Placemaking

C13. Provide examples or case studies of where the housing provider has been engaged in placemaking or placeshaping activities.

Our Fair Foundations Report is a blueprint for how we intend to work differently in communities that have experienced multiple challenges and where residents feel they have been ‘left behind’.

We’re piloting this approach in Stanley and Byker which we designated as two of our first ‘Karbon Impact Areas’ chosen because they both experience multiple economic and social challenges and we have a high concentration of stock in both areas.

One intervention, which is part of our Fair Foundations approach, is our New Start programme, a paid-placement scheme which is notable for:

• Offering five-month placements, over a variety of flexible working patterns
• Placement matching between the individual and the local employment market
• Job start grants to help remove any barriers such as childcare costs
• The presence of an employment coach to help the candidate navigate any challenges such as changes to benefits and helping the candidate transition to sustainable work

Our Fair Foundations Report and recent bids to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (People & Skills) for money to tackle economic inactivity, have highlighted a trend that emerging job markets in local economies can be out of sync with the local population. High skill industries often feature heavily in local strategies but introducing them into a well-balanced employment sector which benefits everyone instead of the few seems to be a growing challenge.

New Start can help upskill residents to work in roles that are in high demand from local employers and can provide a way out of unemployment and economic inactivity for people in areas where rates of both are high.

New Start is already making an impression on our Karbon Impact Areas, particularly the County Durham town of Stanley. Of this year’s 15 New Start placements, nine were from Stanley (with six from the surrounding areas of Burnopfield, Consett and Ryton).