The Guinness Partnership

We’re delighted to have been nominated at the First Time Buyer Readers' Awards for the fourth year in a row. The First Time Buyer Readers' Awards are an annual celebration of excellence in building top-quality housing to help aspirational buyers onto the housing ladder.  We’ve been shortlisted in the ‘Affordable Housing Provider of the Year’ and ‘Best Small / Medium Development’ categories.  Winners will be decided by a public vote and announced at the awards on Friday 12 September – why not have a look here and vote for your favourite:  https://lnkd.in/e8NMkmXY Best of luck to all those shortlisted!

We were recently recognised by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for our high safety standards. For the fifth year in a row, we’ve won a RoSPA Gold Medal Award for our Health and Safety culture and performance during 2024. We also received a Gold Medal Fleet Safety Award for managing occupational road risk for the sixth year in a row. A huge thank you to all our colleagues, and particularly to our Health and Safety Team, for all they do to keep residents, colleagues and contractors safe.

We recently ran another free, five-day home maintenance course for female residents who are unemployed or on a low income from City Skills, part of Salford City College Group. Building on the success of the programmes we’ve delivered previously in Oldham, Salford and Sheffield, we teamed up with Salix Homes, Edmundson Electrical Ltd, Build Salford, Hispec - Life Safety & Housing Solutions, Triton Showers, Smart Works Greater Manchester, F&T-Terrix Ltd, Jewson Partnership Solutions, Makita UK, Fortem Solutions, City Skills, and Frameworks Social Enterprise CIC to provide training to 12 female participants. In addition to learning practical skills such as joinery, tiling, and plumbing, the women received career support and mentoring, and a bag of tools to help them progress with their new skills. Following the programme, participants can access further employment support and gain a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card. Thanks to all our partners for making this programme possible. Find out more here: https://ow.ly/stnG50WmbIq

Here we are marking the topping out of the final phase of our Leaside Lock development in Bromley-by-Bow, London. Kevin Williams FCIOB, our Group Director of Development and Commercial Services, was joined by Chris Wallace, Construction Director, and Ian Russell, Project Director, both from our appointed contractors, Lovell Partnerships Ltd, and other members and partners of our development team.  The development consists of 965 homes in total, which have been completed over three phases. This third and final phase includes 321 homes of which 135 of which will be affordable rent. The homes will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments along with six three-bedroom townhouses. The development is being delivered with the support of funding from the Mayor of London, under a GLA Strategic Partnership agreement. We’d like to thank contractor Lovell Partnerships, Greater London Authority, the Council, and all our other partners who have helped to deliver these homes for the capital. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/epEbBRNm

Following Windrush Day yesterday, we’re sharing the hard-fought journey of our resident Mr. F, a member of the Windrush generation, who faced the challenges of securing his immigration status and tenancy after the loss of his wife. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our colleagues, Mr. F now enjoys financial stability, with the tenancy in his name and the benefits in place that he is entitled to. Most importantly, with his UK immigration status secured, he is free to visit Jamaica whenever he wishes, confident in the knowledge that he can return home to the UK. Read the full success story of how our team helped Mr. F regain stability and peace of mind on our website here: https://ow.ly/pXBa50WeU36

A very warm welcome to Simon Morris FCIPD who joins us today as our new Group Director of People.      Simon is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and was most recently Director of Human Resources and Organisation Development for HM Land Registry, which has 7,000 employees across 14 office locations.  He joined the Civil Service after varied roles in the private sector – including for Heathrow Airport, BUPA Health Insurance, and the food manufacturer Danone.       We’re delighted to welcome Simon to Guinness.  

We are honoured to have won the Collaborative Working award at this year's EEM Building Communities Awards. Our DIY Skills programme has helped 65 female participants in Oldham, Sheffield and Salford gain basic DIY and maintenance skills, including joinery, tiling, and plumbing. As well as training, the women received mentoring, support and guidance to promote self-confidence and help them get into work.   Eadaoin Kelly, our Senior Community Partnership Manager said: “We are delighted to have won the Collaborative Working award, in recognition of our multi award winning DIY skills programme. This training programme could not have happened without our partners, who have been instrumental in making this a success – and of course our participants and their enthusiasm and commitment. A huge thank you to EEM for giving us this fantastic award.” Thanks to all our partners for making this programme possible. CITB, Edmundson Electrical Ltd, Frameworks Social Enterprise CIC, Great Places Housing Group, Hispec - Life Safety & Housing Solutions, Jewson Partnership Solutions, Oldham College, Salford City College Group #CitySkills, Salford, Salix Homes, Smart Works Greater Manchester, The Sheffield College, Triton Showers, Wates Group. #BCAwards25 Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/e444aNe6

Last week, we ran another free five-day DIY training and home maintenance course for female residents who are unemployed or on a low income from Oldham College. Building on the success of the programmes we’ve delivered previously in Oldham, Salford and Sheffield, we teamed up with Great Places Housing Group, Frameworks Social Enterprise CIC, Jewson Partnership Solutions, Edmundson Electrical Ltd, Oldham College, Hispec - Life Safety & Housing Solutions, Triton Showers, F&T-Terrix Ltd, Procure Plus, Smart Works Greater Manchester and Toolbank to provide training to 10 female participants. In addition to learning practical DIY skills such as joinery, tiling, and plumbing, the women received career support and mentoring, and a goodie bag full of tools to help them progress with their newfound skills. Following the programme, participants will have access to further employment support and the opportunity to gain a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card. A big thank you to all our partners for making this programme possible. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/ezHRE_55

We were in Stevenage on Friday celebrating the completion of Phase 1 of our development on the site of the former Matalan store. Our CEO Catriona Simons and Group Director of Development & Commercial Services Kevin Williams FCIOB joined local MP Kevin Bonavia MP, Baroness Sharon Taylor of Stevenage OBE, Lords Minister for Housing & Local Government, Councillors, Lovell Partnerships Ltd colleagues including MD Lorraine Casey Bsc (Hons) MCIOB, and other partner organisations to mark the occasion. This stage of the project brings 143 new homes all for social rent and is a key part of Stevenage Borough Council’s £1bn regeneration programme to revitalise England’s first New Town. We’re grateful for the support from Stevenage Borough Council and Homes England to us deliver new affordable homes in the heart of Stevenage. Beautiful new homes, and a testament to partnership working.

This month, we’re celebrating 135 years since Guinness was founded. In 1890, Sir Edward Guinness, the great-grandson of the founder of the Guinness Brewery, set up The Guinness Trust – his vision was to provide decent and safe homes. Today, our aim remains the same: to improve people’s lives and create possibilities for them by providing good quality and affordable homes for those who need them. Our earliest estates were built with “health, morality and social stability” in mind. Red-brick blocks with four to six floors, were associated tenements with communal sculleries and toilets. Brandon Street in Walworth (pictured) was our first estate. The initial rents ranged from two shillings and sixpence for one room to five shillings for three rooms. Brandon Street isn’t one of our estates anymore, but today, we provide nearly 70,000 homes across the country. Hundreds of thousands of households have benefited from Edward Guinness’s original donation – and we continue his vision of providing good quality, affordable homes where people are proud to live. You can find out more about our rich heritage on our dedicated archive site: https://lnkd.in/ew2Ri2hy