Reach for the Blue Skies

The Blue Skies Consortium is giving smaller and medium-sized RSLs across Central England the chance to punch above their weight - and play a part in the development of new homes.

There's a tendency for the big hitters within a consortium to hog all the limelight, whether they want to or not.

'People think that our consortium is just about the lead RSLs and they tend to forget that actually there's a lot of others who in total manage a significant number of the completed schemes,' said Blue Skies' Consortium Manager. 'In terms of funding for projects about a third goes to the other RSLs - so they are a very important part of the picture.'

In Blue Skies, the lead members are Longhurst Group and Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA), which between them account for the other two thirds of projects. NCHA has for many years enjoyed the largest single development programme of any RSL in the East Midlands region. Longhurst Group, meanwhile, is made up of the likes of Spire Homes operating in the Northamptonshire area, Friendship in the Birmingham and Derby areas and Longhurst & Havelok Homes in a wide area, including Lincolnshire and South Humberside. The two organisations, of course, have a long history of successful development work, and it is this experience they bring to the pot of expertise - offering it as a vehicle to enable the often smaller players to hop on board and undertake their own roles.

To help achieve this, NCHA and Longhurst formed a limited liability partnership company called POD. This combined their respective development expertise into a legal entity that effectively means its 'parents' can work together as a combined development team. 'POD provides the people that can turn the Consortium's good ideas into development propositions that hit the Housing Corporation's highly exacting Standards on the button,' said Steve Walker of NCHA, secretary to POD.

Between its members, Blue Skies possesses an enviable range of expertise that can be enhanced through the pooling of ideas and competencies within the consortium. Lace Housing, for example, is active in the provision of Extra Care services for older people.

Lincolnshire Rural operates in the fields of sustainability and rural housing. Then there's Framework, working with homeless people, drug abusers and other vulnerable groups; Nacro, working with ex- offenders; Axiom working in the Peterborough growth area; and the Nottinghamshire YMCA, providing city centre accommodation for single people. The consortium also has three sizeable stock transfer RSLs in Dales Housing, operating in a national park, the newly formed Seven Locks in Harborough District, plus Acis Group, working in the Gainsborough regeneration area and into south Yorkshire.

Where this consortium aims to achieve a competitive edge for the future is through the collaboration of its members in their niche areas of work. There have already been meetings between the numerous supported housing RSLs to share concerns and ideas about how to tackle common issues. The experience of Lincolnshire Rural and others in constructing highly energy efficient homes can be brought forward for the benefit of all. Then there's also the opportunity to work together on the sales and marketing of low cost home ownership schemes.

‘They are specialists in their own field and so they are the best ones to judge the type of project that they are going to need,' the Consortium Manager said. However, without a clear cut track record in development it is a steep hurdle that means the smaller RSLs are far less likely to bring their assets and experience to bear in the development of new homes and facilities, which is where the Blue Skies consortium comes in - the expertise of Longhurst and NCHA is shared with the members, in effect allowing them to 'piggyback' into a direct role in development.

The smaller ones may have the financial assets and a good idea of the client groups that they work with, but it needs to be channelled into development opportunities,' the Consortium Manager explained. 'This is what the consortium delivers.'

Ian Jackson of Longhurst, who leads the POD team with the support of Allan Fisher of NCHA, added: 'Through our POD development team we can source opportunities. We've got extensive relationships with private developers, local authorities, and land agents. We've got good relationships with leading contractors, and we've got experienced staff who can manage the schemes.'

By so enabling all the members to develop, it helps share the burden and unlock potential, so the work of Blue Skies Is a far cry from being nothing but the 'big two' of Longhurst and NCHA Indeed, while they are significant players in themselves, their contribution to Blue Skies amplifies the work of those other players, which in turn amplifies the entire collective. Essentially, Blue Skies becomes greater than the sum of its parts - even the largest.

Now, over the next three years, the Blue Skies members will be divvying up some £40 million of social housing grant for development schemes to create over 1,000 new homes after the consortium secured one of the largest awards from the Housing Corporation's National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) for 2008-2011.

That's quite a development cherry for every member of Blue Skies to enjoy a hearty bite.

The consortium is always interested to hear form potential partners. If you would like further information please visit the Blue Skies Consortium website or contact Allan Fisher (07515 067660)or Ian Jackson (07778 559186) about partnership opportunities.