Bromford

Bromford, a housing association in central and south-west England

Bromford is a housing association with 47,000 homes across central and south-west England, home to around 100,000 people. The organisation presents itself as a business of people, not just properties, and centres its activity on the management and maintenance of social and affordable housing.

It is part of Bromford Flagship LiveWest, a place-based affordable housing provider serving more than 300,000 customers across the south west, central and east of England. According to its own presentation, the group is the UK's largest provider of new-build affordable housing, delivering over 3,000 homes each year. Bromford states it has been providing affordable homes for over 60 years to those who cannot access market housing.

Core activity: management and maintenance of social housing

The core of its activity, according to the organisation itself, is the management and maintenance of social and affordable housing, work it carries out across its entire operating area. The company serves customers who rent a home, a garage or a commercial space, as well as those who buy a home outright.

Services for tenants and residents

The website organises its services into several customer-facing sections:

• Housing-related requests: repairs, home adaptations, permission to make alterations, residents moving in and out, and ending your tenancy.
• Renting garages and parking spaces.
• Reporting issues: anti-social behaviour (ASB), tenancy fraud, safeguarding concerns, boundary issues and anything else.
• Rent payments.
• Help and advice, with specific content on condensation, damp and mould, and on heating and hot water, including air source heat pumps.
• Home safety tips: fire prevention, gas and electrical checks, water systems and carbon monoxide monitoring.

Buying a home and home owners

As well as renting, Bromford offers homes for sale and has a dedicated home owners hub with services such as buying more shares in your home, making changes to your home, changes to your lease, selling your home and changes to your rent. The organisation also has a dedicated site for home owners.

Finding a home and residential options

The company provides access to homes for rent and for sale, home swaps between tenants (mutual exchange) and options such as MyPlace independent living and retirement living.

Regeneration and community involvement

Bromford runs a regeneration programme aimed at improving services in the communities where it operates and enabling customers to help shape it. The organisation has a Customer Voice and Influence programme that channels volunteer participation among its customers. Recent activity includes examples such as the completion of thirty-three affordable homes at Beacon Heights in Malvern, the start of work on six social rented homes on a derelict industrial site in Gloucestershire, and customers helping write the rules on how their landlord should behave.

Personal support: neighbourhood coaching

Its customer relationship model is built around the neighbourhood coach, a named professional who helps with questions about your tenancy or your local community. The organisation describes this support as a way of building personal connections with customers and helping them thrive in their home.