Saxon Weald

Established in 2000, Saxon Weald manages more than 5700 homes across Sussex and Hampshire. This includes affordable rented and shared ownership homes for individuals and families and a wide range of retirement housing for the over 60s, including Extra Care schemes for those with care needs. We aim to improve the lives of our residents and the neighbourhoods in which they live by providing excellent homes and services.

We are a growing organisation, committed to promoting equality and diversity and creating opportunities both as a landlord and an employer. We have approximately 160 members of staff and are recognised as an Investor in People. We also have our Board Members, made up of independent professionals, tenants, council nominees and also our Chief Executive and Finance and Assets Director. They make decisions on company strategies, policies and budgets, and monitor and review our performance.

As a not-for-profit company and registered charity we invest all the money we make back into our homes. We have an extensive modernisation programme which concentrates on improving existing properties. In addition to this, we have our in-house repairs service HomeFix, which completes around 14,000 jobs a year.

As well as improving our existing housing stock, we build new homes to help the increasing number of people in housing need. We are a member of the Sovereign Development Consortium. This allows us to combine resources and knowledge with other housing associations. We are keen to ensure our homes use best practice design, working closely with architects and contractors to build good-quality, safe and secure places to live.

We are also committed to sustainable housing and make every attempt to ensure our homes are built with minimum impact to the environment. We use sustainable technologies in our schemes, including PVs, sedum roofs, a biomass boiler and developing homes built to the Passivhaus standard. We are proud to have built the first houses in the country to achieve Level 5 in the government's Code for Sustainable Homes.

In addition to sustainable homes, we are also passionate about rural housing. We believe that with our local knowledge, and a commitment to sustainability, we can have a positive impact on the severe shortage of affordable rural homes. We build close working relationships with district and parish councils in order to best understand local needs. Although we want to increase the amount of homes available, we are also keen to preserve rural areas. We take the time to listen to local residents, their problems and concerns. Wherever possible, we will build on existing sites to help preserve greenfield land.

We aim to achieve excellence and believe our residents are the best people to advise us on the standards of the homes and services we offer. We aim to make it as easy as possible for residents to get involved in what we do. There are many different levels of involvement - from becoming a Board Member to responding to the occasional email questionnaire about our services. We provide any advice, training and support residents need, and pay travel and childcare expenses where appropriate. Working together with residents we can make our homes and communities better places to live.

Why we joined the Housing Forum

The Housing Forum allows us to share expertise and learn from our peers, while keeping us up to date with current housing issues.

Website: www.saxonweald.com