A LOOK INSIDE CURO with Victor da Cunha, Curo Chief Executive
Curo is a Bath-based housing association and house-builder with a growing portfolio of more than 13,000 properties across the West of England.
We’ re building hundreds of new homes every year – both for social rent and for private sale. Over the next few years we aim to deliver up to 500 new homes a year.
As a charity we have no shareholders; instead of paying out dividends, we reinvest our profits to deliver our social purpose.
PROFIT FOR PURPOSE Curo set up its house-building division in 2012 with a clear objective; to create‘ profit for purpose’. We build houses to sell on the open market and use the income to subsidise the provision of affordable homes. This is the social purpose at the heart of our business and our response to the lack of government funding for essential social and affordable housing. For every two homes we sell privately we can deliver at least one affordable home, creating much-needed new housing for local families.
But there’ s more to Curo than housing. We provide care and support services for thousands of people every year. Our independent living services allow people to remain living in their own home with the flexible support that they need. We run a Stepdown from hospital service that provides accommodation to people taking up a hospital bed, who no longer require medical treatment but are unable to return home. Our support services saved the public purse £ 15.6m last year and allowed nearly 3,000 customers to get more out of life.
We’ re committed to helping customers into education and employment and we provide a number of work support programmes. Curo currently employs 12 apprentices, and we work closely with suppliers and contractors so that they can also deliver apprenticeships and work placements. For example, so far at Mulberry
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid, Ben Howlett MP and Curo Chief Executive Victor da Cunha at Mulberry Park
Park, our flagship development in Bath, we’ ve delivered 11 placements, 17 jobs with training for local people and one apprenticeship.
MULBERRY PARK We’ re currently working on multiple sites, the best-known of which is Mulberry Park in Bath, a significant scheme both locally and nationally. The site was designated as a Housing Zone by central government in 2015 – together with our neighbouring Foxhill Estate – highlighting its importance in providing vital homes in the city. Mulberry Park will deliver 700 high quality, energy efficient homes – of which 30 % will be affordable housing- a new primary school and nursery, enterprise space, a park and public open spaces. We intend to use the profit created from this project to regenerate the Foxhill estate.
We believe that in order to create successful, sustainable communities, we need to do more than just build houses. For example, we’ re investing £ 10M in the new community hub we’ re building at Mulberry Park. This is ten times the sum required by the planning permission, but we think it’ s a key part of the new neighbourhood we’ re creating.
MANAGING 13,000 HOMES As well as building new homes, Curo owns and manages one of the largest residential portfolios in the West of England, including many Georgian buildings. Looking after our existing stock is one of our core activities, and we’ re investing huge resources and skills in this. In 2015-2016 we reinvested 31.1 % of our income in planned improvements and maintenance of our homes.
MAJOR EMPLOYER IN THE REGION
Curo employs more than 500 staff and this year our turnover will exceed £ 100M. We place great emphasis on customer service and workplace culture and we work hard to attract and retain talented people in a competitive market. Curo was recently ranked 27th in the top 100 not-for-profit organisations to work for in the UK, in the prestigious Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies list. We were awarded their Two-Star‘ Outstanding’ rating based on how engaged people are at work and how they feel about their employer. We’ re delighted and very proud of this result which reinforces our culture and vision – to provide great customer service and to be a modern, customer-driven, ethical business, which makes a positive contribution to people and places.
For more info: www. curo-group. co. uk
@ Curo _ Group
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38 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017