The 10th annual Kent Housing Group Awards took place at the Hilton Hotel in Maidstone on Wednesday 30 October.
The awards, made up of 11 categories, celebrate excellence across the housing sector.
We were shortlisted for three awards; Excellence in Development, Excellent Partnership and Excellent Young Professional of the year. We’re delighted to have won two awards and received a high commendation for the third.
Our Corporation Street development in Rochester won for Excellence in Development. The scheme, backed by a £1.59 million grant from Homes England, provides quality, affordable housing for the local community.
Our Corporation Street development in Rochester
Not only have we provided more affordable homes for the local community, we’ve significantly improved the standard and quality. The homes are designed mostly to larger than national minimum standards and feature winter gardens.
The development has more than doubled the number of homes available on site. It now provides 89 homes, 53 for shared ownership and 36 for rent.
As of November 2019 we have helped 21 households from Medway purchase a truly affordable new home, with 15 of the shared owners working in Medway.
Sarah Paxton, Assistant Director of Development and Regeneration at mhs homes said: “We’re extremely pleased to have designed and built four new blocks of flats which provide a wonderful entry to the town with its new tree-lined boulevard. The regeneration of this part of Rochester is vital for the town and we’re really pleased that this development has been recognised through this prestigious award from Kent Housing Group.”
Our second win was for the Excellent Partnership category, in an entry submitted by Maidstone Borough Council’s Rough Sleepers Initiative.
Working alongside mhs, homeless charity Porchlight, and Golding homes, the council came up with a bold new approach to break the cycle of rough sleeping in Maidstone.
The solution was to develop Kent’s first ‘Housing First’ project, which aims to provide rough sleepers in Maidstone with a home and the tailored support to help them sustain their tenancy.
Ian Long, Business Partner at mhs homes, was involved in the initiative and said: “We’re really proud to be partnering with Maidstone Rough Sleepers Initiative on this ground-breaking project. We’re committed to working in partnership to help end the housing crisis in north Kent and it’s through projects like Housing First that we can really make a difference and help some of the most disadvantaged people in our communities.”
Ian Long, Tenancy Support Business Partner at mhs homes
Our PR and Communications Officer, Sarah Boast, was Highly Commended in the Excellent Young Professional category.
Sarah has been a team mhs colleague for almost three years and has had a relentless focus on producing great content. She manages our PR and has a flair for finding stories and turning them into engaging content, whilst making sure our customer’s voices are always heard. Since Sarah joined mhs engagement from customers and stakeholders on social media channels has tripled; contributing hugely to our digital shift objectives.
Sarah Boast, PR and Communications Officer at mhs homes
Find out more about the awards, or follow Kent Housing Group on Twitter.