas such as individual care, care management, resident‘s accommodation, staff development/working practices, quality assurance and the commitment to improving care. Brideoake House achieved the highest rating of five stars for the third consecutive year. This translates into "Exceptional Standard of Care and Facilities" and is all down to our staff in the scheme. CONGRATULATIONS to all our sheltered housing team and especially to Pauline Melling and all other staff at Brideoake House for their outstanding efforts and work!

8 August 2006Chorley tenants have voted YES to transfer their homes to a new housing association, Chorley Community Housing (CCH).Almost 70% of tenants voted, with just under two thirds voting for the transfer.CCH plan tojoin the Adactus Group in March 2007. CCH will manage 2,900 properties and employ around 100 staff but will buy-in central services (such as IT and Finance) from the Group.During the next few months we will be working to finalise exactly what services CCH will buy from the Group and will assist with getting CCH up and running.

On 6 June our Board of Management will consider a proposal to accept an offer we have received from Formby-based Quest Housing Association Ltd to take over the ownership of their 365 properties in Southport, Formby, Crosby and Bootle . We anticipate that bringing the two companies together will help Beech HA Ltd build and renovate affordable housing in the future. For the consultation letter for tenants - select this link

For the consultation letter for leaseholders - select this link

19 May 2006 Congratulations to Pauline, an Administration Manager based at our head office in Leigh. Paulinewonour 2006 Employee of the Year Award .

The Centre for Sheltered Housing Studies have awarded Adactus with its Code of Practice award. The 10 standards within the Code identify best practice in the provision and delivery of sheltered housing services, providing a quality benchmark against which providers can measure their services. For more information regarding The Centre for Sheltered Housing Studies -select this link

28 March 2006

Cris McGuinness Cris McGuinness has replaced Andrew Ridley asthe Group's Director of Finance. Cris started her career at KPMG in Liverpool and London. Once qualified, Cris worked for South Liverpool Housing as Assistant Director of Finance. Cris then worked as a specialist housing finance consultant working on a variety of projects including stock transfer. Cris joined Adactus in March 2006 .