Golden Lane Housing
"It's got to feel like anybody's home."
John Verge via Golden Lane website
https://www.glh.org.uk/glhteam/john-verge/
"There's 1.1 million adults with a learning disability and at least 350,000 people with autism. They live in everyone's communities. Around about 150,000 of those will receive some support or funding from local government or their health authority, and that comes at a £6billion cost to Treasury. So this isn't a small, niche part of the social care or health sector."
"We do do 'new build' but the reality of commissioning in this country is very reactive. We've been talking with government about more strategic planning for local authorities and health authorities to better plan. But often we're being approached to house people very quickly."
"We have a team of really dedicated housing officers who make sure that wellbeing and safeguarding is at the forefront of our work."
John Verge via LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnverge/?originalSubdomain=uk
Mencap
Golden Lane's 2022 de-merger from Mencap, via Inside Housing
Golden Lane Housing via the National Autistic Society website
https://www.autism.org.uk/directory/g/golden-lane-housing
"We tend to buy existing properties but they need to be in the right location and community setting, so not isolated, often finding those properties is difficult and when we find that property we need to do major renovations."
Aftermath of the Rochdale social housing mould death news story
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-66358297
"A lot of failures are down to housing associations not taking into account the vulnerability of their tenants — and a blurring of the lines between social housing and supported housing."
Section 21 'no fault eviction' notices
https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/section-21-and-section-8-notices
"Scrutiny of new tenants will be greater than now."
Citizens' Advice on Section 21 notices
"We created a product, a solution, where we took the lease directly from the landlord. Now we're trying to find landlords who are prepared to do not just 12 or 24 months but a longer term arrangement."
"The home, for anybody, is the foundations of building their lives in their communities."
"For me this isn't about more money, it's about using the money we have better. Fundamentally, and we've been saying this for many years, it's about more strategic planning."
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This episode was recorded in May 2023
Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible
Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts
For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk
