Introduction
From Matthew Harrison, Chief Executive and Tony Davison, Chair
It’s been another challenging year for us all as the Coronavirus pandemic has continued to disrupt our lives and create uncertainty. The impact on our customers, colleagues and partners has been significant as we have been forced to continuously respond and adapt to an ever-changing situation. At Great Places it has made us think differently and find new ways of working, as well as new ways of connecting to everyone we work with and for.
Restrictions and illness have posed major challenges but we have worked hard to continue to deliver for our customers. We have built and maintained our great homes, invested in our communities, provided important services, focused on keeping everyone safe and continued to improve lives with our profit-for-purpose approach. We always put customers at the heart of everything we do, and this year has been no different. I’m very proud of our collective effort.
As we head into the coldest and often most difficult months of the year there’s a strong focus on helping customers deal with mould, damp and condensation. We are also continuing to support those struggling with finances, energy or food bills.
Despite current uncertainties, as a financially resilient, modern and forward-thinking business, I’m confident that Great Places remains excellently placed to meet your needs, provide great services and help navigate our way through these difficult times together. I wish you all the very best for 2022.
Matthew Harrison, Chief Executive
Matthew Harrison Chief Executive
Tony Davison Chair
As we reflect on 2021 it’s also a time to look forward and focus on what will hopefully be brighter times ahead. A significant business priority during this past year has been continuing to bring together Great Places and Equity’s people, processes and systems following our merger in 2020. We’re almost at the end of our integration work which is seeing us transform our offer in many areas to provide better outcomes for our customers.
We’re significantly investing in our people and systems which is enabling us to offer improved services. In April we’ll launch Aareon QL – a powerful new housing management tool bringing together the functions of the existing Great Places and Equity systems into a single, more effective system. A hugely exciting outcome of this project will be the roll-out of a whole new suite of mobile and digital products for Great Places customers. This will make it easier for you to get in touch with us across a wide range of platforms as well as giving you much more visibility of your account and faster access to services. Later in the year we will also go live with a new website that will offer a much better user experience and functionality, making information easier to find and improving how you can communicate with us.
As well as improving our services and increasing digital inclusion for our customers, our unfaltering business priorities include building more homes to tackle the housing crisis; focusing on building safety and compliance; enhancing the environmental performance of our homes; ensuring our vulnerable customers are able to access the right level of support and much more. I am looking forward to another productive and progressive year.
Tony Davison, Chair