News

Organisations from across Devon and Cornwall came together to focus on anti-social behaviour within the social housing sector last week. The forum, hosted by Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, featured high profile professionals covering a range of issues with the aim of sharing good practice and driving improvements in the delivery of anti-social behaviour (ASB) services.

The vast changes to the benefits system are going to have a big impact upon many people including social housing residents. Penwith Housing Association, part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, has already expanded its in-house money management team to help minimise the effects and to help make sure residents are getting all of the help and benefits they are entitled to.

With the aim of building confidence and improving relationships with its thousands of residents throughout Cornwall, Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, is celebrating the success of its new learning programme.

A much needed affordable housing scheme has been completed in time for residents to move in before Christmas at St Keverne, on the Lizard peninsula. The 13 homes at Trevallack Close will be managed by Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group (DCH).

Devon & Cornwall Housing (DCH) was delighted to welcome HRH The Princess Royal to officially open their affordable housing scheme in Flushing on Tuesday 6 December 2011.

Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, are to host an event which is the third one of its kind in the South West.

The South West is set to benefit from an influx of new affordable homes to help meet local demand, thanks to a four-year agreement between a group of housing providers and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

Local people are being given an opportunity to help shape plans for a new development of housing, employment space and community facilities at Redruth – which is proposed as part of an enhanced town entrance.

Gail Hunt, the leader of Cornwall’s largest housing association has recently retired as Chair after six years of overseeing remarkable home improvements and developments for Penwith Housing Association (PHA).

A multimillion pound housing development that has been described as a ‘fantastic flagship’ for St Ives was celebrated on site next to Tate St Ives

Penzance now has its own food bank which distributes food to people in need. It is the initiative of Churches Together in the Penzance Area (CTIPA) and has food donation bins prominently sited in the area.

The start of work on purpose built flats for older people at Meadow Flats, St Ives will be celebrated at an event in early November.

Penwith Housing Association (PHA) has produced a timely reminder about using fireworks.

A multi-million pound project which began in 2005, has improved thousands of homes, mainly in West Cornwall; it has been completed on time and on budget by the hard-working staff at Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of the Devon and Cornwall Housing group.

The latest Cornwall edition of Open Door, with all the news stories and features you need - including some popular requests from survey feedback so far...

Devon & Cornwall Housing (DCH) is taking part in the New Homes Show at Plymouth Guildhall on Saturday 22 October from 2pm - 5:30pm to promote affordable shared ownership homes in the South West region.

The Government's welfare changes will push thousands of people living in social housing into hardship or out of their homes. Ask the Minister for Welfare Reform to rethink these unfair proposals.

Penwith Housing Association (PHA) is backing Welfare Action Week by calling on ministers to rethink changes to housing benefit rules that could push many local people into hardship. Hundreds of housing associations across the country will be participating in this week of action.

A wisteria tree was planted at St Keverne on Wednesday (5 Oct) to mark the near-completion of 13 homes for rent to meet local social housing need. The ceremony was planned to coincide with Rural Housing Week which aims to raise awareness of the value of affordable housing in keeping local communities and villages alive and to highlight the need for affordable homes for local people.

A free and fun day was had by all on Saturday 24 September when around 100 residents and their families from all over Cornwall arrived at Cornwall’s Crealy Great Adventure Park. The aim of the day, hosted by Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, was to help PHA learn more about the opinions and priorities of residents and encourage them to become involved.

Find out how we've met the TSA's standards, our local standards and how we plan to improve in the future. It's all available here in the 2011 Residents annual report.

Boslowen is a brand new mixed tenure development of one, two, three and four bedroom homes in Camborne. A number of these high quality new homes, managed by Penwith Housing Association part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, will be affordable and allocated to people from the local community who have a strong local connection.

Three men and two women, each with a remarkable record of community service in West Cornwall have retired from the main board of Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group. Several were founder members, some 19 years ago.

Investment in Cornwall and the cuts threatening the affordable housing programme were the challenging themes detailed at the Annual General Meeting of Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group (DCH) at St Ives on Tuesday 20 September by guest speaker Richard Connolly.

Launceston residents, Mr and Mrs Bob and Joyce Sleeman, are retiring from duties having been dependable resident representatives for Penwith Housing Association and Devon & Cornwall Housing group for many years. They first started attending meetings back in 1991 so have been representing the views of other residents for 20 years.

Using the financial strength of the new two-counties housing group, Penwith Housing Association (PHA), has brought 161 new homes into its management across Cornwall during the past year as part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group.

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Putt, from Penalverne, Penzance, who recently received Penwith Housing Association’s award for Best Overall Garden. PHA, part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group, holds the popular and competitive residents’ gardening competition each year.

Hanging baskets, floral boxes and tubs have brought colour and beauty to the entrance area of a group of 12 flats at Launceston. So much so that Station Court has won the ‘best communal garden’ category in the annual competition held by Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of Devon & Cornwall Housing group.

A stylish and contemporary development of new 2 and 3 bedroom homes from Westco, with prices from just £107,600 with FirstBuy (eligibility criteria and terms and conditions apply).

First new-look Open Door, Cornwall edition. Thanks to all those residents who were involved in the process, we hope you're as pleased as we are with the results!

Work has re-started on Devon & Cornwall Housing’s new housing scheme in St Austell, Cedar Woods, following the appointment of the new building contractor Kier Living.

A fun-day organised by Penwith Housing Association (PHA) part of the Devon & Cornwall Housing group, was a tremendous success in bringing together the community and reaching younger families.

St Ives’ largest affordable homebuilding project for more than 30 years has been completed. The 54 homes were built by contractors Mansells for Devon & Cornwall Housing (DCH) and will be managed by Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of the DCH group. The development has been named “Mike Peters Estate” after a former St Ives town councillor.

We’re very happy to let you know we now have six new information leaflets available covering a whole range of topics, and relevant across Devon and Cornwall.

A new chapter in the history of the St Ives seascape began recently as work commenced on the redevelopment of the Meadow Flats site. Twenty former 1950’s flats on the site have already been demolished and are being rebuilt by contractors ‘Leadbitter’ for Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of the Devon and Cornwall Housing group.

An Independent Futures scheme, the Coach House based in Penzance, showcased all of its great work in helping to improve the lives of young people to MP Andrew George, local organisations and staff members at a fun open day on Friday 8 July.

Nearly 200 houses and flats in West Cornwall have been double-glazed over the last few months by Penwith Housing Association (PHA), part of the Devon and Cornwall Housing group.

New designers selected after much consultation with residents and staff alike – read on for how, why and when…

The Government is proposing to remove tenants’ right to have housing benefit paid directly to their landlord. The National Housing Federation says that tenants deserve the choice. Visit the NHF website to find out more and to email your local MP about the issue.

Recent service improvements pay off as ASB customer satisfaction vastly improves.

PHA's HeatPod project is well underway and scheduled for completion in July. Read all about it in Sustainability Manager, Denys Stephen's blog.

Four designers have now pitched for the new-look residents' magazine. Take a look, vote for your favourite and get in touch to tell us what you think.

It's not too late for you to start planning a neighbourhood get-together for this summer!

Open Door is changing – we are bringing our three individual residents' magazines together to create one, new and improved magazine with a Devon and a Cornwall edition.

Young people, from difficult backgrounds, across Cornwall have been recognised for their personal and academic achievements and hard-work in an awards ceremony at Truro Foyer yesterday.

After extensive consultation with you our residents, and joint working by staff across PHA, Tor, Independent Futures and DCH, it’s great to be launching our new group-wide service standards for housing. They’ll be hitting doorsteps this week with the latest edition of Open Door, and there will be copies available in our offices too.

On 1 April 2011 we created a new group parent company, Devon & Cornwall Housing (DCH), by amalgamating Devon & Cornwall Housing Association and Devon & Cornwall Housing Trust.

Issue of the new Tenants handbook

Phil Tregonning wins the annual suggestion scheme award.

Carol to become Cornwall's tenant representative on the new Devon and Cornwall Housing Group

A Pendeen couple are bound over to keep the peace following incidents of anti social behaviour

Staff at Penwith Housing Association (PHA) recently received a Silver Workplace Health Award. The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly award is a county standard of good practice and a quality mark of health and well-being in the workplace.

An excellent example of partnership work and breaking down age barriers enabled the popular Christmas light display at Penameyne Court, St Ives to be dismantled last week, much to the delight of residents.