This week the National Housing Federation launched its ‘Homes at the Heart’ campaign, which aims to highlight why homes should be at the heart of the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, and increase support for social housing.
Jigsaw Group is proudly supporting the campaign, which runs for six weeks starting on 3 August, with a new theme each week highlighting a different aspect of how homes are at the heart of the nation’s recovery.
This week, the theme is ‘a stronger economy’ which demonstrates how housing associations contribute to the economy through home building, employment, helping people develop new skills and improving social value.
On a national level the country needs 90,000 new social rented homes a year to help prevent homelessness and tackle overcrowding and poverty.
Building 90,000 new social rented homes would add an extra £4.8bn to the national economy and support 86,000 jobs.
In 2018/19 Jigsaw Group built 556 new homes, employing 1,178 people and generating an estimated £52.4million for the local economy.
In our Group Strategy we have outlined ambitions to build a total of 2,177 new homes by 2021. This is estimated to support 4,620 people into work and pumping £205million into the local economy. The group’s recent £715million treasury restructure will enable us to deliver a further 800 units per year beyond 2021.
These figures take into account the fact that when we build new homes, we not only employ people to build them, we purchase materials and tools from local suppliers, our staff buy their lunch from local cafes and supermarkets and so on. Then when the properties are let, their tenants bring their own economic footprint to the area.
As the UK recovers from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s clear that Jigsaw Group and other housing associations are in a strong position to aid that recovery.
For more information about the campaign and the themes for upcoming weeks, visit https://www.housing.org.uk/HomesAtTheHeart
