Thirteen Group

📸 "The neighbours are all looking over - they'll think I'm a celebrity or something!" It's fair to say Dougie Leeming quite enjoyed having his photograph taken when we visited. The 83-year-old has just moved into a bungalow on our new Westdale development in Thornaby. And it's also fair to say he's very happy with it! “It’s beautiful,” he said. “I love everything about it. "I’ve lived in Thornaby all my life and I was over the moon when I heard the news I’d got this new bungalow. “My last house was too big but this is perfect for me. I can just walk into the town centre in a few minutes." At Westdale, we've worked with local construction firm T. Manners & Sons Ltd to deliver 37 new two, three and four-bedroom homes for affordable rent on the site of the former Anson House and Hudson House tower blocks. We’d like to thank Homes England and Tees Valley Combined Authority for their funding contributions to the scheme. We’re also grateful for the support we’ve had from Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and local councillors throughout the redevelopment of the site. We hope Dougie and the rest of Westdale's new residents enjoy life in their new homes.

We had a fantastic day yesterday working with our HENNE partners. Our employability service shared some of the great customer stories from the Tees Valley Move Forward programme.

We're delighted to be delivering these net zero homes with Esh Group. They're packed with all manner of technologies and we're looking forward to seeing how they perform and learning as much as we can along the way.

Happy Diwali! We're excited to celebrate the Festival of Lights with our community and are proud to sponsor the Diwali in Middlesbrough event tomorrow. Join us at Centre Square on 2nd November between 12pm - 6pm for a fantastic afternoon filled with light, music, dance and delicious food.

We’re committed to helping our customers feel safe where they live, so it’s great to be working in partnership to make improvements like this to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour 👇

Last week we celebrated our first Better Together Awards, a special event to recognise the hard work and achievements of our brilliant people at Thirteen. 🎉   With feedback from colleagues, the awards were designed to reflect our new strategy and our company values: proactive, accountable, courageous and considerate.    Hosted by Middlesbrough born actor and presenter, Neil Grainger, the awards were also an opportunity to celebrate Thirteen's tenth birthday, with colleagues coming together to reflect on the difference we've made in a decade.   A huge congratulations to all of our winners and nominees! 🥳 

We are thrilled to announce that Grace Deng, our exceptional Living Well Coordinator, has won the Community Champion category at the Tees Valley Equality Diversity & Inclusion Awards Over the past two years, Grace has made a tremendous impact on the residents of Tai Hua Court and Rivers House in Middlesbrough. Her dedication to enhancing the lives of nearly thirty Chinese elders in these sheltered housing schemes has been truly inspiring. 🌱 One of Grace’s standout achievements is the creation of a resident-led communal garden. She not only played a key role in its design and execution but also secured funding to bring this dream to life. Now, residents come together to grow produce like Chinese Lettuce, Pak Choi, Ginseng, and more—creating a vibrant, shared space that’s filled with the comforting scents of home. 🏡 But Grace’s commitment goes beyond gardening. She developed a buddy scheme to help residents feel safer, and even set up ways for everyone, regardless of mobility, to join in on the gardening fun from indoors. The results speak for themselves: a 100% retention rate and full occupancy at both schemes. Grace’s leadership has built a connected, supportive community where everyone feels valued and empowered. Congratulations also go out to our shortlisted entries: 🏆 Martin Hearn, who is one of Thirteen's involved customers. Martin was shortlisted for the Community Ambassador Category for community cohesion work in Central Mews and helping the development of a Youth Involvement Group at Thirteen, giving young residents a platform to influence the services that impact their lives. 🏆 Our Apprenticeship Scheme was nominated for the Apprenticeship Award - nominated by a community partner as they really value the fantastic work that Thirteen do.

🏆 Our Kedward and Union Village (Gresham) developments have each received The Bricks Site Recognition Award from LABC Warranty for the quality of their site wide workmanship and management. We’re delivering a mix of 250 new houses, bungalows and apartments for affordable rent across the two sites in partnership with Esh Group, Homes England, Tees Valley Combined Authority and Middlesbrough Council. “It’s always great to get this kind of recognition, and these awards reflect the strong commitment to partnership working, collaboration and quality shown by everyone involved in delivering these new homes,” said our executive director of development and partnerships, Joy Whinnerah. Contracts Manager at Esh Construction, Darran Milne added: “The accolades mark a great recognition of the team effort, not only through our site managers and their assistants, but working closely with Thirteen Group and top-quality local subcontractors. “When you are building as many new homes as we are, it’s important to maintain high standards, even when negotiating challenges, and it’s testament to everyone involved that we have received these awards.” Both sites have also passed our ISO 14001 Environmental Accreditation audits and maintained high standards in follow-up audits.

Members of Team Thirteen shortlisted for EDI awards Congratulations to Grace Deng and Martin Hearn who have both been shortlisted for awards at this year's Tees Valley EDI Awards. 🏆Grace, a living well coordinator, has been shortlisted in the Community Champion Category for her fantastic work in Tai Hua Court and Rivers House, two adjoining sheltered housing schemes on North Ormesby Road, Middlesbrough. Grace's dedication to enhancing the residents' quality of life has been inspiring. 🏆Martin, who is one of Thirteen's involved customers, has been shortlisted in the Community Ambassador Category for his inspirational work as a true ambassador for positive social change over at Central Mews. Martin has also been instrumental in setting up the Youth Involvement Group at Thirteen, giving young residents a platform to influence the services that impact their lives. Congratulations to Grace and Martin and good luck for the awards ceremony on 18th October in the beautiful setting of Kirkleatham Walled Garden.

📈 Record investment in new and existing homes and more new homes delivered in a single year than ever before are among the highlights of our audited Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2023/24. Here are some of the numbers: ✅ £109.2million invested in maintaining and improving properties (2023: £88.3million) ✅ £133.8million invested in affordable new homes (2023: £76.2million) ✅ 542 new properties delivered (2023: 454) ✅ 88.1% customer satisfaction (2023: 84.4%) ✅ 619 people helped into jobs and training (2023: 533) Chief Finance Officer, Jane Castor, said: “Providing safe and quality homes for our customers continues to be our primary focus, and it shines through in these results. "We also maintain the financial strength that underpins our long-term future, and have a strong foundation to raise additional funding and accelerate our investment in improving and building homes even further. "This has been delivered against a backdrop of huge financial and operational challenges in the sector. We’ve retained our customer focus too, recording a significant increase in customer satisfaction ratings." You can read the full report on the Financial statements page of our website - we've put a link in the comments.