2
WELCOME
IN THIS ISSUE...
3 APPRENTICESHIPS
4 NEW DEVELOPMENTS
5 ACCORD WORKS
6 WELFARE REFORM
8 TAKE A BREAK
Hello and welcome to your Winter edition of
Our House!
You will notice that we are featuring more local
content to your area with our centre-page
spread full of news for either Black Country or
Birmingham and Coventry. We hope you like this
new format which customers had suggested.
In this issue we put a spotlight on
apprenticeships as in the New Year we will be
recruiting many more apprentices and we would
love for more of them to be Accord customers,
such as our cover star of this edition, Gihan.
Finally, we have had many requests for Our House
to be issued as a digital magazine. Is this the
way you feel we should go…we could produce
more editions with much more interactivity? If
you would like to receive a more regular, digital
edition of Our House to your inbox, email us on
[email protected]
The Our House team
A note from Chris…
New Year’s Day will mark
exactly nine months
since all parts of our
organisation including
caldmoreaccord, Heantun
and Ashrammoseley, Fry
Housing Trust, Redditch
Co-op Homes and bchs
became one single business, Accord.
In that time, I have been pleased to see how
customers have adapted to this change,
and indeed have come forward to help us
shape services both through involvement in
customer panels and at other events such as
the recent fact-finding visit by the Housing
and Planning Minister, Alok Sharma MP to the
West Midlands.
You have also welcomed our next step in the
journey to great customer service, by being so
receptive to Accord Works, our new, fully in-
house repairs and maintenance service. I was
so pleased to hear that on the very day Accord
Works launched on Friday 1 December, one of
our operatives attended a drain repair callout.
The customer complimented the Accord Works
operative on his professionalism in getting
the repair carried out – and for going the
extra mile in showing the customer how the
drain flowed and where the fault was. The
customer has fed back very positive feelings
about Accord Works and believes this is the
right move for us as an organisation…and I
must say I agree! Please do let us know what
you think – contact us on 0300 111 7000.
Thank you for your ongoing support and have
a safe, secure and prosperous 2018.
Chris
Dr Chris Handy, OBE, Chief Executive, Accord
WEBSITE: accordgroup.org.uk
EMAIL: [email protected]
CALL: 0300 111 7000