Championing social housing

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Everyone needs a safe and sustainable home.

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So I'm here today in South London,

Lambeth, to meet with the CEO

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and the neighbourhood

manager of The Hyde Group,

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one of the leading housing associations

in the UK, and one of the most important

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clients of Lloyds Banking Group.

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It's great to be here,

so thanks for the time.

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And we're sitting in this amazing location

in the middle of the estate,

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in this Hyde Group office with 

Hyde Group colleagues 

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sitting right in the middle of the residence.

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How does this feel

working in the location?

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We've got really positive feedback

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and the residents are happy

that we're more on the front line.

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They get to see us.

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They can knock the door.

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We've always been around, but to be in the

middle of the estate I think is massive.

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So Lucy, you’re a neighbourhood manager.

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What would a normal day

be like here at Hyde?

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I get here about 8:30 in the morning.

So I'm basically front line.

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I'm the person that they'll see

out in the street

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and they might stop me to say

“Oh, my doorbell’s not working.”

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“Can you help me with the front door?”

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Mostly just helping with repairs

and general enquiries,

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listening to people with their struggles

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to see what I can do to help them

and which direction I can point them in.

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I really enjoy my job, mostly because

I'm passionate about helping people.

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How many residents will you see every day?

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I would say between 1 to 15 a day.

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[ANDY] It's a huge hotbed of activity.

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We have 2500 homes, about 5000

living within 400 metres of here.

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And it's constantly busy,

and it's about supporting them

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when it goes wrong,

and our job is to fix it

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and make sure that those services,

those products are there.

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And that's when the neighbourhood 

managers and the team step in to support

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to get things back on track.

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And it keeps us busy, right?

It keeps us on our toes!

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Yeah, I do a lot of steps a day!

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I think what's maybe different as a 

social landlord versus a private landlord

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is our job is to be there

at that time of need

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and to be on the ground to support

our residents, to support our neighbours.

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And our residents are no 

different than you and I.

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We shop in the same shops,

we drink in the same pubs.

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They know the support that we can offer

and also the support that's available

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more broadly.

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And we also have a Hyde Foundation Team

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that can help them with looking for jobs

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or helping with bills, 

anything like that.

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And just the engagement,

the conversations,

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the chats, the friendships

actually, candidly, that we've built.

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It's real life, you know, it's really powerful.

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It looks like you've been 

investing in the estate.

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We've just recently refurbished the

basketball court at the community centre,

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and a lot of the children on the 

estate have been so excited.

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[ANDY] It's been amazing hasn’t it?

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[LUCY] Yeah, 100%.

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[ANDY] We'll spend £900 million over the next

5 years maintaining and improving homes.

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So for us that means a dozen community 

centres, 100 community spaces.

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And if you've got something nice

to enjoy, to spend time in, to seek support

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when you need it, it makes a massive

difference to people's lives.

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What's one or two stories

where you feel like you've really made

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a difference to one of the resident’s 

lives or their families?

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I have had a vulnerable resident that was

struggling, and the path had many holes,

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and she was a wheelchair user

and she couldn't get through,

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the dustbin men would get in her way.

And I contacted our repairs team

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and she said “Honestly, it’s such a great help.”

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I've had grandchildren call up and say,

“You helped my grandmother

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and I really appreciate you for that,”

so that I can take home with me

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and I feel like I've

done something in my day.

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So Lucy, tell me a bit about the 

community that lives here.

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Hyde Housing is very diverse - we have 

Jamaicans, we have Nigerians, we have Nepalese,

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we have Chinese, we have Indians,

we have all different cultures.

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And I'm currently trying to learn Spanish

because also some of our contractors

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are actually Spanish.

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We actually have a 30,000 waiting list.

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[CHARLIE] 30,000 people on a waiting list for Lambeth?

[LUCY] Correct. 

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And one of our main priorities are our residents

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that are vulnerable or may have 

come from domestic abuse.

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And we always try to support 

them as much as we can.

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There’s kids and there’s families here.

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There must be a real community feeling.

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100%. You see all the families coming together.

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You see the parents watching 

over the children in the park,

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and it's lovely.

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[CHARLIE] But you studied for how long?

[LUCY] 2 years.

[CHARLIE] Wow.

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 [CHARLIE] You mentioned, the older

residents, the more vulnerable residents.

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How do you support them?

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[LUCY] They hold a big space in my heart

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just for the simple fact that I no longer

have my grandparents around.

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So when I meet our residents,

I always feel like,

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what would I do to help my grandmother?

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Or what would I do to help my uncle,

my brother, my sister?

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[CHARLIE] Amazing.

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[LUCY] I try my best! And I'm getting good feedback so far.

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So, so far, so good!

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[CHARLIE] So I'm here with Andy and

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Maddie, who heads the social housing

practice for Lloyds Banking Group.

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Great to see you.

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So I'm very proud to support a 

sector that's so important

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to the wellbeing of our economy,

but also the people of the UK.

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Don't forget, 15% of UK residents

live in social housing.

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It's a huge part of our economy.

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It's a huge part of our 

households across the UK.

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As the CEO of The Hyde Group,

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you're responsible for 

45,000 homes, [Andy: That's right] 105,000 residents [Andy: That's exactly right].

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What's top of your priorities

at the moment?

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For us, there are three core things

that we focus on.

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One is keeping our customers safe.

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The second thing is about maintaining,

improving and greening our homes.

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And then the third thing for us

is about new homes. So for us,

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we build about 2000 homes a year,

a pipeline of about 8000 in build.

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And how can we keep that

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going to make sure that we can create

new, vibrant communities?

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[MADDIE] We've lent £15 billion into the social

housing sector over the past 5 years,

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lent about £2 billion into the sector

last year alone in ESG financing.

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And when people talk about 

sustainability, they often think

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very much about energy efficiency.

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When you spend £1 investing

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into the sustainability of a house,

you actually save the NHS £7.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So if you can improve the quality

of people's living environment,

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you can have a massive impact

on their mental health,

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on their physical health

and their wellbeing,

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and that ultimately saves the 

NHS money, it saves the police money,

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it saves the education system money

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because there are less school days

missed and things like that.

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75-80% of our homes are 

already EPC C or better.

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When we build new homes,

we only build to EPC A

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and therefore for lots of our 

residents, they're living in quite

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environmentally friendly, quite insulated, 

warm homes to begin with.

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But we have more to do.

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And that’s why you're investing so much in 

the homes to futureproof for future generations.

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But also it provides financial 

resilience for your tenants.

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Yes, absolutely.

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It's also about skills and having

the right skills to do that work.

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And I know we've worked with you guys

on Regeneration Brainery,

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on the Lloyds Digital Skills Academy that

we did actually down here in South London in fact,

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that they’re able to kind of engage in these things,

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but also that we've got

the next generation of workforce

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to help us to deliver.

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And how does nature and 

biodiversity fit into that.

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Because when you look at the stats,

I think we’re losing

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about 13% of green spaces

in urban environments.

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It has a massive impact.

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We're about to launch

our biodiversity strategy.

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And what that will mean is 

more planting, more green spaces.

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We're lucky because we 

own a nature reserve.

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We have three ancient woodlands

that we own and maintain,

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and it's already part of who Hyde are,

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you know, we have allotments to help people

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grow their own food, in particular

during this cost of living crisis.

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So for us, the more that we can do

to literally green our estates,

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to make them nicer places

to live, better communities to live in,

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that have the right access

to swings, to playgrounds,

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to basketball courts,

all of those sorts of things,

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surrounded by trees,

makes a massive difference

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to the way that people feel,

the way that people interact

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and ultimately their outcomes.

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As you know, we’ve partnered with the charity Crisis

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and we're calling for a million

new social homes over the next decade,

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which is a huge commitment,

but a really important thing for the UK.

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What do you think we can do 

more to make that a reality?

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I think it's a great partnership

and I think it's massively important.

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Our primary activity is social housing.

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We all know there's a housing shortage.

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From our point of view, we already build homes,

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with several thousand under construction

and we want to do more.

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We see you as being an enabler

on that journey.

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So for us, it's about making sure

that homes are there,

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that they are available,

that they are accessible to people,

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that people can afford to live 

in them, to heat them.

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So actually, the call to action,

Crisis behind you, ourselves behind you

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working in tandem, is really 

positive from our point of view.

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Which is brilliant to hear,

because as you know,

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we're completely committed to continuing

to do that with The Hyde Group.

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[ANDY] People forget that housing associations

are charities, you know, we are a charity.

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Our purpose is to provide social good

and to help our residents.

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And you enable us to do that -

without our lenders, without your support,

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we couldn't do what we do today.