Group hosts Dutch delegation at Hackney scheme
Southern Housing Group has shown a visiting delegation from the Netherlands that community investment can transcend borders.
Fourteen representatives from Dutch housing association Salland Wonen visited the Group’s George Downing Estate in Hackney as part of their three day London tour.
Association Chief Executive Ed Penniks, along with senior staff and Board members, was shown around the site on Friday 28 October by Southern Housing Group London Regional Director, Duncan Howard.
Duncan told the party about the recent establishment of a community interest company (CIC) on the estate and the positive impact this has had for residents.
Group residents Anna Iskander-Reynolds and Claire Ferrigi established the CIC in April to take over management of the Boiler House, the estate’s community centre. Since then the pair have organised various communal activities including yoga and language sessions, jumble sales and a singing group. Centre sessions are open to all estate residents as well as the wider community.
Duncan said the new venture was indicative of the revitalised sense of community and the raised aspirations of residents, a result of the Group’s intensive social and physical investment in the estate.
“Over the last six months Anna and Claire have turned the Boiler House into a successful social enterprise. Their entrepreneurship and commitment to the project has resulted in a professional service which benefits both our residents and the wider community.”
George Downing is one of the Group’s oldest mixed tenure estates with social and intermediate rent units along with shared ownership and outright sale properties.
Mr Penniks said the visit was an opportunity to learn about Southern Housing Group’s social regeneration policies and see how they were put into practice within local communities.
“Study tours are a fantastic way of seeing best practice. We have been very impressed with the youth and social enterprise programmes that Southern Housing Group has introduced.”
It was the second time the Group has hosted delegates from a Dutch housing association after de Alliantie, Mitros and Portaal visited several Hackney estates in 2009.