Welcome from our Executive Director
Ian Ankers Executive Director
Most of the last year saw us still working through how we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic while maintaining our services as fully as possible.
A huge amount of effort was made by the entire staff team to keep our customers as safe as possible while ensuring we continued to improve and provide support services. Not only did we manage to do this with minimal interruption to services, but we made great progress in engaging with our customers in new and creative ways through our Community Investment work.
Collaborating with Bolton at Home Group has seen many improvements in the way we work at Arcon, and developing new homes was a key feature of our growth.
We now have the strongest development programme Arcon has ever seen, and we are building new homes in places such as Rochdale, Oldham and Salford. This helps to meet today’s housing needs and makes our finances stronger, meaning we can sustain and improve the quality of our services.
Your Arcon team worked hard throughout the last twelve months; we have big plans underway to change how we work in the future, improving customer service even further and I am excited about the twelve months ahead.
Welcome from our Board Chair
Mike Corfield Board Chair
Being Chair since January 2020 has been interesting, to say the least!
Arcon has been affected for nearly 2 years by the global pandemic and its impact; this has dominated all our lives. Given the challenges this has posed, it will be no surprise to you that keeping our customers and staff as safe as possible through this tough time has been my number one priority. Pulling together through this crisis, we have achieved this priority, and I would like to thank all Arcon staff and customers for achieving this and delivering essential services safely.
Understanding the needs of our customers and our communities has been central to the development of change proposals for Arcon. I am really excited by the proposals we have developed to prepare Arcon for a new future as, hopefully, COVID-19 starts to ease and we all get used to a post-pandemic ‘normal’. The Board has supported Arcon’s plans to become a community rooted, customer-focused business that works in an agile and flexible way to deliver the highest possible service standards to you, our customers.
This change plan will take forward some of the great work you will read about in this annual report, particularly the progress we have made through our investment in the communities we work with. We are building a significant number of new homes, and our investment in existing homes is bigger than ever. We are also doing more to listen to the customer’s voice at every opportunity.
I am very aware that the ending of lockdown has not been easy; it has impacted things including an increased cost of living, and for some of our households, incomes may well have reduced. Worries over the physical and mental health of family and friends will also be on our minds. I would urge anyone struggling to cope to talk to a member of our Arcon Team; our call centre remains open as usual, and our staff team are on hand to help.
Coronavirus is not over yet, and I would like to echo the guidance being issued by our Local Authority public health experts:
- Wear masks when moving around, including in buildings and offices
- Wear masks when using public transport
By working together, we can get through the winter months safely.
I am still looking forward to meeting with residents who live in the homes we provide and learning more about how Arcon can improve the services it delivers to you.
Keep safe and well!
