Eastern Shires Housing Association is a non asset holding parent that provides Corporate Services to a small family of Housing Associations including de Montfort Housing Society, New Linx Housing Trust and Leicester Newarke Housing Association.

During the last 12 months, we believe that we have moved on significantly against a number of our aspirations. As a consequence of our financial strength, we are well placed to ensure that services to existing customers are continually improving whilst retaining the ability to grow the business and provide the maximum number of affordable homes across a range of tenures for future generations. We genuinely believe that size is not a passport to improved services and performance – size affords us the opportunity to attract, develop and retain the best people and give them the best tools to do the job. Our services are improving – we are good at watching, listening, and learning from others and we challenge our staff, board members, stakeholders and customers to be involved in reviewing services and to be creative in designing solutions.

On the 1st July 2005, we welcomed a new member to the Group, Leicester Newarke Housing, an association predominantly involved in the provision of student housing. The Eastern Shires Group Board was delighted with Leicester Newarke’s decision to join the Group and we believe that the additional skills and experiences will enhance our ability to influence the affordable housing scene across the East Midlands into the future.

Since early 2005, we held discussions with another organisation, Linx Homes, to establish what benefits could accrue as a consequence of a closer working relationship in the future. Linx Homes was a housing association of a similar size to the Eastern Shires Housing Group with an excellent reputation for customer service and involvement. Discussions centred on Linx Homes joining the Group by way of a merger with New Wolds Housing Trust in order to form a new organisation, New Linx Housing Trust, during 2005/06. The new organisation was formed on 20 March 2006 and New Linx Housing Trust now takes all responsibility for the Group’s activities across Lincolnshire. Throughout the merger process, significant discussions took place within the respective Boards, and members were convinced that the advantages to customers were overwhelming. New Linx Housing Trust now enjoys a range of Group services including development, finance, IT, HR and company secretarial services. The combined Group now owns in excess of 10,000 homes across the East Midlands.

We have also received confirmation recently that the Group has been successful in its bid to the Housing Corporation for resources to support our new developments as a preferred partner for the period 2006-2008. As a consequence, the Group will develop around 1,000 new homes across the East Midlands during 2006/2008.

David Pickering
Group Chief Executive