SARH amongst Housing Heroes

Stafford and Rural Homes is one of a group of housing associations that have been honoured for saving their customers thousands of pounds by working in partnership.

Stafford and Rural Homes has worked as a key partner in the Generate Group to share experiences and to procure effective delivery for new projects and improved services across Stafford .

“The Generate Group is a great example of organisations working together in a non-competitive way for the good of our customers,” said SARH Chief Executive Karen Armitage.

“We’ve identified areas where we can work together and learn from each other – as well as combining our buying power to achieve significant savings in everything from printing to maintenance contracts.”

The Generate Group – made up of Stafford and Rural Homes, Halton Housing Trust, Knowsley Housing Trust, Chester and District Housing Association and Leeds Federated Housing Association – has been shortlisted from more than 300 entries for Financial or Procurement Team of the Year at the 2010 Housing Heroes Awards.

Now in its second year the Housing Heroes Awards will shine the spotlight on the people and teams that are doing great work in the affordable housing sector.

The event is organised by Inside Housing magazine and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), and the winners will be revealed at a glittering awards ceremony at London’s Hilton Hotel on May 14.

Karen Armitage added: “Everyone involved with the group is very proud to be nominated.

“It shows that our efforts over the past years have been challenging procurement to achieve significant impact on improving our finances and freeing up funding for projects that will benefit our customers.”

Howard Farrand, the President of the CIH, said: “Our sector spends a great deal of time talking about policy and strategy, business plans and budgets, our visions and our mission statements. Of course all of these things are really important.

“But in my experience it is the extraordinary people that do fantastic work for our customers that make the real difference. So I want to congratulate every finalist for getting this far in these awards.”

Inside Housing’s events director Ted Stevens added: “All the finalists have done brilliantly in getting this far. Well done to the Generate Group for getting shortlisted. The competition was really fierce with more than 40 entries in some categories.”